Award Voting 2018

[rhombus]

Voting for the 2018 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 hours 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

Darkwolf91 - 10
Flathead770 - 2
LeventeII - 1


~Feedback Award

Sovereign - 8
Rhombus - 5


~Friendly Member Award

Flathead770 - 5
Mumbling - 2
Littlefoot505 -2
Ducky123 - 1
aabicus - 1
Nick22 - 1
DarkHououmon - 1
Zero-point - 1


~Proactive Award

Zero-point - 10
Rhombus - 2
Sneak - 1
Hypno - 1


~Role Play Gamer Award

Nick22 - 3
The Lone Dragon -3
Sovereign - 2
LettuceBacon&Tomato - 1

[aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)]

~Fanart Award: Continuing my literally ten-year tradition of SKIPping this one since I ignore that section



~Feedback Award: RHOMBUS remains a baller at reviewing fanfictions, explaining things in various educational threads and in general always devoting time to helping explain things to people. Must be that teaching background



~Friendly Member Award: MUMBLING and I had some Pokemon GO, and honestly over the years she's probably the most steadfastly friendly regular I've never nominated for this award. Always present, always chipper and always a welcome part of any conversation


~Proactive Award: ZERO-POINT, my man, you worked your ass off getting this forum ported over, you saved the whole bloody Gang of Five, who else could possibly earn this one



~Role Play Gamer Award: NICK22 is the most dedicated RPer in the RP forums by a mile. No offense other posters in Blanking the Slate* but you're averaging like a single post every two weeks while this guy's juggling more storylines than Victor Hugo
*except f-22, you post super fast too

[Littlefoot505]

Fanart: I don't go into that section as much as I'd like to, but I'm going to vote for DarkWolf91.

Feedback: Sovereign gives great feedback on both fanart and fanfic, so my vote goes to him.

Friendly Member: I'd definitely have to go with Flathead770, as I've made many friends on this forum in the short time I've been here, but he was probably the one I connected with the most in the shortest time.

Proactive Member: I vote for Rhombus, and I doubt I need to explain why (basically the same reason Aabicus/LB&T voted for zero-point)

RPG: Nick22's dedication to the RPG section and the many RPGs he plays in earns him my vote.

[rhombus]

Fanart: In this forum we are blessed with no shortage of motivated artists.  From DarkHououmon, to Flathead, to Darkwolf, I have seen great entries this year and continuous improvement from the forum's artists as they further hone their skills.  That being said, I think that Darkwolf91 stands well above the competition in terms of both her skill and range of drawing.  As such I do not hesitate to give her my vote for this category.

Feedback: When it comes to the fanfiction section there are two particular members that you can rely on to review and provide constructive feedback for each story.  As he has reliable provided helpful feedback and kind encouragement to both myself and numerous other authors on the forum and on fanfiction.net, I do not hesitate in casting my vote for Sovereign for this category.

Friendly Member: This is another category where it is difficult to pick one candidate due to the friendliness and helpfulness that is continuously on display in the community.  That being said, my vote this year goes to Mumbling. Despite her busy schedule she has been willing to assist me at various times this year as crises have faced the forum.  And even during the more difficult times she remained friendly and helpful.  For that she has my sincere thanks.

Proactive Member: Hands down, this category belongs to zero-point. During the conversion to Zetaboards, it was zero-point who handled the Herculean task of dealing with the CSS coding.  It was zero-point who made multiple themes for that forum and handled an almost uncountable list of troubleshooting situations that I and the others lacked the skill set to resolve.  Then, when TapaTalk threatened the forum, he again helped us in looking at our options.  Quite simply this forum would be a shadow of its former self if it wasn't for zero-point and James Gryphon.

RPG: I have only be active in one RP at the moment, so I can only speak for the participants in the "LBT roleplay in the style of the original movie" RP.  Within the roleplay there have been many interesting posts thus far and everyone is doing their part to push the narrative forward. But that being said, I feel confident in voting for The Lone Dragon. His posts in the roleplay thus far have been quite interesting, and have added some interesting tension to the proceedings.  I look forward to seeing how things proceed. 

[Sovereign]

Fanart: It’s been great to see lots of amazing stuff from various artists but I must say, this year one of them has been clearly the best. DarkWolf91’s drawings are always truly breathtaking and it’s always nice to see a new drawing from her. I especially like the fact that she has brought the fanfiction world into life more than any other artist here. There are several worthy candidates, most of all Flathead770, but Darkwolf has easily my vote this year.

