Best Member 2012?

[Lucky]

It's a shame because way back on Sonicanime.net like 2005-2007 time we used to have these and they were actually good fun, BUT... being one of the more active members there I never really saw it through the eyes of someone less popular who didn't get any votes or whether anyone was upset behind the scenes.

 

We were a smaller community than SSMB too so yeah.

 

I just came in here to mention the Sonicanime.net ones. There was some drama about them at one point when a couple of members started getting people to register just to vote for them (and I'm sure one or two even created multiples just for that), badgering other people to nominate them, and I remember a few of the less active/popular ones whining to me a lot about it at the time because they didn't get anything out of it. It's a shame, because the first one or two ran smoothly enough and then as we started getting more members, it just ended up with too many people taking it seriously and getting offended when they didn't win. I think that's why they never ran them again after that.

 

I do agree though that I can never understand people who take it to heart, but the unfortunate thing is that a lot of people would, which is why I just think it's a really bad idea. Especially on a forum of this scale.

I'm still shocked I got SA.net's best member like twice, it was really flattering at the time. XD

[turbojet]

So are we doing this or not?

 

I was about to nominate Patticus and Tornado for best news member and then I thought about what news entailed and I was obviously thinking about Politics so now I'm fillibustering my own decision.

Edited January 7, 2013 by turbojet

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I do think that more forum events of any type would be beneficial for the boards, especially now since everyone perceives every little hiccup as WOAH INTERNET SOAP DRAMA, but I'm going to echo the popular opinion: This might not be the way to go about it.

 

I recall back in 06/07ish when Soniclans was a thing here and how we'd have to vote for the Clan Presidents and shit. Some members got really upset that they didn't get any votes, while other would win by a landslide, and would interpret it as "fuck nobody here likes me". These things easily turn into shallow popularity contests, more often than not, and that can really affect the feelings of some members. It would stir up negativity. 

 

That said, I'm not entirely unopposed to something like this, but I can't think of any way to make it unbiased and fair. It'd take a lot of planning and whatnot on the Staff's part and it may not even be worth the final result, in the end.

Yeah, I remember Soniclans.

 

There wasn't much drama there since not a lot of people participated as expected, but there was some resentment towards certain things like the Presidents.

 

That reminder only further convinces me that we shouldn't go this route, as I don't think we're ready for it...or if we will be considering how intense this place gets.

[Carbo]

Nah, we're not doing this.

There's not really any way this would go down well considering how tightly knit this particular community likes to be. Any sort of member accolades we can always end up managing with an Awards Tab if we ever feel the need, but it most certainly wouldn't be done this way as it's a pointless way to boost your e-peen.

If this board were far less open considering privs such as Status Updates are almost always the key reason as to why drama, favoritism or this is an iffy subject we wouldn't have to want to monitor, it'd have been more viable to do something like this because key reason they're mostly an appeal elsewhere is to offer a period in time when boards can get connected with the sum of it's parts. But as Tornado said I really don't believe this is something most people would handle reasonably. In certain ways this community has already been spoiled with how personal the possibility of interaction people have at hand is so the real point of this would be lost. It wouldn't exactly be a celebration of all our members more than it'd be just telling "that one guy is pretty cool", and I'll be frank - members here do have a rather visible habit in playing favorites. I dread seeing how that unofficial Skype Chat you guys hold would look if this happened.

This is the part where I end the post by making a back-handed facetious comment implying that none of you were good members this year. Badum-tish.

[Pelly <3's U]

I think the other thing to bear in mind is what makes for a good forum activity. Something like a end of the year member awards celebration sounds like it should be a fun, forum wide celebration, but unfortunately to me it has all the trappings of a seemingly good forum idea at first glance with a load of problems. I remember when I first became a mod, the thing I was most excited to do was run some forum activities. I remember one summer all of us staff brainstormed quite a variety of them, and we wanted to basically do a summer back to back to back of them, and it was supposed to be great fun.

 

And then actuality kicked in and we learned some things.

 

To me, there are 3 tenement rules of what makes a good forum activity.

 

1. Make it easy and simple for everyone to participate in, barring as many hindrances as possible that keep people from being able to contribute

2. Make it easy and simple to run

3. Keep it lighthearted and fun

 

Now these can be tailored to scale down for activities that maybe everyone might not be able to participate in, such as a videogame contest where everyone would need the game/the ability to play it online, but the thing to bear in mind even with these is you still want to keep it as open as possible, such as picking a game/system that's easily accessible and popular and keeping it open without too many complicated rules/time restraints. 

 

With an activity such as how you're presenting it, I just see it being a mess of complication, both in running it and participating in it. First off every single category would basically require a separate topic, either for nominations or at least voting/discussing/etc. This might not seem like a huge thing, but one thing to keep in mind in every new topic in an activity is actually a huge barrier for people to not click, as well as a space concern for where we put it.  

