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2011 Best Trip Report Challenge Show us your hottest stuff and win recognition and prizes!

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Old 06-08-2011, 11:46 PM   #1
SpearMax
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Arrow Official Rules for the Spearboard Best Trip Report Challenge

OFFICIAL RULES FOR THE SPEARBOARD BEST TRIP REPORT CHALLENGE

The “Spearboard Best Trip Report Challenge” recognizes members for excellence in reporting of their spearfishing adventures. Any member in good standing with more than 50 posts is eligible for the designation "Best Trip Report" on a quarterly basis in three geographic regions: USA East Coast (includes Gulf), USA West Coast, and International.

Just as for spearfishing tournaments and expos, promotional prizes will be donated by Spearboard Sponsors. There will be a pool of prizes for the three regions. If the prizes are usable in all geographic regions, the three winners will try to agree which prize they want. If they can't agree, we will use a selection method like Rock –Paper - Scissors. Being awarded a prize should be a secondary consideration to the honor of being selected as the best trip reporter by your fellow spearfishing men and women.

The finalist candidates for best trip report are determined by a simple nomination system. In the “Best Trip Report Challenge” section on the front page of Spearboard, the Forum Administrator will start special threads for accepting nominations for best trip reports of the quarter within the three geographical regions.

Members with more than 50 posts can nominate their own or some else's trip reports. Trip Report Originators with less than 50 posts can be nominated by someone with more than 50 posts in order to accomodate brand new members that have great trips to report. The top five trip reports in each region with the most nomination seconds are entered into a final poll. For ten days after the end of a calendar quarter, all members with more than 50 posts are then able to vote one time for their favorite trip reports among the fifteen final nominations (5 reports x 3 regions).

l. Global Guidelines

A. Local fishing laws in the area and for the dates of the trip report being nominated must have been obeyed and trip participants can not have behaved recklessly or in any way that reflects negatively on the sport of spearfishing.

B. No rallying or mobilizing other members to second a nomination or vote for a finalist whatsoever is allowed either internally on Spearboard or externally. Any evidence of this may result in disqualification.

C. Any complaints/questions should be forwarded via Private Message to the Forum Administrator or the other Moderators.

D. Winning candidates are not eligible to enter the challenge for another 12 months.

E. The board's Forum Administrator shall be the sole interpreter of these Challenge Rules which are subject to change at any time.

ll. Nomination Guidelines

The Spearboard Best Trip Report Challenge is run on a nomination system.

A. Primary Nominations can be made by the trip report Original Poster who must be one of the divers on the trip or by some else. If nominated by someone else, the Original Poster must also post an acceptance of the nomination after it has been seconded by a third party. If an Original Poster is nominated by someone else and does not wish to accept the nomination, please send a PM to the Forum Administrator Spearmax and he will delete the posts involved.

B. Nominations must be seconded by at least another member who must have a post count greater than 50. This post count requirement is intended to prevent bogus members seconding and voting.

C. In the nomination thread, one may only nominate trip reports, second already-nominated trip reports or accept nominations from others. Any other posts involving anything else will be deleted.

D. Nominations will be voided if they are not seconded.

E. When nominating please post:

1. the URL to the trip report.
2. a short description of what makes your trip report stand out.
3. and a reason for nomination that will motivate others to second the nomination.

F. Trip reports that are in an active poll voting thread may NOT nominate themselves in the new Nomination thread.

G. Members with over 50 posts may second up to a maximum of 3 nominated trip reports per region for a total of 9.

lll. Poll Voting Guidelines

A. The 5 trip reports in each region (15 total) that have the most seconded nominations will be placed in three separate regional voting poll threads. They will be listed in the poll in a random order and not alphabetically or by nomination seconding rank.

B. If the count of seconded nominations is not appropriate for determining the finalists, all seconded nominations received will be placed in a random selection process using the following Random Sequence Generator: http://www.random.org/sform.html

C. The threads containing the poll will be closed to any replies to prevent influence.

D. Voting is up to the voters; no one can force or rally a vote, please visit all nominated trip reports and vote for the best one in your opinion. Please vote based on quality of the report and not popularity of people, fish or areas that you are most familiar with personally.


lV. Diving, Trip Reporting, Nominating and Voting Dates and Deadlines

A. Trip reports that are nominated must have had the diving take place within the prior 6 months of the date of the report thread.

B. The trip report thread must have been started within the quarter prior to the nomination quarter.

C. Trip report nominations will start the first week of the quarter following the report thread’s first post and end on the last week of the quarter.

D. Best trip report voting will take place within the first ten days of the month after nominations have ended. Winners will be announced on the eleventh day.

