Award Voting 2017

rhombus · **on:** August 01, 2017, 01:51:09 AM

Voting for the 2017 Gang of Five Forum Awards has officially begun! In this topic you may post your votes for those individuals which you feel is most deserving of the awards mentioned in the rules topic.

Just as a reminder, in order to be qualified for any award you will need to vote for at least 4 of the 5 award categories. If you skip 2 of the main 5 categories then you must vote in the Appreciated Member award in order to win an award yourself.

With all of that in mind, please keep in mind that the annual forum awards are meant to be a fun event, and a chance to recognize those on the forum who have contributed to making it the welcoming and interesting place that it is. There are so many deserving candidates, and I will take at least a few days to consider my choices, but feel free to begin voting in this topic whenever you are ready to do so.

A running voting tally will be maintained on this initial post. Please keep in mind, however, that there will be some delay in when I can get around to updating the totals. I will try to update it daily.

~Fanart Award

Flathead770 - 7
Darkwolf91 - 5
CybertronianBrony - 1

~Feedback Award

Sovereign - 8
Rhombus - 3
DarkHououmon - 1

~Friendly Member Award

Ducky123 - 7
Snik - 2
DaveTheAnalyzer - 1
Kor - 1
Nick - 1
DarkHououmon - 1

~Proactive Award

Rhombus - 10
Fyn16 - 1
Hypnobrai - 1

~Role Play Gamer Award

Nick - 3
vonboy - 1
Serris -1

Fyn16 · **Reply #1 on:** August 01, 2017, 10:53:15 AM

You know, I've been here long enough. I think it's time I finally pitched in my two cents!

Fanart Award: Flathead770 . While my initial choice for this year's fanart award was going to be Darkwolf due to her high quality art and crazy attention to detail, I was pleasantly surprised when Flathead770 came seemingly out of nowhere to blow us away with show-accurate yet also deceptively simplistic traditional artwork. Upon further reflection, it turns out Flathead's actually been a member for a while, but this is the first I've seen of this talented individual's work. Of significant note is the piece that got me interested in the first place- a depiction of the Spinosaurus from the 12th film, a character which gets very little fan representation. I see Flathead as someone with great potential whose art is rapidly picking up interest among the community, so it is to Flathead that my vote goes this year.

Feedback Award: Sovereign . And how! I might have some bias here, coming almost strictly from the fanfiction side of this community, but Sovereign seems tireless in his consistent feedback throughout this forum's works, especially during this year's fanfic prompt challenge. I've seen him review nearly every new piece of writing that has graced these forum pages, and frankly I don't know how he does it. Not only are his reviews well-written, they are also fair and honest. His criticism is constructive, and his praises are incredibly uplifting. Personally, I've learned a lot by listening to his feedback, and I believe others have too. Sovereign wins this one in my eyes, no question.

Friendly Member Award: DaveTheAnalyzer . A (relative) newcomer, Dave has made a name for himself on here, both through his participation in "Land Before Time" board discussions and through his writing. While I personally have not interacted much with him, I have seen his conduct around other members and am very pleased to report that he is not only friendly in his interactions, but also raises points and questions that are incredibly thought-provoking and insightful (true to his name, I suppose!). I believe Dave has played a huge part in getting discussions going again, even without another film on the horizon to liven things up, and this is in large part due to his easygoing and intelligent nature. He's the number one pick in my book!

Proactive Award: Rhombus. Speaking of the fanfiction prompt challenge (yep, Rhombus- you knew this day would come

), where would that event be without Rhombus to spearhead it? Starting way back in December, I approached Rhombus with the idea of starting a prompt challenge, only to find that he had been planning the exact same thing. Once planning was underway, he was instrumental in starting up a new, fresh, and fun writing event that I believe completely revitalized the fanfiction section of the site, even if it slowed down towards summer. Thanks to Rhombus's work, the prompt challenge became an organized event rather than a flash in the pan, allowing new and experienced writers alike to show off their skills. He's always been available to discuss new ideas, plan fun little announcement pranks, and work with whatever snags we encounter along the way. Again, I may be biased here, but I feel the prompt challenge is one of the biggest things to come out of 2017 on this site this year, and Rhombus's role cannot be understated. In my eyes, this is where the Proactive Award should be going for 2017.

