The Gang of Five

Beyond the Mysterious Beyond => The Fridge => Saurus Rock: Member Hall of Fame => Topic started by: Littlefoot1616 on June 03, 2010, 07:16:29 AM

Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Littlefoot1616 on June 03, 2010, 07:16:29 AM
Hey Gang!

Below are the official rules for engagement for the 2010 Gang of Five Membership Awards. Please read the following statements below carefully as these outline the DO's and DO NOT's of the voting process of this year's awards. These are here to help guide you as you cast your votes particularly for those new nominees eligible to vote and gain awards this year.

The voting process will officially open on FRIDAY 4th JUNE 2010 and will be kicked started by an opening speech from one of the members of staff of the GOF.
***DO NOT START VOTING BEFORE THEN!!!***
Voting for the initial 8 categories (listed below) will last for 2 weeks and will close at 12midnight on FRIDAY 18th JUNE 2010 (forum standard time)

Please take time out to read these statements carefully so not to accidentally (or otherwise) breach any of the rules

***OFFICIAL RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR 2010 GANG OF FIVE MEMBERSHIP AWARDS***

- All selected GOF members listed are invited to participate in the GOF Awards. These candidates have been granted participation on clearing of the following conditions:
         1. Have a post count of at least 100 posts
         2. Have actively posted on the GOF within the past 3 months
         3. Have been a member of the GOF since 1st January 2010
The list of eligible candidates for this year's awards can be found by clicking HERE (http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=7804). If you're name is NOT on the register, you are NOT eligible to receive an award in this year's nominations

- The main categories for this year's Awards are as follows:
~Fanart Award
~Feedback Award
~Friendly Member Award
~Helpful Member Award
~Philosopher Award
~Proactive Award
~Project Award
~Role Play Gamer Award

- The Appreciated Member Award will also be included but nominations for this award will be conducted AFTER the main 8 categories have been finalised and the awards distributed. DO NOT reveal your nomination for the Appreciated Member Award alongside your votes for the initial 8 categories because it won't be counted.

- You are to offer ONE (1) nomination per category highlighting the nominee's GOF username in underline and/or bold to aid with the tallying process. We strongly advise all participants to vote in ALL categories if they can. Understandably there may be some areas you are not too sure on if you haven't been involved directly (e.g. the RPG section) or are genuinely unable to select one candidate but we urge you try to offer a nomination if you can.

- No member participating in the GOF Awards 2010 is entitled to an award if they DID NOT vote in at least six (6) of the initial 8 categories. By NOT voting in at least 6 categories, you WILL NOT receive any awards you may be entitled to once the results are recorded and finalised. The award will instead go to which ever member gained the second highest amount of votes in that category provided that no other rulings have been breached.

- You are permitted to skip a maximum of two (2) of the 8 initial awards. By skipping no more than two votes, you will still be eligible for any awards you may have coming your way. Skipping more than two votes will see you being stripped of any award you may obtain once the results are recorded and finalised with the award going to which ever member gained the second highest amount of votes provided that no other rulings have been breached.

- All nominations MUST be accompanied with a few lines or a brief statement as to why you feel your choice deserves the stated award. It doesn't have to be an essay nor does it have to hail them as royalty but it will help enforce your choice and can be counted as vaild reasoning. Please feel free to express credit to those members you felt were close contenders for an award if you so wish. Nominations that DO NOT include these explanatory lines for your choice will be considered INVALID and WILL NOT COUNT towards that member's score tally. Furthermore, nominations without explanatory comments will COUNT AGAINST YOU AS A SKIPPED VOTE and may jeopardise your own chances of obtaining an award you may be entitled to.

- When casting your votes, if you DO NOT complete all of your nominations in one post, please submit the remainder of your nominations IN A SEPERATE POST. Please DO NOT UPDATE OR EDIT OLD/PREVIOUS POSTS as this can confuse record keeping of who has cast what votes in which category. The Admin team will keep a record of your voting progress which will be viewable once voting has started.

