Award Voting 2016

[Nick22]

Hi Guys!
 Nick here welcoming you all to another Awards season. We've tweaked  the rules a bit this year, and made some changes to the number of awards as well as how long the awards will go for. In truth, participation in the awards has been quite low for quite some time now. Part of that can be traced to any number of factors-  Real life getting in the way, lack of interest , or simply the fact that the forum isnt  quite as active as it was 5 years ago. We intend to try and improve on the number of people participating in the awards this year. Towards that end, we have combined the  Friendly awards with the Helpful award, and dropped the Philosopher award, narrowing the awards you have to vote for to 5 (4 if you choose to skip 1) and doubled the time frame you have to finish voting, from 2 weeks to a month.  if you finish voting, but your friends havent, or havent started, encourage them to do so. This is a fun event that helps us as a community recognize those who have made contributions over the past year. However this goes both ways. Its not much fun for us as admins to hold an event like this  , if less than 10% of regular members take the time to participate. so, If you have the time over the next month to vote, please do so.

[aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)]

I can get behind those changes. Hooray for voting season! I feel Iike that time frame makes it coincide with the American election, which is quite thematic.

[The Lone Dragon]

Fanart Award: Now their have been many great artists here on GoF and they all deserve a reward but for me their is one person that has stood out in fanart this year. For Fanart Award my vote goes to Darkwolf91 for amazing art and story commissions that have really brought life to various fanfictions on the sight as well as for continuous improvement. Great Job!

Feedback Award: My feeback award for this year goes to Ducky123 for continuous and useful feedback to the authors of the Gof. Keep it up!

Proactive Award: Now this is very tricky to decide as their hasn't been to much activity on the forum lately but that also limits the choices but doesn't make it any less harder to decide so this year I'm voting for Coyote A for his reply to posts and engagement with the forum and it's conversations. This was a very difficult decision and their are many others worthy of this award but I can only vote for one.

Friendly Member Award: This is even more tricky. Their are so many friendly faces in GoF that makes it extremely hard to pick but I think that I know who I'm voting for this year. My vote goes to Darkwolf91 once again because DW continues to welcome new members and has been kind enough to take commissions this year as well as reviewing a fanfiction or two. It was really, really difficult to chose a candidate for this.

Role Play Award: Since I'm in this business it is right for me to vote in this category as well. This year my vote for RP award goes to Ducky123 for helping to get my RP started and for a good post.

[Ducky123]

There's only one category I can vote for without having to think about my decision twice this year so the rest of my votes will be cast at a later point of time. For now, have my vote for the Fanart Award:

Despite the low activity on the GoF lately, there still have been a few people submitting their fanart which makes me really happy, seeing what others are able to come up with. I started my LBT Fanart contest to further boost the activity of our fellow fanartists here (where are you guys?  :unsure: ).
Now there are a few people I would like to mention here who have made great contributions in terms of fanart this year.

RockingScorpion is easily the first person that comes to my mind when thinking about high-quality LBT Fanart that is both very impressive, original (most of the times) and creative. Even though most of his recent contributions weren't LBT related, he still deserves an honourary mention here for his great works.

I was very delighted to see The Lone Dragon join us fan-artists this year with his admirable watercolour paintings of our fellow gang members, keep improving your technique and you'll be great!

CybertronianBrony is also a newcomer (I'm not even sure if he has made enough posts to be eligible by now ) who has shared some great drawings with us these past few months. Your art reminds me of my own art a lot, keep drawing and improving! It seems to be working for me lately so it's the best recommendation I can offer you

Darkwolf91 doesn't contribute a lot of art but whenever she does, she blows my mind with her artistic skill and her ability to bring written scenes to life. Therefore, my vote this year for the fanart award goes to Darkwolf91. You rock, keep doing more of this please!  

like I said, other awards will be voted for at a later point of time. Can't really tell yet if there will be categories that I'll skip or not. Need to give the other awards some thought when my exams are over...  

[rhombus]

Fanart Award: In the last year there has been an abundance of great art from several talented artists.  From RockingScorpion, to Ducky123, to Darkwolf, the fanart section of the forum has been a bright spot of activity this year.  With so many to choose from it was difficult to narrow down my choice, but in the end I think Darkwolf91 is most worthy of this award.  Her artwork is truly stunning, and her commissions have exceeded my expectations time and time again.