Sovereign · **Reply #2 on:** August 03, 2017, 09:09:46 AM

Fanart Award: Flathead770. There are many great artists around here on GoF but in my opinion, this year no one else has matched the quality and quantity of art we’ve seen from Flathead770. His card pictures were a great project and the variety and amount of art we saw in them was truly a treat to see. In addition to them, I’ve enjoyed the rest of his pictures also due to their amount of emotion and the effort he has put into them. They are easily some of the best-drawn on GoF these days and I truly appreciate his overall activity in the Fanart section. There are other worthy candidates, like Darkfwolf91, but the way I see it, Flathead has the edge here.

Feedback Award: rhombus. I think this category has no major competition. Rhombus has reviewed most of the fanfics on GoF over this year and has always given his fair balance of criticism and praise in his comments. He has also pointed out areas where people, including me, can improve our own work and I can say that his advice has helped me in finding the faults in my own writing and I’m sure many others here on GoF can say the same. I don’t think there’s anyone more worthy of this award than him.

Friendly Member Award: Ducky123. There have been many good candidates during the last year, (such as Hypnobrai who has been one of the kindest and most common persons I’ve spoken with), but I feel Ducky123 deserved this vote the most. He has always been a welcoming and nice presence in all discussions he has participated in and his posts have been thoughtful and generally friendly. Also, he has nearly always been ready to give advice even on off-topic questions in a constructive way. In addition, he was the first one to stand up to some erratic behavior during this year which was an unpleasant but necessary task that reinforced my position on this award.

Proactive award: rhombus. I’m extremely happy that the Fanfiction Prompt Challenge has run this long and his part in making it happen has been instrumental. Not only is the idea extremely fun, it also offered many a good chance to enter the LBT fanfic world easily and to receive fair and encouraging feedback in the process. It was absolutely great to see such a major event happen on GoF and I appreciate the continued effort both he and Fyn are putting into this project. Also, rhombus’ continued activity in the After Midnight section has been constant and constructive and he has created many interesting topics and stated his points in a friendly and informing way.

Role Play Gamer: vonboy. I haven’t been too familiar with this section but vonboy’s Seven Hunters roleplay was the only one that caught my interest somewhat. He had a good idea there and I saw that he was genuinely interested to make compromises to get it started. I’m sad to see that it didn’t take off and I also apologize for not taking part in it but the rp section is the one I’m rather unfamiliar with. Because of these reasons, I’m casting my vote for vonboy because of this great idea!

DarkWolf91 · **Reply #3 on:** August 04, 2017, 02:00:37 PM

Fanart Award: Flathead770
I always love to see new people posting art, and Flathead770 definitely started with a bang! The sheer volume and variety of his work is really impressive, and I look forward to seeing what he posts in the future

Feedback Award: Sovereign
No question! He is extremely prolific when it comes to quality feedback. He's responded to almost everything I've posted this year, and always gives valuable criticism.

Friendly Member Award: Snik
This one was very hard to choose, and it is always the section that slows down my vote submissions. However, in reviewing posts I have found that there's always a friendly face dropping by with something pleasant to say. So I would like to show my appreciation to Snik!

Proactive Award: Rhombus
This forum simply would not be what it is today without Rhombus' ceaseless efforts! In addition to the successful fanfiction prompt events, Rhombus has often approached me with ideas for art that directly benefit the GoF in some way (the Chomper banner being one example of this

). So the vote goes to Rhombus!

Role Play Gamer: Skip
Unfortunately I have once again had almost no contact with this section of the board. Hopefully that will change this year, though! (It's looking like it's off to a good start!)

