Did I break the rules for the contest?

So it seems that people did not take well to the post I made on my account on Newgrounds regarding this contest and that they should vote for me.

Was this illegal? I keep thinking and thinking and I honestly can’t really decide. On one end, i’m sure a lot of competitors voted for themselves, and then showed the page to their friends/family/fans. Posted it up on MySpace/FaceBook whatever (unless they don’t have that I guess) to get votes. This is a given.

So was it wrong for me to make a public post about it? There is unrest without a doubt, and I am sure people are going to be angry with me, but in my defense the post did not just benefit me. There was a good deal of PM’s sent to me saying they believed somebody else should win, and I told them to vote for them (politely of course, i’m not going to be mad at them because they didn’t vote for me) and i’m sure they did.

There was also somebody who made it public who they thought should have won. Obviously not me.

So I ask you, was what I did fair? Was it unfair? Why? It is true that I have a lot of fans on Newgrounds, and I admit I got more support then I thought I would (i’m sure people thought I was using a proxy to get those votes), but in the end, didn’t I just play the game? Should I be removed from the competition (somebody deleted their song already. I think number 15 as said by a post in the poll page)?

Let’s hear it AJ. Where do we stand now?

After some discussion with others at Envato, it looks like there is nothing wrong with asking friends to help you out. So I suggest you guys mobilize your audiences, friends and families or this will be a pretty seriously biased competition!

That said, I think anyone who asks for assistance should not ask for votes outright, but ask people to participate in the process by listening to the tunes and voting for their favorite one — not just for the person they know. Not everyone will follow these instructions, but it’s worth it for those few who will.

fair enough. I have modified the post to reflect this. Game on then!