The crew at Out ’n’ About has been working extra hard the past few weeks updating and correcting all the survey results for the “Best Of” publication. Working hard? Is that what you call it? Let’s see, we’ve been working with sheer determination and dedication to the principle of fairness – a challenge in itself, as thousands of surveys were taken!
Are we crazy to tackle such a task? Maybe…if we weren’t when we started, we surely are by now!
Every year, it’s a mountain of work, but this time we tried to work smarter – hmm… guess the operative word there is “tried”, since we saw the social media comments. We brought in some fresh-thinking, young minds, and a few older ones, to use spreadsheets to keep track of the whole process.
Now that we have finally received the results, it takes the whole team working together to figure out: “Oh! They called it this, but the name changed and it’s now that – but they mean the same place.” Don’t deny it, you know you do it. We just hope you aren’t doing this to us on purpose!
We had our moments – some fun, some frustrating, and some just endlessly headache-inducing – and still have much more to go. “So add your six votes for such and such to my 22 votes for whosie-whats, because they are the same place, going by different names.”
Then there were the funny jokers out there that said, “Best place to have coffee”… my house. We were tempted to call the person up and say, “Ok, we are all coming over!” Or someone who said, “What?” to the category “Best Excursion.” Guess they didn’t know the word?
Other folks don’t seem to know exactly what a “High End Restaurant” or “Best Adult Entertainment” is – but those are the kinds of things that kept us laughing through the whole, long process.
Some have said the survey isn’t valid, but we can assure you that we are doing everything we can to keep it a true reading of the voters’ choices. We really do want to know who the best is out there. However, it’s a double-edged sword, we are pleased the survey is popular, but fear it might get more popular still. Every year, it grows by the thousands… yikes!
Since the Best Of has gone online, we’ve skirt-tailed a lot of the physical counting in exchange for machines doing it for us, but there’s still a need for human eyes, and a bit of patience with us.
Soon the much anticipated “Best Of 2021” will hit the streets – we have our top three winners in every category and are just working on the publication itself. And, yes, there are a few surprises, and a few that seem to win year after year. You will have to wait – not too long – to find out.
By late January, to very early February, you will know who The BEST of 2021 is.
