Yep, that's right gang. While we can't afford much due to rebuilding efforts I want to start the giveaway process again.

Because we have no affiliate relationships now (i.e. Golfsmith), the prize will be a $25 gift card, eGiftCertificate, or anything I can do remotely with a credit card online.

This contest is for registered members only. There will be one winner chosen from the pool of members who have submitted a review during the contest timeframe (reviews being the short 250 word ones that can be submitted via the "SUBMIT & WIN" link on the nav bar). Multiple submissions will not increase your chances, although they are appreciated. I would prefer you focus on submitting a quality review of one equipment item, as opposed to several short, low value reviews.

Please try to submit reviews of relatively new or current gear as well as this will help the site out the most.

Good luck! Let me know if you have questions.

Ok, so going to start the process of identifying the winner. Stay tuned..

1. Aimee
2. Fran21356
3. Joe Golfer
4. scomac
5. srushing

Drum Roll Please...

Congratulations scomac.. you're the winner in the march 2012 giveaway. Please post here to claim your prize within 10 days. Also please send me a private message via the forums with your full name, address and contact information, as well as where you'd like your gift certificate from, and I'll get that ordered right away.

Stay tuned for the next giveaway!

Congrats, scomac!

Yes, congratulations Scomac!

Cool. What a nice surprise. Thanks very much Chris.

It would be really great if we could get a lot more of members of this site to take a little time and post a few reviews every month or so. Reviews is what this site is all about, going by the name of it. Chris has put in a lot of time and effort to keep this site going over the years, but he needs YOU to do your part, by posting reviews to bring in visitors to the site. I will do my best to post more reviews in the coming months than I have recently. Can a few of you do the same? I'm sure Chris would appreciate it if you did. Thanks in advance for your time and effort to support the site.

I would post reviews if I actually played with any new equipment to be able to write about it. I don't feel like hitting a 6 iron at a demo day gives me the right to post a review, I like to actually use an item for a full round to give a fair and complete evaluation. I would contribute if I had something to review, I think a few people are in the same boat.

Only 6 more days before the end of the context for May. Time to get your reviews in if you want a chance to win some green. So get out there and DEMO some equipment and type up a review or two. This is your chance to help the site grow and make some money in the process. You can't lose guys and gals. so get busy with those reviews.

I trying to post a reply to the July prize contest but I can't due to the site not allowing me to post a reply to an Announcement. I don't know what the difference between this March Anouncement and the others for June and July, but there seems to be a difference.
As for July, I can tell you that Aimee and Don DID for a fact post a review, and I believe Scott did as well, but not positive on thst/ Maybe each of the members that DID post a review in July can post a reply to this message and you can get an eccurate count of reviews for July this way, Just an idea. Might be a good idea also if the members COULD post a reply to the contest posts, like congratulating the winners if nothing else. Again, just an idea I had.

Don and Chris,
I posted three reviews during the month of July.
An Adams Speedline F-10 18* Fairway Wood.
A Callaway FT-IZ hybrid.
A Winn DriTac AVS golf grip.

So if you've somehow lost count of who contributed, I made three in that month.
Joe Golfer

Don and Chris,
I too tried to post a reply on the July contest thread, but was also unable to for the same reason as Don (not allowed to post a reply to an announcement).
I recall Don and Aimee posting reviews in addition to myself in the month of July.
I don't know if anyone else did, but I think it was just the three of us. You'd have to ask Scott if he did or not.
Anyway, as far as picking a winner, I don't mind if you just toss the names into a hat and draw one out, if you knew the right names for sure. I'm sure you'd be fair and square about it.
But if you'd rather wait for the computerized random number generator to be fixed, I'm fine with that too. No hurry.
It might be nice if eventually an email was sent to the winner though, if possible. Our emails should be on file with our user names. Most of us are very busy with other stuff in life and just don't have the time to check the Golf Gear Review website as often as we'd like.

I'm with Joe, Chris can pull a name the old-fashioned way

Joe and Aimee. If I read Chris's post correctly it was a problem with the Randem # geneerator but with getting a readout of WHO exactly posted a review during July. Who ever provides Chris with that informaion is not getting it to him, so he doesn't know for sure who did in fact post reviews. Could be wrong on this but thats my take on the situation.

