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Little Bear GuyI congratulate anyone who has ever been nominated or who has won an award because it is a magical feeling. Also know there are other ways to feel magic too. Making something beautiful with all the passion in your heart and knowing that it came from you is magical.
Winning contests does not a better artist make. What matters most if how you see yourself.
HERE HERE Judi, well said.
hugs
Shane
Oh boy.
Umm... Good morning to you all! 
As a mod here, may I respectfully suggest that we all, and I do mean ALL -- no particular person(s) singled out here, and I include myself in this suggestion -- take a deep breath and step back for a minute? That doesn't mean stop posting, as nobody wants to halt conversation. It just means, let's reel in the emotions a bit, please.
I believe this thread has served an excellent and worthy purpose, allowing parties with concerns about an important industry contest to discuss those concerns; to try on new perspectives; to suggest ideas for improvement; to respectfully argue positions; to offer alternative interpretations of events; to clarify tech issues; and to basically just chew on something of import to us all that's been simmering in the background (apparently) for a short while now. To me, that means this thread has been a good and positive thing, in the big picture. I'm extremely happy that Valerie had an opportunity to post a response to what's been discussed here and that TT could serve as a place for her to do so publicly, because that's a far better way to address concerns than guesswork and supposition, I think.
We seem to be veering into a darker and less constructive, helpful area at this point, however, with some comments approaching Terms of Service violations. As a reminder, taken from the TT "RULES", which you can access at any time in the colored menu bar at the top of every page:
Negative, derogatory, or name-calling comments about any person, company or product... could result in your thread or post being deleted without notification, or other appropriate consequences, as determined by the site Administrator. ... The Admin of Teddy Talk retain the exclusive right to design and enforce the RULES OF USE for this forum according to ethical, intelligent business practices, and to delete posts and suspend or revoke member privileges at their sole discretion whenever members violate stated RULES OF USE. All such decisions are final and confidential and will not be discussed with the readership.
... We support your right to express yourself, but you must follow stated board policies when doing so. As a show of respect for your right to express yourself, and as part of our commitment to open and broad-minded discussion, we stretch as far as possible in allowing gray-area or uncomfortable content to remain on the public board. However, please know that Admin will step in and decisively remove inappropriate content which clearly violates RULES OF USE policies whenever such content presents itself; we now operate under a ZERO TOLERANCE policy for rule violations. All such decisions are final and confidential and will not be discussed with the readership.
TT never wants to shut down conversation or play the role of Big Brother with its members. That's kinda, well, fascist. We don't want to be fascists.
We do want to maintain a positive environment, though, and at all costs avoid being a bulletin board for potentially libelous content which could get either the posting party, or the board, or both, into legal hot water.
It seems to me that this discussion has largely played itself out at this point. I'm delighted that so many people were able to voice their opinions and be heard, and also, that certain technical issues were intelligently presented for consideration so that our readers and possibly also, contest sponsors, could better understand and address them going forward.
I'm very much in support of the last post by Kelly, from both a personal and an Advisory standpoint. Please, let's avoid blame and personalization of these issues to every extent possible. There's a potential for ugliness in that which will REQUIRE the closing of this thread at some point, and I very much hope we don't get to that point, as open and mature discussion is a better way for all of us to be heard, and to better understand the situation.
Linda, the ways in which you've discussed your concerns, and those of other collectors with whom you've spoken, has, to my mind, been largely admirable and worthy of respect. And certainly, brave. I appreciate the non-reactive and sensible, if imperfect, way you've approached sharing your position and thank you very much, sincerely, for bringing this topic forward for discussion because it was clearly simmering below the surface and needed to be aired. I think everyone who has been a party to this discussion will have learned something new, and/or been shown a different way of looking at things, as a result of your willingness to broach a difficult topic. And I think those are good things.
People, please... as my gramma used to say, fight nice. So far, so good, for the most part... but in my role as Advisor (and not as Shelli the goofy cheerleading bearmaker) I feel it's maybe time for a wee reminder that it is possible for things to get out of hand on forums like this one, and this thread feels like it's going in that dark direction, and Admin WILL close and/or remove posts and/or this thread if things get any more negative and especially, if people start finger pointing and personalizing things.
I adore every last one of you, because you care about teddy bears like I do. Thanks so much for your clear efforts to remain civil in what has certainly been a charged discussion.
