B O A R D W A T C H M A G A Z I N E Announces the Boardwatch 100 Reader's Choice Bulletin Board Contest for 1993 WIN A FREE HIGH SPEED MODEM Boardwatch Magazine is sponsoring a contest to find the 100 most popular bulletin board systems in North America - and the ONE BBS most popular among callers. The contest will run from January 1, 1993 through July 1, 1993. Winners will be announced at the Online Networking Exposition and BBS Convention (ONE BBSCON) held at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs Colorado, August 25-29, 1993. The Boardwatch 100 list will be published in subsequent issues of Boardwatch Magazine and distributed in electronic form world-wide. PRIZES FOR BULLETIN BOARD OPERATORS 1ST PRIZE: Air fare, hotel accommodations and registration at ONE BBSCON for one is awarded to the system receiving the most votes. Additionally, the system will receive a free full-page black and white advertisement in Boardwatch Magazine for a period of three months. An award trophy will be presented at the ONE BBSCON and a feature story on their BBS will appear in a subsequent issue of the magazine.. TOP TEN: The ten most popular bulletin boards selected by the voters will each receive an award trophy during a special presentation at the Online Networking Exposition and BBS Convention (ONE BBSCON) August 25-29, 1993. Additionally, a story describing their system will appear in Boardwatch Magazine, they will be included in a special TOP TEN BBS listing in the magazine, and they will receive a free quarter-page black and white advertisement in three successive issues. Finally, they will be listed in the Boardwatch 100 BBS list. TOP ONE HUNDRED: The 100 bulletin boards receiving the most votes will each be listed in the Boardwatch 100 readers choice BBS list. This list will be published in Boardwatch Magazine and freely distributed electronically on thousands of bulletin boards world-wide. PRIZES FOR VOTERS All valid ballots submitted by voters will be entered in a random sweepstakes drawing. As of the opening date of this contest, prizes include TWO U.S. ROBOTICS COURIER DUAL STANDARD 16.8K MODEMS, two HAYES OPTIMA 14400 + FAX 144 modems, and two ZyXEL U-1496 14,400 bps modems - and more are on the way. A minimum of six valid ballots will be selected from all entries and each will receive a free modem - from the most popular modem manufacturers in the world. RULES FOR CALLERS Each voter can vote once, for a single bulletin board system. Each ballot must be fully completed, and individually mailed by each voter. One vote per address, and we will verify ballots as necessary. There are three ways to vote: 1. Printout and complete this ballot and mail to: BOARDWATCH MAGAZINE READERS CHOICE BBS CONTEST 5970 South Vivian Street Littleton, CO 80127 2. Print out, complete this ballot and FAX to (303)973-3731. 3. Or, dial the Boardwatch BBS at (303)973-4222 and complete the online ballot provided on the main menu. Balloting closes at 23:59:59, June 30, 1993. This contest is not limited to Boardwatch Magazine subscribers, and no purchase of any kind is required to participate in this contest. NOTE: We held this contest during 1992 and it generated 11,152 votes by the close of balloting for some 1250 different bulletin boards. The TOP system received about 450 votes. Your individual vote can have a tremendous impact on the outcome of this contest. Further, the odds of winning a modem in last years contest, were 1 in 1394 (8 modems awarded). RULES FOR BBS OPERATORS Bulletin Board Operators may encourage callers to vote for their system by offering whatever inducements/encouragements they like. There is one rule to this contest for BBS operators. YOU MAY NOT HANDLE ANY VOTE AFTER THE CALLER HAS COMPLETED THE BALLOT. YOU MAY NOT HANDLE IT IN ANY WAY. You may provide callers with anything you like, including postage paid envelopes, printed matter, solicitations, etc. But once they have completed a ballot, if you touch, handle, or otherwise deal with the ballot in any way, your BBS will be disqualified from the contest without appeal or recourse. If you wish to post an electronic ballot on your BBS, you may post this file IN ITS ENTIRETY. You