A reader writes:
Let me get this straight. The reader with a guest cottage overlooking Gustavia Harbor is pissed she didn’t win a $30 book? Geez.
Another writes:
Exhibit A for “Thank God you don’t allow comments on your site”.
I think those of us who make serious, time-consuming attempts at the “hard” VFYWs completely understand your deference to prior correct guessers. I saw this week’s window and thought: Why bother with such an easy window that surely everyone will guess correctly? I’ll wait for next week’s photo of a nondescript shack, on nondescript dirt, beside a nondescript shrub.
Thanks for the awesome and free content for the last ten years. You keep the $30 book!
Another:
I understand why you choose winners the way you do, but I will say this: awarding books only to people who have written in over and over makes it seem like only the “in-crowd” can win. If a first-time guesser effectively cannot win, that lowers the incentive to start guessing at all.
Another:
I don’t concern myself too much with winning (or whining), but rather enjoy the challenge of the hunt. As a mathematician and therefore perpetual geek, the challenge of identification, triangulation and precision (followed by rank speculation, most of the time) is great fun. On the other hand, my wife prefers to play on gut feeling, leaving the Google searches and such to me.
If I had one critique, is that I’d love to have more information about the solution. For instance, what window did it end up being? What room number? Sometimes, this information is not provided in the Tuesday posts, and as a personal challenge, I like to see how close I got to the “answer”. Then again, that information may not always be available, which is understandable. Regardless, kudos on providing one of my favorite online activities.
Another:
Personally, I don’t have the interest or the patience to track down a window from somewhere in the world. I also don’t have the interest or patience to scroll down through all the entrants emails that either didn’t get it right or maybe did, but didn’t win. I wish the contest would just end with only the winning email. I’d read that. And be interested in that.
As for the whiners who didn’t get their free book, they should buy one, or two, and share.
The Dish 