Vote for your favorite board - vBulletin Board of the Year - 2005!

[Kathy]

.

That's quite a name you have there.

[Arkham]

That's quite a name you have there.

Yes, in fact I think I'll take it!

[siNix]

how come that gamesforum is here for the seconde time?

[alkahf]

Yas! vBulletin Board of the Year - 2005!

Best regards for all contributors and users of vBulletin allover the world.

Everyone who is watching this brand new competition will notice that most people subscribed in it are feeling frustrated & depressed about how it is going, and I may excuse him for that.
But if we view it with a broader and unbiased look, we will discover that in fact this is the logical result, maybe if it weren’t like that it would have been illogical and wrong. I have many reasonable reasons for what I am saying and will try to list them – fairly – forgetting that I am a competitor in this.

If we take a closer look, we will find this competition containing 12 subscribed forums, eleven of them are in English and only one is in Arabic, and the only Arabic forum won. Is it a logical result?? I simply say yes. The reason is very simple and it is that 90% of voters will find it difficult to cast their votes on a forum that they don’t understand and thereby can't judge. Then, naturally, all of them will vote for the one they do understand.
As the Arabic wisdom says: "Man hates what he don’t know!".

On the contrary, if we say that the 12 subscribed forums were all in Arabic except only one in English, this one forum would get most votes, and I believe no one would disagree with that. For the same simple reason and that we don’t leave any choice for English speaking people but to vote for the only forum they can understand.

Now, say 10 of them were in English, and 2 in Arabic. How would the result be? In this case I don’t think any of these 2 Arabic forums would win, because Arab users' votes will be split between those 2 forums. That would lead to decreasing the probability of them to win to the half, and increasing the probability of English forums to win to the double.

And also, if we say 3 forums were Arabic and 9 were English, I can say that the probability for any Arabic forum of them to win would be very small or equal to zero.

Someone would say: Where can we get 3 or 4 Arabic forums to join the competition and achieve that? How can this be done while the competition is between the winners of 12 monthly competitions during the year?
Then I smile J and say: This is not what I intended to reach, but I only wanted to simplify my idea with a clear example.

Now let us assume that the competitors' forums were as listed:

• French forum.
• German forum.
• Italian forum.
• British forum.
• American forum.
• Russian forum.
• Chinese forum.
• Japanese forum.
• Arabic forum.
• Indian forum.
• Turkish forum.
• Brazilian forum.

Who can predict the result?
In this case only, I would say that predicting the winning forum will be very difficult. Exactly the opposite of what we saw in this competition, as many people expected the winner and even sometimes from the start of the competition.

At the same time, the door will be open for many participants of different languages and hence we'll definitely notice an increase in the number of votes that may exceed 1000 votes in contrast to the current rate which doesn’t exceed 200 votes.

It is unfortunate that this competition - which is about the biggest and most famous forum software allover the Internet – doesn’t have more than 200 votes while it is performed on a yearly basis (I underlined the word yearly) and it is allocated a prize that is valuable for a lot of people.

On contrast, let us take a look these polls:
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/poll....lts&pollid=634
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=105370
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=102998
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=100840

We will notice that votes are about 700+, while it is done monthly.

Frankly speaking, this comparison hits the reader with frustration and disappointment, and we should find the explanation for it, discover the bug (I say bug not error), and try to avoid it in the future, specially that monthly competitions here are included in this analysis and share similar frustrations.

Going back to my last example about the 12 different-nationality forums, I would consider the organizers of this competition - (Vote for your favorite Board - vB Board of the Month) – are responsible for this bug in the competition, and they should seek a solution for it, and since the yearly competition - (Vote for your favorite board - vBulletin Board of the Year) - is a result of the monthly one, bug discovery and solution should start from the monthly one.

One suggestion would be that the organizers of these competitions enhance their activities by frequently searching for vBulletin-license owners' websites of different nationalities and nominate some that qualify for the competition? Live Forums Click here
If they did so, I am certain that the average number of voters in the monthly competition will rise 1000%, because forums of different nationalities, interests, and hobbies are included. And as a result, we will find that voting participation in the yearly competition rises more than 1000% for the same reason. Needless to say, this will also provide moral support to vBulletin-license owners who will feel JelSoft's concern about them and their websites.

I would also like to emphasize that I am not prejudice to a particular race, religion, country, or language, but the spread of vBulletin allover the world makes the organizers responsible for looking into the matter with a broader Universal look that would always keep vBulletin on the top of the race against its competitors.

After this abstract analysis, I turn to today's results to say:
Dear ladies and gentlemen, what is the common thing between us here in this forum? Isn’t it our love to vBulletin? Isn’t it vBulletin that gathers all of us here today? I may understand why someone would be annoyed if this competition is between several forum vendors, and another forum software other than vBulletin win the first place. However, I am very surprised that some people may show lack of tact. After-all, all of us are users of this distinguished software and we should be glad for the winner no matter what their name, approach or level.

