My Turn - In Defense of My Friend Rocky
Friday, September 26, 2008 ADVERTISEMENTS
Captain's Log Stardate -315735.27
I've already said my concerns about the Level-Up! Gaming Blog Award the other day, same goes with Rocky, Karlo, Andrew, and Mark. I decided to keep my mouth shut about the irregularities I've seen on the categories besides the Level Up! Gaming Blog Award. But I won't sit here and shut up while my friend Rocky is being referred to as an "effing idiot", Bitter Ocampo, posting with malicious intent, etc. just by posting his observations on the Level-Up! and Nokia Special Awards of the Philippine Blog Awards 2008.
His post at GameOPS was clear Poyt. Rocky did not question your talent, not Coy's talent, not because both of your videos won, but because of the rules and eligibility requirements. September 19, midnight (00:00 of Sept 19) is the extended deadline. I am actually the first one who noticed this and brought this up to Ria and itot54joni (100% Batangueno). I told them about the deadline because I believe it's unfair for their part. Ria said it's no big deal. Jonald on the other hand said he felt bad of the late entries being as finalist. He said it's nothing personal and he'll just join again next year if there will be another contest.
If it's okay with them then it's fine with me. Have you seen me rant the past few days about this? No. I only questioned the Level-Up! special category, nothing else. You guys cannot call me bitter since I also won Lalaine also won a Nokia phone right? Even after the contest, I didn't mind Coy and Poyt winning. No bitterness at all on my part.
I know this midnight thingy is really causing a lot of confusion. Midnight can be referred to as September 19, 23:59 or September 19, 00:00. Initially, I thought it's 23:59 of September 19. But I did ask around and all of them said that midnight, if used as a noun, is 12 'o clock in the night. So the deadline literally translates to September 19, 00:00. That's when I decided to cram and upload my video before September 19, 00:00.
I shot the video with Lalaine on September 17 and was planning to edit it on the morning of 19th. I am to accompany Rocky's mom to a convention on the evening of 18th so the editing could wait. But when I learned that the deadline was actually on Sept 19 00:00, I've called Rocky to tell her mom I couldn't go since I need to finish the video. Rocky hated me that day. mid·night
Function: noun
1: the middle of the night ; specifically : 12 o'clock at night
Based on the definition above, Rocky is right. Poyt and Coy's entries will raise eyebrows if we strictly follow what's written on the dictionary because they weren't even eligible for the contest in the first place.
Poyt, your Plurk friends insulted Rocky just because of his post and you allowed them to continue. Remember, Rocky is a blogger who posts only in GameOPS and does not "bloghop" on other local blogs (even mine!). He asked those questions because he found out that you're volunteers coupled with the questionable things he raised. Jester even mixed Rocky and Siopao Master's post and twisted it to make it look like we're bitter because GameOPS didn't win. Siopao Master clearly castigated the way the judges of Level-Up! chose the finalist and not the Philippine Blog Awards or its convenors. Rocky on the other hand, aired his questions and concerns about the rules and eligibility, not about your talents, abilities, honor, or whatsoever. It's clear. Very glaringly.
Now you leave me no choice but to defend him and show them what I really saw.
I know about the delay in the channel Coy mentioned in his comment at GameOPS. My low-res video took about an hour (the high-res about 3 hours) before it appeared on the PBA channel on OVI. This delay only applies to the channel and not to the profile itself. I've visited Poyt's profile (and same with Azrael and Coy) once the list of finalists was released. The time differential of the videos on their profile and the channel itself is about 1 or 2 hours. Do the math?
Okay, no math. Let's check them all right now.
Here's a comment from Poyt on the Philippine Blog Awards website. The time stamp on the Philippine Blog Awards website has a 15 hour differential from our current time. Her comment was posted at 9:53am of September 19, thus this translates to 12:53am of September 20.
