Hi all,not sure if this is the right forum but here goes...I just looked through the 2005 Bravo Zulu website - www.jonpatch.ca/flightsim - first off, my heartfelt congrats to all recipients!!!I'm a bit surprised though that there is no category for Freeware Scenery!?! Surely, in the past twelve months many wonderful and very popular scenery add-ons were provided to the FS community free of charge: airports, landscapes, texture replacements, etc. There was a freeware scenery category last year and I was the happy recipient - thus I was out of the race for this year anyway, in case anyone thinks "vested interest" ;-) So what happened to it this year or did someone forget to mention it on the website?Cheers, Holger

I have to agree with you on this one. I was actually looking at the list and thinking 'man they have a catagory for everthing' (gauges???) almost like they make one up just to recongnize a well done project.Then it dawned on me, no freeware scenery? Maybe because I just the last few days installing some really really nice stuff (ahem... Victoria BC)

>I have to agree with you on this one. I was actually looking>at the list and thinking 'man they have a catagory for>everthing' (gauges???) almost like they make one up just to>recongnize a well done project.Just how does RXP's 3308 qualify for the "Best Freeware Panel / Gauges package" category?The last time I looked, it was still $19.95... ;)

The GPS and systems are now freeware.I think that Golden Wings 3 would've gotten best freeware scenery, without a doubt...

I believe this year's BZ awards are not as par to the previous yearsa.lots of mistakes in the products who won ...

I don't know whay there are awards for any payware products at all - their success or failure is based entirely on commercial grounds. And there will always be suspicions that the `winners` may have achieved that staus for more reasons than just technical merit. It's the unpaid voluntary contributions to the hobby that deserve reward and recognition, not those whose reward is to make money from it! The paid-for developers get more than ample recognition in the reviews on websites and many posts in this and all the other forums. Allcott

"I don't know whay there are awards for any payware productsat all - their success or failure is based entirely oncommercial grounds. And there will always be suspicions thatthe `winners` may have achieved that staus for more reasonsthan just technical merit. It's the unpaid voluntary contributions to the hobby thatdeserve reward and recognition, not those whose reward is tomake money from it! The paid-for developers get more thanample recognition in the reviews on websites and many posts inthis and all the other forums."Couldn't agree more!Seems a public poll for winners would have been more fair. Regards, MichaelKDFWhttp://www.calvirair.com/mcpics/mcdcvabanner.jpgCalVirAir International

As far as I'm concerned, a prize to an add on should be purely based on its merits and should have nothing to do with whether it is payware/freeware. Victor

>>Just how does RXP's 3308 qualify for the "Best Freeware Panel>/ Gauges package" category?>>The last time I looked, it was still $19.95... ;)Hehe, I noticed that too.Maybe it was a typo ?Regards.Ernie.

>The GPS and systems are now freeware.Er, no they definitely are not "freeware..." :-hmmm

Hi Holger,Thanks for the link, but did you not mean http://www.avsim.com/pages/0905/bz_announc.../bz_awards.html for the awards?As for the issue, commercial awards are a tradition in many industries, so I understand why they exist. But what fun to have freeware and payware go head to head!And it would be cool to have freeware awards too, but I don't feel strongly about it.Jon

Hi Jon,oops, posted the wrong link indeed :-badteeth Guess you got some extra traffic on your website looking for awards ;-) Mea culpa!The thing is that those Avsim awards already are a mixture of commercial and freeware categories and I assumed that they would ALWAYS have matching category, e.g., payware scenery AND freeware scenery. But maybe it's a more flexible system and Avsim staff didn't feel that any of the freeware scenery offerings merited an award?Again, the point I was trying to make was NOT about WHO should have won an award but rather regarding the lack of a freeware scenery category in the first place. Since Avsim forum members frequently speak about the supposed decline of quality freeware (with which I personally don't agree) I believe that awards such as the Bravo-Zulu do offer a valuable recognition of non-commercial efforts.I rest my case *:-* Cheers, Holger

I'm completely with you, Holger!Also, I think the freeware and payware should be judged apart, rather more categories than less..Cheers,Dasher7

Hello All,I have read all the posts in this message so far and agree 100% that there should be a category for scenery. My contribution to the scenery area of flight sim has been small (Rotterdam, Dulles, Gatwick, Innsbruck, Leeds and Groningen Airports) compared to some of these other guys and I enjoy the healthy unspoken competition between developers (freeware). I started out in FS when I had a good puter by the days standard (8086,,lol - Laser Turbo XT) and seen this hobby come a long way on the backs of FREEWARE developers. Were it not for freeware, a great many of these flight simulator related sites would simply not exist. The payback to a freeware developer is simply feedback via forums and email as thanks for a job well done and in that regard so to should there be awards given to the best (as judged) freeware developers that conjure up these gems weather they be panels, aircraft, gauges, scenery or any addon that enhances the experience of our addictive hobby of flight simulator.Douglas Ret 707