@Confused,
I don’t provide a service. As I said, I see this an experiment and an effort to raise awareness. If people want to win through lovetolead, they can do so. But they increase their chance of winning through voting on the articles.

as I said to you on the phone, there is no intention to destroy the site or spoil the competition. I think it is a good idea that companies interact with their customers, I think it is a good idea to stir the debate between bloggers, I think it is a good idea to create a situation where bloggers can do what they love best and get rewarded for it. I think the main idea for Toshiba is to get people hooked on their new laptop and they try this experiment in the hope to get a lot of attention. And maybe such an experiment works better then an advertising campaign in newspapers.

But I want three things: first, I want to raise awareness that when working with bloggers you need to take them seriously – and not just use them as a marketing-tool. If you think that an article does not hit the question – you need to allow the voters to decide upon that. If you want to create a transparent debate, you need to show what criteria are used to determine the rank – and not just label them with numbers. If you want bloggers to put “Vote me”-Buttons on their blog, and somebody does it and receives a lot of attention, you can’t accuse him of spoiling the debate. If you want people to be attracted by the prize, you can’t avoid that other people are also eager to win the prize even if they don’t blog themselves. I am very straightforward in my methods, open and transparent and anybody could do the same to attract votes for his or her article. In fact, several people have contacted me and have suggested to do the same in one of the next rounds following my example. This is blogging – once the seeds are planted, people will do what they think.

Secondly, I see this as a social experiment. In the first round where I won the laptop, I did very little to announce the competition, just send a short email to a few real networks of people. The response rate was overwhelming. Maybe because people could do very little to gain very much. And it was also overwhelming that one in ten voters would like to give away the laptop to somebody more in need – or simply sell it and donate it to a good cause. In this round, laberena helps me with providing the article, but the recipient will have to donate 500 Euro to a charitable cause. It will be interesting to see how many people respond to this call for voting – knowing that in case they win they also have to donate something.

Thirdly, I want to encourage companies to cooperate more closely with bloggers when developing these networks. I think bloggers have a lot of experience how to create interesting and readable articles and stir a public debate. Combined with a real network of real people, bloggers can really move something. The most fascinating example in my close surrounding is the “Bar-Blog” which just saved a hundred trees from being cut down. Real changing the world, having a positive impact. The potential of Lovetolead is far from being reached. Only 100 posts in three weeks? Only a few thousand votes all together? Still a pagerank of Zero? Still slow visitor rates? I personally think there can be more power unleashed – if Toshiba takes bloggers seriously.

If you don’t, then ignore us, go away, and stop spoiling the competition for people who do enjoy the debate.