I would like to add a comment about deleting cookies to enable repetitive voting..... Last year, I had entered my Tyler's picture into a Photo Contest. I then emailed all my friends and family and asked them to vote for Tyler, which many did. The news of Tyler's contest reached some people who are friends of friends and pretty soon we had lots of votes for my little man and for most of the month we maintained a winning margin. It came to my attention that you could go in and delete a cookie and then re-vote. This created for me a moral dilemma as I didn't feel that this was totally honest. The ferret picture that was running a tight 2nd place to Tyler for most of the month would have spurts of voting resulting in that picture taking over 1st place. Several people emailed me asking about how we could get more votes for Tyler. I told them about the "cookie delete" method, but added that I didn't feel that it was honest and didn't endorse it, so went back to emailing more friends, including President Bush, asking for votes for Tyler. I can't tell you how much time this took and as the month was coming to an end I was grateful that the contest would be over soon. Again Tyler was ahead by a nice margin. Now, this is the kicker.... On the last night of the contest, the ferret that had been keeping a close second to Tyler suddenly accumulated over 100 votes in a very short period - like the last 2 hours of the contest. It was very apparent that the owner of the ferret had found a way to trick the system and fill the ballot box. I can't tell you how upset and angry I was over this. I even emailed the ones running the contest and protested this winner and asked them to look at the month's activity for Tyler and they would see that he had maintained a first place margin for a better part of the month as well as the fact that the winner had so many votes in so short a period of time. Those running the contest said that they were not aware of the "cookie delete" issue and that they would watch for it in the future. Now, I realize that is contest is supposed to be for fun, but for the person entering the contest it is still a great deal of work getting votes for your fuzzie only to have another contestant use unethical methods to ensure that their ferret will win. Let's keep these contests fair and ethical. Let's rise above the unscrupulous activities that are so commonly used in the world today. Playing fair is important and good moral judgement has its rewards. Tyler might have lost the contest, but we both won lots of new friends out of our efforts. Phyllis M. Spy Clerk, Massachusetts Ferret Friends, Inc. ______________________________________________ A non-profit organization dedicated to education, outreach and shelter to benefit the domestic ferret [Posted in FML issue 3759]