Feedback: I truly appreciate each and every member on GoF who has taken the time to read and review a story here as it really helps us authors to learn about the strengths and weaknesses of our writing. And no one has been more helpful in this front than rhombus who has reviewed pretty much every story and picture posted on GoF. His reviews are always uplifting and constructive and I especially appreciate the amount of thought he puts in his reviews and his advice that really has helped me improve my skills. My vote goes for him, without a doubt.

Friendly Member: This was a hard one for me as there were a number of candidates I had to consider. My main contenders were Hypno and Flathead 770 but in the end, I had to make a choice. Flathead770 is a member who has stayed friendly at all times and whose presence has been a really welcome thing in any conversation I’ve had in the past months. The series of pictures he did late last year for everybody’s birthdays was one thing that really proved to me he is worthy of this award. So thanks to Flathead for making GoF an ever greater place!

Proactive member: There have been several great efforts from many members to bring new stuff to GoF as well as safeguard it for many years to come. Zero-point especially has done amazing job in helping GoF survive but there is also another person I feel deserves recognition. My vote goes to Sneak for his help in finally making the original, uncut LBT’s script as well as the Illustrated Storybook available to us all. That discovery was one of the biggest breakthroughs in discovering the secrets of the cut scenes in the past three decades and for all his efforts, Sneak has my vote.

Role Play Gamer Award: My special thanks to Ducky for getting the great roleplay started and I feel he deserves recognition for simply getting it started. However, during the past year, I’ve mostly been stuck with The Lone Dragon’s character and I truly appreciate the effort and thought he puts into his posts. All players have done a great job but The Lone Dragon and his writing skills have been a major factor in making the roleplay go smoothly.

[Mumbling]

Fanart:
While I haven't been following LBT fanart closely recently, I can attest to Darkwolf91 being an amazing artist who never ceases to amaze. I'm really glad you are still working on your art and that you haven't left LBT behind you while you have been exploring new interests.

Feedback:
Skipping! Haven't been in a position to receive feedback from anyone here recently.

Friendly:
Always the hardest pick, as so many of you are so friendly! Kudos to everyone for that. 
With most of my activity being on the Discord channel these days, I am often chatting with Rhombus, zero-point, Ducky123, Littlefoot505, jorrdy12, Nick, Flathead770, OwlsCantRead and many others who pop in every now and then. All these chats have been very fun, kind, accepting and friendly. On the actual forum, however, my interaction with others has been limited. I'd like to cast my vote for aabicus (forever LB&T in my heart), who has, in the many years that I've known him, never been anything close to unfriendly and remains a very positive member of this community.

Proactive:
With the work that went into the recent forum switch, I think much appreciation should go to both Rhombus and zero-point. Both of them have put a lot of time and effort into making the transfer as easy as possible and we couldn't have done it without them. Hard as it is to pick either of them, in the end I think I have to go with zero-point for pretty much always being available and willing to fix small forum issues even when real life is getting in the way.

Role Playing:
Skip skip skip!

Will vote in Appreciated member award to make up for my skippetiness.

[The Chronicler]

I've got some available time today, so I might as well take this chance to cast my votes.

Fanart: Darkwolf91
This one actually comes very close between Darkwolf91 and Flathead770, but I ultimately decided to go with Darkworlf91 because some of his recent works have done an incredible job of providing visualization for one of the best LBT fanfictions I've ever read.

Feedback: Sovereign
I've seen a certain handful of members always commenting on just about every piece of fanfart and fanfiction that goes up. Among them, the one that always seems to stand out to me is Sovereign, who does not hesitate to point out any probable areas of improvement, no matter how minor they might be, which I believe is an essential part of providing proper feedback.

Friendly: (skip)
So many possible choices on such a friendly forum, yet none of whom have really stood out to me personally in the past year. I'd rather not totally wing this vote, and since I intended to vote in the Appreciated Member award, I suppose I'll just skip this one.

Proactive: Zero-point
In the time period since the previous member awards, we've had to move our entire forum to a completely new system twice, and both times it was zero-point who did all the heavy lifting in the background to make it possible. He may be a relative newcomer, but his efforts helped to save 14 years worth of history on this site, and that's an accomplishment that absolutely must be recognized.

