Great question! And the answer is, well, we don't know.

The ball theme poll from earlier in this year almost hit 400 itself. A lot of people have expressed amazement about it, and even suggested it may have broken containment out of the FTC. I wouldn't be surprised! Despite the event being fantrolls only, we do still tag major posts with the main homestuck/hiveswap/friendsim tags and do still get canon character blogs and non-roleplayers interacting with our posts.

Tumblr polls only have one requirement to vote and that's to have an account and be signed in to do so. All 400+ users who voted on the poll had, by it's very nature, to have an account on tumblr.

I assume you sent this ask because you're suspicious of this amount. I won't tell you how to feel! Your feelings are yours. What I will say is that if anyone suspects and has evidence towards a possible conspiracy to pack the votes or behind the scenes campaigning then I implore you to please reach out to privately with that evidence so we can take action.

Until a scenario like that crops up, we intend to leave the results as is as we have nothing that points towards otherwise than a high number poll turnout similar to the ball theme voting poll.

Once again, your most elusive mod Chiron has appeared. I have a Public Service Announcement!

Since the ball has concluded at this time, we have to stop and get serious with you guys. It has been brought to our attention that some members of our community have felt discouraged to participate in the core feature of our ball this year due to the purposeful actions of others. We understand that emotions can run strong during this time of year. Part of the ball is a competition and some of us can really get into the spirit of competition and do the absolute most. But the last thing we want is for that drive to dim anyone else’s drive to the point they might not want to take part.

After plenty of discussion between us and those affected by these behaviors, we have decided that the best course of action is to put out a public warning. If we receive any evidence of these kinds of antics in the 2024 Ball or any subsequent Ball moving forward, the response will be permanent disqualification.

Here are examples of behaviours we can and will disqualify users for:

The Ball is meant to be a fun highlight of the year. People like myself that aren’t even around here that much anymore come back to the primordial ooze. We get to show off fun and gaudy things our trolls wear. Or maybe get to write something up when a rare spark of seasonal inspiration hits. Let’s not be Grunches.

And last but not least, the winners of our Ball Writing Contest!

"Well The Weather Outside is Frightful"

"Is This the Part Where we Switch Partners?"

@rebatrolls | @byrdstrolls

Please put your hands together for the Grand Couturier of 2023!

@warrentrolls

Ladies and gentlemen, now for the event you’ve all been waiting for! Please put your hands together for the Ball King and Queen of 2023!

@norts-trolls | @roetrolls

Well, hopefully we'll have no need for a tie and everything will shake out nice and clean.

However, if we have a tie for who will win a category well... We'll have a round 3 run off vote using tumblr polls for the categories who tied. It's not ideal and will require us to wait a full 24 hours again before we can crown our winners, so we do recommend that if you have not voted, please vote!

Hi Anon! Thanks for the ask, it did help us realize we do need more clarification especially when couturier is involved.

So you are entirely correct! When I first put forward the Couturier as a concept, it was always mean to boil down to 'best dressed'. Technically, ball kings and queens don't need to be on theme to win - or even in formal wear! That's been written in the rules for years now. Couturier was meant to encourage creativity and allow people to go balls off the walls and be recognized for it, while the king and queen is your usual standard popularity contest! And with that in mind, it's entirely possible for a king or queen to be the most creative as voted on by the community if they do decide to dress to theme!

So, please don't feel regretful or bad for your votes! Our protocol for a dual winner of having one pick will only apply to the king and queen categories. This would be the first time ever that someone would win more than one category, so it is a bit unprecedented and hasn't been recorded officially on the ball blog's guidelines and rules because of that, and I apologize for the confusion! We can never tell how the ball results shake out after all.

So to clarify and sum it up: You have to choose one if you win both king and queen, but if you win king and couturier, or queen and couturier, then you will be able to take home both titles!

Hi anon!

So to keep things fair for users we would only allow them to win one category. Our process for a situation like that is to reach out to the winning mun and ask which category they'd like their character to win, and the category they did not select will instead go to the second place winner!

[Click here to vote for Ball King!] [Click here to vote for Ball Queen!]

Nominees Under the Cut!

[Click here to vote for Ball King!] [Click here to vote for Grand Couturier!]

Moderator Note:

Due to the mun's request, Marina was removed from the top 5 poll to allow for another troll to take their place.

As it stands, we had a three way tie for 5th place, so. TOP SEVEN IT IS.

Nominees Under the Cut!

[Click here to vote for the Ball Queen!]

[Click here to vote for the Grand Couturier!]

Nominees Under the Cut!