Blah sorry everyone, owner of the commercial grow came down and it's been a scrambled week.
NorthernLights_420 was officially banned for cheating, 100% verified and proven.
For starters, this matter was brought up to us by another member on the forum (not a staff member,) that was participating in the contest and said they love a good competition as much as the next, but suspected NorthernLight_420 was secretly cheating. We simply said we would look into the matter, we didn't just take sides or start heating the oil for the tar & feather.
The forum software we use allows us to check user accounts to see if there are multiple logins from the same IP. Upon checking NorthernLights_420's account, he had TWO other accounts that he was logging into. Now, sometimes the software gives false positives on this (not often, rare, but I have seen it.) So upon checking the two other accounts, both were created recently, and BOTH had very, very minor alterations to the registered e-mail address, which was for intents and purposes, the SAME E-MAIL that NortherLights_420 used to sign up his original account.
So that is no longer coincidence or "maybe the forum software is wrong," instead that's blatant multiple accounts. With both those new accounts showing up in NorthernLights_420's main thread, liking a bunch of the posts, -and- showing up as users that have viewed the thread.
Multiple users accounts are against the AFN forum policy/rules.
And creating multiple user accounts to stat point your thread views to win a contest? That's just flat out cheating.
You were busted buddy. Like pants down, hands in the cookie jar, weiner waving in the wind. You also admitted to having the other accounts, so....
Anyway, I do apologize to everyone that took part in this and had to play next to a blatant cheater. But he's been banned, made an example of, and we'll continue to work hard to make sure things are as even and fair as we can, even if they are not our own sponsored contests or events.
Thanks everyone, again my apologies that it took us a bit to catch the culprit, but he's gone like the wind.