Role Play Gamer: (skip)
Still no activity at all in the RPG section for me, so I must yet again skip this vote.

[Flathead770]

Fanart Award:
Wow, this has been a good year for fanart. I would like to thank everyone who joined in the prompts and with fanart in general. The fanart prompts have picked up significantly this year and hopefully it will continue into the next year and one day get as active as the fanfiction prompts.

Everyone so far has voted for Darkwolf91 for this award and by all means she very well deserves it. Her artwork are always greatly admired and the best around. I would like to give the award to another however as he has shown noticeable improvement over the various artwork he has submitted since he first joined as well as being another traditional artist like myself. I would like to recognize LeventeII for this award for his continued efforts and I hope to see more from him in the future and see how he improves!

Feedback Award:
Once again I believe this is no contest as Sovereign has continued providing quality feedback for not only my drawings but pretty much all other artwork and fanfiction as well. With me moving away from using direct references and coming up with my own poses this feedback becomes all the more appreciative. Please keep it up!

Friendly Member Award:
For this it would have to go to Ducky123. I mean, we own matching shirts now so this has to be an obligation right? But seriously, our drawing sessions with either working on our prompts or our little competition has helped a lot in keeping my motivation up. The motivation doesn't just apply to drawing either though as he's helped inspire me to dust off and play my violin again, something that I haven't done in almost a decade (whether or not something comes out of it remains to be seen ). Whether it's music, drawing, or whatever else we end up doing, let's keep pushing each other up! Oh, and watching anime has also been a blast.

I would also like to give shout-outs to both zero-point and Littlefoot505 as our chats are always a pleasure, whether it's math with zero-point or...flat Earth with Littlefoot505

Proactive Award:
There has been quite a bit that has happened this past year to warrant a proactive award, from the continuation of Sovereign, Hypno, and Sneak reaching out to various people who have worked on LBT,  to all of the amazing work that went it to both migrations of the forum from zero-point, rhombus, and the other admin staff. And a quick mention to Littlefoot505, who is getting close to the 1,000 post mark in just under a year.

In the end, the finding of the original script for the first LBT was a momentous discovery and a worthy highlight in the last 30 years since the movie first came out. While I would like to give a huge thanks to Sneak for purchasing the script for everyone to see, we can't forget about all the work and digging Hypno did to find it.

Role Play Gamer Award:
Once again I am skipping this category.

[The Lone Dragon]

Fanart Award: This year has seen a lot of fanart from a multitude if different artists and in many unique styles and I must say that I am very impressed that the fanart competition has started to bring out and encourage many good artists to improve themselves just as the fanfiction competition has been doing for the forum's writers. Having said that there is one artist that stands out to me and that would be Darkwolf91. Her drawings have been constantly changing and improving along with all artists on the forum but she has so far produced some of the best fanart I have ever been and has brought to life the characters of the LBT roleplay in a most amazing way.   

Feedback Award: I don't stay on the forum to much and one of the chief sections I'm usually in is fanfiction section as many of you know and I must give a thumbs up to everyone who provides helpful feedback to writers. However my vote goes to Sovereign for the feedback that he constantly posts on just about every piece of art and writing and I find his comments to be very useful and constructive and I speak for probably all the writers and artists on the site when I saw we all appreciate such helpful feedback. Honourable mention to Rhombus who has also done a very good job with his feedback this year.

Friendly Member Award: This is the toughest award to give on the forum and is always a tough one to decide because this is such a friendly, open minded community that everyone deserves an award in there own right. But as I can only vote for one person I am going to cast my vote for to Nick22 who has been a very conservative and friendly conversationalist on discord which I have chatted with so many friendly friends but he stands slightly stands out above to me.

Proactive Award: Also a tricky one. I don't spend to much time contributing to the forum which I really need to change but one that note there still plenty of people who make useful contributions to the forum but even though I'm not on that much I do know that the move has been a very big deal and so my vote goes to Zero-point for his great job at making sure the forum's transition has been smooth for everyone.

Role Play Gamer Award: My vote will be focused on the LBT RP in the style of the original movie which has been a real highlight and enjoyable experience for me and is a journey that everyone has worked on and the direction of the RP is very interesting. Now onto my vote I think Sovereign deserves this vote, I've been stuck with his character since almost the start and his posts have been very interesting and have been very insightful to his character and certainly leads up to some very exciting scenes. 