- We VERY STRONGLY DISCOURAGE voting for yourself in any given category for the GOF awards. If you genuinely feel that there are no other eligible candidates who deserve a specific award then you are permitted to vote for yourself in one (1) category ONLY. Voting for yourself in more than one category will INVALIDATE your nomination and will be counted as a SKIPPED VOTE. In the event of a tie in number of votes for a category, the candidate who DID NOT nominate themselves within the category will be granted the award as the overall winner.

- The eligible candidate who got MOST VOTES for a given award will be permitted to add one of the drafts of the said award to his or her signature. If the eligible candidate with the SECOND MOST VOTES for an award achieved at least A THIRD OF THE NUMBER OF VOTES OF THE WINNER he or she qualifies for a RUNNER UP AWARD. He or she may then add one of the drafts for the award in question THAT HAS NOT BEEN PICKED BY THE WINNER ALREADY to his or her signature.

- We VERY STRONGLY DISAPPROVE AND DISCOURAGE any kind of activity that deems as cheating, vote fixing, conspiring, bribing or any general misconduct of ensuring that any one GOF member will be guaranteed an award. If any admin or moderator suspects members conspiring to ensure that a pre-determined candidate receives an award by solely voting for them without a certifible reason for the nomination, those members involved will be: 1. Disqualified from the nominations. 2. Not be permitted to participate in the remainder of the event including being stripped of any awards they would potentially receive. 3. Face disciplinary measures outside of the awards which may lead to membership suspension or possibly permenant exclusion and banning from the Gang of Five forum. By any judgement, the word of the Administration Staff of the GOF is FINAL.

-The award vote is a public and democratic decision in which the voters have to state the reasons for their decisions. Individual members therefore DO NOT HAVE ANY "CLAIM" TO AN AWARD UNLESS ELECTED. Because whining and complaints of members who cannot accept the decisions of their fellow members KILL THE FUN for the other members and COMPROMISE THE CONTINUATION OF THE AWARD VOTING complaints and whining about not winning an award can result in A MEMBER'S EXCLUSION FROM THE AWARD VOTING AND DISCIPLINARY MEASURES OUTSIDE THE VOTING PROCESS

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Remember! Voting starts on FRIDAY 4th JUNE 2010 and ends at 12midnight on FRIDAY 18th JUNE 2010 (forum standard time). A GOF member of staff will begin the voting process with an opening speech. That's your cue to start! If you have any questions regarding the rules or anything about the GOF Membership Awards, please don't hesitate to ask us using this topic page.

Best of luck to everyone! ;)
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Alex on June 04, 2010, 05:14:03 PM
I might've missed this, but is it okay to vote for a user in more than one category?
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Malte279 on June 04, 2010, 05:22:12 PM
Yes, unless the user is yourself. One may vote for the same user on various awards only the option of self-election is restricted to one single case (and we discourage even the single case self-election) :yes
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Caustizer on June 04, 2010, 05:48:50 PM
Just a thought, but how come their isn't a category for Fan Fiction or is that considered to be part of Fan Art?

If it is a part of that, then it would be nice if the description was a bit more clear, such as being "Fanart & Fanfiction Award"

I feel that there are a number of good writers who there such as Brekclub, Babkrakenguard (sorry if i misspelled), Serris, LBTFan13, and DarkHummon (sorry again if i misspelled) whom don't get any credit for their work over members who draw instead.  :angel

Caustizer.
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Mumbling on June 05, 2010, 01:46:20 AM
Quote from: Caustizer,Jun 4 2010 on  11:48 PM
Just a thought, but how come their isn't a category for Fan Fiction or is that considered to be part of Fan Art?

