Well, the time for submissions is now over, and I have to say I am thrilled with the number and quality of entries this time around! The previous “record” number of entries was 15 and this month we had 25 (a 67% increase). Now comes the hard part–choosing the top post. Here are links to all of the posts submitted (in order of submission), and they also can be found over at the “official” website of the challenge: www.mwwcblog.wordpress.com
Please let me know if your post is not listed–I Googled MWWC6 every night to make sure I was not missing any, so hopefully each post is below!
Wine Ramblings An Edible Quest Confessions of a Wine Geek
Michael’s Wine Oenophilogical renenutet13 Wayward Wine
foodwineclick Julia Bailey sweetempranillo Duff’s Wine
My Custard Pie The Wandering Gourmand The Wine Raconteur
binNotes The Armchair Sommelier twelvedollartastebuds
Flora’s Table Melanie Wagner Asueba SAHMmelier
Lucha Vino Talk-a-Vino Frankly Wines The Sweet Sommelier
The rules for voting are rather straightforward: 1. Voting is open to everyone–you do not have to have submitted an entry to vote, nor do you have to have a blog, anybody can vote!. 2. Vote for up to three posts (you are not required to vote for three, but that is the maximum).
I will tally the votes and announce a winner a week from today. If the vote is particularly close, I reserve the right to have a run-off between the top vote receivers.
I also have a question for you (feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts): Poll Daddy has an option to show a running percentage of the voting–should I enable this feature (right now it I have it disabled)?
Thanks to everyone who has submitted (in the end, I decided not to submit–I was pretty busy with setting up the other website–at least that is my excuse–besides there are plenty to read), I really think this is a strong showing!
Now be sure to read the submissions and vote!
the drunken cyclist 
And of course we don’t vote for our own posts!
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I purposely left that comment out for the simple reason that I it is impossible to police and in the end, what is so bad about voting for yourself?
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Fair enough, you make the rules for the round!
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Thanks for all of your hard work in setting up the MWWC website — it looks great! And I know that was a huge undertaking! Is it possible to show only percentages for only the top 3? One of the goals of the challenge is to encourage people to write (a goal achieved in spades for MWWC6) — my concern is that if someone gets a low/zero percentage, that could potentially be DIScouraging. My 2 cents . . . Salud!
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I do not think there is a way with Poll Daddy to do that. I thought about using Survey Monkey for the vote, but I thought it might discourage voters (not that SM is much better, but there is a bit more functionality). I might give an update after a few days for the top three….
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Great job Jeff on nudging, pushing and pulling people to write and submit – this was the best turn out, and you did a great job running #MWWC6.
As far as your question goes with the running scores – I suggest you will not enable it. Some things are better remain as a mystery. If you will have the strong voting – now this is the next challenge in itself – you can publish scores for the three top posts – if you feel like it. But I definitely would keep all scores closed as it is today.
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I am glad you saw it as “nudging” since there is a fine line between that and pestering/annoying (interestingly, it did not work with either Oliver or the Hedonist). Yeah, the whole vote thing could easily get out of control, I guess.
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You did fine, no worries. With the holidays in a middle, this was an outstanding turn out. Problem is that this type of writing is more than just a casual review – this is not a “routine writing”, this is really an “inspirational writing” – unless you catch the muse, it just not going to come out right. I was extremely close to saying “whatever, I’m just not doing it”, but managed to overcome – partially due to your nudging : )
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What an impressive showing, Jeff!! It really paid off that you kept beating the drum and encouraged people to write. Not that it got me around to it, but I definitely appreciated the more hands on approach.
I am with Anatoli, it takes away from the drama and mystery if you publish the poll while it is still active. Also, in theory, it makes later voting more “important” because you might end up choosing the winner. I would not mind seeing the tally afterwards.
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I am not sure if you get an opinion since you spurned all of my “drum beating”. Seriously, though, I hope you get back at it for the next one–you are certainly one of the more talented writers out there!
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Thanks, I really appreciate it. I’ve just been quite swamped the last months and am trying to figure out how to get life and blogging synced…and so when the muses did not kiss me, I decided not to force them. Better none than a sub-par post.
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What an amazing contest! Love this and can’t wait to check them all out!
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Thanks! Don’t forget to vote!
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Is the voting only for participants or can we elicit votes from our readers?
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Voting is for anyone and everyone–sorry, should have made that clear in the directions!
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Better get my reading hat on then! It’s the taking part that counts right 😉
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Certainly!
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I think you should enable the Poll Daddy, it’ll be interesting to see where all the entries are.
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I agree, but I am a bit of a data geek. Not many seeming to agree with us though….
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Well done…I vote for leaving the ‘mystery’ in the voting, and not post percentages. Cheers –
thanks again for this labor of love, TDC.
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Thanks for the input!
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VERY tough to pick just 3! 🙂
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Looking forward to some fun reading this evening! Most likely, a bottle will need to be opened.
Oh, not to be picky, but can you change my name to The Wandering Gourmand? You have me listed as The Wandering Gourmet. Thanks!
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Sorry about that–not sure how it happened (I love the word ‘gourmand’ and use it all the time–never use ‘gourmet’!). Fixed.