Now, everyone... go have three pounds of chocolate and some coffee while wrapped in polarfleece, stroking a kitten. Doesn't that sound healing???
tEDDIE bearsMost of you folks are old enough to remember good ole' Bill Clinton, he refused to dignify stupid accusations successfully for 8 years and under the worst of circumstances. I will follow his lead and just consider the source. I had a morbid curiousity about polling software - nothing more - nothing less. I asked a computer geek, I got an answer and I posted a much edited version of his answer, probably not even getting it all right. I am not a computer geek, I make little bears, I put them on different web venues and sell them. I am retired, I just like to sell enough to make my medical insurance payments until I am 65, and it takes up what could be very boring hours here in the house. If people like them, they can buy them, if they don't, I can't arm twist over the internet. I knew that any contest would create a stir and hesitated until the very last minute to enter the URSA, I did, I won some nice prizes and since I am not nearly clever enough to tweek something on the internet, campaigning was my only resource. I thought I was supposed to do that.
I've read a lot of comparisons with the various contests. They are basically all the same, just like the Primary and General Elections for our politicians. A couple of the contests have juries that select a few entries for the public to see. These jurors are humans and they have preferences just like the rest of us. Does anyone think that these preferences don't influence their choices, of course they do, why wouldn't they. In the contest I entered, the public chose the entries for the finals. The public in the case of the URSA consisted of people that were either asked to vote, or wanted to vote, or who had a friend that made and entered a bear, or made a bear and voted for their own. If you voted for my entries, thank you, if you didn't, then thanks for just voting, we all benefit.
I can't take more time on this, I need to make a bear to sell and hopefully it will do as well as the one did last night on Ebay.
A post that used to sit between #46 and #47 in this thread has been removed due to TOS violations.
TT Admin
It's been a long time since I've been on Teddy Talk.
After 23 years of making bears I retired, or quit making bears if you like that better.
Fifteen of those years I presented tours to Europe for artists and collectors; during those years we showed the world that we were one big family.
I was in this world when artists and collectors were great friends, everyone supporting each other.
Twenty plus years ago I watched the Doll world become cut-throat, everyone being jealous of the next artist. Is this now the bear world?
Contests are contests. The true measure of your creations is the smile on your customer’s faces when they buy your creations.
The URSA contest clearly stated that it was popularity. The internet is a great tool when used in the right way. It can be used maliciously by those that choose to find a way around what is right.
I believe in honesty first and last and everywhere in between.
We all have personal and professional choices, use them wisely.
I miss the Teddy Bear World… but reading all of this I’m almost 100% glad I’ve moved on to other things.
I’m signing my name to this, I’m not anonymous.
Neysa A. Phillippi
Purely Neysa
Bears by TeriFirst let me say hi to everyone. I rarely, if ever add my comments or feedback for fear I might say the wrong thing or chat too much. I do browse though and often think about what I've read. Today, I have to comment. I was thrilled, honored and happily surprised to have won two 1st places and one 3rd place award in the URSA contest. So...I was a little hurt by some of the recent comments. I am sure this wasn't intentional and completely understand being disappointed when our favorites aren't chosen. Over the years I've submitted lots of entries that were never chosen, nominated or mentioned. I've wondered what I could have done differently and thought maybe that bear just didn't "call out" to the judge or voter. Being a collector as well as a maker, I've also voted for my favorites only to see another bruin win. Although I've been disappointed, I kept stitching and voting. As for canvassing for votes, yes I did email the collectors on my mailing list and asked them to look over the entries. I also wrote that if they felt one of my entries called out to them, I appreciated their vote. Over the years, I've been fortunate enough to have bears adopted by wonderful collectors and can't thank them enough for taking the time to vote for one of my teddies. Whether they voted for my bear because they thought he was the nicest or because they thought I was an artist that they wanted to see win, I thank them. I also want to say thank you to Bears and Buds for offering us a wonderful place to display our bears, find out about other artists and share our passion with collectors and bear lovers. Again, I am thrilled and honored to have won and will proudly display my Winner's Icon on my website. 
Oh Boy... the conversation (thread) is heavy.
First of all, I also rarely add any comment because my English is only my third language, and I could hurt someone not using the right word ; but I would like to add my point also because I was among the 2007 URSA winners.
For my part, I informed my mailing list members about the URSA CONTEST and I mentioned "only one vote" and also the link where all the entries were.
I was a little hurt by a few comments : we know that Valerie did a great job for it and as artists, I have a question : could we manage the Internet popular votes ?????????????????
No...
I received a message from someone in Corea telling me that I received her vote... I thank the person but I did not know that person before the contest ....
Myself I voted for an another artist in the first tour and the bear did not win....
I will continue create all my bears with my heart because I have been spoiled by the support of my wonderful collectors and I thank them.
Bears and Buds is also a great ezine to display our creations, to meet other artists, collectors, and make a big Bears Friends world.
In conclusion, I would like to mention that I will never accept an award if I did not follow honestly the rules of the contest and I proudly displayed my winner Icon on my website.
Hugs
Chantal
MerBear OriginalsCongrats to both of you - you deserved your win cause you played the game as the rules stated!
I have also noticed that "Lindag" isn't anywhere to be seen. Unfortunately this person caused this controversy and then disappeared. 
Marion