If it is a part of that, then it would be nice if the description was a bit more clear, such as being "Fanart & Fanfiction Award"

I feel that there are a number of good writers who there such as Brekclub, Babkrakenguard (sorry if i misspelled), Serris, LBTFan13, and DarkHummon (sorry again if i misspelled) whom don't get any credit for their work over members who draw instead.  :angel

Caustizer.
This has been discussed several times before. Since everyone has a different taste of fanfiction and does not read all the fanfiction which is posted on this board, it is hard to judge whether the voting would be fair.
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Sky on June 05, 2010, 07:13:43 AM
Quote from: Mumbling,Jun 5 2010 on  12:46 AM
This has been discussed several times before. Since everyone has a different taste of fanfiction and does not read all the fanfiction which is posted on this board, it is hard to judge whether the voting would be fair.
Does that mean that we can only vote members with artworks and not with fan fictions?  :unsure:
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Petrie. on June 05, 2010, 07:24:10 AM
Hmmm...good questions.  We've not had a lot of fanfiction in the past on the GOF, hence we've never done a separate award for fanfictions.  Additionally, as Iris has said, tastes are different and it does bring a good amount of bias into the vote.

We'll get back to you on it if anything is changing.  I don't think it will, but you never know.
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Malte279 on June 05, 2010, 07:33:27 AM
The fanart award is meant to refer to visual art by a single artist (the later point setting it apart from the projects award). It is not meant to include fanfiction. There had been debating about a fanfiction award in the last years. The problem is that with the sheer amount of fanfiction out there it is highly unlikely for anyone to have read all of it and thereby be able to make a fair decision. Moreover fanfiction is kind of polarizing where it comes to content. If all the content of fanfictions with all the high degree violence and sometimes sexually explicit content was posted as pictures it would not be tolerated on the GOF. Because of the near impossibility to get a real overview over all the fanfiction out there and because of the polarizing nature of the content of most fanfiction the fanart award is meant to refer only to visual, not to literary fanart.
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Caustizer on June 05, 2010, 09:24:40 AM
Is it the intent of the admins then that GOF members who partake in this area should remain unrecognized by the site?  :confused It doesn't seem fair to discount an entire area of LBT fandom just because it may be subject to bias.

It may be true, but the same way of thinking also applies to other awards such as 'Helpful Member' for example, where someone is only going to vote for the member who has been the most helpful to them personally.

The reason I pursue this topic is because my biggest contribution to the Gang of Five is through Fan Fiction... it is my passion and for the most part why I am here.  In the current award scheme, not only can I not vote for talented writers who I feel deserve recognition but I myself cannot recieve any votes for my primary area of expertise.  :cry

One does not have to read every line of Fan Fiction on the site to know who is contributing to the area on a regular basis, much like one does not have to investigate every LBT Project to know who is the most active in this area of the site and deserving of an award.  :angel

Caustizer
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Petrie. on June 05, 2010, 07:30:57 PM
Point taken.  As I said, give us time and as I've stated before, fanfiction in the past has not been a very large part of the community, hence we have not done a fanfiction award before, and that is why it was not on the list this year.  We will certainly take your words into consideration and add it to voting if we feel there is a large fanfiction community on the GOF.
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Dima02 on June 07, 2010, 11:13:37 PM
Are there any rules regarding who is allowed to vote. Are all members allowed to vote?
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Alex on June 07, 2010, 11:39:02 PM
There's a list. Or something. It's another thread. In fact, there's a link to it in Littlefoot1616's original post.
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: LBTFan13 on June 07, 2010, 11:58:50 PM
Like it's been said, the only problem with making a fanfiction award is that everybody has different tastes. Also, writers have different writing styles, so to choose somebody for an award would be the same as saying that person has the best writing style, which would alienate the other authors.

Besides, I don't write my fanfictions to be recognized for any award. I write them because I enjoy doing so, and people enjoy reading them. If they happen to be recognized for something like that, then great, but it is not required for me.

