In the past there has been a tendency by individuals to get over zealous in these types of events and try to circumvent the process by building tools or using proxy servers etc. What we have put in place behind the scenes is a mechanism that requires you to do all nominating and voting from this site.

This site is going to strictly enforce the rules and any podcaster, nominator that is caught cheating, we reserve the right to have all of their nominations/votes removed.. Podcasters and participants are strictly forbidden in setting up any type of automated nomination/voting form on their website and if detected will be disqualified. We are very serious in our effort to hold an honest and fair contest.

We have implemented very strong tracking through various means which we will not discuss or disclose, only to say that we will be monitoring all nominations and voting. . This site was designed with the understanding that people would try to circumvent the rules, and we have used every method available to prevent this. Please note that Podcast Connect Inc. will have final say in all matters.

We reserve the right to disqualify any nomination / vote during the contest process that we feel was placed illegally!. We also reserve the right to validate any vote that was not delivered due to mail server overloading. Send all rule enquiries to podcastawards@gmail.com Podcast Connect reserves the right to modify these rules up and to the date of the start of nominations!

Eligibility:

• Sites that have won People's Choice or Best Produced in the years 2007-2008 are not eligible to win People's Choice and Best Produced
• Sites that have won People's Choice or Best Produced in 2008 are not elgible to win in any category.
• Podcasting actively on or before 1 August 2009 this will be verified by reviewing the podcasters website.
• Have Created a Minimum of 8 Podcasts before 1 Sept 2009
• A visible RSS 2.0 feed on the podcasters site with enclosures.

The Nomination Process:

Starting on 4 October 2009 Eastern Standard Time nominations will be open via website submission.

1. You can nominate the Podcasts you want to submit "One Time Only" (Once you hit Submit your done for 2009).
2. You should "not" submit the same show in multiple categories, aka only 1 show per category is allowed .(See Line 3 for Exception)
3. You can nominate a show for "People's Choice" or "Best Produced" , and also submit that show to another lower category (This is the only exception to line 2)
4. Do not abuse the system and submit a single show in multiple categories!
5. The nomination form will contain the following:
   • Podcast name you are nominating (Please Try to get this correct)
   • Podcast URL.
   • Your Name
   • Your Verifiable E-mail Address
   • Comments are critical so the reviewing team understand why a show is deserving of being nominated to the category.

Make sure your e-mail address is valid, as we will be using special validation techniques to check the validity of the account, a percentage of the nominations will receive an e-mail several days after the nomination in which you will have to verify the nomination. No verifications will be sent immediately and not all nominators will receive a verification e-mail.

Nominations will halt at 2359 EST 18 October 2009

***All nominations will take place via the podcastawards.com site any podcaster creating an auto submission form on their personal website or using a script or proxy server will be disqualified! If you suspect cheating send a e-mail to podcastawards@gmail.com***

The Review Process:

There will be approxiamentally a 10-14 day period in which Podcast Connect and it's volunteer reviewers will review all of the nominations. The review process will include the following and those shows nominated should pay attention to some of the things we found in grading in the 2007 and 2008 event details can be found at PodcastConnect.com

• Verification Podcast fits in Category Nominated
• Verification that the Podcast has 8 Shows Produced
• Verification the the Podcaster has been creating shows on or before 1 September 2009
• Verification that the Podcaster has a visible RSS 2.0 feed with Enclosures

A confidential non-releaseable grading sheet has been created , nominated podcast will be graded:

• Number of Nominations 40%
• Quality of Website Design 15%
• Quality of Sound 15%
• Quality of Podcast Delivery and Show Format 10%
• Relevance of Content 20%

Once the top 10 nominees in each category are selected by the review committee and added to the website, voting will commence.

Voting Process:

• Voting is going to last 15 days and in all circumstances will end at 2359 HST on the published last day of voting.
• Each Person / IP will be allowed to vote once a day in each category
• All voting will be done from the podcastawards.com website no offsite voting scripts.
• No Third Party voting applications
• In all circumstances links to the Podcast Awards website should be done via a clickable Graphic or Plain text link pointing to PodcastAwards.com
• We have expended considerable amount of money to insure a fair voting process. Certain security measures are in place, should a site or individual try to circumvent the on-site voting, or use an application to automate the voting we will invalidate votes that are detected or trends show them to be fraudulent.
• 100% e-mail verification of all votes will take place, failure to click on a vote will result in no vote being placed.
• Non verification of votes is not contestable it is the voters responsibility to insure that the e-mail address provided is valid.

A verification e-mail with clickable link will be e-mailed to you so that you will have to verify the vote.

We are expecting extreme loads on the mail server and have put in place certain safeguards to ensure votes are not lost.

Notice: We have done extensive work in the algorithms that will be used to deter cheating. All voting will be done on the podcastawards.com website any podcast that adds or creates a auto voting system will be disqualified. Podcast Connect Inc reserves the right to reject any vote that it's officers, staff and auditors consider to be fraudulent. It is imperative that all podcast nominees warn their listenership to abide by the rules. We do not care how popular or unpopular your podcast is, circumventing the rules will not be tolerated. We will in all cases error on the side of good reason we will stay diligent and use just prudence

Winner Announcement:

Upon completion of voting Podcast Connect Inc and a Third Party will audit all log and voting database entries to separately tabulate the total votes. We will announce the winners as soon as we are in agreement of the votes totals. Certain category winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony.

The depth of our prizes and trophy awards is strictly based on the total number of sponsors and donations we have.