I'm probably sticking my nose in where it doesn't belong, but that has never stopped me before.
I've read the thread on the other forum. There seems to be some grumbling about how AO isn't playing fair. I'm not a moderator or a competition manager, but I've been around here for a while, so I can contribute some historic perspective.
The rules are as follows:
Rules
1. Entrants with more than one car are free to enter their other cars in the respective lounges, but only one per lounge.
2. Unlike last year, nominations can only be provided for other AOer's cars. You must have the car owners' consent and you may nominate a maximum of one car per lounge.
3. Voting will be public and closely monitored by alfaowner.com staff.
4. Any vote rigging, or behaviour not considered to be in the spirit of the "competition", will be dealt with severely.
5. Vote rigging consists of organised campaigns, use of additional or multiple accounts, coercion, promoting membership for voting purposes or any other method to increase votes for one entrant, against the spirit of the competition.
6. The recipient of the vote rigging will be removed from the contest and sanctions may be imposed on the participants.
7. Decisions made to remove pictures/votes or impose sanctions will be the result of at least two Mods or Admin agreeing the sanction; and not open for further discussion.
8. Alfaowner.com reserve the right to end the competition early or amend the rules, in the event of error or abuse of the process.
9. Any questions should be directed to classicgal93 or BigFoot.
10. Finally...please do not undermine this light hearted competition, ruining the hard work of all involved and the forum, or spoil it for the car/owners nominated.
I think the highlighted portion clearly identifies the issue in question.
For the record, this rule was only implemented due to incidents in the past where members of other forums colluded and pushed "chosen" members' vehicles to victory. It has nothing to do with any anti-American bias.
This contest was originally designed for AO members to have some fun and to show appreciation for the vehicles owned by our members. It was never designed to push up membership levels.
Essentially it is a contest by our community for our community. Over the years different rules were discussed to "solve" the problem of people soliciting votes from outside the community. Some of the ideas proposed included limiting the voting right to people with a certain number of posts or people who had joined prior to the start of the competition. This year those suggestions weren't put in place (and I'm guessing at the reasoning here) so that new members weren't made to feel left out.
I really hope that one of the American forum members copies my post and puts it on the board over there. I think I can honestly say (although again, I may be taking a liberty I shouldn't) AO.com has no animosity for our American rival. Members of your forum are welcomed here, as I hope members of this forum are welcomed over there. Personally I've spent a lot of time reading your board, even if I haven't signed up.
It just seems a shame that things had to go on as far as they did before everything was made completely clear.
--Toronto
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