I didn't forbid second guessing if you (or me) failed your first try. Nothing but forum rules and common sense prevents you from posting every five minutes saying "getdate(); (gettime();+5)"

then my second guess is the 8th of July at 1 pm eastern time.

July 14th, 6:00 pm GMT.

Well allowing massive repeated guessing effectively takes away the victory from an individual which has guessed once who would have guessed closer to the actual release date. 

With allowing only one guess even a forum member which visits only once every ten days would have had a fair chance of guessing the closest, but now he/she won't even come close to the many repeated guessing.  Therefore, it's no longer a fair contest for all members on the forum since someone who works 75 hours a week with a family cannot compete against a bored teenager enjoying summer break.  I guess you're just interested in a topic with lots of responses instead of providing a fair contest.

In any case, surely it's an unfair contest for those who discover this game next year.

he is right though.   You promised a karma point to the winner.   you may have a lot to sift to find the most accurate.

You make it sound like if 1 Karma point was like... what? 1 million dollars? A new free house? Free booze?

you're no fun

I think it was yesterday.

Edit:  While thinking of karma, it's five higher today.  I look to see what you idiots have misused it for this time, there's nothing there...

It's just sad that the winner of free karma is only the individual who can post the most frequently in this topic.    Just trying to make you realize the problem. 

Here have a  free beer.

The contest is unfair to all those who don't have internet access. It's unfair to all those who has internet access but don't know about the game (and contest). It's unfair to all those who have internet access, know about the game but don't know baout the contest. It's unfair to all those who have internet access, know about the game, know about the contest but are too shy to post. Or really don't know what to post. Or the forum ate his post. And be happy and I didn't add rules covering the legal like: "Karma can only be given to those living in countries where Karma Laws apply blah blah blah blah"

Any contest is by definition unfair based in that not everybody will be able to take part. Never. Except if you are playing The Game. Ops. Be it because of time, chance, luck, geographic location or simple skill, contest are unfair. Drinking contests are unfair to me because with 2.5 beers I cannot walk straight. If I were to offer a drawing contest it wouldn't be fair because many people doesn't know how to draw. If I were to give 20 alpha keys to the first 20 users to post in my thread, it would be unfair because all those not logged in that moment would be at a disadvantage. Etc.

Now, let's see before I have to tear off my eyes:

1. The most obvious (but higly ignored seems) fact. How is that I can participate if I cannot give myself Karma? If I had been right at first guess (or a later one), would had it been fair? I cannot even be rewarded!!! Yet, this little fact seems to be ignored quite a lot. Guess why.
2. "Some fame": really, because guessing right when a videogame's alpha date will make you get a better job, make it piece of cake to get a table at the most expensive restaurants and sky rocket you in your political career. Between other things. Really. Seriously. How could I guess that "bragging rights" for guessing an alpha date could be so highly valued?
3. 1.Karma.point: Uuuhhhh! Who cares about World Peace? 1k $? A T-Shirt? Crysis? Ha! Nothing can compare to 1.Karma.point. Because that single point can mean the difference between life and death.  Between success and failure. Families put their hopes and dreams in winning this single Karma point. Some users would even kill other users for it. Markets hold their breaths waiting to know the winner of such important thing. The fact that it could be won by a random fella who post just once with the most accurate date for the alpha relase, could mean broken families as their hopes and dreams become shattered even after being posting 24 posts a day with guesses. Also it would bring violvence to the streets as people kill each other in desperation and anger by their lost chance of getting that higly preciated Karma point. That random fella's stock options would sky rocket while the rest of the market crumbles, such is the power of the Karma point.

I cannot stand such misery and tragedy that will be caused by my silly thread. I cannot bear the shame it supposes all that suffering, all those broken families, all that senseless violence... I knew I should have offered far less serious than a karma point. Maybe 2 million dollars and a Ferrari. And used a census for those who were to try to guess a date... forcing every single human being in the world to try to make sure that no one could complain about being unfair (no, animal lovers, I'm sorry but animal rights don't include to guess the date of the Elemental alpha... no matter how much you complain). No! NO!!!  The shame is just too much for me!   There is only one punishment cruel enough for me to compensate for all this misery I have brought...

    You are trying to justify the fact you've greatly decreased the integrity of the contest by listing reasons why some fans of elemental are not in the contest.  Such a response is actually sad and funny.  

    <Closest  sad & funny face I could find)

    No contest is perfectly fair... but by adding additional guesses you've made your contest more unfair.  

    First Karma is not the real prize of this contest... it's having made the best guess for the release of the Alpha.  Second your last post had so much senseless writing, perhaps the free beer from my last post was too much for you.   LOL

I've made my posts very brief and simple so you could clearly understand the fundamental difference between a single guess and unlimited guessing, but either you've chosen to ignore my explanation, comprehend my explanation or you're using this to draw more attention to yourself...  perhaps even a combination.

 Have some milk  

NTJedi - you're missing the fundamental point of his (sarcastic) argument, and the point of this thread (as I see it). This is a contest in the loosest definition of the term, and I suspect its primary function is to give people like us, who are hopelessly addicted to these forums, something to do akin to twiddling our fingers while waiting in anticipation for the alpha to arrive.

PigeonX2 is right!  its close enough to alpha that I'm constantly checking the forums in hopes of new info being dropped.  For all I know the alpha could be released at any time (or at least a release date could be released at any time)  

but don't actually have any news so I'm reduced to thread-jacking with rants on crap like the metric system, or talking about seemingly random things such as the random landscape paintings in the latests screenshots.

This Argument is silly, because I clearly won the contest!

Clearly, you're all wrong.