Some people have asked me about why they weren't allowed to vote, so here's the deal:

 

Previously, people have registered multiple accounts to make multiple votes in a poll. To stop this happening, we took the step of not allowing those in the 'Newcomer' group to vote (i.e. those with less than 40 posts) so that this problem would not reoccur and marr the voting.

 

Some people have been a bit put out by this, but please don't blame us, blame the people who try to rig voting by registering multiple accounts - they are the ones who forced us in to making this decision.

 

As a result, we have added a new base group, called 'Sandbox' for a new users first 10 posts. Until a user has made 10 posts to the forum, they will not be allowed to vote, add polls etc.

 

I know this is not ideal, and we do have some long time lurkers who have posted less than 10 times but are always logging on. To them I can only apologise and say that if they PM me, I'll put them in to the Newcomer group so they can get their full voting etc priviledges.

 

Again, sorry if you feel aggrieved at not being able to participate in the voting this year - it was done with the best possible intention of ensuring a fair vote.

 

Dan