Well that was kind of embarrassing! Some of you may have spotted a (deliberate(!)) error in the spoiler for this week. Thanks for those of you who have taken to Facebook, Twitter and here to point it out. I hadn’t actually noticed(!)
Before I go on I need to explain about how the spoiler is brought to you each week. As mentioned in the “about” page above, the spoiler is brought to you each week thanks to a network of audience moles who leak the spoiler each week. I don’t have any connection with the show or the BBC. If I did I think I would have been fired by the BBC long ago.
The usual network of moles did not have a mole in the audience last night which made obtaining the spoiler a lot harder so we had to turn to other sources which includes twitter. A user on twitter (I’m not going to point fingers and say who) claimed to have the spoiler which was what was posted to this site as it seemed a plausible result which was that Kirsty and Iwan were in the Dance Off and Iwan was eliminated. Something which after the results show turned out to be just 66% right as Iwan was in the dance off and was eliminated but it was Jamelia and not Kirsty who danced off with him. My usual sources also stated that they had had the result confirmed by two other people which is also why I went with it.
Obviously I’m not happy to have provided a 33% inaccurate spoiler. This is the fourth year I have been doing this and this is also the first time in all the time I’ve been doing this that an element of the spoiler was wrong. Most of my regular visitors, particularly those who talk to me on social media will know that I care a lot about this and those who visit this site. I moved web hosts last year because the site couldn’t cope with the strains being put on it due to an increase in traffic and doubled my hosting costs (which are incurred all year round) as a result. I am genuinely upset that I’ve got it slightly wrong this weekend and that I’ve let you guys down and even though the overall result was correct as Iwan was eliminated so it didn’t really matter who he danced against I am genuinely sorry for getting it wrong this week.
If you want to get your spoiler elsewhere I would understand however I should mention that most if not all other sources get their spoilers either from the same source I do or from this site and all other sources that I saw were posting the exact same thing this weekend and made the same error.
Going forward I will be advising if a spoiler has come from my usual sources and should be confirmed and 100% accurate or if it has come from a less reliable source as it had this week so you will know each week how reliable the spoiler being posted is in future weeks
Complaints to me (I guess I deserve them this week but please go easy on me)
No worries Dave, it’s not the end of the World! I’m glad Kirsty and Brendon were not in the dance off anyway! 🙂
Keep up the good work
Don’t worry about it, I saw the same result both on here and on Digital Spy, so everyone was in the same boat. It happens. ?
No problem . Love what you do and keep up the good work.
No problem, it’s in the past move unwary, great work by you
Onward* see even humble me can make a mistake. ….lol
Fair enough ? you were spot on last year x
I will still check with you, like you say it’s only happened once & the end result was correct
Not so much an issue that you got it wrong but your network of moles/’usual sources’ = the DS spoiler thread. Why be so obtuse about that fact and make a self-important big deal about ‘your’ reliability, when it isn’t you at all and you’re just acting as a middle man for something that people could easily get themselves at the source if directed that way?
The irony of being lectured on openness and transparency by someone whose name is apparently Hmmm (not sure what your parents were thinking with that one) and whose email address is apparently justsaying@yeah.com isn’t lost on me!
You are correct that a lot of the time the spoiler does come from the DS spoiler thread. Which uses a network of audience moles to obtain the spoiler each week so I was being perfectly open and transparent about that. I also posted the incorrect spoiler to this blog myself and it wasn’t posted here by someone else so I’m hardly making a “self important big deal” about it by apologising to my readers for getting it slightly wrong this week. Quite a few other sources haven’t even bothered to apologise or even acknowledge the error which shows how much they care about their readers when compared to me!
Also if you read the thread in question for any length of time you’ll see that I am completely open and transparent about getting the spoiler from there and most people there are fine with that. There’s been times this or the previous site have been posted to that thread as a possible spoiler source and as soon as I’ve noticed it in my site logs I’ve quickly jumped in the thread and let them know that I’d be unlikely to get the spoiler before them. It happened this week for one but there’s been many others. The organiser of the thread even states that the spoiler thread is used by other sources, blogs, Twitter etc when appealing for moles each week!
I would also add that not every spoiler I post comes from there. This year alone the 4 times I posted contestant details before the BBC came from my own volition either through interpreting the clues given by the BBC, leaks from a bookmaker and leaks from the pros on Twitter! I put a lot of my own time and effort into scouring the internet for information and spoilers so visitors to this site don’t have to. Far more time and effort than the ad revenue this site receives is worth!
Yes people could go directly there to read the spoiler but there’s a problem with that. As wonderful as the thread is and the people in it are, for the casual reader to dip in to find the spoiler is pretty difficult as it is buried in pages and pages of spoiler time guesses, links to panda cam and people enjoying virtual nibbly snacks and drinks whilst they wait. It might be a very friendly thread but it is not very user friendly for someone who just wants to read the spoiler which most people coming to this site each week do – and there’s a very good reason why my posts each week follow the same basic format with the spoiler in exactly the same place each week because it makes it that much easier for people to find. The vast majority of Internet users, particularly those using search engines to find things, don’t want to have to work hard to find information they need. They want to click the link and it to be there for them. If it isn’t, there’s a strong chance they will just click the back button and move on to the next search result.
If you want to call me a middleman for providing something that is available elsewhere on the internet but doing it in a user friendly, search engine optimised way then fine I’m a middleman. But a middleman who provides an invaluable service to tens of thousands of people each and every week during the autumn months each year. And who got it slightly wrong (but not in a way which affected the overall result) this week for the first time in 4 series. For which he’s already apologised but apparently doing that makes him “self important” according to someone who can’t even be bothered to troll the site by name!
It’s really easy to find the result on your blog and I have been gratefully using your *middleman^ services for at least a season. It’s your first slip that I am aware of. You will always get moaners though clearly though they are still using your site, Rise above, rise above.
I love your blog. So a mistake was made? I’m not bothered about it. The end result was the same. Thank you for your honesty and your apology – which in my eyes is unnecessary. I love your blog so keep up the good work. ?
Not the end of the world. Appreciate the hard work and effort that you put into providing us with the early result 🙂
Don’t worry, Dave, it’s not the end of the world!
If anyone wants to complain, it’s not as if it was a matter of life or death, for heavens’ sake. Suggest they ‘get a life’.
In fact, it made the “Sunday night” show a little more interesting!
Keep up the good work, we love it!