Feedback Award: For this category there was one clear choice, in my opinion, and that is Ducky123.  His detailed reviews and helpful criticism have been of great help to me over the last year.  It is always nice to know that your works are being read and enjoyed, and to receive helpful feedback from a fellow writer.  His detailed feedback to me and to other content creators on the forum, both in writing and in art, are greatly appreciated.

Proactive Award: Due to his help in preparing and organizing the forum awards, the live-blogging in the election topic for the first debate, and his assistance in getting me up to speed on admin business, my vote for this award emphatically goes to Nick.  

Friendly Member Award: Whenever I needed a second opinion on a topic, assistance with some aspect of my duties, or simply needed someone to hear me vent on a topic to blow off steam, I could always count on my good friend Malte279 to be available. For these reasons I don't hesitate to nominate him for this award.

Role Play Award: Sadly, due to the relative lack of activity in the roleplays I have participated in this year, I fear that I have only been able to interact with a small subset of the active roleplayers here on the fourm.  That being said, I feel that The Lone Dragon deserves my vote due to his motivation to get the Swimmer Trials RP started.  I am sure that it will be great RP once it is finally in full swing.

[aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)]

~Fanart Award: I have SKIPPED this award every year since I joined the forum. Wait, I may have voted for Sky once in like 2008. Regardless, I never visit this section so i know nothing about it.

~Feedback Award: RHOMBUS is in threads all over the place giving people critiques and advice on their stories, projects, and RPing. I think he once said he was a teacher in real life, which i can totally believe because he's got a natural gift for educating.

~Friendly Member Award: DUCKY123 has one of the best personalities on this site. They're always chipper and immediately popped into my mind when I saw the name of this award.

~Proactive Award: NICK22 has one of the busiest schedules on this forum that I'm aware of. He's everywhere and constantly working to improve the forum.

~Role Play Gamer Award: BUSHWACKED remains the best RPer I have ever encountered. He's a great writer, he incorporates other writers' contributions and he's one of the nicest guys I've ever met.

[Coyote_A]

...so this year I'm voting for Coyote A for his reply to posts and engagement with the forum and it's conversations. This was a very difficult decision and their are many others worthy of this award but I can only vote for one.

This is actually the first time yours truly ever got nominated for any message boards awards. Thanks a bunch, Lone Dragon! Should probably add my two cents too, but to be honest - the way I perceive forums I usually don't evaluate how active of helpful specific members are. So I'm at a loss as to whom to vote for. :blink:

[DarkWolf91]

Fanart Award:
This is a tough one! The Fanart section has always been near and dear to me, despite my spotty upload and commenting history It's been a really great year with standouts like Ducky123's regular submissions and The Lone Dragon's watercolors, but this year I think I'm going to have to vote for RockingScorpion. The main reason for this is his ambitious and nicely executed Top Trumps project, which I look forward to trying out when it's complete

Feedback Award:
My vote this year is for the wonderful Rhombus! Everything I've posted here in the past year has been accompanied by thoroughly helpful comments from the same Additionally, he's been a constant welcoming presence at the GoF, and has embraced his new role as admin quite naturally. He's also rather interesting to talk to, a very civil debater, and hasn't once inquired as to the status of his long-overdue commissions... even though he has every right to do so (Progress is being made, I promise!)

Proactive Award:
Nick22! The amount of work he does to keep this forum up and running is simply commendable! It's very much appreciated, and will continue to be so

Friendly Member Award:
 As usual, this is probably the hardest section to vote in, as the GoF is easily the most civil, friendly, and accepting forum that I've yet to find on the internet. So, as recommended, I'll go with personal experience- Ducky123! He just always seems really, well, friendly! He's also been doing a lot to engage the community with contests and the like, and I think it was actually one of his contests that got me interested in drawing LBT again... I'm pretty sure. It was a while ago

Role Play Award:
I love role-playing, but sadly I don't have the time to do it actively! I am actually pretty proud of the single RP post I made this year, heheh So, unfortunately, I feel that I must skip this vote! I know a lot of interesting role-plays occur on this site, but I don't feel like I am involved enough in that area to vote on who should get the award :<

[Kor]

never can remember how to do the code things for special text.


