Member of the Year Feedback

[Wicked3DS]

Did you like the categories in Member of the Year 2014?

Perhaps do a separate category for Battle Server Staff since you said yourself that it got overlooked? Aside from that and some of the ones that I have no idea how to judge (Drop that Dedenne, Lerroux-style, Top Model), the categories were very good for me.

If you voted, did you feel the categories easily related to other members?

Same answer as above.

Were the categories fun and/or engaging as far as choosing who fit them best?

It made me think for sure. As far as fun, I couldn't resist giving Syd the revolution title after finding out her love for Hunger Games :P

If you could suggest anything for future MotY activities, what would you suggest?
Anything else you want to say?

Honestly, I can't think of anything else. Happy 2015 everybody!

 

[Nick]

Did you like the categories in Member of the Year 2014?

Perhaps do a separate category for Battle Server Staff since you said yourself that it got overlooked? Aside from that and some of the ones that I have no idea how to judge (Drop that Dedenne, Lerroux-style, Top Model), the categories were very good for me.

If you guys are going to consider focusing anything specific towards the battle server staff, have a specific thread in the battling forum because I don't know a single one of them apart from Nica, and I'm not interested in going to the battle server, so I'm not interested in voting for them for favorite moderator since I don't interact with them or see much of them to begin with. And that resonates with at least 90% of the community.

That being said, maybe you should stop focusing so much on staff glorification. Our community is already staff-centric as it is. Often times the people who win Member of the Year are staff members as well, which is all well and good, but I think that's a sign that something should change. Maybe adding a "Staff Member of the Year" would fix that, and also boost the votes for normal members with normal contributions to the forum being voted on for Member of the Year.

 

[Legobricks]

Oh, this is the discussion thread. I made a short post in the other one before realising it looked sulky and that wasn't what I wanted to convey.

So, thanks for those discussion points and all. First: what is the point of MOTY? I really don't get it. What does anyone gain (or, for that matter: lose) from it? Also, I think staff should be excluded from it (or their votes count for half, or something) because they're always going to be voted for and it makes the poll... well it may well be uninteresting to me however it's done, but you know.

If you didn't vote, how come? What would make you more likely to vote in future MotY activities

Narcissistic as it sounds, if I felt like I'd be voted for by anyone other than Patchisou Yutohru each year I might partake (though it doesn't help that this particular year has been uneventful from my perspective). MOTY is a predictable ceremony that doesn't come across as anything other than the people everyone already knows are popular getting affirmed in some official manner to... boost their ego? As I said, I don't get it. I think it doesn't work out for being interesting when most of the voting base is going to be made up of a limited selection of super-regulars.

 

[Nah]

If you guys are going to consider focusing anything specific towards the battle server staff, have a specific thread in the battling forum because I don't know a single one of them apart from Nica, and I'm not interested in going to the battle server, so I'm not interested in voting for them for favorite moderator since I don't interact with them or see much of them to begin with. And that resonates with at least 90% of the community.

Just gonna say it now, I agree with this. Sorry BSS.

That being said, maybe you should stop focusing so much on staff glorification. Our community is already staff-centric as it is. Often times the people who win Member of the Year are staff members as well, which is all well and good, but I think that's a sign that something should change. Maybe adding a "Staff Member of the Year" would fix that, and also boost the votes for normal members with normal contributions to the forum being voted on for Member of the Year.

We did actually consider doing that while planning MotY. We also considered outright banning staff members from being voted for in the categories. But iirc we eventually decided against it partly because we thought that people would interpret it as us saying that we know we'd win the majority of the categories, which sounds really arrogant and would just make people hate us. We're members too, just with differently colored usernames and a little bit of responsibility and authority and we wish that people would see that; it's not really our fault that this forum has a bizarre mindset when it comes to staff.

But really, I don't like the fact that staff gets a lot of the votes any more than you.

 

[Hikamaru]

That being said, maybe you should stop focusing so much on staff glorification. Our community is already staff-centric as it is. Often times the people who win Member of the Year are staff members as well, which is all well and good, but I think that's a sign that something should change. Maybe adding a "Staff Member of the Year" would fix that, and also boost the votes for normal members with normal contributions to the forum being voted on for Member of the Year.

I think you're definitely onto something here, because of all the MOTY ballots I have voted in since joining the only one so far to have had a non-staffer win the main title was Yoshikkko way back in 2011, which was the first ballot I voted in. Splitting the main title into a staff version and a non-staff version could be the way to go, because if we are going to keep having staff members continuously win the main MOTY title it's going to keep causing non-staffers who make great contribution to get overlooked.

 

[antemortem]

That being said, maybe you should stop focusing so much on staff glorification. Our community is already staff-centric as it is. Often times the people who win Member of the Year are staff members as well, which is all well and good, but I think that's a sign that something should change. Maybe adding a "Staff Member of the Year" would fix that, and also boost the votes for normal members with normal contributions to the forum being voted on for Member of the Year.