Isn’t the success of one of us, is considered, at the end, success for all of us, because it eventually supports vBulletin's progress and makes it more stable at the world of internet.

Frankly, I look at this yearly competition with a different look. I see it like a honoring the 12 winning forums during the last year, all forums submitted to this competition are winning because they indeed won the monthly competition, and vBulletin's management honored them here… So, I don’t find any reason for any of us to exceed the limits of tact since everyone in this competition is winner at last, as this list is a testimony of what I have just said:
http://www.vbulletin.com/botm.php

And as a confirmation for my words, I announce my wish to share my prize with the top 5 forums in this competition, to be as follows:
· vBulletinClub.com: 1 year of free renewal for his or her owned license
· vBulletin-Style.com: 1 year of free renewal for his or her owned license
· juicyduff.com: 1 year of free renewal for his or her owned license
· GamesForum.com: 1 year of free renewal for his or her owned license
· TalkPanic.com: 1 year of free renewal for his or her owned license

At last, I am very glad that this is the second time for me to win a forum competition with vBulletin's support. My first winning competition was in November 2000 - Organized by a TV program in Abu Dhabi Satellite TV Channel - where 10 forums were submitted to the competition and ALKAHF Forum won the 1st place, and I was invited from Moscow to Abu Dhabi and hosted for one week by Abu Dhabi TV, and received the prize of $1000.00 and a Quality Certificate.

If anyone is interested to watch a recording of the TV program, they can obtain it from here: 1 2 3 4 5

Back then, I was using vBulletin when it was introduced as a competitor and a very good solution to other silly bulletin board packages that were controlling the forums world before year 2000. Many thanks to vBulletin, in which we found all what we were looking for in a forum software, and I hope it always stays at the top.
I would also like to convey to all of you the best regards from ALKAHF's work team, including:

• Dr. Samy Abdel Ghany - Manager of ALKAHF at the Middle East (Designer of Jaguar style).
• Eng. Mostafa Abdel Latief.
• Eng. Mahmoud Hussein.
• Eng. Ahmed El Sayed Hamed.
• Eng. Alaa Elewa Ali.
• Eng. Khaled Hasan Ali.
• Eng. Mostafa Jamal.
• Eng. Amr Helmy – Maya specialist click here to see what Maya can do(right-click and save)
• Dr. Salah Naanaa – Representative of ALKAHF at Riyadh – Saudia Arabia.
• Mr. Abdel Rahman Mohammed Abdel Nafea - Representative of ALKAHF at Mekkah – Saudia Arabia.
• Eng. Manar Qebawa - Representative of ALKAHF at Syria.
• Eng. Mohammed Azraan - Representative of ALKAHF at Doha - Qatar.
• Mr. Ahmed Mohammed Abd elKreem - Representative of ALKAHF at United Arab Emirates.
• Author of this article: Emad El Deen and Mrs. Alsu – Founders of ALKAHF at Moscow.

In this occasion, it is our pleasure to present you with the gift style "vBulletin Board of the Year – 2005!" as a PSD file which was designed in both English and Arabic:
Click to download "vBulletin Board of the Year – 2005!" style in Arabic.
Click to download "vBulletin Board of the Year – 2005!" style in English.

At the end, I would like to share with you some picture for our celebration of this occasion which happened to coincide for this day to be my 46th birthday.



Best regards for all.
ALKAHF

Note: This article is translated to Arabic and you can download the Arabic version in here.
--------------------
Note: I would suggest vBulletin's developers team to add a new option to the Admin Control Panel, when adding a new poll, which allows only people registered for X days (for example 30) to add their vote, it would be useful for vBulletin users especially after we needed it here suddenly.

[Floris]

If I win, I am going YAY and then give away my prize to runner up juicyduff.com ktnxplz

[adb22791]

If I win, I am going YAY and then give away my prize to runner up juicyduff.com ktnxplz

Wait... I don't get a prize? But... but... but... I voted! At least give me a sticker or something

[Kathy]

If I win, I'm going to give my prize the prize to Floris for being such a nice guy.

Oh wait, I'm not in this competition

[AWS]

Hi Everyone,

Before the discussion here gets too deep, I am waiting for Kier to check the script we use to analyze the votes. At the moment it isn't working for this poll and I do not know why. As soon as the script works, I will anounce the winner. Everyone will either have to be happy about it or just not take part in the contest. It's that simple.

Scott

Humm.

[zain jaffer]

Competition can create war, it's the committee's job to promote and maintain peace

If I win, I am going YAY and then give away my prize to runner up juicyduff.com ktnxplz

That's very kind of you Floris.

