UPDATE: WINNERS HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED!
Firstly my apologies for not getting on to starting this topic sooner! It's been a busy weekend with Christmas prep as I knew I wouldn't have much time for it in the coming week!
After some consideration it has been decided that the official forum awards will be announced on the forum's 1st Anniversary, January 11th 2014. The awards will be based not on weight loss achievements but on community related achievements/recognition as we feel that turning weight loss into a sort of competition (however good intentioned) is not in the spirit of the forum. Some of you may remember when I first made the Tracker and suggested that it compile a Biggest Losers/Fastest Losers list - this idea was quickly shot down on the basis that we shouldn't be judging each other based on this nor should we risk putting pressure on members to compete.
That being said, if anyone wishes to run their own unofficial forum awards based around different categories that is of course up to you, and we encourage members of the community to work together on community-building projects like this!
So, having given things a bit of thought, here's how I plan to run it -
Open new forum & category discussion tomorrow (Monday 16th).
Nominations to begin on Friday 20th or Saturday 21st December (time dependant).
Nominations close on Friday 27th December.
Category Decider polls (if needed, to decide which categories a member will be entered into if nominated for too many) to begin on Saturday 28th December and close on Friday 3rd January.
Official Awards Voting to begin on Saturday 4th January and finish on Friday 10th January.
Results to be announced on Saturday 11th January.
If Category Decider polls are not needed we can begin the voting early and run the polls for longer.
This way there is about a week for each phase of voting.
I think I'll be able to handle all of this myself as the voting itself will be automated via the polls and the nominations can be collated at the end of the specified period, and should only take a couple of hours or so - since I'll be on leave from work I know I'll have the time
Hope that sounds alright to everyone. I've tried to make it fair and inclusive, not too competitive and with the purpose of encouraging and rewarding members for being involved with the community. I hope no-one will be upset if they aren't nominated, don't win etc. Not everyone can be winners, but we should be used to that here being a big old bunch of 'losers'
So, here are some thoughts for categories (they may be re-named to something more catchy, but the essence should remain):
Most inspirational 5:2 story
Most inspirational photographs
Most inspirational poster
Rib-tickler (Most entertaining member)
Friend Indeed (Most supportive member)
Forum Greeter (Most welcoming member)
Forum Brainbox (Most nerd-tastic contributor)
Top Blogger
Flying the Flag (person who has introduced the most new members/spread the word about the forum)
Triumph Through Adversity (member who has managed to 5:2 despite real life struggles)
I'm sure there are loads more ideas, and you're welcome to start batting them about in this topic. Tomorrow when I get a few minutes I'll set up the new board for handling all the award stuff and post up a more complete list of award ideas. Feel free to poo-poo any of the above that you don't feel are right, or suggest alternative names for them. This is just a quick list after all!
PS: I also really like P-JK's idea for a Hall of Fame forum where users can talk about who has inspired them and why, but I think this is a separate thing from the awards and something I'll look at in the new year.
Firstly my apologies for not getting on to starting this topic sooner! It's been a busy weekend with Christmas prep as I knew I wouldn't have much time for it in the coming week!
After some consideration it has been decided that the official forum awards will be announced on the forum's 1st Anniversary, January 11th 2014. The awards will be based not on weight loss achievements but on community related achievements/recognition as we feel that turning weight loss into a sort of competition (however good intentioned) is not in the spirit of the forum. Some of you may remember when I first made the Tracker and suggested that it compile a Biggest Losers/Fastest Losers list - this idea was quickly shot down on the basis that we shouldn't be judging each other based on this nor should we risk putting pressure on members to compete.
That being said, if anyone wishes to run their own unofficial forum awards based around different categories that is of course up to you, and we encourage members of the community to work together on community-building projects like this!
So, having given things a bit of thought, here's how I plan to run it -
- Firstly I will create a forum specifically for handling the awards related topics.
- We will start with a category brainstorm, where you're all free to suggest ideas for award categories. I'll give some examples below so you can see the sort of thing we're after. Please don't be upset if your idea is not used on this occasion, we can only do so many awards! I'm thinking around 10-15 in total.
- Once we have a list of categories (if needed, I may offer a poll on this) I'll open a topic for each where users can nominate a member, offering a reason why they want to make that nomination. I think it's a nice idea if all nominations have a 'second' from another member.
(I think it's only fair to limit the number of awards myself and the other staffers can be nominated for, so I'm going to suggest that we each only be eligible for one award. Members can be nominated for up to 3 awards.) - If anyone is nominated (and seconded) for too many awards we'll have a decider poll for that member, where folks can vote for which categories that member should be included for. That seems fairly democratic!
- Finally, when the list of nominees are ready for each award category, a poll will be started for that category where members can vote for the winner(s). I've already found a modification for the forum which will allow me to hide the poll results until the poll is over, so there'll be no way of anyone knowing who's in the lead at any point - no strategic voting, rigging etc. Please remember these awards are all done with good intentions and for our enjoyment, so trying to fix results etc would be really unfair of anyone doing so and not in the spirit of this community. I will note that this stage that users votes are well logged in the database and I will be able to tell if anyone is trying to stuff the ballot box from extra accounts and so on.
- The polls will run for a set period, until the day before the Anniversary. Since our Anniversary is on a Saturday I'm quite sure I'll have time to tally everything up, decide if any award should go to multiple winners (ie, if the poll results are really close for multiple members) - and then the results will be posted up on the big day itself
Open new forum & category discussion tomorrow (Monday 16th).
Nominations to begin on Friday 20th or Saturday 21st December (time dependant).
Nominations close on Friday 27th December.
Category Decider polls (if needed, to decide which categories a member will be entered into if nominated for too many) to begin on Saturday 28th December and close on Friday 3rd January.
Official Awards Voting to begin on Saturday 4th January and finish on Friday 10th January.
Results to be announced on Saturday 11th January.
If Category Decider polls are not needed we can begin the voting early and run the polls for longer.
This way there is about a week for each phase of voting.
I think I'll be able to handle all of this myself as the voting itself will be automated via the polls and the nominations can be collated at the end of the specified period, and should only take a couple of hours or so - since I'll be on leave from work I know I'll have the time
Hope that sounds alright to everyone. I've tried to make it fair and inclusive, not too competitive and with the purpose of encouraging and rewarding members for being involved with the community. I hope no-one will be upset if they aren't nominated, don't win etc. Not everyone can be winners, but we should be used to that here being a big old bunch of 'losers'
So, here are some thoughts for categories (they may be re-named to something more catchy, but the essence should remain):
Most inspirational 5:2 story
Most inspirational photographs
Most inspirational poster
Rib-tickler (Most entertaining member)
Friend Indeed (Most supportive member)
Forum Greeter (Most welcoming member)
Forum Brainbox (Most nerd-tastic contributor)
Top Blogger
Flying the Flag (person who has introduced the most new members/spread the word about the forum)
Triumph Through Adversity (member who has managed to 5:2 despite real life struggles)
I'm sure there are loads more ideas, and you're welcome to start batting them about in this topic. Tomorrow when I get a few minutes I'll set up the new board for handling all the award stuff and post up a more complete list of award ideas. Feel free to poo-poo any of the above that you don't feel are right, or suggest alternative names for them. This is just a quick list after all!
PS: I also really like P-JK's idea for a Hall of Fame forum where users can talk about who has inspired them and why, but I think this is a separate thing from the awards and something I'll look at in the new year.
This looks like another good plan of yours 
