As harsh as the initial poster's comments are, I think he is not far off the mark. A contest is not a very good way to design a logo. Paul Rand (the famously successful IBM logo) once said that if he followed focus group advice to design that logo it would have "looked like this" and showed the letters I B M set in all caps, old english. The best approach is to find the right person and get them to design a logo for you. But that approach is not free, or cheap. It is expensive (you do get what you pay for).
That being said, I appreciate the comment that this is a forum where there is zero budget and that this is a grass roots movement. I think that this context is what the initial poster is forgetting to recognize. This process has been really interesting to watch and a good first exercise in voting on something the community finds important. The results are the results, for good or ill. In my 20+ years as a graphics designer, my advice with the logo is that it is more about visual impact and uniqueness that communicates a couple things visually. Branding and visual identity will flow from that. Don't get too hung up on symbology. (But don't ignore it or you will end up like Amazon who have a penis in their logo.) My dad once said "Design opinions are like assholes, everyone has one". It is infinitely easier to criticize a design than it is to create one. - Randy
