Many readers are writing in with sour grapes over not being awarded the window book yesterday. One common misunderstanding:
It’s hard enough taking the crushing blow of spending futile hours finding a window, and I don’t even mind not being picked as a winner – but seeing another reader credited as the only one who correctly guessed the hotel was too much for me to take!
As we indicated in the results, more than 200 readers correctly guessed Gustavia Harbor, and about a quarter those 200 mentioned Hotel Gustav. But only one of those 50 or so correctly guessed a difficult view in the past. We define “difficult” views as those in which only 10 or fewer readers correctly guess the specific location; if a reader is among those 10 or fewer, we flag his or her email address with a “Correct Guesser” label to reference for future contests. This process, while frustrating for many readers, is the fairest way to break ties and reward those who are consistently the most accurate. We simply don’t have the funds to award a free $30 book to every reader who correctly guesses a location (this week’s tab alone would have been over $5000). To avoid this issue, we could simply publish only exceptionally difficult views, but that would alienate scores of casual participants. We try to maintain a mix of difficult, medium, and easy views for the Dish’s large and diverse readership.
One particularly disgruntled reader – the one who lives near Hotel Gustav and linked to its webcam – writes:
I can see how you might award the other contestant a book had we BOTH correctly answered. BUT to disregard and overlook my entry to give your other reader the opportunity to be a winner because he has been so close so many times? Seriously? Sounds like progressive kindergarten to me. I am sure if your “winner” knew that he actually lost, he would be humiliated by your generosity.
My invitation to come down for a visit no longer stands. And if you think the view from the Hotel Carl Gustaf is beautiful, you should have seen the view from the window of our guest cottage …
The Dish 