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Thanks! I like keeping the results hidden until the end. It keeps the competition less of a popularity contest. “I’m trending down! Vote for me!” Posted on Facebook.
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Reblogged this on Duff's Wines.
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Good work, Jeff. I agree with those that want the poll hidden until at least the conclusion.
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That seems to be the consensus!
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Reblogged this on The Wandering Gourmand and commented:
And the voting has begun over at the Monthly Wine Writing Challenge! Check out the etnries by the many talented writers in the wine blogging space. Don’t forget to vote while you are over there. Voting runs today only. Oh, and in case you were wondering, mine is the Bryan Hall Wine Incident (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).
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Reblogged this on Frankly Wines and commented:
Get reading and voting folks!
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Pingback: #MWWC6 – Monthly Wine Writing Challenge #6 – Mystery | Frankly Wines
Absolutely brilliant response… A great campaign sir! There is so much quality writing this month it’s going to be tough to choose. Good luck to everyone… Its a privilege to choose the theme!!
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Thanks for the comment and for your entry!
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Reblogged this on The Armchair Sommelier and commented:
Another Monthly Wine Writing Challenge (#MWWC6) is in the books, and voting is now OPEN! You don’t have to write to vote — voting is open to anyone!! #MWWC6 set a record for entries — up from 15 to 25 (a 67% increase — thanks for doing the math, Jeff). Take a look at The Drunken Cyclist’s post for links to all of the posts submitted for this month, and vote for your 3 favorites. You can also find this month’s posts (and previous MWWC entries) at the “official” website of the MWWC challenge: http://www.mwwcblog.wordpress.com.
Salud!
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Wow, only 3? So many different takes on the topic it is so hard to pick! Thanks for hosting and allowing me to join this talented crew.
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Yeah, only three–I can’t count much higher than that!
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If it keeps growing at this rate we’ll need Ernst and Young accounting soon ;).
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Another fine job, and it is just a fun change. I missed the last one, with the holidays and all of the extra time that seemed to be lacking. I do agree that the “mystery” is best, with only the results, though you are running this show and you are doing a fine job, so who am I to second guess you.
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Thanks so much for entering this time John!
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Reblogged this on The Wine Raconteur and commented:
The voting on this challenge is not just for bloggers, but for the readers as well.
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Pingback: Monthly Wine Writing Challenge #6 (Mystery)–Time to Vote! | The Buzz
What’s the deadline for voting? Sorry if this is obvious – have a bad cold (very bad for wine tasting) and more muddled than usual. Great job at cajoling and organising.
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Monday, essentially. As long as the vote is in before I post the results on Tuesday, it will count. I plan on posting around 9:00 New York time.
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Great – I have the weekend to read through them all 🙂
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Reblogged this on oenophilogical and commented:
Wow! For this, it’s 6th iteration, the drunken cyclist has managed to encourage some 25 folks to write posts for the Monthly Wine Writing Challenge. Fantastic!! If you haven’t yet, use the links provided and read the posts. Then take another minute and choose your top 3 using the poll form. You don’t have to be a wine blogger to vote! Kudos and many thanks to the drunken cyclist for all his hard work.
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Reblogged this on SAHMmelier and commented:
It’s time to vote for the Mystery Wine Writing Challenge. The competition is tough, so vote for whichever pieces you think deserve it, but if you like my piece, I’d be much obliged. Either way, you are bound to learn something, giggle, and find a new writer to follow. Thank you in advance!
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The entries are so varied it’s hard to pick a best. I enjoyed the reading and the creativity of the participants.
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Yeah, there are a lot of great entries this time around and it is quite difficult to choose!
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I would not publish the poll results but I do like the idea of listing the top 3 statistical information post survey. Thank you!
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Thanks so much for the comment–we need to get you to submit the next time around!
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You’ve planted a seed 🙂 still recovering from holiday retail madness. Thank you!
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not for nothin’ but i vote “nay” on poll daddy. my fear is that it becomes all about the number of votes rather than about the writing. in the spirit of compromise i do agree that posting the results of the top 3 at the conclusion is quite exciting. and you must be thrilled at how all your work on this venture is paying off, no?
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It sure is great to see such a turnout!
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40 and fabulous
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Reblogged this on Wine Ramblings and commented:
Thanks to the Drunken Cyclist’s efforts, the 6th Monthly Wine Writing Challenge is now complete with 25 stories competing for the top prize. You can vote using the re-blogged post, just choose the top-3 entries. I’d love it if you voted for my entry but there are a lot of good posts in there. I already look forward to the next challenge.
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Pingback: Vote Away Those Tears: #MWWC6 | WAYWARD WINE
That was such a tough choice… Amazing quantity and quality if entries this month. I love #MWWC !!
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Great to hear!
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Reblogged this on mwwcblog.
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Oh my gosh, this is so much fun! I only occasionally check blogs and so missed this until, uh, 10 days later. Will try to keep up. LOVED reading the stories. What fun. Okay — now it’s Devotion and Valentine’s Day and Ground Hog Day and … Wow. Better open a bottle to get those little grey cells fired up!
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Well, head over to SAHMelier’s site (or to MWWCBlog.wordpress.com) and get all the details for this month’s challenge–we can never have too many entries!
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