Home Chat General Chat

2012 Awards Coach of the Year-farming For votes,Open letter

Dear Sir,

Today for the second time in recent weeks I ( and amongst 141 others on the email blast) am receiving an email from Simon Ward "Farming For Votes". I find this type of trolling for votes unethical and want you to be aware in the nature this coach wants to be voted as the "Coach of the Year". This comes to the conclusion that Mr Simon Ward is not a "Coach of The Year" but rather the "Collector of Most Votes" or "The Coach Who Can Collect The Most Signatures.

Editor of 220, you need to be aware of this type of vote collecting and how it puts your voting for the awards under doubt of individuals, it leads to missleading people reading your magazine and those seeking services from such people.

You need to know this is happening and in this category should Mr Simon Ward wins it is only based on how many votes collected by farming his email database to vote in your awards.

Rather lets see the coaches results for the athletes who have entered races and see the who achieved stellar improvement in the sport. I declare I have not used the services of Mr Ward other than one webinar, and give you this notice without malice nor prejudice.

Here below is the email copy I received today.

Hi everyone
Happy New Year. 2012 is going to be monumental for us all
Sorry to be a pest but I just wanted to remind you about the 220 magazine triathlon awards for 2012.
The voting closes soon and its important for me to try and get as many votes as possible if I am to have any chance of winning this again.
If you haven’t already voted yet (thanks very much if you have) then please click on the link below and vote for me as “coach of the year”
http://www.220triathlon.com/webform/220 ... wards-2012

There are categories for other nominations but if you don’t have a clue about those then just put n/a

I’m not sure when the closing date is so it’s probably best to do this as soon as possible

Please don’t forget – COACH OF THE YEAR – SIMON WARD


Happy New Year

Simon Ward
08700 418131
Website = http://www.thetriathloncoach.com
Blog = http://www.thetriathloncoach.com/blog/
Twitter = http://twitter.com/TriathlonCoach
Like us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/TheTriathlonCoach

Comments

  • This going to be interesting to see how the 220 Team deal with this.

    Simply this : that's terrible and if found to be true he should be excluded from being in the running.

    Darren Roberts to win anyway
  • Who is he anyway??? :roll:
  • Jack HughesJack Hughes Posts: 1,262
    @ethicalvoter.

    I think that is a little harsh and a bit of an overreaction.

    It seems to be that he is just trying to get his vote out. 141 addresses doesn't strike me as being a particularly large and therefore untargeted list. I assume that you have had some previous interaction with him that has enabled him to think that you might be interested in voting for him?

    Most people, even if they have an opinion, don't bother to vote. So this type of thing is pretty common. The norm, I would suggest.

    I've received emails (from club, event organisers) - all along the lines of "if you like us/what we do, then vote". I don't see a problem with that.

    Mr Ward may not quite have the deft touch in marketing that you would like, but then again, he's a coach, not a professional marketer.

    I think it is entirely reasonable for people to say "If you like what I have done, then vote". Simply because people wouldn't vote otherwise. I would also suggest that you are naive if you don't think that winners of the other categories come down to the ability to mobilise the support, rather than relying people waking up one morning and spontaneously thinking it is a good idea to rush to some obscure web site and fill in a complex form, which might well involve leaving an email address which will then be marketed to.

    Of course, it is a fine line between asking for support and being annoying. If you are annoyed then you should ask him to remove you from his mailing list - you are obviously not a satisfied customer.
  • shadowone1shadowone1 Posts: 1,408
    Don't really see what the problem is to be honest

    Not really much different from clubs asking family members to vote for them or race organisers asking them to vote for that race.
  • TesseractTesseract Posts: 280
    Why log yourself in here for the sole sack of posting that rubbish?

    I agree with Jack and Shadow.

    To get this email, you must have signed up to receive them, and have been receiving free advice from Simon on a weekly basis since you did. Yes some of his emails are promoting his business, of course they are, he'd be an idiot if he didn't. So all he is saying is if you think he's a good coach then vote for him.

    I get his emails, some of his free tips are good, but I haven't voted for him.

    Get a life.
Sign In or Register to comment.