I thank you though for your concern on the matter Caustizer ;)
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Kor on June 08, 2010, 12:13:42 AM
Quote from: Dima02,Jun 7 2010 on  10:13 PM
Are there any rules regarding who is allowed to vote. Are all members allowed to vote?
The rules about who is allowed to vote and a list of members who can vote is at: http://z7.invisionfree.com/thegangoffive/i...?showtopic=8065 (http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=7804)

It looks like you are on the list of ones who can vote, and colored red which I believe means you have not yet voted.
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Caustizer on June 14, 2010, 04:10:12 PM
On a seperate note, what happens in the event of a strong tie between two members?  Say something to the effect of 3-3 or 6-6 like we could see in the Friendly Member and Fanart sections.
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Mumbling on June 14, 2010, 04:17:04 PM
There would be a final voting section in which people can only vote for those two, to see who would win that award :)
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Petrie. on June 14, 2010, 05:08:24 PM
Quote from: Caustizer,Jun 14 2010 on  03:10 PM
On a seperate note, what happens in the event of a strong tie between two members?  Say something to the effect of 3-3 or 6-6 like we could see in the Friendly Member and Fanart sections.
Let me double check on that.  I believe we do a revote to the community.
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Petrie. on June 14, 2010, 05:14:46 PM
Double checked what we have done in the past....a revote is put to the community and they have 24 hours to cast new votes.  Should another tie occur, the vote goes to the admins whose votes are the tiebreaker (5 admins - no ties).
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Pangaea on June 15, 2010, 07:11:37 PM
If you nominate someone who has not been a member since at least the beginning of the year (and thus is not eligible to vote), is that vote not counted towards the minimum number of six votes you need to make in order to be eligible to receive an award yourself?
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Littlefoot1616 on June 16, 2010, 07:22:05 AM
You MUST make votes for eligible candidates ONLY. If you vote for someone who IS NOT on the voter's list, your vote will be INVALID and WILL COUNT AGAINST YOU as a SKIPPED VOTE. Please make sure you vote ONLY for those who are registered. Make sure you double check who is on the voting list before casting votes. Don't lose out on awards you might receive for voting for ineligible candidates.
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Pangaea on June 17, 2010, 03:13:19 AM
Another question: Are you required to state which categories you are not voting in (if any), or is it just something that is strongly encouraged?
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Malte279 on June 17, 2010, 03:39:42 AM
If one decides not to vote in a section we encourage just writing a line about it to make the overview easier (no need for explanations on why a vote is skipped), but so long one doesn't skip any more than the maximum number of skipped votes (two) one does not disqualify oneself from receiving an award by not spelling out the skipping of a vote.

One important thing to note is that the vote for the "Appreciated Member Award" starts only after the end of the voting on the other awards. If somebody has skipped two votes already and then does not vote for the "Appreciated Member Award" he or she would disqualify him or herself. If someone has skipped one or no vote so far he or she would not disqualify him or herself by not voting on the "Appreciated Member Award", but of course we very strongly encourage to vote on this award (the candidates for the Appreciated Member Awards are those eligible GOF members who have not won any award or runner up award in the vote up to that point).

Finally one note for certain reasons, the votes in the whole voting are supposed to be the personal decisions of the voters and only of the voters. Especially voters should not be "advised" or talked into changing their votes. While we do not have a specific rule against changing votes that have been given (excepting cases where members previously voted for have been disqualified or announced they don't want to participate in the vote) we very strongly discourage this to spare both the nerves of our tally keeper and (much more importantly) the feelings of anyone who has been voted for and is then suddenly stripped from his or her votes.