We also know that before submitting our videos as official entries, we must first post them to our blogs and include the URL once we submit. The time stamp on Poyt's blog post was 9:42am of September 19. That alone should be questionable. But wait, her blog also has a time differential of 15 hours. How did I know? I tried to post a comment and here's the result,
I posted that comment at 1:00am of September 26, while her blog's timestamp displays September 25, 10:00am. I can only conclude that the September 19 9:42am timestamp on Poyt's OVI blog entry can actually be September 20, 12:42am.
This is the same case with Coy. Though without a timestamp, his blog entry has a date of September 20. How can someone submit their entries on the submission form without the blog URL itself? I know this can be done on Wordpress, but how about blog hosted on Blogger? You cannot obtain your blog post URL without publishing first in Blogger.
Rocky also pointed out on his updated blog post at GameOPS about the date displayed in their videos. In Poyt's video entry, Coy opened up the calendar application on his mobile phone and the current date indicated is September 19. Unless he changed the date, we can assume that the video is being shot on the 19th of September. This is assuming and not accusing. No malicious intent here okay?
Besides the deadline thing, Poyt's entry should have been disqualified. Why? Because rule #2 of Nokia Sponsor Awards states that,2. The video must also be uploaded in their personal blogs with a link back to the Ovi site.
From the screenshot above, we can clearly see that Poyt's blog post didn't contain any link to the OVI site.
I won't even dare question the winners. Those are the judges (or sponsors for the special awards) prerogatives. What Rocky was after was how can they win if they aren't even eligible because of the rules? Remember, the Awards has eligibility requirements. Not just because a blog or entry has nice contents. Here's a comment from one of the post at the blog awards regarding eligibility,Bruce in Iloilo:
I cannot find anyway to send this directly to the organizers, and so I post it here. I added this comment just now to a blog entry from weeks ago, but since that entry is so old, it might no be read. And so I repeat it here. My apologies if this is a great faux pas.
I think that the first eligibility requirement, “I. It must be Filipino owned,” is more restrictive then it needs to be and discriminates against immigrants. I suspect that it is unintentional.
The awards should be open to blogs related to the Philippines and the Philippine diaspora. It shouldn’t matter what passport one carries or the color of one’s skin.
I should be allowed to compete. The rules, as written, says I cannot because I am a white guy carrying an American passport, this despite the fact that I live and work, and love, the Philippines.
This is discrimination pure and simple, most likely unintentional.
It is easy to forget, because we are relatively so few, that there are tens of thousands of us in the Philippines, and I don’t mean returning OFWs who are no longer Philippine citizens. There are professionals who work in Makati. There are missionaries who are kidnapped and murdered. There are Chinese and Indian businessmen. There are loving wives and husbands, parents and grandparents.
All of these people, these permanent residents, are Filipino by choice, if not by law or skin color. In our hearts, we are Filipino. We should be fully accepted into our adopted country. We should not be treated as outsiders, excluded from full participation in civil life, and that includes the blogger community and these awards.
Accept us fully. Accept us for what we are, your neighbors, friends, lovers, indeed your fellow Filipino bloggers. Let us, in this country, set the standard of acceptance and openness to immigrants and outsiders for the whole world to follow.
The points and questions made by Rocky is no different from the concerns of Bruce. Eligibility. You can't blame others like CathCath (link 1, link 2) and Reyna Elena (link 1, link 2) if they cry foul given the evidences above.
I will state it here again, I have no problems with the Nokia Awards. If it's okay with Ria and itot54joni, it's fine with me. I won afterall. Poyt, I consider you as one of my online friends, same to you Coy. I have nothing personal against both of you. I know you're both talented and I have been appreciating your talents for a long time. I only posted this entry to defend Rocky. I would have remained quiet if weren't for those foul and personal attacks against Rocky. Btw Coy, Rocky didn't forget your link. Your blog's link is still on GameOPS' sidebar as agreed upon our link exchange last May 2007.
Based on what Rocky (a no one in the blogging scene) experienced, if you have something to tell against something or someone, better shut up or commit suicide if you have no friends to back you up online.
"Effing idiot" is the new sexay!
