>I agree completely, with all your points. Personally, I think such a situation as a contest like this being so limited is a real shame not to mention unfair to the entire community.

Unfair is the correct term.

>And I meant what I said about seing such a contest as a farce, although when I first heard about it I thought is was really cool. Before even reading this thread, I found myself chuckling rather synically at a 2 page advertisement for this contest in the latest issue of a magazine. "What a joke" is what I thought.

I am now beginning to think like that as well.

>I would be curious to know if anyone else, who is in a area that is allowed to participate, also has a lowered opinion of this contest once they learned how exclusive it was.

You mean the lucky ones. :) Yes, that would be interesting to know. I know some that won't participate because of that. After all, is there really a need to participate? If you look at the end of the contest, you'll see that a big ceremony before world wide people will be used to present the awards to winners. Yes, I mentioned world wide people in the audience but a local contest is what this is all about. Confused?