Hmmm....the awards ceremony thing is an appropriate way of delivering out awards. I do like the idea. That way, people won't just suddenly have their awards "yoinked" away from them.
I had another thought for how to deliver some of the knowledge / skill awards, like Malte and I mentioned, the "movie expert" awards. Do what every other institution does to give out recognition: Have quizzes and tests
The main problem I see, is deciding who is in charge of actually making up the tests. Obviously, whoever makes up the test cannot take part in it, and is therefore disqualified from the award. But chances are, the person making up the test has considerable knowledge and could likely be the best recipient for it. Hmm...
Each member who is interested in "applying" for an "expert" award could post in one of the forums (to be decided. Perhaps we need a new forum for test applications and other test-related stuff, if this idea is accepted) that they wish to apply for a test. Anyone else who wishes to try out for the same test will reply to that post saying that they are also interested. When at least 2 applicants are involved, one of two things can happen:
1) Each applicant writes, say, 8-10 questions and answers for a Master test. The questions are marked with the question creator's username, so questions that this member created are not counted as part of his score. Also, each member must create questions that total the same number of "marks". Most of us have taken enough tests to know what I mean by this, I'm sure
These questions are then submitted to a member who is Not taking part in the examination. This member will edit compile the questions into a single test document, or page. This page is them passed to every applicant, who take the test and pass it back in to the non-participating member, who checks the answers and awards "marks". The highest score wins the award.
Obviously, this system works best if we have more members applying for the same award.
2)Another plan, is to have a volunteer "quizmaster" write a test based on the topic. All the applicants will try out against this test, and the highest scorer will receive the award. The creator of the test will receive a "[insert test title here] Quizmaster award".
The best way to work this, would be to have a variety of question types: ordering, multiple choice, short answer, true/false, etc.
For handling ties, the players could post questions and answers to each other. The questions may be monitored for integrity. Whoever gets a question incorrect is out. The last one standing wins the award.
The most difficult part of the test process is ensuring that the tests themselves are correct and accurate. A quizmaster must hand back the test with the answers clearly explained, justifying why that is the correct answer. If the answer is not justified, that question is to be omitted from the test results.
