Singapore Blog Awards: Best Design – Vote for Sparklette!

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Veron Ang is the Founder and Chief Editor of Sparklette, a Singapore restaurants guide, lifestyle and travel blog. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in computer science from the National University of Singapore and runs a web design firm at Sparklette Studio. To get in touch, head on over to the contact page or follow @Sparklette and @VeronSG on Twitter.

1. 
   Singeo
   3 comments
    

   OK, I may be being a bit precious about this, but how does a voting system that allows you to vote “everyday” have any credibility? The mainstream media is quick to write off bloggers because of their lack of standards and integrity, maybe they’re right?

   Reply
   
   Posted July 4, 2008 at 1:01 am
2. 
   Veron
   3439 comments
    

   Allowing voters to vote once everyday is a first for me in blog competitions. I would prefer if voters could just vote once and that’s it.

   But let’s look at it this way: Sincere supporters wouldn’t mind spending 30 seconds each day casting a vote for their favourite blogs. After all, some of us spend hours painstakingly writing each post. What’s 30 seconds to people that genuinely want to support us right?

   The biggest gripe I have with this competition is that anyone can simply use a fake email address and be able to vote successfully. Hence theoretically, any blog would be able to win, irregardless of the quality or the number of supporters. As long as they can create a vote margin big enough, the judges panel wouldn’t even matter anymore.

   And it would be a real shame if the few dedicated bloggers who consistently churn out quality post after post lose out in the competition this way.

   Reply
   
   Posted July 4, 2008 at 10:51 am
3. 
   r.p
   15 comments
    

   congratz. yea agree! the best blog design. :)

   Reply
   
   Posted July 5, 2008 at 12:14 pm
4. 
   Shaun
   2 comments
    

   Hi Veron, thanks for checking out my blog! I am Shaun you should know me as one of the 10 finalist in the competition as well.

   I agree with you on having only one vote per person or IC number due to the possibility of exploits, especially from what I see how votes can be casted just by emails as an identifier. In all, I think we can have that in question to the organizers on the autherticity of votes, particularly whether they are actually tied down to respective valid living persons.

   On your point on daily voting, when you come to think about sometimes, one of the secondary objectives of the award is the need for publicity, let be for the sponsors. Omy is a relatively new site, so that is maybe why I see the call for the daily voting stand to encourage re-visits, let be traffic.

   To further elaborate on that, I believe it goes to be the same as what you see in reality shows, let be the superband or idol series. People can vote as many times as they want, sometimes people don’t vote for who the better singer is, but it boils down to the amount of supporters or just being “hey that idol’s from our county!” which in my personal opinion too is rather unfair as it fails to credit for the amount of work we actually put in.

   Nevertheless, good to see you in the running, good luck on your side as well. Cheers!

   Reply
   
   Posted July 6, 2008 at 2:04 am
5. 
   Chiun AS
   1 comment
    

   Hello Veronica. I have been a follower of your blog since 2006. When I first came in, it was the design of your page that caught my attention. Eventually, it became the food reviews that kept me coming back. My family use your blog as a guide for our weekend dinners. We have voted and will continue voting for you for the best design. Your page looks the best in the top 10. Hope you win the prize and keep the blog going for all your loyal supporters.

   Reply
   
   Posted July 6, 2008 at 3:59 am
6. 
   Veron
   3439 comments
    

   r.p: Thanks! I would appreciate it very much if you would cast a few votes my way :)

   Shaun: Hi Shaun, it’s great to see a first comment from you here! Most of us contestants and voters understand the organiser’s rationale of voting everyday. I don’t agree or disagree, though I do prefer if it’s a one-off vote rather than daily. Most people would probably vote for their friends rather than the better-quality blog. That’s why it’s great that there’s the 70% judges panel in place to even things up, unlike the Idol competitions where 100% of the results depend upon votes. Good luck to you in your rallying for votes!

   Chiun AS: Wow, it feels awesome to have a longtime reader chiming in with a comment once in a while. I love that your family find my blog to be of value. It spurs me on to write even better posts! Thanks for the votes and your support!

   Reply
   
   Posted July 6, 2008 at 10:26 pm
7. 
   Shaun
   2 comments
    

   Yes, Veron, I visited your blog in reply to your comment on my post as well, (you were the 1st!), but you didn’t had one in relation to the SG blog awards then, so till you had this one up, I was like hey why not?

   Cheers!

   Reply
   
   Posted July 7, 2008 at 12:09 am
8. 
   Relax
   1 comment
    

   Good luck to you

   Reply
   
   Posted July 10, 2008 at 2:12 pm
9. 
   Ed
   1 comment
    

   Hi, voted for you, an amazingly well done site.
   Your side bar is clean and functional, but I do hate the the cross pointer though.
   How bout releasing a tutorial for new bloggers out there who would like to create their own blogs?

   Reply
   
   Posted August 17, 2008 at 3:49 pm
10. 
    calvin
    1 comment
     

    nice blog. keep going

    Reply
    
    Posted September 10, 2008 at 4:30 pm
11. 
    Xwings
    50 comments
     

    Hi Veron,

    I just came back from 2 overseas trips….

    Congratulations on you winning the 2nd Prize under the “Most Popular Choice Award” ?

    : )

    Regards

    Reply
    
    Posted September 20, 2008 at 7:03 am