Hypno · **Reply #4 on:** August 04, 2017, 02:38:19 PM

Quote

There have been many good candidates during the last year, (such as Hypnobrai who has been one of the kindest and most common persons I’ve spoken with),

Just that, even though it is not a nomination, makes me feel very happy

Now it is time for me to vote.

Fanart Award: Flathead770. His art for sharpteeth was awesome and showed more emotion than the movies, which can be seen in his Plated Sharptooth drawing, and as you know, those are the kind of LBT art I love the most (sharpteeth). Those kinds of drawings catch my attention, and they are very well done, so that is why I vote for him as well. His Yu-Gi-Oh LBT drawings were also really good as well, I loved them. Though I am not into Yu-Gi-Oh, I love the LBT twist he added to it, and that is another reason why he gets my vote

Feedback Award: Sovereign. His feedback on various work has, like Fyn said before, been very helpful to artists and writers alike. I have seen a LOT of helpful feedback from him in various artwork and fanfiction posts, and good constructive criticism. In fact, he's also given feedback and constrictive criticism in my own story (Dangerous Times) that I have been working on recently. That most certainly makes him deserving of my vote

Friendly Member Award: Ducky123. For me, this was very close; I would have either picked him or Sovereign, but I had to pick Ducky. As always, he is very welcoming to anyone, and is the opposite to those who do do fix their behaviors, which I rather like. Just can't sugarcoat with everyone. I understand that, and that is why my vote isn't really impacted by anything less friendly he did when I was here, because it was only the people who would deserve the less-friendliness if I had to pick one. Ducky123 gets my vote because of this. He's also been very nice to me

But, Sovereign is definitely the honorable mention here. We've had a lot of friendly discussions about LBT music in topics, and sometimes we were getting a little off topic while doing so

Proactive Award: Rhombus. Rhombus also gets my vote. His contributions in keeping the Fanfiction prompt challenge going was a very good task, and it helped change the fanfiction LBT category for the better

Just gonna add this - I forgot. This isn't a vote so I think I should be allowed to edit and write this, but, I have skipped the Role Play Gamer Award as you have already seen. There just hasn't been enough activity there aside from Nick, Serris, Brekclub, and LBT posting as usual. Though there hasn't been much activity, there seems to be a LBT roleplay in the works now which seems to be something that might get the section going again

How come there is no general forum category? There are quite a few people that would be capable of such an award, and it would make for a challenging vote.

rhombus · **Reply #5 on:** August 04, 2017, 02:49:25 PM

Quote from: Hypnobrai,Aug 4 2017 on 01:38 PM

How come there is no general forum category? There are quite a few people that would be capable of such an award, and it would make for a challenging vote.

Well the Appreciated Member award does kind of serve as general runner-up for all of the awards, as a person can only be eligible for that award if they do not win or get runner up in any other award. But we have never had a general 'grand champion' award in part due to the contributions of each member being so varied that it would be difficult to pick an overall grand winner. Also the exact qualifications for such an award would be quite difficult to specify.

rhombus · **Reply #6 on:** August 04, 2017, 03:11:41 PM

Well I have had some time to collect my thoughts and to make some decisions concerning my votes for this year. Some of these were challenging to finalize, most notably the friendly member award, but I am finally confident enough in my choices to cast my votes.

Fanart Award: My vote this year goes to DarkWolf91. In terms of her skills as an artist I think that she is easily among the best that there is on the forum, and she has contributed to several forum-related projects, most notably out lovely banner depicting Chomper munching on Photobucket icons. For both her artistic skills and willingness to use them for the betterment of the forum, Darkwolf91 has my vote this year.

Feedback Award: Though both DaveTheAnalyzer and Sovereign have given great constructive feedback to me on both the forum and fanfiction.net, it is Sovereign who has been omnipresent throughout the forum in giving constructive feedback to all of the numerous fanfiction writers. For this reason he easily earns my vote this year.