[Edit]Ooops, the "certain reasons" I believed to have to add the last point never existed :oops
My bad, there had just been an advise to change a vote cast for a member who was not yet eligible for this years award voting session. I hadn't realized and paranoid me jumpted to the wrong conclusions :slap
Sorry about this :oops
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: DarkHououmon on June 18, 2010, 04:40:15 PM
Quote from: LBTFan13,Jun 7 2010 on  11:58 PM
Like it's been said, the only problem with making a fanfiction award is that everybody has different tastes. Also, writers have different writing styles, so to choose somebody for an award would be the same as saying that person has the best writing style, which would alienate the other authors.
Well wouldn't the same apply to fanart? People have different fanart styles and fanart tastes. Not everyone will like all the same fanart. One fanart may be loved by one, hated by another. The only difference between fanart and fanfiction is that fanart is seen, fanfiction is read. But one's taste and style still apply to both. I think fanart is just as open to bias as fanfiction is.
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Caustizer on June 18, 2010, 05:37:50 PM
Quote from: DarkHououmon,Jun 18 2010 on  03:40 PM
Quote from: LBTFan13,Jun 7 2010 on  11:58 PM
Like it's been said, the only problem with making a fanfiction award is that everybody has different tastes. Also, writers have different writing styles, so to choose somebody for an award would be the same as saying that person has the best writing style, which would alienate the other authors.
Well wouldn't the same apply to fanart? People have different fanart styles and fanart tastes. Not everyone will like all the same fanart. One fanart may be loved by one, hated by another. The only difference between fanart and fanfiction is that fanart is seen, fanfiction is read. But one's taste and style still apply to both. I think fanart is just as open to bias as fanfiction is.
This is exactly right.

As much as I believe the admins will discuss this in due course, I also strongly believe that the fan fiction award has been omitted in the past solely on the basis that it wasn't a big enough part of the site to warrant a voting process.

In my mind, it seems prudent that a poll be held either here or in the LBT Government section to see what the site thinks about adding an additional award next year for Fan Fiction.

Caustizer.
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Pangaea on June 18, 2010, 07:52:03 PM
I’ve been thinking about this subject as well, and I second Kacie’s argument. She took the words right out of my mouth. :lol Like she said, fanartists have varying art styles, and the people who view their work have varying tastes in fanart. Furthermore, not everyone who votes for the Fanart Award looks at everyone's fanart, just like not all fanfiction readers read all fanfictions.  

It could be argued that fanfiction is different from fanart in that it generally takes much longer to produce a good quality fanfiction than a good piece of art, but on the other hand, many great fanartists don’t create artwork very often, but when they do, it is spectacular. This is not too different from fanfiction writers.

Quote from: Petrie,Jun 5 2010 on  06:30 PM
As I said, give us time and as I've stated before, fanfiction in the past has not been a very large part of the community, hence we have not done a fanfiction award before, and that is why it was not on the list this year.
Maybe there aren't a lot of GOF members writing fanfictions, but I think a fanfiction category would still receive a substantial number of voters, perhaps even more so than some other categories, such as the RPG award. People who read fanfictions do not need to write fanfictions themselves in order to evaluate them, whereas almost all of the members who read RPs and vote in the RPG category are RPers themselves (Members who skip voting in the RPG category all give the unanimous reason that they are not active enough in that section). Forgive me if I sound like I'm dissing the RPG Award; I'm not. My point is that if we can have an award for RPs and an award for fanart, why not one for fanfiction as well? The reasons against it are just as applicable to these two awards which are already established.

I'm all for a Fanfiction Award. :yes I agree that we should bring this up in the Rock Circle.
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Serris on June 18, 2010, 08:34:59 PM
As Pangaea stated, one does not need to be an artist to vote for fanart or a writer to vote for fan fiction.

And I think fan fic writers should get some recognition for their efforts.

On a side note, I added a topic to discuss this in the Rock Circle.
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Caustizer on June 21, 2010, 06:22:51 PM
How long does voting last for the Appreciated Member Award last?

I need to know so I know when I need to decide who to vote for  :angel

Caustizer.
Title: GOF Awards 2010 Official Rules
Post by: Littlefoot1616 on June 21, 2010, 06:49:11 PM
Why wait?! Get it over and done with as soon as possible. In terms of official timings, Appreciated Member award voting will continue until this coming sunday. So voting will close at Sunday 27th June 2010 @ 12 Midnight (Forum Standard Time). That way everyone would have had a week to vote. ;)