Our inspiration (Hilary Duff) is very charitable. Our community and team share the same values as Hilary Duff and for this reason we have decided that if we do win the vB owned license, we will not be accepting the prize and would like vBulletin to donate the cash equivalent to a charity which Hilary Duff supports called "Kids with a cause".

[zain jaffer]

Hi everyone,

Sorry this took so long.

The winner is, fair and square, vbulletinclub.com.

Congratulations!

Congratulations Alkahf! - Don't worry about donating the prize you mentioned earlier to me, I'd rather you donated the cash equivalent to the charity mentioned in my previous post.

Scott, I respect your decision and I hope that others will do so too. I'm happy that we came in second place just 1 vote ahead of my old buddy Floris. Everyone who participated is a winner, congratulations to all of the contestants.

[Dean C]

It's interesting to see how this competition has evolved, and alas my thoughts have already been mentioned. I think it's extremely unfair to say the comeptition was biased towards the Arab voters. I think in this case it just happened to be that there are a lot of Arab vBulletin owners who wanted to support the community alkahf has developed for them. Had vBulletinClub not been in the running, I strongly thing Floris's forum would have won, simply because he has a lot of "supporters" within this forum.

Nevertheless, a big congratulations to alkahf and his community Keep up the good work in the Arab vBulletin world!

[BoYagoob]

Congratulations alkahf!

I am the one who usually get the vBulletin support from vBulletinClub.com

Keep it up the good work my brother ..

[alkahf]

Thank you!

Best Regards to Everyone,

I was afraid that the winner would be announced in April Fools' Day . Fortunately, it was announced in the third day.
Congratulations to vBulletin ..
Congratulations to all the twelve contestants.
I wish that the prize could have been split among us all. I am still willing to split it between the top five winners in the poll as follows:
• vBulletinClub.com: 1 year of free renewal for his or her owned license
• juicyduff.com: 1 year of free renewal for his or her owned license
• vBulletin-Style.com: 1 year of free renewal for his or her owned license
• GamesForum.com: 1 year of free renewal for his or her owned license
• TalkPanic.com: 1 year of free renewal for his or her owned license
I would also like to ask the administrators of the other four forums to send me PM including the license that they which to renew for one year, or send a PM directly to Scott and let me know that they did so.

Regarding donations as some suggested, I would rather make a separate donation without any announcement and continue with sharing the prize with the other winners. I believe that a secret donation would gain God's love.

I wanted to comment further on the contest but I will leave the debate to the near future. Again, I would like to thank everyone and convey my best wishes to everyone for better winning next time.

Best Regards,

Alkahf

تحياتي للجميع
كنت أخشى أن يتم إعلان الفائز في 1 أبريل و لكن لحسن الحظ تم الإعلان في اليوم الثالث من إبريل ...
هنيئاً فيبوليتين ... هنيئاً نادي فيبوليتين ... هنيئاً لكل المتسابقين الاثني عشر الذين دخلت منتدياتهم في هذه المسابقة و كم كنت أتمنى لو أن الجائزة كانت ممكنة التقسيم على 12 لقمت باقتسامها معكم جميعاً ، و لكن يبدو أنني سأقتسمها فقط بين الخمسة الذين حصدوا أكبر عدد من الأصوات في هذا التصويت .. لتصبح المكافأة على الشكل التالي :
• vBulletinClub.com: تمديد سنة واحدة لترخيص المنتدى
• juicyduff.com: تمديد سنة واحدة لترخيص المنتدى
• vBulletin-Style.com: تمديد سنة واحدة لترخيص المنتدى
• GamesForum.com: تمديد سنة واحدة لترخيص المنتدى
• TalkPanic.com: تمديد سنة واحدة لترخيص المنتدى
فأتمنى من مدراء المنتديات الأربعة مراسلتي عبر قسم الرسائل الخاصة بإرسال رقم الرخصة المطلوب تمديدها لسنة جديدة ، أو إرسال رقم الرخصة برسالة خاصة إلى ( السيد سكوت ) و إبلاغي برسالة خاصة أخرى أنه تمت المراسلة .
وأما بخصوص التبرعات بالصدقات فلا أرى من المناسب أن نجعل غيرنا يسددها عن أي منا ، بل يمكننا التبرع بشكل مباشر و دون أي إعلان ليبقى الأجر و الثواب أكبر .
فـ صدقة السر تطفئ غضب الرب .
وسأترك النقاش في أمر المسابقة للمستقبل القريب .
أكرر شكري و أطيب تمنياتي للجميع .
و العقبى لكم بالفوز .

مع التحية
الكهف

[AWS]

Scott I ask you this. Is not community part of the contest? It sickens me to see a forum that is vbulletin centric win when they have less than 100 total threads while other more established communities lose to them.
How about a rule that disallows these new communities from entering until they are a little more established.

Congrats to vbulletin club. You deserved to win.

[smackLAN]

Congrats to vBulletinClub for a well deserved win and all those who participated!