In Chris's post on the July announcement, he did mention that he was pretty sure it was Don, Aimee, and me (Joe Golfer), and possibly Scott.
Perhaps if he isn't sure if Scott posted a review, he could send him a direct message or an email by looking up his username and seeing the email address that goes with it.
I thought he was having problems with the random number generator, and that the techie who helps out with the site wasn't getting back to him in a timely matter. But like you say, it could be that the person who is supposed to tell him who definitively did post a review isn't getting back to Chris. What else is new in this crazy world of super high-tech everything nowadays? When my computer goes haywire, I'm just plain stuck, so I imagine that Chris feels the same exasperation.
Any way that Chris uses to decide is fine with me. He's an honest guy, and I think everybody knows that, so no favoritism would be shown. Whatever will be will be.
And I don't mind waiting around, regardless of how long it takes. I suspect that we all feel that way. Nobody wants to rush Chris, especially since he has to wait for someone else to give him info he doesn't have, and that he's travelling for work and doesn't have time to tend to little matters such as this as a first priority. So Chris, if you read this, just take your time, bud, and don't sweat it. But I do wish that the site would send an email to the eventual winner, if possible, since I may not check the site but once a week or so.
Take care everybody,
Joe

So just a heads up that I haven't forgot to pull the winner. For some reason, the program that I use to run queries over the database is not working, so it's a little difficult to run a query to find which reviews were submitted in July. I want to say there were about 6 total and pretty sure Joe Golfer, Aimee, and Don submitted - maybe Scott too, unsure, but will check as soon as possible. Host is really not getting back to me like normal, not sure what's going on there.

This is a copy of what Chris posted. Going by this I think it's a problem with getting an accurate list of the names of who posted in July, not the random # generator.

Yeah, seems to be getting the data out of the system and the hosting company hasn't been very helpful. He's trying though.

How about this: I WIN! Thanks for playing everyone. Chris, now you can just wait till next month to worry about the data issue. LOL!

This is unbelievable. I'm ready to pull the plug - anyone want to buy a golf site?

If you guys can come up with a way to pick the winner, feel free to suggest. (except for recommending yourself, ahem, Scott.. LOL)

Simple really, Just ask the members WHO posted a review during the month, and see who says YES. I know I did, and Aimee did. I'm sure there were one or two more that did. Post a list and ask the members if the names on the list look good or not. Then pick a number for each name, then roll a die and go with the first number the come up. If you have 4 names and a six comes up, roll again.

After you get swuared away on that months contest, IF you want to hold another contest, I'd suggest that you tell people that the last day to enter is ONE day before the last day of the month, Then YOU can go to the site and LOOK at the list of members that have for a FACT posted a review during the month, and you don't need to get a list from the people that used to provide it for you in the past. Just go to the site on the last day of the month and copy down the list from left side of the page and you have your list with no problems at all. If someone posts a review on the last day of the month, a day after the contest has closed, TOO BAD for them. I think if ALL members are aware of the cutoff date, no one will complain, or at least they don't have a leg to stand on if they do.

yes, I had posted reviews in July and in August
Chris, you can randomize it, but frankly if it is only a couple of people doing reviews that month, maybe "spread the wealth" and give the prize to someone who hasn't gotten one in a while

I posted reviews of an Adams Speedline 5 wood, a Callaway FT-IZ hybrid, and a Winn DriTac AVS grip in that month.
Just put the names in a hat and pull one is okay with me, or whatever other random means you choose.

Chris, if it helps, I do recall that there were only three or four people who posted reviews in that month. There weren't more than that.
I thought it was three, but if Scott says he also posted, then he'd be the fourth. He did have one note in this thread/forum, jokingly posting about just picking him and saving all the trouble... So if that means he entered a review, I think we'd all accept that.
I remember seeing the list in the column along the left side of the page and thinking that the odds of one of us winning were very good considering how few posted reviews that month.
Don and Aimee already have noted that they entered, and I do recall their names on the list. And I entered. So just have to ask Scott if he entered or not during that month.
Perhaps one can even recall what item they reviewed as proof if necessary, since the reviewed items do list a date of the review right above the text of the review. That's why I listed the three items I reviewed that month. One can easily verify it by simply looking up the review.
Anyway, once it is figured out whether it was three or four people, I think everyone trusts that you'd be fair and square about picking a random winner and just accept the results.
Don's idea of a roll of a die would work.
I do hope that when you do pick a winner, whether in a week or a month, they might be notified by email as well as mentioned in this thread of posts, since not all of us have time to check the site on a regular basis due to other aspects of life keeping us busy.

