Before this does in fact spiral out of control into a comment, reaction, overpowering defence followed by bad feeling all round thread, I'd like to make a couple of points perfectly crystal clear.

I replied to the original post, because it was rude. It was unprofessional and not what I would have expected from a competition judge, Voluntary or otherwise.

The quite obvious rant was not in the best interest of the competition and certainly not designed to help the enterant, merely to vent frustration and push a personal preference against something allowed within the rules upon the rest of the competition enterants.

This is not the behaviour I expect from a judge.

A judge holds a position of respect. What a judge says carries weight and influence.
Even if a game was submitted containing offensive material, I wouldn't expect it to be ranted about on a public forum. I would expect that Savage was contacted (in the absence of any direct access to email addresses) and he could either contact them (which he has done) or move for disqualification.

I have no idea how the enterant is going to react to this thread, if it was my project being ranted about, I would be furious, I'd quit and I'd never come back here.

If the judges wish to steer the enterants towards a particular protocol, please do it politely and in a non-personal way. There is no need for bad feeling, naming & shaming or venting spleens. Direct emails can be sent, warnings given, and so on.

If something allowed within the rules makes your lives more difficult, then the rules should be changed and an announcement made. Simple. As long as the rule change is not too drastic, I'm sure no-one will mind, as long as they're told about it so they don't accidentally fall foul of the changed rule.

At the end of the day, we're all in this together with the same agenda.

To close, I have the upmost respect for the judges and the difficult job they do. I appreciate the work they do and their attempts to ensure that problems are solved which would otherwise lead to a loss of points. I respect the lenghts they go to promote fairness and feel confident that this will continue and rule breeches will be dealt with in a polite and fair manner.

I'm not going to say anymore on this, I've said what I felt I had to be said and hopefully, my position, rightly or wrongly is clear.

Best of luck to everyone.