Hey Knifers...I haven't posted in a while, been really busy. I trust everyone is doing well.
As to the PM answering criteria for the knife giveaway...I don't believe that should change, and here's my thought as to why.
There are some awesome / beautiful knives put up for the monthly giveaway, some of which many of us drool over and want to be lucky enough to win that, or any particular knife. When there is a 'winner', and that person doesn't respond in the allotted timeline, I can almost guarantee that the 'next' person in line is elated to have become the winner. We see this quite often.
None of us know or understand why a particular winner does not follow through with checking the site to see if they are the winner. None of us have any control over why a person does not respond. Yes, as friends and fellow knifers, we tend to be concerned as to why there is no response from someone...and we tend to hope for the best for them, whatever the situation. However, THAT should not be the criteria to make changes because someone doesn't come to the site to see if they won or not. No one else is responsible for someone else's lack of checking. And to take away from someone else, such as the next closest person with a winning number, (and in this month's case, 4 times now) the opportunity to gain a really nice knife by changing the rules and adding an 'email' to the PM criteria is taking something away from someone, because the 'first' (or third) winner didn't take the opportunity to follow up according to the rules. (I hope that makes sense)
If Tom (TPK) checks in, in time, I know he'll be overjoyed as the winner. If not, onward to the 5th person in line. There is a lesson in all this...DON'T stop checking in until there is a positive notification of an actual winner if you chose a number lower than the winning drawing number. The June giveaway is a prime example of this.
May the best 'check-in' person win!