[DarkWolf91]

[Fanart Award]: Wow! The fanart section has been super active this year, and it's really hard for me to pick. I think in the end I have to go with Flathead770. He's been incredibly prolific in the fanart prompt challenges, and each work he submits improves upon the last! Honorable mentions for Ducky123 and LeventeII, who have been improving immensely, and jassy, who unfortunately doesn't have enough posts to be eligible for this years awards! Which is too bad because their art is very unique and vibrant

[Feedback Award]: Sovereign. On everything I've posted, he's replied with prompt, in-depth feedback. I don't know how he keeps up with it all! Though it was a tough call, as Rhombus is incredibly active in that sense as well.

[Friendly Member Award]: Aaaah I hate voting on this one. Maybe we should change this to the "Unfriendly Member Award," then it might be easier to pick! (Kidding ) I think I'm going to have to go with Flathead770, just because he's always around and always has something nice to say! Even if it's usually pushing his flat-earth agenda

[Proactive Award]: Zero-point! The hero of the forums! He put a lot of time into the conversions, and deserves the recognition

[Role Play Gamer Award]: Again, tons of great choices for this one, especially since the LBT roleplay section is seeing more activity than it has in a long time. It's a toss-up for me between The Lone Dragon and Sovereign, as both of them have been actively posting thorough, thoughtful responses. I think I'm going to have to go with Sovereign, simply because his character brings some much needed conflict to the group. We just get along too well without Rinen

[zero-point]

Well, it is time for me to vote as well, so in these next few lines I will cast my votes for the 2018 Gang of Five Forum Awards.

[Fanart Award]

Lately I was happy to notice that the Fanart section has received more entries and had more activity than before, even though my creativity is not exactly soaring and I wasn't really active on the forum recently. Two members, namely LeventeII and jassy have both created fantastic looking art pieces in the past weeks. My vote goes out to DarkWolf91, her artwork is still unrivaled on the forum. Keep up the good work everyone, I'll try to be a little more active in the creative sections as well.

[Feedback Award]

I have received many excellent and detailed feedback for my drawings in the Art and Fanart sections, and so far Sovereign's responses to my drawings have always been the most detailed and helpful ones that I have received. Of course, Rhombus also provides excellent feedback on my works, but my vote still goes to Sovereign for this one! Thanks to both of you for your feedback, and also thanks to everyone else who commented and provided feedback for my drawings, Sneak, Flathead770, Ducky123, LeventeII, and others I have not mentioned, thank you.

[Friendly Member Award]

Out of all of the friendly people I've met here so far, rhombus and Flathead770 both deserve a lot of credit for helping me out, and this decision is a hard one indeed. But since I cannot vote for more than one person, I cast my vote for Flathead770. DarkHououmon also deserves recognition here for her friendliness on Discord! You guys are awesome, keep it up!


[Proactive Award]

For the Proactive Award, I vote for Rhombus, who almost single-handedly creates detailed plans in case imminent decisions in forum matters are required, and James Gryphon, also known as Technician, for helping to set up the forum, and Sneak, for he bought the original script for the Land Before Time without any hesitation.


[Role Play Gamer Award]

Since I do not participate in Role Playing on the forum, I think I will have to omit casting a vote for this award and leave it to people who know better.

Not an incredibly eloquent or long-winded composition, but I felt the need to cast my votes.

[Nick22]

Gotta get in my votes before the deadline so here goes.
 Fanart- skip, as I don't draw or do fanart
Feedback- My Vote goes to RHOMBUS for his quick responses to any questions posed as part of his job as an admin
 Proactive- ZERO-POINT, for his work in helping transition the forum . Without him, we;d be stuck with what Tapatalk gives us, and thats not much.
 Friendly- This one is tough, since everyone here is friendly.  But my vote goes to LITTLEFOOT505, for our long discussions on Discord about history and nature. We share a lot of the same interests, and I want to recognize him for that here.
 Roleplay Gamer- Over the years I've worked with a lot of great roleplayers. Some of whom warrant mention include: Serris, Brekclub85, Pterano, Belmont2500 bushwacked and Kor. But my vote this year goes to LETTEUCEBACON&TOMATO, for his work in keeping the Blanking the slate roleplay going during periods where folks are busy.

