A MISUNDERSTANDING

Since Dr. Ostrovsky posted a note in my comment box saying that there has been "vote tampering" in the ongoing Medical Blog Awards for the category Best New Medical Blog, there has been a remarkable response from my friends and readers denouncing the insinuation that this weblog or any of them has been involved in such a cheap act in order to win.

In one of his replies, Dr. Ostrovsky (of the medblog EchoJournal), who runs the current elections, has explained that he "did not accuse in any way Parallel Universes or its readers of conducting any kind of malicious activity," and that he does "apologize that (his) comments were taken in a negative light."

That being the case, all would have been just fine except for the misunderstanding of how the voting will be done.

Fresh from voting for me for Best Newcomer in the Asian Blog Awards, my readers and friends were STILL CONDITIONED to vote for me once-per-day everyday (which was the rule at Simon's) and I think this is partly where the trouble began. Dr O's polling software must have read the whole flow of votes as "vote tampering."

That was the misunderstanding.

So, to Dr Ostrovsky and the rest of the medical blogging community, I would like to apologise as well, in behalf of my friends and readers (who like me, are not as tech-savvy as some bloggers), for this misunderstanding. I've also been busy the past few days, I was not able to inform my readers on how to vote this time.

To all my friends, please be informed that the current polls allow only voting ONCE per person until January 17, 2005.

Also, I noted that Spirit Fingers of Hong Kong who was this blog's chief competitor during the Asian Blog Awards commented over at Dr O's saying that she has experienced "email spam and abuse from people purporting to be fans of the site (PARALLEL UNIVERSES), and this caused her to drop out of the nomination.

Let me assure Spirit Fingers that I had no hand in that malicious act nor do I believe any of my readers were involved. I have always believed in fairness, integrity, and honesty. I also abhor cheating in whatever form it might present itself.

I hope this will be the end of the misunderstanding.