For example, to participate in the challenge, the following timeline must be observed:

 Diving – Any time in the 6 months prior to the trip report thread origination date
 Trip report thread origination – From January 1 to March 31
 Eligible for nomination – From April 1 to June 30
 Seconding of the nominations – From the date of nomination to June 30
 Poll Voting on the top five in three regions – From July 1 to July 10
 Winners announced – July 11

V. Truth Verification and Release of Liability

By self-nominating their own trip report or posting your acceptance of the seconded nomination by someone else, participants thereby promise that their trip report contains honest representations of the truth about the spearing actions, species, fish weights, legal compliance and other aspects of the trip. You do not have to disclosure specific secret locations in public. Over-the-phone voice stress lie detection examinations may be used randomly and selectively to verify this promise as well as compliance with other rules of the challenge. This truth verification method has been used successfully at past Spearboard tournaments and is relatively easy to do by telephone.

Your self-nomination of your trip report or posting your acceptance of the seconded nomination by someone else confirms your agreement with all of the rules and provides a release of liability. If you do not agree to all aspects, do not self-nominate or accept nomination of your trip report for the challenge. This agreement and release of liability shall also be applicable to any other future Spearboard challenges you participate in.

The term “Spearboard” shall mean the website and/or any of its principals or affiliates. By nominating your trip report for the challenge or posting your acceptance of the seconded nomination by someone else, you and your fellow divers on that trip agree to waive your right to sue Spearboard for any injuries, death, emotional distress, pain and suffering, and all other forms of economic and non-economic damages.

You also attest that you understand the inherent risks associated with diving. When harvesting fish, you understand that the risk of injury or death is even greater. You also understand that weather conditions may change rapidly, and that Spearboard is in no way responsible for your decision to head out on the water. You acknowledge that Spearboard is in no way directing your activities, or otherwise acting as an advisor or principal. Your diving and spearfishing activities are independent of your decision to post a trip report later. You assume all risks not only associated with diving and spearfishing, but also boating, trailering, and/or traveling. You waive all claims, and you will hold Spearboard harmless from any claims brought on your behalf.


VI. Miscellaneous

All trip reports must comply with Spearboard’s Rules of Engagement posted here:

http://www.spearboard.com/showthread.php?t=41962

Please pay particular attention to the photo policy rules. Additionally, an eligible trip report must appear on Spearboard itself. A trip report may not include links to other forums or blogs. However, photo and or video links may be utilized to augment the trip report, but these media may not contain links, URL’s or references to other forums or blogs. Supplementing the trip report with links to your images or video on Photobucket, Imageshack, Youtube, Vimeo or other non-competing photo or video hosting websites is allowed as long as they were created by the participants on the trip featured in the trip report.

In order to receive a prize, winners may be asked to sign an additional official waiver form provided by Spearboard. You also acknowledge that Spearboard is not a reseller of any prizes donated to the trip report challenge, and is in no way in the chain of distribution. Rather, Spearboard is merely a temporary custodian of said prizes. Spearboard is not responsible for any grievance or claim you may have with respect to a prize.

Prize exchanges shall be at the discretion of the prize donors and prizes must be claimed within three months of winning. Some prizes have other restrictions, or expiration dates and may not include gratuities and certain out-of-pocket costs like expensive shipping costs. If a winner cannot be contacted or is disqualified for any reason, Spearboard reserves the right to determine an alternate winner or not to award that winner's prize, in its sole discretion. Winners will also be allowed to sell the prize they are awarded in the Spearboard member items section should they not wish to keep it.

A parent or guardian of any participant who is a minor must sign a release on behalf of the minor to be eligible to receive a prize, but Spearboard reserves the right to refuse to award a prize to or on behalf of any minor.

By participating in the challenge, where allowed by law, all participants and winner(s) grant Spearboard exclusive permission to use their names, characters, photographs, voices, video and likenesses in connection with promotion of this and other challenges and waive any claims to royalty, right, or remuneration for such use. By participating in the challenge, where allowed by law, participants agree that Spearboard may disclose personal information obtained from participants in the challenge to third parties and use such information for marketing and other purposes.

Winners are responsible for all international, federal, state and local taxes, if any. All international, federal, state and local laws apply. Void where prohibited. By participating in the challenge, you agree that governing law shall be Florida law and that jurisdiction and venue shall be in Palm Beach County, Florida where Spearboard is based and you also agree that the prevailing party in any litigation shall be entitled to be awarded reasonable attorney’s fees and costs.

Last edited by SpearMax; 08-13-2011 at 05:46 PM.
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