mlandis@nmsu.edu (11/10/88)
My name is Marvin Landis, and I want people to know what happened
to me concerning this year's BADGE Killer Demo Contest. My
WaveSailing animation was never shown at the contest, despite adhering
to every contest rule. I have never flamed anyone publicly before, but
the series of incidents that happened to me were completely unfair, and I
want to warn people about such things in the future. Hopefully this
message will encourage BADGE to re-evaluate their contest and make
sure that next year a more responsible attitude is taken towards every
participant.
Following Randy Spencer's comp.sys.amiga posting dated May 28
concerning the BADGE contest, I sent my name, address, phone, a letter
requesting the rules, and a SASE to Randy. I then started work on my
contest entry based on the rough outline of the rules in Randy's posting.
I mistakenly assumed the rule stating the animation "must run on a 2 disk
drive Amiga" meant I could use 2 disks for my animation. If the official
rules would have been sent to me immediately, this mistake on my part
could have been corrected easily, and I could have planned my animation
appropriately. However Sept. 1 arrived and I still had not received my
rules. A call to Randy revealed that my rules were never sent because my
request had never been opened. The excuse Randy gave was that I did
not have the words BADGE Killer Demo Contest on the outside of the
envelope I sent to him. However this was not even mentioned in the May
28 posting (I still have the posting on my account here at school and have
checked to verify this). When I received my rules a few days later I was
surprised to find that the files for my animation had to fit on a single
disk. This was less than 2 weeks before the deadline for the letter of
intent and my animation was already 90% finished.
After several phone conversations with Randy, I spent 2 weeks cutting,
modifying and generally abusing my animation to fit on a single disk. I
sent my letter of intent in by the Sept. 15 deadline, and shortly after that
my 2 months worth of work on the original animation and the 2 weeks
worth of modifications were complete. I finally had an animation to
enter in the contest, and sent it in well before the Sept. 28 deadline so the
contest organizers could make sure it ran on a 68020 machine and met
all the other contest rules.
NOW FOR THE CLINCHER!!! My animation was never shown
during the contest held on Oct. 20! Randy has admitted to me it was an
oversight on his part, and he just forgot to take my disk to the meeting!!!
His excuse was that my disk had been sent in bubble-wrap and when he
picked up the stack of disks for the contest, he didn't have mine in the
stack because it was still in the bubble-wrap and not with the other disks
(I still don't know why this was the case, I thought he would have taken it
out of the wrapping to check it before the contest, after all he had the
animation for almost a month). He tried to console me by indicating the
animation had been judged by 8 members of BADGE in a meeting held
several days after the contest. This did not console me at all, as I feel
even if my animation did stand a chance of winning during the initial
judging, it could not possibly have won in this post-contest meeting.
After all, many people including contestants and voters, would have
been angry had BADGE announced that I won even though the
animation was never shown at the original judging.
To top it off, I was never contacted about this oversight, I just
happened to find out on Nov. 7 when I read a posting from one of the
attending voters listing all of the entries that were shown at the meeting.
I spent the following 2 nights on the phone with Randy (I'm the one who
made the calls, not Randy) trying to find out what happened. Needless to
say I am furious and feel I wasted over 2 months of my spare time
creating this animation for BADGE. I don't feel I have any legal
recourse in this matter, so the only action I am taking is to make an
official protest to Tom Rokicki, president of BADGE, and to inform any
future contestants what might be in store for them if things don't
improve next year.
Marvin Landis
mcsmal@nmsuvm1.bitnet
mlandis@nmsu.edu chad@cup.portal.com (Chad The-Walrus Netzer) (11/11/88)
In a previous article, (Marvin Landis) writes:
) My name is Marvin Landis, and I want people to know what happened
)to me concerning this year's BADGE Killer Demo Contest.
[description of events ommitted]
)I don't feel I have any legal recourse in this matter, so the only action I am
)taking is to make an official protest to Tom Rokicki, president of BADGE, and
)to inform any future contestants what might be in store for them if things
)don't improve next year.