Friendly Member Award: This was quite honestly the most difficult of the categories of them all. In addition to the friendliness shown by Sovereign, Fyn, and Darkwolf in helping the forum in their unique ways, there also are numerous examples of kindness and friendliness from numerous other members. With all of that being considered, however, I think that my vote for this category must go to Ducky123. Not only had he interacted kindly with members of the forum, but he has personally assisted me in the efforts to resolve the Photobucket fiasco at immense cost to his personal time. What could be more friendly than that?

Proactive Award: With his steadfast dedication to the successful fanfiction prompt challenge, his contributions to the forum mini-prank this year (in said discussion topic), and his general willingness to always give members a helping hand, my vote goes to Fyn16 this year.

Role Play Gamer: Sadly I will have to skip this award this year. Though I am hopeful that I can participate in a new LBT RP soon, there just hasn’t been activity this year on the LBT side of the RP forum, where my interests lie.

The Lone Dragon · **Reply #7 on:** August 04, 2017, 08:35:45 PM

Well this is a very difficult year of voting since the candidates are all very good.

Fanart: There are a couple of candidates I see for this award, mainly Darkwolf and Flathead, both have done several very good pieces but when I look at each piece then I think I can clearly see who I'm voting for, both artists are very good and creative but my vote this year is for Darkwolf91

Feedback: Now I've noticed a few people with feedback to share this year including DaveTheAnalyser, Snik, Rhombus and Sovereign and they have all made sure to post their comments on various art and stories (Though I wish I had a little more feedback for TST

) but the one I'm giving my vote to always has something positive and constructive to say so I'm voting for Sovereign

Proactive: This is difficult, there have been plenty of proactive members this year but deciding which one to award my vote to is very difficult, though I think that I'll be placing my vote to Rhombus this year for his hard work on the fanfiction challenge and the blasted photo bucket issue.

Friendly Member: Oh sharks, here's the hardest category of all, the friendly member, everyone in the forum is friendly which makes picking the friendliest rather tricky, there are so many to choose from. So I'm going for the member who is nearly always friendly with everyone, my vote goes to Ducky123. This was a very difficult choice.

Role Play Gamer: I usually do keep an eye on the RP section of the thread, though I wish there were more RPs active, hopefully that would soon change. Now before I get to my vote I would like to put a honourable mention to Ducky123 for starting this next RP idea and for writing the RP that helped inspire me to write TST and were I around when that was written then he'd be getting my vote. However, I don't think it's to fair to vote for an RP that's not been running for years so my vote this year is going to GoF's biggest role player Nick22 for his long standing work and contribution to the RP forum.

Looks like that's all my votes in, good luck everyone.

Flathead770 · **Reply #8 on:** August 04, 2017, 09:16:23 PM

Proactive Member Awards: rhombus
Even though I've only recently joined up again it's fairly evident the amount of success the fanfiction prompts have been. It seems to have brought many people to start writing fanfiction of their own, which is very impressive. I would also like to give a shout out to both Sovereign and Hypnobrai for this category as well. Hypnobrai's continued effort to extending or starting new discussions and Sovereign's work to reaching out to the people who've worked on LBT are two other highlights that come to my mind.

Fanart Award: DarkWolf91
I don't think it's a surprise to anyone here the DarkWolf91's artwork stands above the rest. Her quality and detail put into every picture she does is truly fantastic and I look to them for ways to possibly improve my own.

Friendly Member Award: Snik
Snik's constant humor with pretty much every post is most welcome and helps keep things here at the GoF light-hearted (though maybe dark-hearted with all of his jokes of sharpteeth doing bad things might be more accurate

). I would like to give a shout out to CybertronianBrony as well. The amount of excitement and happiness that he conveys through his posts are evident. The fact that Snik is constantly active in a large portion of the forum was the deciding factor here for me.

Feedback Award: Sovereign
Sovereign consistently comments to pretty much everything while always trying to give some form of input on how it could possibly be improved, no matter how small it may be. I always greatly appreciate his feedback to my artwork for constructive criticism.

Role Play Awards:
I haven't ventured into the role playing section so I cannot make a decision on this award.

