And the winners are ... We can rebuild it, we have the technology. We have the capability to make the valSome businesses may think they have the inside track on the final results by lookley’s best “Best of” survey even better. Best of Boise will be that survey. Better than ing at their account pages at Urban Chalk. Well, sorry again, but those vote totals are it was before: Better, stronger, faster. a little misleading. First, they do not take into account those votes that were disIn fact, we did rebuild the venerable Best of Boise with the help qualified for either ballot stuffing or for failure to validate accounts. of a little technology. Don’t get us wrong, BoB retains the quintSecond, Urban Chalk is a year-round website, while we only count essential essence that has made it Boise Weekly’s most anticipated votes received during a specific time period for Best of Boise. issue of the year—all that tongue-in-cheek humor, sarcasm and The only way to know the true winners is right here in the final insight that has always set it apart from the imitators—but this results of Best of Boise. year, BoB got an upgrade with a little help from the team at While we have put a lot of focus on the new-and-improved Urban Chalk. aspects of BoB, we have taken a step into the past for one aspect of AT LEAST FIVE While voting has been done online-only for years, this time the edition—namely, the fact that it’s one edition rather than two. CONSECUTIVE around, the system included lists of local businesses competing in For the last several years, we’ve split Staff Picks and Readers’ Choice WINS each category, the ability to vote from your smartphone by scaninto two separate issues published over two consecutive weeks. ning a QR code and a chance for businesses to manage their own This time, though, we decided to put all the BoB goodness in a accounts and images. single issue. In these pages, you’ll find both the winners from our This year, 3,864 readers cast their ballots—a number that readers’ poll as well as a few Staff Picks selected by the BW editowould have been even higher if some voters hadn’t missed the rial team for some special recognition. part about having to validate their accounts through their email You’ll also notice the return of our awards for those winners AT LEAST TEN so we could ensure they weren’t robots sent to overthrow humanwho have landed on the top of the heap for five or 10 consecuCONSECUTIVE ity. And then there were the voters who neglected to read the part tive years. While most winners with these badges actually fall WINS in the instructions about having to answer at least 15 questions. somewhere around those marks, we only dole out the awards in Regardless of what system we use, a few people always think five-year increments. they can beat it and do some serious ballot-stuffing. In fact, early in the BoB voting Under all the bells and whistles, Best of Boise is ultimately an issue created by process, some locals were bragging about how easy it was to beat the system. the city and its residents. And while a lot has changed in the Treasure Valley over Sorry to burst your ballot-stuffing bubble, but we have measures in place to not the years, Best of Boise remains the original “best of” in the valley, and, may we only identify ballot stuffing but to eliminate those votes without the stuffers ever humbly add, the best. knowing about it. —Deanna Darr
8 | SEPTEMBER 26 – OCTOBER 2, 2012 | BOISEweekly
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