David Buck wrote:
> Nicolas Alvarez wrote:
> It would probably be a wise move in any event.  If you were to win and 
> the IRTC admins decide to send out prizes (T-shirts, mugs, posters, etc) 
> they'd need to know where to send them to.

Of course we could always ask at the time. Honestly, provision of an
address is not deterrent for someone who wants to cheat since they'd just
make one up. However, that said, I think a contact address should be
provided, but for a different reason.

Do you know how *frustrating* it is to have someone contact you to ask
permission to use an IRTC image for a good cause, and to have to refuse
because you can't contact the author?

I do [:-(

I get IRTC admin mail, and have sometimes spent excessive time trying to
help (not that I am obliged, but sometimes if it's a good cause I want to)
find an entrant who used an alias and a free email address (or just simply
an old address - recall some entries are more than ten years old). In
today's world of spam-obliterated email accounts there's a good chance that
if I don't have some other means of cross-referencing them I won't be able
to find them.

For that reason, I'd prefer that registration provide some information (not
to be released to the public) that would help the competition locate an
entrant at some point in the future, if their last known email address
bounces or goes unanswered. This could be a phone number, postal address,
parents address, or really anything - voluntarily supplied for this purpose.

I'd also suggest that if entrants have a 'private' email address that they
don't give out to the public but don't mind giving to the admins, that they
do so as well, via the registration system. One that they are less likely
to change, for example.

Here's an example of why it's good to have additional contact information:
while it doesn't apply to the IRTC as we won't be awarding prizes as a
regular thing, it's nevertheless worth mentioning.

There was one entry in POVCOMP where the author had done everything other
than push the 'final button' (as it were) that clicks an image over from
being a 'work in progress' (which he could update or edit), and makes it a
'final' (locked) entry. The action of doing so also requires them to agree
to some rules and copyright stuff, so it's important and can't be done on
their behalf by an admin.

This entry was - in my personal opinion - very worthwhile and would (again
IMO) certainly have won one of the prizes. The auto-reminder system wrote
the author to tell him about the problem. I also manually emailed him more
than once (perhaps even three times). No reply. So the competition closed
without his entry, and he missed out on a prize.

Later on, when the results were announced, he turned up in the newsgroup
expressing surprise that his entry wasn't even in the competition. He
*then* found that his spam filter had snarfed all of the competition's mail
to him, and it was in fact still sitting unread in his spam folder.

Of course having a second email address won't necessarily fix that, but it
does point out the fact that if we want to contact you, it's not in these
days enough to rely on email. It's just not reliable anymore due to spam.

-- Chris

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