Roleplay Award: I choose ,..... Nick22 .........> because he's in all the rp's I'm in and I've had fun rping with him over the years and the many rp's we've been in together.  & I'm sure we will continue to have fun in the future.

Proactive Award: I choose <......... rhombus .........> because from what I've seen he's been active in many areas and has been continued to be active in various areas.

[Nick22]

FANART:  i don't do art work so i must SKIP this award

 FEEDBACK: for his efforts to helping to get the awards up and running, and for his numerous contributions in the elections thread in after Midnight, my vote goes to RHOMBUS

 ROLE PLAY: over the years I have been lucky enough to work with several talented roleplayers, among them Pterano, Serris, LBT, brekclub, bushwacked, and Kor. my vote for the award this year goes to LETTUCEBACON&TOMATO.

  FRIENDLY: While practically ecveryone on here is friendly, by rule I have to pick someone. KOR is my choice. he is always wiling to give feedback and encouragement in any situation.

PROACTIVE:  Due to the rekatively low activity on the forum latelyu., I have to pick among the posters who posters here regularly. Thus , Once aghain, My viote falls opubn RHOMBUS, for his efforts in managing the forum and coming up with responses and activity in the After Midnight section.

[Serris]

Fan art - [...] No nomination as I do not do fan art.

Proactive - [Nick22] He's always on top of things, keeping the forum running and performing other administrative task and yet, he still manages to keep up the RP section.

Feedback - [Rhombus] He's always willing to give his candid but respectful opinion on anything. Ranging from science to politics.

Roleplaying - [Nick22] This one is extremely difficult for me to choose because there are so many great role players here but I have to give it to Nick for keeping an RP universe running for nearly as long as the forum itself.

Friendly - [Kor] I've never seen him lose his temper or yell at anyone and he's always ready to welcome newcomers to the forum.

[Kor]

Fanart: Though it was difficult for this award I pick >.... RockingScorpion ....< since due to seeing the artwork in the past month or so, I've enjoyed the quality, visual, and diversity of their artwork.

Feedback: Though hard to pick for this award I pick >.... Ducky123 ....< , since the times I've looked in the fanart, or other places, I've enjoyed reading Ducky123's responses and replies.

Friendly: I vote for >.... Nick22 ....> since I've been talking to him some,though I've been more busy and less active on GOF then I have been before, with having a GF and all.  I have enjoyed the conversations we have had in the past.

[RockingScorpion]

Here we go. Let's see if I can actually cover everything I wanna vote for now.

Fanart Award: This forum has many great artists, traditional or digital, and it's always nice to look at the topics. However, in terms of quality and professionalism, one person really managed to stand out during the last couple of months. Because of this, my vote in the fanart category goes to DarkWolf91.

Feedback Award: The main reason for doing creative work as a hobby should be that you enjoy what you do and not the responses you get, but it's nice nonetheless to see it when your work is being appreciated and also helps a lot when it comes to motivation. For giving responses and sometimes advice in pretty much every topic that involves creative work I come across this forum (including my own one), my vote in this category goes to Ducky123.

Proactive Award: This was one of the tougher choices and I looked at a lot of topics to confirm this, but ultimately, for both his work as an admin and his contributions in general which are doing a lot to keep this place active and running, Nick22 gets my vote here.

Friendly Member Award: Once again this was not an easy one as the majority of the people here are pretty friendly in general. In the end though, for welcoming a lot of the newcomers to this site and giving help/advice whenever those are needed, and for being a nice person in general to talk to, my vote goes to Ducky123.

Roleplay Award: The roleplay section of this forum is something I still haven't visited yet during my two and a half years here. It's just not something for me and even if I would go there now and look at the topics, I still wouldn't be able to cast a fair vote, so once again, I have to skip this category.

[Nick22]

Just a reminder folks that you have 12 days left to vote. Also, this year marks the 10th anniversary of the awards! The first year they were held was 2006!

