I did not know giving away a free prize to help attract participants to an educational event could be turned into such an area of concern, but as they say, I guess no good deed goes unpunished.
As Scott Warrington has already posted on another thread, Steve Andrews is one of our instructors for Bridgepoint Systems schools. We happen to believe he is an excellent carpet repair instructor (there are many others - Jim Carfleld, Barry Costa, Ron Toney, just to name a few). We simply wanted to help promote the webinar/educational event that he was participating in, so we chose prizes that corresponded to what he was teaching about.
As far as the wording and format of the email that the folks at the other board used, we did not stipulate how they would communicate the fact there would be a prize drawing for participants. I apologize if there was some misunderstanding. Our intention was to have a drawing amongst all registered participants for one winner.
We find that all of the industry bulletin boards have a unique position in our industry, and sometimes cater to a different group of posters and lurkers.
If Mikey's Board (or any other board we participate in and advertise on) wants to have an educational webinar, hot seat, or other event and one of our instructors, distributors, or corporate types is asked to be a major participant, we would be more than happy to work with Mike or any of the moderators in helping promote that event through a prize drawing. Heck, we might even give away something if Yeadon or Toburen were featured. Well probably not, but you never know.