ArtPrize Blog
September 28th, 2011
At approximately 8:30AM EDT, ArtPrize.org, the website for the ArtPrize organization began experiencing higher-than-expected hits to its website.
The website traffic reached a critical moment at 8:37AM, which resulted in a crash of the artprize.org online database.
The ArtPrize staff has been working diligently throughout the day to bring the website back online and add capacity, but traffic continued and our servers have been unable to keep pace.
This has resulted in closure of basic functions such as artist and venue search, as well as essential functions including voting, registration and activation.
Essentially, ArtPrize 2011 is more popular than we ever expected.
We will reopen the website with full functionality at 8:00 p.m. eastern daylight time to ensure that our database is online and healthy.
Until then, registration and activation can be completed at the HUB or one of our eight Exhibition Centers.
With regards to voting, we have heard your requests, and we will keep voting for all artists open until 4:00PM on Thursday, Sept. 29.
This will not change the timeline for the Top 10 Announcement or the start of Round 2 voting.
The Top 10 Announcement will take place at 6:00PM on Thursday, Sept. 29, Round 2 voting will take place immediately after.
September 29th, 2010
Photo by RapidGrowthMedia, on Flickr
Week 1 voting ends at 11:59PM tonight!
Tomorrow, Thursday September 30, ArtPrize will do an audit of the results and announce which artists have made it to the top 10 for Week 2 voting. Join us at 5:30PM in Rosa Parks Circle to kick off the fun. At 6:00PM, Rick DeVos will announce the top 10 finalists.
After the Top 10 are announced, voting will resume. Every voter has ONE VOTE LEFT to use on one of the top 10. (You can change your vote among the top 10 until voting closes for Week 2, 11:59PM next Wednesday, October 6.
A quick update on text message voting. As of yesterday AT&T, Sprint and Nextel are all processing votes sent via text message. (Of course, all activated voters can vote on artprize.org.)
Are you activated?
You have until 8:00PM tonight to present your government issued ID at a voter registration site and get activated to vote in Week 1. Voter registration sites will close at 8:00PM.
Anyone can still get activated to vote until close of venues next Wednesday, October 6, but those who wait until tomorrow can only vote among the Top 10.
September 9th, 2010
Voter registration for ArtPrize 2010 is now open to the public.
REGISTER + ACTIVATE
You can register now on artprize.org. You must have a unique email address to register. (If you voted last year, or you are an ArtPrize artist or venue manager, you are already registered.)
All voters must activate their voting account in person at the event. Come to a registration site between September 22-October 6 (final day of voting) and present a valid government ID (driver’s license, state ID or passport).
Registration Sites:
TWO ROUNDS OF VOTING
Week one voting begins Sept. 22 at 6 p.m. and runs through 11:59 p.m. Sept. 29. Voters can vote up or down for any and all of the 1,713 artists. One vote is allowed for each entry. The top 10 finalists will be announced Sept. 30.
Voting during week two begins after the top 10 announcement. Voters can cast only one vote for one of the 10 finalists. Votes can be changed until the close of voting on October 6 at 11:59 p.m. The winners will be announced October 7.
THREE WAYS TO VOTE
- Text Message Voting – If you provide your mobile phone number during registration, you will be able to cast votes by text message. All votes must be sent to 808080. The body of the message must contain only the artist’s up or down vote ID. No other words or characters are needed. Vote ID’s are currently on each artist profile, and they will be displayed on labels next to each entry.
- The New ArtPrize iPhone App – We updated the iPhone app this year. It’s powerful, easy to use, and free. You can download it from the iTunes App Store now.
- Online Voting – During the event, activated voters will be able to log in to artprize.org and cast votes directly on artist profile pages. You can find the artist you’re looking for by searching his/her name, entry title, or vote ID.
September 21st, 2009
In a couple days, voting will go live on artprize.org. Voting, as has been mentioned, is entirely electronic. This means that on the website, we’ll be able to see which artists are getting the most votes. But exactly what will we see?
This is a question ArtPrize has put a lot of thought into. You see, when we list the top artists on the website, you will also be able to vote right on that page. There is a danger in displaying artists with their ranking and total votes like this:
1. Jane Artist (10,000)
2. Joe Sculptor (9,122)
3. Bob Painter (8,999)
The danger is that the top artist is always displayed at the top of the page, giving that artist the most exposure on the website. It potentially creates a snowball effect of votes for that artist: The most prominent on the page gets the most votes.
To create a more level playing field on the website, ArtPrize designed a system, so people can track “buckets” of which artists are in the lead without revealing who, exactly, is in the lead day to day. Read More »
June 24th, 2009
This decision was made a while ago that voters at ArtPrize will not pay a registration fee. Since we’re still sorting through a lot of other details about voting (like, “What’s the best way to prevent fraud that doesn’t make registration wait times ridiculous?) we were going to just announce all of the voting information at once.
However, in the last week we’ve received emails and tweets and everything else asking specifically if we’ll charge a fee for people to register as voters for ArtPrize. The answer: No. (But we will charge you for the T-shirt, which looks pretty sick.)
If you know why this topic is hot this week, let me know. If, for some reason, you don’t know what we’ll be voting on, read this.
UPDATE: If you’re wondering whether or not ArtPrize will somehow charge you per individual vote, the answer is no. We will not charge anyone to register to vote or for casting individual votes. You can vote via text message or on artprize.org. If you choose to vote via text message, you can check with your mobile phone provider to find out how many text messages are included each month under your plan.
