The prize is an all expenses paid trip too ... Alaska

¬_¬

*ahem*

right, I don't mean this in any kind of pansy-threat way or attempt to sound high-and-mighty or whatever, but I'm genuinely starting to consider emailing valve now to inform them that whatever "awesome" prize they gave you, on the proviso that you'd award it to the winner of the best letter of your mailbag feature (as promised) has now been pocketed by yourselves. you are 3 WEEKS LATE (and counting) with the results.

i will also email them to let them know how you manipulated fans into writing letters for your site with the empty promise of a prize, if it turns out you're now giving this prize to whoever wins the banner competition you've also just started ... which I have a sneaking suspiscion someone actually has had the nerve to plan to do. please get together now, hl2.net staff, and provide a satisfactory explanation for this. once and for all. i've lost a lot of respect for what has otherwise always been a very informed and reputable hl2 fansite, throughout this whole debacle.

I told them not to start the banner contest for that exact reason. To be fair, it is 'on hold' now.

* Sulkdodds hums and drums his fingers on the table

You are maybe being a little silly about it.

EDIT: When I say 'that exact reason' I mean 'people would get pissed off because it looks stupid'.

Actually the explanation is pretty simple. The site is undergoing some huge changes, and though the competition has been running awhile now, and yeah were late, were going to get round to announcing the winners shortly. But I gotta thank you for making my day "manipulated fans into writing letters for your site.
That sir, is gold. But please, go ahead and email Valve."

But I do sincerely apologise for the lateness, but honestly, don't go around making such a big deal. It's ridiculous. We are sorry, we are late, and it's coming. There is no 'manipulation or 'deviousness'.

resources devoted to the banner contest: me. I would collect the entries and hold a vote with the Staff to see the winner, which would take up a few seconds of our time. It would not detract any time away from the mailbag contest.

Plus, it's not my fault nothings been done about it. If I remember correctly, it was you and Samon who were asked to judge the contest... stop bringing the banner contest into this ;( You're the only person who's really complained about it so far (except for Munro) anyway!

I just think you should have waited for the look of the thing. I mean, what does it look like to say we're doing one contest, not bother to finish it and then start another?

Don't get me wrong, I liked the idea. I just think you should have waited.

And no, I wasn't supposed to judge the contest. I was doing my exams when it was set. D:

DVS is being a little extreme, but to be fair it has been 3 weeks and still the winner has not been announced. I personally don't really mind, as I think if the prize is as awesome as is claimed, it would be a shame to give it away with so little response.

However you did offer a contract to the people who sent in the letters, I'm not sure on the legalities , but I think you are legally obliged to choose a winner now. However I'm not an expert.

I would appreciate the winners being announced soon however... I'm really curious to see who wins

Even if the response was poor, the prize has to be awarded. If it's not then people will be much less likely to participate in future ones.

Seeing as no one's complained, I'm sure nobody's really bothered. Well, thay are now at least, because the dozens of people who've already said they're starting on an entry are now pretty pissed off that Munro's gone and cancelled the whole thing (he says "on hold" but that's a lie, if I make it again he'll delete it again) rendering all those people's hard work in vain.

Law doesn't come into it. They could tell all the letter writers to bugger off and shut up and we wouldn't have a leg to stand on. That's beside the point. It's just rude, is all. I said this last time. Lateness doesn't bother me, I'm happy to wait and wait and wait if I know when I'm waiting until. Maybe I'm alone in this (in fact, it appears I am, unless other people who feel the same just aren't being very vocal about it), but I find it disrespectful for a site to say, "go to the effort of writing us a decent letter and if it's good enough, we'll give you an amazing prize. We will announce the winner in two weeks." And then five weeks later, three after the deadline, still not a word. It's the dismissiveness of the site-staff attitude rather than lateness or cynicism about withdrawl of the prize that prompted me to make that post. Yet again, I think people here are leaping to the flame bandwagon before making any effort to try and comprehend the point I'm actually trying to make here. Which is that if you make a deal, you should honour it. And if you can't for whatever reason, you should be expected to explain yourself. I would really like someone to explain to me why this is an unreasonable thing for me to think.

One problem.

The login to the page on which all the entries have been collected is bust, or false, or something... and Chris hasn't been around to spill the beans on the proper info. Therefore, we can't actually judge the entries until a senior staff member gives us access to the mailbag entries.

(hint hint: could we have the login info plz?)

no headcrab!?!?!?

