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[Treebore]

Originally Posted by Praesul

1. To further clarify... I haven't heard anyone talk about the ethics of requiring a submission fee to people who make little or no profit from their intended submission.

2. Neither have I heard a response about a judge's name being listed on the back of a submitted work.

3. We have heard some replies about the submission deadline issue, but how long has it been since the awards? Exactly how long did you need to formulate an announcement of the mistake which was made... isn't that the kind of transparency you're trying to achieve?

1. There is no need for ethics. If they feel a fee is out of line they do not have to submit anything. Simple. Why is ethics even an issue? Its not like anyone is being forced to submit anything. Asking for a small nominal fee to help cover costs of the awards as well as be fair to the other publishers that actually submit hundreds of dollars of product is being fair. Letting someone not have to pay anything because their product is free is what isn't fair. EVERYONE else is at the very least submitting 6 copies of their printed works. That costs money. In the case of Goodman Games it was $600.00 in product.

So to be FAIR, I think paying a small fee of what? $10? Is very fair. I think crying that you have to actually give something that financially helps out the ENnies is a problem. Even so it is not. You don't like the fee, you don't like paying something, like everyone else does in some way, don't submit and don't pay. Simple. If you don't want to give up some kind of financial fee to the ENnies, do not participate.

I know of several times items were not submitted for the ENnies, or at least seriously considered not submitting to the ENnies, because of how valuable their product was. Freedom of choice is a wonderful thing. Every time they ended up submitting, because to be nominated alone is good advertising, and winning is even better.

2. We haven't even been told who this supposed judge is, so how can we know unless we happen to own every product submitted to the ENnies. Rest assured if there was a judge who had product in the submissions, they knew they were not supposed to be a judge, and they will likely be banned from judging ever again.

Look at the requirements for running for a judge, you are to have NOTHING in print that will be up for consideration during your Judging period. I believe there is even a time requirement since the last time you had anything published.

Plus we don't even know if this judge was just a play tester for the game, or an actual writer/contributor. Let alone if a judge was indeed even guilty of such a thing. It is possible that someone with an identical name was published. If we go by that standard I have several books in publication. I never wrote, contributed, or playtested them, but my name is on them. Does that mean I shouldn't run for being Judge?

3. As has been said, they didn't catch the error until after the products nomination was announced. Should they ban Malhavoc Press for submitting something not eligible? Should the judges be banned for "X" number of years for allowing such a mistake to get by? What exactly should they have done?

Doing their best to make sure it never happens again seems to be the most reasonable response to me. Its not like we can go back and re cast votes, etc... It is done.

If you can suggest a "fix" that would be fairer and more equitable to everyone please share!