Due to an issue that arisen with a 3rd missing pure BASIC contest entry, this portion of contest voting has been postponed indefinitively. A few days after judging ended and public voting started, it has come to our attention that a 3rd entry for the pure BASIC category of the contest was submitted before the deadline, but never made it to our e-mail inboxes, nor private messages. The entry was apparently submitted to one of the 3 contest judges, Noahbaby94. However, due to restricted internet access and unexplained inactivity during his actual online times on IRC, it took until today before the news reach him. However, after the inbox was re-scanned again, two different versions of facts, one that is the same as the entry author's, were given to us by Noahbaby94. One claimed that the entry was in fact submitted in time, while the other claimed it was submitted on the 26th of last month.
Because of this, the author concerned will have to e-mail him directly regarding the matter, and until we are sure about the eligibility of the entry (based on submission date stated in the e-mail info), we decided to close the pure BASIC poll indefinitively. At the time we received Noah's first version of the facts (implying the entry was submitted in time), we decided to reset the poll results to zero, as it would have been unfair to the 3rd entry that would have been added afterward. However, then we received the second version from him, meaning the poll reset was possibly not needed. As a result, when the poll re-opens, everyone will need to vote again.
So here is how the actual Omnimaga contest will most likely be affected:
-The Hybrid poll ends tonight as supposed, and based on the results, as well as judges scores, the winner will be announced this week. Simplethinker will be in charge of shipping this first prize to the winner's home address, which will be asked via PM by him then deleted from the database after reception. However, the custom forum banner, due to Noahbaby94 inactivity, might take up to two months before being appended to the user profile in question.
-The Pure BASIC poll will restart from scratch as soon as the missing entry matter is resolved. If the trend continues, we expect this to be resolved in about one or two weeks. Afterward, a new poll will open with the pure BASIC entries and everyone will have to re-vote. If the 3rd entry was effectively submitted in time, it will be included in the new poll. This poll will last one week like the Hybrid one. Judging of the 3rd entry, if not disqualified, will be done during the poll voting. Again, if the current trend continue by then, this should take up to two more weeks. As Noahbaby94 would be in charge of this contest prize shipment, we are afraid that it might take until November before the winner receive his 16 GB USB Flash drive at home.
We are sorry for the inconveniences and delays this is causing and we hope to have the matter resolved soon. To avoid such problems (and the extreme delays that ensues) from happening in future contests, we have planned to do the following:
1) Permanently demote the person from his contest judge functions after the contest ends (altough he would still remain Omnimaga staff, should he keep his 10 post per month rate)
2) Future contest judges (chosen among the Omnimaga staff and admins) will have to guarantee in advance that they will remain reachable via IRC, PM or e-mail at least every two days during the entire entry reception, judging, voting and prizes shipping processes.