'A PIE FOR EVER REPLY': PART 2

THE OFFICIAL REPLY PERIOD

Wow, June 20th…‘D Day’, or should I say ‘R Day’…’reply day’, was almost here! It was about 11:30 pm, just before the ‘official reply period’ was about to open. I was concerned that someone might try to post their request before the voting officially began and it wouldn’t be counted. I would have felt bad about that, so I decided to open the reply period myself. I posted a message saying:

"...WAIT UNTIL YOU SEE MY NEXT POST BEFORE YOU START VOTING…I WILL TELL YOU WHEN…"

I wanted to make sure that I opened the voting at exactly 12:01 am. It was a bit of a challenge to make the post came through right at that time, but I did it. I explained the rules once again (since a few didn’t understand it the first time), then I sat back and waited to see who would be the first to reply. I had no idea if there were any viewers out there who were waiting to post, trying to be number one, or what. I thought that this idea would be somewhat successful from the initial response I received when I started the thread. At least I hoped it would be…but it could also be a flop.

Well the UMD was very slow that night (I would like to think it was because of my thread, but who knows!), and as I found out later, the replies were taking a few minutes to register. Consequently, many members were pushing the ‘post’ button a couple of times. When they finally did go through, there were many multiple replies. I tried to contact some of them by sending private messages, asking them to delete their extra entries if they were still in the community. Some got my message and were able to do so. It was exciting to watch the responses add up, but it was also a bit worrisome to see all the multiple posts coming through. I knew I had just created some extra work for the moderators.

The adrenalin was rushing, but I knew that I needed to get some sleep, so I went to bed with a good number of replies under my belt. By the end of the first day, I had 63 requests (not counting multiple posts) and I was thrilled! I knew that I would probably pass my personal pie record. And as I watched that record get broken, I sent a private message to that member, informing him of the feat. One of the members had a great idea that I should do ‘something special’ when my personal record was broken. In fact, there were a lot of unique ideas from the community. I thought it would be cool to let the record breaker decide, so I told him that in my communication to him.

Another milestone was 100, and as we approached that number, my husband decided that he would like to own that piece of the action. So we watched as it came close, and he was successfully able to covet that spot.

The weekend was a bit chaotic, watching the posts and sending messages to the moderators to assist with removing multiple entries. I also had to send messages to some of the members whose choices were not clear, or to those who replied but forgot to give any choices at all! My reply watching became all consuming and overtook my regular life for those 72 hours (I think I fed the kids?!!). When it was nearing the end, I decided that I wanted to be the last to post for my special pie. I watched as the time drew near and made my own reply and closed the voting period. Whew, a sigh of relief, but it was only beginning…

119 replies! 119 pies! I was awestruck! But, oh my, what did I get myself into? There’s so much more that needs to be done…

END OF PART TWO...TO BE CONTINUED...