*Computer end log* Labels: blogging, contests, personal
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THERE ARE 9 COMMENT(S) ON THIS POST:
ang taray ng post mo jeps..punto per punto.. love it!
@reesie - I was in a difficult position. Shutup so I could protect my friends' reputation online and avoid a lot of enemies by crashing my head on a thick wall. Or defend Rocky and Siopao Master, who really have valid arguments, and cause a lot of buzz around. Arguments they took as personal attacks.
My only concern was the Level-Up special awards, not this Nokia one. You all know I won so why the hell should I whine like other bitter ocampos?
But when the personal insults and backstabbing started, they left me with no choice but to stand and speak up. Defend someone who's asking innocent questions regarding an award and atmosphere where he isn't familiar with.
Now if they still dismiss the things I posted above, then may God have mercy on our souls.
very good jepoy, but we should let bygones be bygones im really interested if the PBA have reacted about this situation since their irregularities are to blame.
Jepoy, you missed something. Please check if that "September 20" datestamp on my post is actually Philippine Time. Because I'm sure it isn't.
You also didn't know that just like you, my video has been uploaded TWICE to the Ovi site. And I'm sure one of those uploads is within the deadline.
And for the record, I'm not mad at you or Rocky. I know what I did. I explained it. It's up to you if you still wanna disprove it.
And because of this mess, I won't be using Ovi ever. SRSLY. Ang labo.
@coy - actually, I didn't miss it. Your blog's time and date is Philippine time.
My friend was actually teasing me the night I wrote this entry. She asked who won, so I gave your blog address to her. She commented on your blog while we were talking on YM. I checked the time and date of her comment and it's the same with the time and date of my computer.
Even though your blog is not in Philippine time, try to remove 24 hours and it will still fall on September 19. A date beyond the deadline. Unless your entry is posted at exactly 00:00 of September 19.
For the record, I am not responsible for what other people are saying about Rocky or about you. You know what my point is and what has been going around the internet that volunteers are given awards just because they volunteered. That is my issue. I don't know Rocky personally so its not comforting that someone else is feeding this issue of 'palakasan'. The Nokia people determined the winners, not the PBA organizers.
The term "midnight" is actually ambiguous. But in terms of deadlines, I always go with the "one minute after 11:59 p.m. of September 19" interpretation.
So, I'm actually think that Coy's and Faith's videos are actually not late. I think with all the hullabaloo regarding the "technical difficulties" of uploading videos to the OVI site, I think Nokia bended the rules just a bit to let anyone who at least managed to upload an entry before the deadline (the Sep 19 11:59 + 1 minute one) as eligible.
I love the startrek next gen theme of your blog, very creative and nice looking.
It is hard to find the post comment link, have to dig around a bit though.
-Blog on Buddy
-Dragon Blogger
@eugene - yeah I know it's ambiguous. That's what I thought of initially. Midnight is after 23:59 but before 00:00. But If you're going to be strict and follow the real time, it's 00:00.
Wikipedia clearly states that computers and digital clocks interpret midnight as (insert date) 00:00. The dictionary also states that it's 12'o clock in the night. So if it's 00:00, then the time after 23:59 of September 19 is actually September 20. Ahhh.. ewan. Basta magulo talaga yan. Depende sa individual interpretation :)
The organizers (or sponsors) should be clear and avoid using these kinds of terms. If it's 00:00, then specify.
It's not only me who noticed this. I know someone who also entered the Nokia category who decided to keep his mouth shut to avoid enemies. He was actually observing until the wee hours for new entries. He was also the one who pointed out Poyt's missing link.
Tama na. Tapos na to, pinalalaki lang kasi ng iba dyan sa mga "friends" mo na ayaw tanggapin na mali yung kaibigan nila. Imbes na magpakumbaba, tatawanan pa at lalaitin ang ibang tao.
@dragon blogger - Thanks! Of course you'll have a hard time finding the comment link. I had to trick you to click one of those performancing ads :D
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