 

Then we have the fact that most people have complained about, which is the popularity/unfairness aspect. Now obviously you, Woun, and people like Nepenthe have presented some creative and probably effective solutions to combat this. The main problem is once again, it just ends up complicating things, both for whoever would run it, and those who want to join in. It's not like I don't think Nepenthe's voting ideas wouldn't be viable solutions, but in reality they are much more complicated and would require us to make sure members understand them as well as someone having to tabulate a more complicated system.

 

When I think of what I would consider the most successful forum activities/games, the kind that come to mind are things like:

Ponify a mod/werewolf/dress up (character) - One topic, no art skill restrictions, lulzy concept, everyone gets a prize (or a very easy voting system)

30 days of gaming - One topic, everyone gets a reward who participates, easy participation, mass appeal

Power Rangers/character weeks - Easy to join in, just for fun

SSMB top 100 games - similar to 30 days of gaming, which has a big but along with our next one...

Mr. SSMB

 

Now the last one was one of the first activities I ever ran, and it was quite funny and had good participation and basically was a fun activity all around.....and I never wanted to run it again. The problem was it was just a /slight step up/ more complicated then any of those other 'post stuff and luls' contests....and I basically spent hours behind the scene trying to run it and just exhausted myself. Every secondary aspect I added, from making it a contestant based contest, encouraging people to sign up, having judges and a scoring system, to having individual activities, to even art added a lot of behind the scenes time and work that in the end, while I has fun doing, I didn't want to commit myself to again. I know Pat had similar issues with the Top 100 games that led to him not running it anymore.

 

The thing is I love forum activities and would like to do more, but I've also learned these lessons that hopefully can help some of you understand why we as staff often have the opinions we do towards a lot of them. Keeps suggesting ideas and expect more fun activities in the future.....just also keep this stuff in mind.

[Pelly <3's U]

If there's anything I can think of that would be worse than people out in the open voting on each other for awards....

 

it would be a panel of 'elite' members basically deciding who on the boards is worthy on an award

[tenchibr]

This idea is a recipe for disaster... But that's mainly because you are leaving the control in the hands of EVERYONE. That spells anarchy.

 

If the staff were to concoct a fair, unbiased, way of doing a "Member of the Month", where only the staff decides who deserves it BASED ON THAT MONTH ALONE, it gives EVERYONE a fair chance to be it.

 

And before you say, "Duh, Staff X will choose Member Y," I would expect that decision to show evidence of why that member deserved it.

 

Like, a thread where a staff member posts "Here's to Jim Carrey, our Member of the Month in January 2013. He did this and that and this and that," and all showing links to his deeds DURING that month.

 

A Member of the Year is way too much, but if you do it by the month, and keep it controlled under staff only, it might work. Of course there must be flaws to my system which someone will address, but at least you get the gist of it.

 

Edit: That goes without saying that if someone complains that they did this and that during that month and didn't get the award, being "a waste" of their time, well, that speaks it for itself.

Edited January 8, 2013 by Phantom R / Tenchibr

[Tornado]

If the staff were to concoct a fair, unbiased, way of doing a "Member of the Month", where only the staff decides who deserves it BASED ON THAT MONTH ALONE, it gives EVERYONE a fair chance to be it.

 

And before you say, "Duh, Staff X will choose Member Y," I would expect that decision to show evidence of why that member deserved it.

 

Like, a thread where a staff member posts "Here's to Jim Carrey, our Member of the Month in January 2013. He did this and that and this and that," and all showing links to his deeds DURING that month.

 

Which goes far far far above and beyond even the rigors placed on the staff for normal community events (and you're doing it every month), and would still be liable to people pissing and moaning about it (look how often people already air dirty laundry in public against completely innocuous things the staff do).

[Danj86]

But at the same time I'm a very humble person.  If someone fails to win a popularity contest and takes it to heart I think they need to rethink their priorities and self-worth.  There's always gonna be someone more popular than you and even if do you win something on the board it is just this one board on the internet, you're not exactly being crowned Miss Universe.

I do agree though that I can never understand people who take it to heart, but the unfortunate thing is that a lot of people would, which is why I just think it's a really bad idea. Especially on a forum of this scale.

Unfortunately a large number of members here have mental or personality disorders. I suspect we are a portion of the people that might "take it to heart."

For example, I'm clinically depressed and have mostly only ever been praised by my family. I feel they only do it because they feel obligated to do so. But being praised by another person who doesn't have the same connection, can have an uplifting effect. While putting in lots of effort into something and getting no real no-recognition can have the opposite effect. Making me question if what I'm doing is worth it or not.

Not everyone with a mental or personality disorders will be the same, but that's how it is with me at least.

 

Although I'm sure the staff are relieved to know that I prefer to suffer in silence. XP

[Pelly <3's U]

Guy's we're not even debating the original idea anymore. There is a lot of potential for doing stuff along this lines, most of it has been tossed around in the staff forum for quite awhile. We've had a lot of fun activities in the past, and we'll continue to do a lot more so keep your suggestions coming, but I think this topic has outlived it's course