So right now I have:

srushing
Aimee
Joe Golfer
DON

Does that seem to be it? I really want to close this out as the last contest. It's likely I will be selling the site soon, as the revenue is barely paying for the maintenance.

Thanks everyone for your feedback and sorry for the delays once again.

-Chris

I don't think Scott has posted one way or the other whether he posted a review during the time period for this contest. I just checked and I don't see a post from him saying he posted, so I don't honestly know if he did or didn't do a review. What have you to say Scott? Are you in on this last review or not?

Is it fair to assume that since Scott has NOT posted a reply saying he did in fact do a review during this contest period, we can say the list is Aimee, Joe Golfer, and DON? What do you think Chris? Does this sound reasonable to you?

I do recall that Don and Aimee and myself (Joe Golfer) did absolutely post reviews during July.
Perhaps my memory is faulty, but I have a vague memory of thinking the odds were really good for us since so few posted reviews that month.
I can't recall if Scott says he posted an actual review. He was obviously joshing tongue in cheek in an earlier post about just awarding the winnings to him, just joking around, but I wasn't sure if he meant that he'd posted an actual review or not.
Now if Scott says he posted a review, I'm going to take his word for it that he did, as I'm sure he's an honest guy. I don't think anyone would try to sneak in just for $25 bucks. I'd for sure take his word for it.
But if someone honestly can't recall when they posted a review or is unsure whether it was in the appropriate month (July), perhaps they could recall what item they did review, since the reviews are dated. They could then look up their own review and check to see that it was indeed in July.
As I noted in an earlier post, I mentioned the three items that I reviewed. One of them is still on the homepage, the Adams Speedline F10 five wood. My other reviews were a Winn DriTac AVS grip and a Callaway FT-IZ hybrid. All should be dated in July right above the review.

Sorry for all the headaches this little contest has caused you, Chris. It's a shame that the computer programming simply doesn't allow one to check to see which reviews were posted in July. But I'm certainly no computer expert, so all that stuff is well beyond my technological knowledge.

The problem is that there is an application that allows the site owner to check the database. For some reason that hasn't been working and the site host has been very unresponsive. I'd move the site to another host, but honestly haven't had the time or energy to do it.

I checked the front page and Scott did submit a review on July 15 for a Nike Performance Carry Bag. It's a few reviews down on that page.

So we'll go with this:

1. srushing
2. Aimee
3. Joe Golfer
4. DON

I'll pull the random number now...

Will post correctly in the July thread also..

Congratulation to Joe for his win in what would appear to be the last review contest on the site unless the site gets back to being reconized as one of the top golf sites on the net and starts generating more income to warrant holding a contest in the future.

I've been posting reviews and comments on this site for 10 years now. and it's the first golf site I visit every day that I turn on my computer. As some of you may have noticed, Chris is thinking that he may sell the site in the near future. I for one would be saddened if thia was to come about. I can't imagine that the site would be the same without Chris as the owner. With luck, we will not have to find out.

Thanks Don, but honestly I haven't done a good job managing or developing this site for some time now. Just out of time with so many other demands. The right person/organization might just make it better, so let's all cross our fingers.

If it wasn't so complicated to do, maybe we could incorporate it, sell shares and everyone here buy a little piece and then help build and maintain it. haha. wouldn't that be neat. would still need a programmer/designer, though. a nice thought I suppose.

I know that you have been traveling a lot over the last few years or more. Any chance you will be home more in the future? I can only imagine it's not easy to put in a lot of time to this site when you're out of the country all the time. What ever happens we NEED to get a bunch of NEW members posting on the site on a regular basis to get the numvers up to get the money coming in more. How to get more members is a good question that I don't have an answer to.

Any one out there have any good idea? Or bad ideaa, What ever you have can't be all that bad. What about it guys? Any ideas of how to get a bunch of new posrers?

Chris, thanks for the announcement that I won the July contest.
I tried leaving a reply like this on the thread for the July announcement, but the site wouldn't allow me to post on an "announcement".

Anyway, thanks again.
Late last night I sent the information you requested on the July announcement forum thread to you via PM on the website.
Left my full name, postal address and phone and email and choice of store for gift certificate.

Glad I had better luck than the USA team in the Ryder Cup.
Yikes, that was a sorry thing to watch them fold like that.