SDA2009 – “Most Popular” Categories Set

Seoul International Drama Awards 2009 – the voting event for the Most Populars is officially closed.  The following is a glance of the results.

I started recording the stats at 11:05 am (Aug 30 Canada EST) when the event is closed for voting.  I knew it was closed because I tried to click the Vote button at approximately 11:02 am and I got a pop-up window saying the event is closed.   But I found that the vote count was still changing… and I really don’t understand why.  For the past days, when I voted, the vote count would change at real time – i.e. I see my vote immediately after I voted, and hence I thought the count was real-time.  So with that assumption, as soon as the voting event was closed, the votes shouldn’t change.  But I found that not the case.  For example,  Moon Guen Young’s votes increased from 6,370,464 (at 11:06 am Aug 30 Canada EST) to the final 6,381,709 by 11,245 votes.

Another abnormality – for at least a day, I saw Kim Hyun Joong appeared three times on the top-10 summary in the “vote result in Japan” page.  That means something’s seriously wrong on the back-end.

I also had a couple days that I couldn’t vote at all – to be more accurate, I could vote for all 3 categories, but when it came to the final confirmation page where it gathered your information, it gave me an error and I couldn’t complete the vote no matter what I provided.  Not to mention that the site was slow in loading and for 50% of the time, I had to refresh my session for my browser would time-out and give me an error.

Last but not least, tho there’s a rule forbidding an IP for voting more than once a day, did you ever wonder how could some candidates collect votes so fast…  Let’s do some math here.  This event was opened from July 13 – Aug 30 – a total of 49 days.  Take the Most Popular drama Boys Before Flowers as an example, the total vote was 22,269,957.  Assuming everyone started voting on the first day – that would still take 454,489 votes a day to make up the total.   Now think – are there t-h-a-t many fans of BBF out there?…  P-e-r-h-a-p-s…  but highly unlikely!   In fact, there are several ways to beat this “Per IP once a day” rule.  Using a different browser is one way.  Another way is if you’re using dynamic internet connections (where your connection is assigned a new IP when you reconnent to your ISP every time).  Not to encourage people doing this, I am not going to describe in details, but it can be done.  Good intention of the rule, but if there’s a known method on how to beat it, then I think the rule shouldn’t be imposed at all.  Afterall, if fans want to show how durable and loyal they can be by repeating this loop action package *connect->vote->disconnect->reconnect* for their idols, it should be allowed for people with dynamic or static connection…    just my rant.  I’ve got to give these fans some credits – for those who mobilized other fans to ceaselessly vote and for those who ceaselessly voted, you’re persistantly remarkable and amazing – you guys swept KBS (BBF) / Kim Hyun Joong (BBF) / Moon Guen Young (POTW) the SDA 2009 Most Popular Drama / Actor / Actress award title – great fight.  🙂

Park Shin Yang (Painter Of The Wind) – he’s on the 10th rank (out of 37) in Japan, 12th in Korea and 15th in Overseas and has pulled in a total of 5009 votes.

These 2 gents are on the jury-selected Best Actor category, to be announced on Sept 11, 09 on the SDA 2009 Ceremony:

1. Kim Myung Min (Beethoven’s Virus) is on the 4th rank on all charts, and has attracted 4,882,852 votes.  
2. Park Yong Ha (A Man’s Story / Slingshot) ranked 8th in Korea, 6th in Japan and 30th in overseas, has gathered 11, 871 votes.

Regardless of the results, congratulations to all – may your drama career advance to be next level and may more recognize and appreciate your (and your production team’s) effort and talent.

Please continue to support the K-entertainment industry – help make it a brighter and better place.   If you can spare 20 minutes now to join the Sept 2009 Email Campaign to help Park Shin Yang fight his unfair ban, please visit this – you can send your email to CODA today (no need to wait for Sept 5 as all material needed is ready for use!).   Thank you!

1 comment August 30, 2009

Park Yong Ha OR Kim Myung Min

A little more study into Seoul International Drama Awards 2009 yesterday and a little discovery I made.

What the public is voting currently via Yahoo!Korea are really “The Most Favourite or Popular”s – The Most Popular Drama, The Most Popular Actor, The Most Popular Actress.  The “Best” categories have been decided by a jury of 9, comprised of  drama directors, writers, journalist and critic.  The short-listed nominees are diversified – not only do you see Korean / Japanese / Chinese (China, Taiwan (HK doesn’t get into the finalists)) dramas, other countries like Argentina, Australia,  Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Switzerland and UK have also been selected.  Congratulations to all!  Regardless of having the award or not, this is a great recognition already.  May your great work be seen by more – let’s get the curve up, shall we?

Since I follow k-dramas, I would like to focus more on the k-drama finalists.

Korean nominees for Best & Excellent Dramas: 

• In the Mini-Series: MBC’s Beethoven Virus, SBS’s The Painter Of The Wind. 
• In the Drama Series: KBS’s The Slingshot (aka A Man’s Story).

Korean nominees for Individual Prizes: 

• Best Actor: Kim Myung Min (Beethoven Virus), Park Yong Ha (The Slingshot). 
• Best Actress: Moon Geun Young (The Painter Of The Wind)
• Best Director / Best Writer : regrets

I watched Beethoven Virus.  You know its impact on me, right?  I am excited to see Kim Myung Min.  He has done a marvelous job as Kang Mae!

I am surprised to see Park Yong Ha in the Best Actor category.  I have not watched The Slingshot yet and I will start this week.   I watched On Air (SBS, 2008).  He didn’t strike me to be maturing to the masters level yet then.  Hence, before I write more, I should watch The Slingshot first.

Needless to say, I am mildly disappointed not to see Park Shin Yang in the Best Actor category.  But I can understand.   Afterall, I am already grateful that he’s made to the Most Popular Actor nomination.  One step at a time (to unban).

So, what do you think:  Park Yong Ha, or Kim Myung Min?

Follow this link to see the results of the preliminary screening for SDA 2009.

9 comments July 21, 2009