[LeventeII]

[Fanart] DarkWolf91
When I first saw her paintings, I was completely amazed. I can hardly imagine until today how one can create such works. The same is true for the other artists, by the way. The pictures are perfect, in colour and form. That's why my vote goes to her.

[Feedback] Sovereign
I am always happy when I get feedback on my drawings. On the one hand it keeps motivating me to draw, on the other hand it improves me. Thanks to everyone who leaves feedback! I try to correct my previous mistakes with each new drawing. My vote goes to Sovereign, whose feedback I can always count on, so my development never stops.

[Friendly Member] Flathead770
Actually everyone could have got this vote, because everyone in this forum is really friendly, which surprised me positively at the beginning. So this vote was difficult.
I vote for Flathead770 because he has taken away my fears that I had at the beginning here. This concerns both my fear of the English language, which almost resulted in me not registering, and my first participation in the Fanart prompt.
I would also like to thank him for his feedback as well. Every time I read one of his replies I get a smile on my face.

[Proactive] zero-point
As some have written before me, I would like to give my vote to zero-point. It's cool that we now have our own little independent place on the Internet. Thanks also to the other admins who made this possible!

[Role Play Gamer] skip
I do not participate in any roleplay, so I would like to skip this category.

[Serris]

Proactive - zero-point - Without him, this forum literally would not exist save for a crippled version on Tapatalk.
Feedback - Rhombus - Whether it's art, fanfiction or just general conversations, he always has something to say and he manages to do so in a way that is respectful and polite.
Fanart - Skip
Friendly -DarkHououmon - Calm, polite, approachable and friendly are all words that I'd use to describe her. Either here or on the Discord channel.
Role Play Gamer - Nick22 - Without a doubt, he has run the longest and most in-depth roleplay I have ever seen anywhere. The Insane Café 'verse, spanning nearly eleven years, four RPs and numerous players could truly be called a masterwork of crossovers

[Ducky123]

Perks of voting last, you get to be the chooser

Fanart
Dark Wolf is the obvious choice here if it goes about skill and talent. I think we all want to have a runner up too here though. I really liked Flathead's dedication in the fanart area this year so my vote goes to Flathead770. LeventeII has shown a similar dedication so here's a honorary mention 

Proactive
Going with the flow here. zero-point has done a lot for the forum even if we don't see it on first glance. Well deserved, mate. 

RP
I was originally planning on skipping that one but I've got to support my fellow mates from my RP who are doing a fine job while I'm slacking off ( ) I was originally not going to vote because how should I tell who is better when everyone is doing great? This decision is solely based on the improvement I've seen of the writer in question. The Lone Dragon has done a really fine job developing his character in the RP, really improving in recent posts as I find so I will him my vote and the chance to win. Nick's a no brainer too, we all know he's good at it but I think other people should get a chance to be awarded as well

Friendly
This may cause an outrage after recent events but since they did not occur on the forum itself, I see no reason to regard them  Because brushing aside one recent slip up, Littlefoot505 is one of the friendliest and most welcoming and helpful persons you can find around here. You just need people like him, yep yep yep. Obvious runner-up for me is Flathead770 

Feedback
SKIP

because I can't decide LOL. Just wanna say both OwlsCantRead and Diddy have evolved into dedicated reviewers but I really can't decide who to give my vote for so I just won't

At least I'm glad to see my reduced activity around here is also showing in the voting. Man, senior member syndrome sucks, you just get lazy at some point 

[DarkHououmon]

I do apologize for how short these are. I just find it difficult to really explain things too well. So I did the best that I could.


Fanart Award:

DarkWolf. I quite enjoy the artwork that she's made, including the Land Before Time ones.

Feedback Award:

Rhombus. He has been helpful to me regarding my stories, both fanfiction and original.

Friendly Member Award:

Zeropoint. I find him to be approachable when it comes to starting a conversation.

Proactive Award:

I had trouble making my mind on this one, so this one will be skipped.

Role Play Gamer Award:

Since I do not participate in roleplaying on here, I will have to skip this one.

[rhombus]

The voting period has ended.  As there are two ties (one for RP and one for the runner up to the friendly member award) Nick will post a tie-breaker topic later today.  The tie-breaker will run until 11:59:59pm forum time on October 7, 2018.