I don't know if this was a fair contest or not. There are arguments on both sides for the amateur controversy.
Since AI did not specify what an amateur is it seems to be a moot point.
Interesting thing. I just received a notification on another contest billed as amateur and they do spell out what they consider an amateur.

The AI contest had 25,000 entries. I would expect if anyone looked closely at the entries they would find hundreds, maybe thousands, of those entries connected in some way to AI. Either through business, friendship, or just casual acquaintance. I would speculate you would find a few not chosen that were even more closely connected.

I said this before. The only problem I had with this contest was the use of the word amateur. It should have been defined.
Given that I can only wish the top 20 good luck.

Many contests rules exclude people who are affiliated with anyone connected to the contest. This one did not.
There were a lot of open ended things about this contest. I did not even think about these things. I only saw the word amateur and concluded it meant folks like me. Never been published, never had a cut, and not connected. That was my assumption. And, you know what they say about the word assume.
My bad, not theirs.

Last edited by Bill Robinson; 05/19/07 03:10 PM.
Bill
http://www.soundclick.com/billrobinson
http://www.dreamqueststudio.com
Skype; bill.robinson12

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." --Thomas Jefferson didn't say it

http://voidnow.org/
http://www.americansworking.com/