(NaturalNews) Our "Best of 2009" awards survey has attracted a tremendous amount of attention (and action) on the part of readers, health-conscious consumers and even some of the companies mentioned in the survey. The competition among the products nominated for these awards has been quite active.
This morning, NaturalNews discovered that some overzealous customers of companies in the "Best Superfood Powder" category had found a way to bypass the survey security and cast multiple votes. We ran an IP analysis of the votes and determined that 988 extra votes had been cast from two different users who went through a lot of trouble to case these extra votes. We determined this was most likely being done by a couple of overzealous customers who were really excited about the
contest and who wanted their favorite product to win, so they engaged in a little vote stuffing just to make sure.
The actual manufacturers of the
products being voted on were
not involved in this effort in any way, we've confirmed. This was being done by two individuals, each acting on their own. This problem was limited solely to the "Best Superfood Powder" category and did not affect the other categories.
If this were an election for the President of the United States, we could of course just let all this slide. But no, here at
NaturalNews, we want these surveys to be legitimate! So in order to make sure this
survey is legit, we've zeroed out all the votes for the Best Superfood Powder category, and we're asking our readers to vote once again for their top choice in this category.
The Best Superfood Powder survey is at the top of this page, ready for your re-vote:
http://www.naturalnews.com/Index-polls.htmlBy the way, since we're doing this particular category over again, I added Nutiva's
HempShake product to the list. It's a
superfood powder that's worthy of being included in the survey and probably should have been in the original one.
Why this vote matters
I apologize for asking you to vote on this particular category again, but it turns out this award has become a pretty big deal in the minds of many customers and
companies, and
we want to get it right so that it genuinely reflects your votes.
The winner of this poll will be able to stay they received the "Reader's Choice BEST of 2009 Award" from NaturalNews.com on their product and their website. So it really means a lot to these companies to win this contest. They work hard to bring you some really fantastic products, and they deserve recognition for it.
Personally, I didn't realize this survey was going to become such a huge deal that people would go to the effort to try to vote more than once. So I didn't set the poll to the tightest
security restrictions because it sometimes causes legitimate votes to not be counted, too. But now, for this repeat of the survey, I've locked it down to the tightest restrictions possible. If your vote isn't being counted, that's because someone else on your same IP block has already voted, and now it won't allow multiple votes from the same IP.
In any case, we'll run this until midnight Thursday to give everybody enough time to vote on the superfood category. Final
results will be announced Friday (barring some other emergency breaking news in the
health field).
These surveys, by the way, are run by PollDaddy.com, using their technology. NaturalNews has no control over the actual incoming votes, and we have no way to manipulate the votes ourselves. All we can do is analyze the vote log to make sure the results are legit. PollDaddy has done a great job with these surveys, and the multiple vote problem wasn't really any kind of failure on their part; it stemmed from my less-restrictive security setting on the poll. If you want to create your own polls or surveys, check them out at
www.PollDaddy.com So, I'm sorry for the re-vote on this particular category, and I thank you for your understanding that we want this to be legit, and that's why we're repeating the survey for this one category.
I'm gonna go drink some superfood right now just to chill out from this survey stress!
About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health author and award-winning journalist with a strong interest in personal health, the environment and the power of nature to help us all heal He has authored more than 1,800 articles and dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics, reaching millions of readers with information that is saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2010, Adams launched NaturalNews.TV, a natural health video site featuring videos on holistic health and green living. He also launched an online retailer of environmentally-friendly products (BetterLifeGoods.com) and uses a portion of its profits to help fund non-profit endeavors. He's also a noted pioneer in the email marketing software industry, having been the first to launch an HTML email newsletter technology that has grown to become a standard in the industry. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and regularly pursues cycling, nature photography, Capoeira and Pilates. He's also author of numerous health books published by Truth Publishing and is the creator of several consumer-oriented grassroots campaigns, including the Spam. Don't Buy It! campaign, and the free downloadable Honest Food Guide. He also created the free reference sites HerbReference.com and HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free speech, free access to nutritional supplements and the ending of corporate control over medicines, genes and seeds. Known as the 'Health Ranger,' Adams' personal health statistics and mission statements are located at www.HealthRanger.org
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