I have ongoing problems with winvote and I was wondering, before I email its
writer, whether others have similiar problems.

This month, for example, I scored some pictures at home and some at work.
However, there is no easy way to combine scores from two separate locations,
and although the problem can be worked around by transferring a few files
back and forth, it's not ideal. Merging the results into winvote's votes.txt
is easy enough, but winvote, although showing the merged scores, refuses to
acknowledge that all pics have been voted on. I understand the reasons for
this - it helps to cut down on possible fraud(?) - but seems a little OTT
IMHO for the IRTC (what next? dope-testing? we're doomed!).

The consequence was that I was unable to view the pics in vote order, and I
was unable to use winvote to compile my votes.

Anyone else have similiar difficulties?

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I often vote at work and home.  All I do is zip up *.cmt, vote.dat and
random.dat and email them home.  Then I unzip the files into the "Work Dir" and
I have a complete copy of WinVote from work.

Sorry you had so much trouble.  WinVote really is by far the easiest way to vote
off-line, if you are using Windows 9x or NT.  I just click "Compile Votes" and
then click "Mail It" and I'm done.

Bob Franke
Author of WinVote

Tom Melly wrote:

> I have ongoing problems with winvote and I was wondering, before I email its
> writer, whether others have similiar problems.
>
> This month, for example, I scored some pictures at home and some at work.
> However, there is no easy way to combine scores from two separate locations,
> and although the problem can be worked around by transferring a few files
> back and forth, it's not ideal. Merging the results into winvote's votes.txt
> is easy enough, but winvote, although showing the merged scores, refuses to
> acknowledge that all pics have been voted on. I understand the reasons for
> this - it helps to cut down on possible fraud(?) - but seems a little OTT
> IMHO for the IRTC (what next? dope-testing? we're doomed!).
>
> The consequence was that I was unable to view the pics in vote order, and I
> was unable to use winvote to compile my votes.
>
> Anyone else have similiar difficulties?

Post a reply to this message

"Bob Franke" <bob### [at] yahoocom> wrote in message
news:39C6DB11.1A3CBB15@yahoo.com...

> I often vote at work and home.  All I do is zip up *.cmt, vote.dat and
> random.dat and email them home.  Then I unzip the files into the "Work
Dir" and
> I have a complete copy of WinVote from work.
>

Yep, I've done this - the problem I had this time was two-fold.

1. I forgot once to transfer the files
2. I mistakenly thought I could get away with updating my tech. scores
independantly of winvote ( a quick batch job as I was giving everyone 10).

> Sorry you had so much trouble.  WinVote really is by far the easiest way
to vote
> off-line, if you are using Windows 9x or NT.  I just click "Compile Votes"
and
> then click "Mail It" and I'm done.

Don't get me wrong - it's an excellent program. Truly. I just find it too
easy to get into trouble with the security features, and am not entirely
sure they are justified in this context.

Next month promises to be even more problematic - the couple who we share a
house with want to vote as well (my final vote would be an average of
their's and me and my partner's votes). Still, as long as I don't try and
code any perl at 1.00am, I'm sure I'll manage.

Post a reply to this message

Tom Melly wrote:

> "Bob Franke" <bob### [at] yahoocom> wrote in message
> news:39C6DB11.1A3CBB15@yahoo.com...
>
>  I just find it too
> easy to get into trouble with the security features, and am not entirely
> sure they are justified in this context.
>
> Next month promises to be even more problematic - the couple who we share a
> house with want to vote as well (my final vote would be an average of
> their's and me and my partner's votes). Still, as long as I don't try and
> code any perl at 1.00am, I'm sure I'll manage.

When I first proposed WinVote to the IRTC, there was a fair amount of concern
that it would be possible to vote by just viewing the thumbnails.  Also some
were against the ability to sort.  This is why you must first vote on all the
images while viewing them full size, before all of the functions of the program
are turned on.  Some voters feel that each image should be voted on by its own
merits and not compared to the others.  Therefore you should not sort.  I find
this impossible to do.  I use the sort functions to maintain my consistency and
fairness.
============
Now, about your problem with two voters using WinVote on one computer.
This is easy, because WinVote does not use the registry.

For the second voter, create a second Winvote folder and copy all the files from
the original directory.  This includes winvote.exe, winvote.hlp and the rest of
the support files.  Then create a second "Work Dir" for the second voter.  The
two voters can share the thumbnail and image folders.

Then make sure the shortcut for the second voter has its "start in" folder set
where his copy of winvote.exe lives.

Well I guess I got a little wordy.
I hope  this helps,
-Bob

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"Bob Franke" <bob### [at] yahoocom> wrote in message
news:39C86311.FCA2AAE9@yahoo.com...

<snip>

Bob, thanks for the info. I guess I'll just have to break the habit of a
lifetime and think ahead when using winvote in two locations ;)

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