Jakis czas temu na mojej stronce atari.online.pl, przy nowince o pojawieniu sie "Flowers Manii", wyniknela dyskusja na temat mozliwosci wziecia udzialu tej gry w konkursie ABBUC. Jedni mysleli, ze moze wziasc udzial (m.in. ja), drudzy nie (m/in. Dely), wiec przyjrzalem sie sprawie dokladniej. Otoz na stronie ABBUC polska wersja zasad rozni sie od angielskiej i nie ma w niej slowa o tym, ze gra nie moze byc wczesniej publikowana. W angielskiej jest zas mowa o zastrzezeniu publikacji wersji "pre-release" dla magazynu prowadzonego przez ABBUC. Takze niemiecki tekst (pierwotny?) w tym akapicie bardziej przypomina polski niz angielski. Napisalem do Andreasa Magenheimer, ktory jest szefem dzialu softwarowego i dzis otrzymalem odpowiedz. Przytaczam ja w oryginale, zeby kolejny raz nie wkradly sie niejasnosci wynikajace z przekladu:

"Hello,
this is indeed a "problematic" subject. Originally, ABBUC wanted the right of a premiere release on its magazine and the copyright for the program. I told them, that no-one would then participate on the contest, because no-one wants to give away his copyright so easily and in the end they did not want the copyright any longer - but they wanted at least the right of a premiere release...
We fullfilled this wish for approx. 2 years, but sooner or later we knew that it was impossible to find out if a program had already been published somewhere (the internet is quite enormous!) and of course not all ABBUC members read or use foreign homepages or magazines. So I told ABBUC that I would also agree to programs that have been published somewhere else (e.g. a foreign magazine, like FLOP, Syzygy or Serious magazine) or on someone`s private homepage. They were not very happy about it, but we made a compromise like...
"if the program(s) have not been published massively on various homepages and forums, then it is ok to participate with that program on the ABBUC software contest..."
Hmm, well, if we take a closer look at Flowers Mania, we see that it has not only been published on a private homepage (the author`s homepage) but on almost every A8 forum (like atari-age, atari-area, etc.) and it soon will be published on various magazines (if not already). So, this is a problem. I am quite sure, that because of its massive spread on several homepages and forums, ABBUC would be angry if the program still takes part on the contest...
I must say, that I like the program (and at the moment it would be the winner!) and I do not like the decisions of ABBUC (e.g. the ABBUC members, the ABBUC chief), but as leader of the software ressort I have to accept these decisions. But I will do something to help you: I will ask the question officially in the ABBUC forum (at the ABBUC homepage) and see what comes out. Maybe the majority agrees to put this program in the software contest.
(You should know: Once every year we have a big ABBUC meeting, where several club internal decisions are made. Only ABBUC members that are *present* at this meeting can vote/decide or agree/disagree to the club decisions. Allthough ABBUC is the biggest A8 club worldwide and has approx. 400 members., only 50-70 members come to this meeting. meaning, 50-70 members make the decision for all others in the end! Well, in the ABBUC forum there are other members available, maybe they can make a different decision or maybe they can change the official decision... let`s wait and see...)
Besides, the translation of the german and english versions of the ABBUC software contest rules had been made in two years - that was right at the moment where ABBUC still wanted the "right of a premiere release" (so some translations still include this passage) and right after they gave up this (so some translations do not cover/include this passage)...
Maybe there should be a complete new text for the rules (but then we have to search for translators again). But this will surely not happen until next year. anyway, I will aks the question in ABBUC forum and tell you how they decided to handle this problem...
greetings, Andreas magenheimer.
P.S.: From time to time, Atarians ask me where the programs of the software contest is available for download. Well, another ABBUC problem: ABBUC members *pay money* for the membership (which includes the ABBUC magazines). So, ABBUC cannot make all these programs freely available for download. One has to ask the authors then to get these programs. Because of this, an official homepage for the *free* download of the ABBUC software contest programs cannot be made..."

Przeslalem mu swoja opinie, ze zasady wciaz nie sa jasne, bo nie da sie latwo ustalic granicy miedzy "masowa" dostepnoscia a "niemasowa" i warto by wprowadzic cos sensowniejszego na przyszly rok. Jakie sa Wasze opinie?

PS. Zapomnialem dodac, ze z tego co wiem, xxl zdecydowal sie nie wystawiac swojej pracy na konkurs ABBUC.