Yet again, you've totally skim-read my post and gone on to ignore my point. Which is that you should stick to deadlines and if you can't, you should keep people informed what's going on after that. In other words, it's not good enough to say, after 3 weeks of keeping people waiting, "just shut up and we'll do it eventually". When? When is the new deadline? When should entrants expect the results to be posted? I don't even care about who's won anymore, it's totally about the principle of the thing for me now.

heyooooooo

Nice. Real mature. And what a brilliant way to deal with a reasonable query as well. It's people like you that make me think so much less of this site, when people like Sulks and Samon are clearly at least going to some effort to reassure my faith in how its operated.

I just explained the situation to you. If you want to speed up the announcement of the winners, find me the password to the mailbag entries

Shit. Ha. I said a naughty word, then lauged at the fact that I said a naughty word. If that annoys you, vote Hetairia in the next general election. Oh, wait...

You're wrong.
It would be illegal for the site not to award a prize, I'm just not sure on the legality of delaying the announcement.
Anywho, I understand the staff are doing their best, and I guess we'll find out when it's time.

Carry on. Turns out I'm not in the least bit surprised it's taken this long, when these are the kinds of people running the show.

And then the six day war began.

Actually, Pi is one of the most mature and responsible forum members I've ever met, and is extremely capable of running this show, as you put it. The problem is that he does not run the show. The problem is that, for the most part, nobody runs the show.

What kinds of people are we talking about? The ones that give up hours a day to make sure this site is working properly and informative? Or the ones that have to deal with jackasses on a daily basis? Wait....

Like a twat? Is that "accordingly"? Initially, I clearly wasn't being rude at anyone here specifically, I was just irritated at the impression that entrants were being messed around. And I think that's a perfectly understandable reaction, if you're to be honest with yourself for a second. I mean get off your high-horse and put yourself in the position of someone who went to the trouble of writing a letter for this competition and emailed it in 5 weeks ago. He comes by, 2 weeks after the deadline's passed, to find out what's going on, is understandably a little irked at the lack of explanation (Sui, you guys have had 3 weeks to get this password of Chris - I'm not convinced that's the only factor that's been accountable here. Maybe it's the case at the moment, but for the past 3 weeks?) and he gets shouted down by a few jumped-up videogame forum moderators. And the odd brown-nosing fan, of course. Naming no names, Tyguy. Put yourself in those shoes and tell me honestly that I'm being unreasonable. If you do that, and can say you're being honest, I'll agree to disagree and leave it. I didn't come here for a fight - I came here for some straight-talking and perhaps some admission of responsibilty.

And Sui - I think you're being very unfair to many other forum members and mods here to say that Pi is one of the most mature and responsible members. You're doing most other regulars a huge disservice.

You're not being unreasonable in your inquiries, I'd do the same if I were in your shoes. But you contine to provoke an agressive response by continually throwing abuse at the site. I've told you the reason for the current delay; what happened in the past isn't important, although it's mainly due to the fact that a lot of us have exams, and the person who initiated the contest hasn't been around to conclude it. I know, I know - our staff system isn't the most well oiled machine - but the individual staff members aren't the reason for that, I think. It all stems from somewhere quite distant from 'the bottom'.

hahaha, brown nosing fan. Take your letter and stick it where my nose apparently is.

This post is all I was asking. A reasonably thorough, calm and reasoned response. As I said before, I don't mind delays and I understand people having commitments. Lord knows I have enough of my own. I just wanted something akin to what you've just posted. Some admission of responsibility, rather than complete dismissiveness. So thanks for that, at least.

Tyguy - whatever dude, I haven't the time to go beyond acknowledging your kind of nonsense.

Trust me, you don't know him like I do. insults don't instantly equal immaturity, you know.

[Edit] Thanks. I think it's probably because we're used to dealing with complete assholes, and it's tiring trying to reply coherently to every agressive member. However, I do feel you're justafied in your complaints, it's just that we usually don't discriminate between users when reflecting abuse

Doesn't matter now anyway. We need to judge the entries, that's the main concern!!!

*tumbleweed blows past*

Secret subliminal message: LOGIN PLZ

You apparently have the time to get in pointless arguments with people for no reason though. And I assume the kind of nonsense does not include name calling, IE. Using the word twat? Grow up a little..... And welcome to the forum

Oooh, I hate that smiley.

Grrr! Sulk smash!

That phrase is so underused, coming from you!

i just spilled an entire cup of water on my keyboard

Heh, fair enough. (Just for Sulks there.) Right, I think I should call it a day. Clearly I've caused a little agitation amidst all this when I was really just aiming to knock some asses into gear. As Monty Python's John Cleese once said, "if you want something done in this country, you have to moan 'til you're blue in the mouth." Anyways, cheers again. Guess I'll be back in another week to start moaning like a nutcase when nothing's still been done about this.

Kidding!





Although I certainly ain't ruling it out. ¬_¬