may post any additional information you feel is appropriate, but this entire rules file must be available to all callers. Despite the fact that this contest has a minimum of rules, this one rule does cause problems each year. You cannot post online surveys or doors to allow voters to vote online. This is vote handling. You cannot accept ballots from callers and mail them for them. You cannot accept ballots and fax them in for callers. The rule of thumb is pretty clear: You can provide anything you like TO callers to induce them to vote. There is NOTHING you can accept FROM callers in any way pertaining to this ballot at all. THEY must complete the ballot and forward it to us themselves. We actually received FEDEX packages on the final day of the contest last year from BBS operators who claimed to have collected a hundred or so votes. Infractions are dealt with quite economically - the BBS is summarily disqualified without recourse or appeal. One new element introduced in the 1993 contest is date scoring. All ballots received from 1 January 1993 through 30 June 1993 will receive a date score based on the date of receipt. Date scores will range from 180 for votes received 1 January down to 1 for votes received on June 30. These date stamp values are cummulative for each BBS and will be used to eliminate ALL ties in the TOP 100. Since ties are quite common in this contest, it pays to get your votes in early. This contest is open to all bulletin boards worldwide with the sole exception of the Boardwatch Magazine BBS - which is ineligible. Commercial services such as Prodigy, America Online, CompuServe, are considered to be networks and not bulletin boards for the purposes of this contest. HOWEVER, individual forums, roundtables, or special interest areas moderated by a specific human SYSOP on those services and allowing callers to post messages in that specific area ARE considered to be bulletin boards for the purposes of this contest and may participate. ************************************************************************* BOARDWATCH 100 READERS CHOICE BBS CONTEST 1993 BALLOT FORM ************************************************************************** BBS INFORMATION TITLE OF BBS YOU NOMINATE AS BEST BBS: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- PRIMARY BBS ACCESS TELEPHONE NUMBER: ------------------------------------- VOTER VERIFICATION INFORMATION Voter information will be used to verify a selected sampling of caller ballots. Responses to certain questions will be used to produce aggregate statistical information on BBS callers to be published in Boardwatch Magazine in future issues. All information required. Incomplete ballots will be discarded. VOTER NAME: -------------------------------------------------------- STREET ADDRESS: --------------------------------------------------------- CITY: STATE/PROVINCE: ------------------------------------ ---------------- ZIP OR POSTAL CODE: COUNTRY ------------------ ---------------- VOTER VOICE TELEPHONE NUMBER: ------------------------ AGE: SEX: PROFESSION: ------ M[ ] F[ ] ---------------------------------- COMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE USED: ------------------------------------- HIGHEST MODEM SPEED YOUR MODEM SUPPORTS? [ ] 1200 bps [ ] 2400 bps [ ] 9600 bps [ ] 14,400 bps MODEM MANUFACTURER AND MODEL -------------------------------------------- PERSONAL COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE: MS-DOS -IBM PC/Compatible [ ] Apple Macintosh [ ] Other [ ] (specify) DO YOU REGULARLY USE MICROSOFT WINDOWS? yes[ ] no[ ] HAVE YOU INSTALLED A SECOND TELEPHONE LINE FOR DATA USE? yes[ ] no[ ] ESTIMATED TOTAL NUMBER OF CALLS YOU MAKE TO ALL BBSs PER MONTH _______ ESTIMATED AVERAGE CALL DURATION: --------------- GUESTIMATE THE DATE OF YOUR FIRST MODEM CALL ------------- SIGNATURE: DATE: ------------------------------- ------------------- For more information on ONE BBSCON '93 - call (303)693-5253 voice or the ONE BBSCON BBS at (303)693-5432. For more information about Boardwatch Magazine, dial (303)973-4222 by modem - or to subscribe by voice using MC/Visa (800)933-6038. Boardwatch Magazine is published monthly at $36 per year.