[EDIT]Minor grammar fixes

Ducky123 · **Reply #9 on:** August 06, 2017, 09:50:27 PM

At this point, I'm only determined who to vote for in one category, the rest of my votes will be cast later

Feedback Award: Well, this is perhaps the category I've really abandoned a bit too much this year but, let's be honest, the amount of written work submitted this year is truly impressive! I think I don't need much explanation here, Sovereign has my vote for sure! There are quite a few people worth mentioning of course but Sovereign is the member I see reviewing both written works and art most frequently and doing so in a fair, uplifting way yet he also offers some help wherever he can so that's why I'll vote for him. About time somebody threw me off the throne anyway!!!

Rustam · **Reply #10 on:** August 07, 2017, 09:53:40 AM

If you don't mind.
Friendly Member Award - ADFan185
When I came to this forum, he gaves attention to me and my posts.

rhombus · **Reply #11 on:** August 07, 2017, 10:51:37 AM

Quote from: Rustam,Aug 7 2017 on 08:53 AM

If you don't mind.
Friendly Member Award - ADFan185
When I came to this forum, he gaves attention to me and my posts.

I'm sorry, Rustam, but you do not meet the qualifications to vote in the Gang of Five awards. As stated in the rules, in order to participate in the awards (either voting or being voted for) you must have a post count of at least 100 posts and be active in the last 2 months. As you only have 68 posts you do not meet that qualification, but if you are still active this time next year you will probably have the necessary post count to participate for next year's awards.

rhombus · **Reply #12 on:** August 14, 2017, 08:40:03 PM

Just a reminder, everyone, that we have only a little over 2 weeks of voting left in the forum awards, so make sure that you cast your votes if you intend to do so. Nominations to the fanfic awards will begin tomorrow. I will post a topic on the matter a bit later.

Littlefoot fan 1990 · **Reply #13 on:** August 14, 2017, 10:41:36 PM

Fanart Award: DarkWolf91 has my vote for her amazing artwork. So much detail and I hope to get almost as good with my drawings. I also like to give a shout-out to Ducky123 and CybertronianBrony for their fanart as well; their pictures come out looking pretty decent.

Feedback Award: While ADFan185 had some positive things to say about one of the topics I posted, DarkHououmon has my vote for the criticism he has given to me so I can improve on my writing.

rhombus · **Reply #14 on:** August 15, 2017, 04:58:39 AM

Quote from: Littlefoot fan 1990,Aug 14 2017 on 09:41 PM

Fanart Award: DarkWolf91 has my vote for her amazing artwork. So much detail and I hope to get almost as good with my drawings. I also like to give a shout-out to Ducky123 and CybertronianBrony for their fanart as well; their pictures come out looking pretty decent.

Feedback Award: While ADFan185 had some positive things to say about one of the topics I posted, DarkHououmon has my vote for the criticism he has given to me so I can improve on my writing.

Just a reminder, Littlefoot fan 1990, make sure to not edit your posts in the voting topic except for minor typo corrections, but rather to post votes in additional categories as new posts in the event that you can't decide them all at one time. Otherwise it is possible that we admins might not notice the new votes that have been cast by your edit. Your votes for the fanart award and feedback award have now been noted in the totals.

Littlefoot fan 1990 · **Reply #15 on:** August 15, 2017, 02:27:45 PM

Quote from: rhombus,Aug 15 2017 on 04:58 AM

Quote from: Littlefoot fan 1990,Aug 14 2017 on 09:41 PM
Fanart Award: DarkWolf91 has my vote for her amazing artwork. So much detail and I hope to get almost as good with my drawings. I also like to give a shout-out to Ducky123 and CybertronianBrony for their fanart as well; their pictures come out looking pretty decent.

Feedback Award: While ADFan185 had some positive things to say about one of the topics I posted, DarkHououmon has my vote for the criticism he has given to me so I can improve on my writing.
Just a reminder, Littlefoot fan 1990, make sure to not edit your posts in the voting topic except for minor typo corrections, but rather to post votes in additional categories as new posts in the event that you can't decide them all at one time. Otherwise it is possible that we admins might not notice the new votes that have been cast by your edit. Your votes for the fanart award and feedback award have now been noted in the totals.

