The Intergalactic Highway

Free Trader Posted: Jan 16 2006, 02:13 AM

January 15, 2006

From a secret chamber deep within the planet Cybertron, Malin Huffman and Philip N. Zeman proudly announce that the polls are open for voting on the 2004/2005 Golden Disk Awards - the continuation of the longest running annual Transformers Fans' Choice awards!

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INSTRUCTIONS:

If you're a Transformers fan, you're qualified to vote for the Golden Disk Awards!
Just follow these simple steps:
Voting Steps

1. Navigate to the Ballot web page on http://www.iaconone.com or the direct URL http://www.iaconone.com/gda05/ballot.php .
2. Enter a name/nickname/handle and valid e-mail address, which will be used to identify your ballot. (These 2 fields are mandatory.)
3. Enter answers to the ballot questions. Feel free to leave blanks if you don't have an opinion on certain questions, and comments are entirely optional.
4. When you are ready to submit your ballot answers and comments to us, click one of the Submit buttons (at the top or bottom of the form.)

Important Notes
For your convenience, if your browser is configured to allow the use of JavaScript and cookies, any answers/comments you enter on the ballot form will NOT be lost if you close the browser window/application, navigate to another site, etc. without clicking the Submit button.

This means you can work on the ballot at your leisure, and, the only time you need to connect to the Internet is a) to load the ballot page, and b) to submit your answers.
Note: Do not save the ballot page to your hard drive to open and work on later - this workflow will NOT save your responses via cookies or allow you to submit your answers.

Also, if you click Save Ballot, then find you forgot to answer a question, or need to make a change. no problem. Just reload the ballot page, all your previously entered answers will appear (courtesy of cookies,) and you can re-submit the form with your additional information or updates.

Will there be an offline version?
Originally we intended to offer an offline version of the ballot, similar to the ballot used in 1997-2004. But with the ability to store responses via cookies prior to submitting the ballot in an online form, and the ability to update a previously submitted ballot, a separate offline form seems largely unnecessary. If there is a large outcry, we will reconsider, but please give the online form a chance first.

Voting Period
Voting on the GDAs will be open from January 15, 2006 - February 28, 2006.

Browsers
The ballot form has been tested in Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari.

Problems
If you experience any difficulties, please go to the Contact Us page, or e-mail us at gda@iaconone.com , and let us know!


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A little history...

The Golden Disk Awards is the renamed and revamped version of the "Trannies", the Transformers Fan Choice Awards that originated on the Usenet newsgroup alt.toys.transformers. Back in January 1997, Robert A. Jung created the awards to give fans the ability to vote for Best Toy, Worst Toy, Best Cartoon, etc., in the tradition of the "Squiddie" awards.
From 1997 to 2004, Robert created the ballots, tallied the results, and wrote a multi-part awards show, which ultimately led to more and more work every year. You can see the results shows at http://www.electric-escape.net/tf/Trannies.

In 2005, Robert decided that it was time to pass the baton to someone new, so he could continue his left-wing/Macintosh conspiracy... er, spend less time on the computer and more time with his family.

Philip N. Zeman, Editor-in-Chief of ASM (http://www.asmzine.com/) decided that the Trannies were too important to just let die, so he volunteered to take over, and then realized that he had no chance of doing all the work himself. So he asked his friend Malin Huffman if he would mind helping out. The two of them started planning a slimmed-down version of the awards but also an easier way for people to complete the ballots and the hosts to organize them.
Then things went to hell for both of them, when Real Life™ got in the way. As the year progressed, it became apparent that the Trannies wouldn't happen. However, in December 2005, Malin and Phil decided that the beginning of the year would be a good time to revive the awards, and they started their plans anew. Because a new group was in charge -- and because the old name still incurred some jokes -- they decided to rename the awards "The Golden Disk Awards", based on the discs from the "Beast Wars" television show.
So, yes, there are two new crazies in charge instead of one old one. Beware, world....