I did what I was asked to do, create a poll allowing the players to vote. I spent a little time tweaking the look of the basic poll to make it more festive. I spent a lot of time answering emails, collating and uploading all the pictures and even on a couple logging into the shard to find the co-ordinates. If you could have done better, please tell me how.
First off- I don't wish to discount the amount of work you did put into it. But, at the same time- there has to be given some thought as to how can this be exploited. The current voting results need to be thrown out.
Secondly- Why should I say how? Oh, I am going to give a few ideas/pointers. But, really, why should I? Many times I have posted ideas for UO that have made it into the game. I've done that in lots of games, granted mostly CCGs like MtG and L5R (where I have dozens of cards that have been printed)- So I think to myself, why do I want to keep doing something like that for free, when there are people who get paid for that? Why do I keep doing that when I don't get the least bit, even just a little of recognition? Then I find something I am truly passionate about, spend a couple of weeks working up a document on materials balancing out plate, chain, leather, cloth armor and all the materials associated with them (yes, making cloth armor for human/elves and giving stats/abilities to special cloth which can be spun from the webbing of large magical spiders.... ) to offer it up multiple times and not even get a response of no thank you.... after all the ideas I've posted that have been taken into the game. Yeah, that's being a little selfish and grandstanding, but damn.
Third- the poll- I am not sure what you personally could have done. I don't know your level of access- and admittedly I don't know this board software well enough to know what plugins they have available. If it was vBulletin, I would have set up a poll that required the person to be logged in and to have had an account for at least X days and made X post. It would have to of been a stratics account and not logging in with a facebook or other kind of account. Yeah, you might keep out some legit votes, but you would have kept out most, if not all the scripters/hackers.
It would need to have been something that controlled access to voting that could be reasonably verified.
Again, I am not sure if it was something you personally could have done, but it is something that should have been done and resolved before something giving away something that is going to be as valuable as this prize is. It's an unfortunate truth, but in something like this you have to heavily consider what slime is going to do.