Okay, I didn't know that at first; this is my first time voting on this forum, so I'm new at this. I also just got the hang of putting text in bold and underline.

Nick22 · **Reply #16 on:** August 20, 2017, 03:25:49 PM

Hi guys just a reminder that you have until the end of the month to get your votes in. the fanfiction awards are also ongoing, so those who are participating in that, dont forget to submit your fanfics .

Littlefoot fan 1990 · **Reply #17 on:** August 20, 2017, 06:14:24 PM

Here is my other votes for the rest of the categories

Friendly Member Award: There are so many friendly members on this board; it's so hard to choose just one. Since I can only nominate one member for each category, my vote is for Ducky123.

Proactive Award: This is another category where it's hard to choose just one member for a nomination; however, my vote is for Rhombus; his contributions to the board is what helps keep it alive; especially with the fanfiction prompts.

Role Play Gamer: Skip.
Unfortunately, I have to skip this one; I don't generally go into the role play section so I can't decide which member to nominate for this award.

The Chronicler · **Reply #18 on:** August 26, 2017, 10:31:00 PM

Not only has it taken me a while to think of my choices, but also I've simply been unable to find much spare time to make long posts like this. Well, with less than a week to go, I might as well get to it now.

Fanart: Flathead770
We've had some great fanartists over the years, but this year, not only did an old member suddenly return, he also quickly showed us some of his artistic talent and it turned out to be very impressive. As much as I like what others like Darkwolf91 have done, I'm going with Flathead770 because I just can't help but say: Where did this guy and his talents suddenly come from?

Feedback: Sovereign
I wasn't sure about this one as I haven't really paid that much attention to feedback of everyone's works. However, upon seeing Sovereign getting a lot of votes here, I decided to check for myself and, sure enough, he's one of those members who's always replying to every fanart and fanfiction, saying what he likes and offering helpful advice where he can. So I guess I'll just follow the crowd and throw my vote at hit as well.

(I'd also like to take this chance to say that, if the Philosopher award had been a category this year, my vote there would've also gone to Sovereign.)

Friendly Member: Ducky123
It's always hard to chose someone for this award. In fact, I was considering not voting for Ducky123 for this award because while some people are known to never lash out at someone, he's... not exactly one of them. However, seeing how much praise he's been getting here for calling out certain individuals for bad behavior, I think I might reconsider my original stance. I'd also like to give out an honorable mention here for DaveTheAnalyzer (whom I would have also considered for the Philosopher award, if we had one this year).

Proactive: rhombus
I think this one is rather obvious. Hosting the member awards and co-founding the fanfiction prompts are among the things he's done for this site this year. Not to mention, out of all the admins we have, he and Nick are pretty much the only ones we ever see anymore, so it's nice to know that we still have a great guy like him to keep an eye on things every day.

Role Play Gamer: *skip*
I never pay attention to that section, so there's no way I can cast a fair vote here.

Nick22 · **Reply #19 on:** August 26, 2017, 11:05:49 PM

Well here are my votes for this years awards

Fanart: This year I'll have to give it To FLATHEAD770. His artwork is REALLY good.

Roleplay: there are a number of very good role-players on this board and with whom I role-play regularly. These include Lettucebaconandtomato, brekclub85, bushwhacked, Starfall, and Kor. But my vote this year, for his continued strong work in the Blanking the Slate and Insane Cafe series, goes to SERRIS.
Proactive: RHOMBUS , hands down. He's primarily responsible for keeping the awards alive, and is doing a great job at it.
Feedback: RHOMBUS again. He is always quick to give feedback to an idea, or comment on a topic

Friendly: This is always the hardest one to pick someone, since nearly everyone on here is very friendly. My vote this year goes to KOR, since he is always friendly and supportive in my interactions with him.