After reading your story, I want to comment that your demo certainly
deserves consideration at a BADGE meeting. I propose that at the next
meeting (probably November 16th), your demo should be shown and judged
in front of everyone (most of whom were at the contest last month).
The whole purpose of the contest was/is to promote the production of
great demos showcasing the Amiga, and to promote interest in the
Amiga, both by those who see the demos, and those who create them.
This kind of hard work, such as you put into producing your demo,
should not be discouraged, or punished. Thus I propose that you get
an equal representation, or at least as close a representation as can
be made under the circumstances.
As far as prizes go, I don't know if Randy has established the
winners, and informed them of their prizes, or not. If so, it would
probably seem unjustified to 'strip' or deprive them of what they were
promised, but at the same time, you should get a fair reward for your
work, assuming it acchieves sufficient rank after judging. My
proposal would be a donation fund, from the members of BADGE or anyone
else interested in contributing, to cover your prize, should you win
one... Of course, I can only request this, and not demand it.
In any case, I feel your demo SHOULD be shown and judged at the next
BADGE meeting, and an effort should be made to compensate you
correctly if you win... I can frankly say that the BADGE members are
very open, honest people, and would judge your entry fairly. This is
about the only reassurance I can give you on this matter.
I feel, and I'm sure others do, that this is an issue of
integrity. BADGE doesn't want to present an image of insincerity.
The contest was/is done for the good of Amiga, and if people feel the
contest has lost integrity, they will probably not be inclined to
create demos for succeeding contests. Therefore, just like any good
business should operate, BADGE should take it as their responsibility
to make things as fair for you as possible, and hope it won't
discourage you from the Amiga, or from the contest.
Please note that I don't officially speak for BADGE in any
way, other than being a devoted attendee.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chad 'The_Walrus' Netzer -> AmigaManiac++janzen@ant.dec.com (Tom 296-5421 LMO2/O23) (11/12/88)
You should understand that all contests, competitions, competitive festivals, grants committees, program committees, etc., are all run the same way. I mention this because you act so surprised about it. It doesn't matter what field it's in. Tom Janzen Digital Equipment Corp 111 Locke Dr Marlboro MA 01752
fgd3@jc3b21.UUCP (Fabbian G. Dufoe) (11/12/88)
In article <5272@louie.udel.EDU>, by mlandis@nmsu.edu, Marvin Landis
complains about the handling of his entry in the BADGE killer demo contest.
Gee. That was pretty mild for a flame. It sounded like a very
reasonable, calm recitation of the facts with the intention of bringing
about some reforms next year. I sure hope the BADGE folks get a little
better organized next time around.
I'm sure you recognize these things happen. People make mistakes.
Hopefully nobody will get upset over this and generate megabytes of traffic
arguing over who was right. By the nature of the contest there's no way to
correct the errors in the handling of your contest entry. If your
experience results in a better organized contest next year you'll have
gotten all you can hope for.
I just wanted to give you some positive feedback because your article
was so much more sensible than what we are used to seeing called flames on
Usenet.
--Fabbian Dufoe
350 Ling-A-Mor Terrace South
St. Petersburg, Florida 33705
813-823-2350
UUCP: ...codas!usfvax2!jc3b21!fgd3
...uunet!pdn!jc3b21!fgd3kgschlueter@violet.waterloo.edu (Kevin Schlueter) (11/17/88)
Before we all flame BADGE, let's keep a few facts in mind. The people who run the Killer Demo Contest (and who keep BADGE together) do so on what little free time they have and receive absolutely no compensation (financial or otherwise). Basically, they are acting out of the goodness of their collective hearts. If screwups happen, it's probably because someone was extremely overloaded and just couldn't do everything themselves. Running a Users Group can be a thankless job (I know, I've done it). A growing number of people view Users Groups as service organizations, which they obviously are not. (Flame on)We should consider ourselves lucky that a few members of BADGE take upon themselves the considerable task of running the KDC. Flaming them for MINOR mixups on a worldwide network is simply not warranted.