[The Chronicler]

I had decided to wait until the final week to cast my votes, so I would have some time to consider my choices. That, and I've been a little busy with other things this month.


Fanart: RockingScorpion
Whether it's Land Before Time or My Little Pony, I always like seeing what RockingScorpion is able to come up with for fanart. Other fanartists who also deserve some recognition here are DarkWolf91 and Ducky123.

Feedback: Ducky123
I unfortunately don't have much time to actually read many of the fanfictions on this site, but from what I've seen in both fanfiction and fanart topics is Ducky123 saying good things about what he has seen, while also occasionally offering some helpful advice.

Friendly: Kor
Kor is a member with one of the highest post counts on this site, and yet I cannot recall even one of them where he was anything but friendly. Even in some topics where discussions got a little heated, this guy always seems to keep his cool.

Proactive: rhombus
Setting up these awards and the fanfiction awards is but one example of how proactive rhombus can be. Ever since he was promoted to Admin less than a year ago, he has definitely stepped up to prove how much he really deserves his new status, and I hope to see him stick around for many more years to come.

Roleplay: *skip*
I've not looked at even a single topic in the roleplay section in years, so due to my complete unfamiliarity with recent activity there, I must skip this vote.

[Ducky123]

So few people voting... it's depressing guys, you disappoint me   This is not the GoF I grew to love...

well, judging by the current participation, I have a feeling this is the last time I do this... but here are my remaining votes. I've waited until the end quite on purpose to see if anybody would show enhanced efforts on here during the time of voting but this was not the case... so I'll vote for those people I've long since had in mind anyway...

Feedback Award:

As a fellow writer and fanartist, I know how important and, often, helpful feedback can be. I would like to vote for rhombus here. There isn't a lot of feedback I get here (though not much more on other sites either) but there are a few people who really deserve to be mentioned here. I'm really happy about the constant and kind feedback of DarkWolf91, Kor, TheLoneDragon, Snik and RockingScorpion (thanks for all the advice on my art, even though it's mostly unseen to the others here due to you helping me while I work on stuff ) and just anybody who is kind enough to leave some kind and/or constructive words on my works, thus motivating me to keep doing these things .
I have decided to vote for rhombus because his feedback is regular, fair and has helped me a lot in developing my writing style and eliminating story elements which may be considered bad writing. RockingScorpion is a very close runner-up for his respective feedback on my art. I wouldn't be trying to learn drawing out of my head without somebody who I can ask to take a look at the rough sketch and help me to draw the characters correctly.

Proactive Award:

This award is about rewarding people for the constant contributions to the forum as a whole, whether that be designing new icons/designs for the site, suggesting improvements, new forums etc or just being generally proactive on here.
This year, there hasn't really been any improvement to the site that I could use as a basis for my vote so I will go by the proactivity this year. Thus, there's only one member who really sticks out to me this year through his general activity throughout the forum and his willingness to support the admins by joining the administrative team on here. This vote goes to  rhombus again.

(too bad there's no helpful member anymore, now I can't vote for somebody who really deserves the award )

Friendly Member Award:

Since this is the award that the helpful member award has been merged with, I will vote for RockingScorpion on that one for the reasons I mentioned in the feedback award + him being a really good friend and friendly and easy-going person. I was originally going to vote for Kor though for his constant friendliness on this forum throughout the years. Honorary mention to anybody else who's been friendly on here, there are too many to write down who'd deserve this award...

Role Play Award:

There is no doubt about this vote for me. I'm not voting for quality of posts here but for the attempt to get a new LBT RP going after mine died down due to lack of activity from almost all players. TheLoneDragon, thanks for starting that RP and sorry for being the one slowing it down right now (I'll post there now ^^)

Well, so here are my votes. Please vote, people. This tradition needs to continue or the GoF will be a sad place, sorry

[Nick22]

Ducky this will not be the last year we hold these awards. Rhombus and I and the Other Admins will tame time after the Appreciated award is handed out  to discuss tweaks for next year.

[Ducky123]

Much appreciated!

[Sneak]

Sorry for not voting here, but I am still new here (even if I read this forum before sometimes). I didn't see "the whole picture of forum community" yet, so I can't make good choices there.