From how I understand this, you want less attention on staff, but are suggesting creating an entirely separate category for us as far as the actual Member of the Year title is concerned. That's completely backwards in my head. I would sooner prefer to disallow staff to be voted in certain categories if "glorification" is the concern. Creating a separate category only further divides staff and members and places a special spotlight on whatever staff member wins it, which is what you're suggesting we move away from... and I agree with completely.

 

[Her]

the very essence of moty is popularity
saying it is nothing but a popularity contest is well...
duh

 

[Nick]

We did actually consider doing that while planning MotY. We also considered outright banning staff members from being voted for in the categories. But iirc we eventually decided against it partly because we thought that people would interpret it as us saying that we know we'd win the majority of the categories, which sounds really arrogant and would just make people hate us. We're members too, just with differently colored usernames and a little bit of responsibility and authority and we wish that people would see that; it's not really our fault that this forum has a bizarre mindset when it comes to staff.

But really, I don't like the fact that staff gets a lot of the votes any more than you.

It would have been arrogant, but it would have been accurate. Look at the results. Look at last years results. Look at the year before that. Look at the year before that.

Also,...
You are not just members.
You are staff members.
You have colored usernames.
You have a badge.
You have responsibility.
You have authority.
You have leadership.
You have unity amongst yourself that outsiders see.

You can say that you're just members until the sun goes down, but members look at staff members with adoration more often than not. At least the members that take this forum more seriously than just a hobby.

It irritates me beyond belief that some staff members always say that they're just members. But I don't want to start an argument about a simple statement.

 

[GastlyGibus]

I know I'm going to get flack for this, but I think I should let my feelings be known.

I absolutely detest these sorts of "awards," if they can even be called that.

Why do I despise them? Because it's all subjective. It's all up to the whims of the voters. Now, I know it's all meant to be for fun, and it's not meant to be taken seriously. I get that, and it probably sounds like I'm mad because I didn't win anything. Honestly, I couldn't care less about winning anything, but that's besides the point.

Let's take for example the Roleplay Corner awards, since that's really the only section I participate in. We had such categories as "Best character designer," "Best head-canon," and other such things. When it's left up to the voter whims, I could vote for Joe-Schmoe as best character creator, despite the fact that Joe-Schmoe might be the worst character creator in the world. Someone could vote for Derpina as best head-canon, despite the fact the Derpina might not be as good as Joe-Schmoe, etc... you see what I mean? It's nothing but a popularity contest, and it shows. People vote for their friends, instead of people who might actually deserve the recognition.

Then you might say "well, why don't you vote then?" but see, I'd be voting with the same subjectivity as everybody else. I might vote for Joe-Schmoe as best GM, having never been in one of Derpina's RP's and seeing that she's clearly the better GM. It's too subjective. It's nothing but a popularity contest, and I feel like it's a bit harmful to the community to have the standard "popular kids" club like it's high school. People not in the "cool kids" club feel left out, and the same clique of people win the same awards every year. I don't think it's fun.

I don't think the lack of votes is based on holiday season. I think the reason is people, like myself, willfully abstain from participating because it's a waste of time. In the end the same popular people are going to win all the time, so it's quite the pointless endeavor.

I myself would prefer an objective voting panel, and for members to elect nominees for the categories. Then the panel would examine the nominees and judge them. Something that feels less like a popularity contest and more like an actual reward for contributing to the forums. That's just my $0.02.

 

[Aquacorde]

PC is hella staff-centric and it's hard to do a lot about that tbh because you can't so drastically change the culture of the site with a few small changes but I rather think that maybe it could be improved.

Overall, MOTY is always a bit difficult because doesn't everyone just focus on the latter half/third/quarter of the year? That's what's freshest in the mind of us all innit. Hard to remember what the hell was going on in March by December tbh.

im just gonna run thru the year's categories if you dont mind.

Instead of "Favorite" staff, why not "Best" staff? You know, considering not who you're bffs with but who you see doing their job the best. or mb not have a separate mod/bss & hstaff categories. Like, separate categories would be fine for a "Best" segment but for a "Favorite" why is it that necessary? Could be instead that fav female/fav male are staff-inclusive for ya friends and then there's a Best Staff Member category for recognition of a job well done, yeah?
I wonder if fav pairing is such a huge thing anymore. Isn't the pairing culture rather dead now? comparatively.

"Most Changed Since Joining" mb should be retired for a few years because it's literally always either an old-ass member or Hikari lmao. or at leaset balanced with a least changed.
Interesting Blogger would be better if there were more consistent bloggers but yeah.
It's be kinda cool to have a "most iconic theme" category mb. Best sigs and avs is kinda hard tbh because again hard to remember what the hell went on all year and it tends to be judges on last ones ya see. I don't mind the categories, I just don't think a lot of thought is put into the votes? w/e
Post Count Obsessed is difficult I think bc there's been a huge movement to get away from the idea that postcount is a thing and it's become like, that idea of don't show an interest in modding or you wont get it? (entirely untrue but) postcount's become like that i think, that you shouldn't care about it.
I like the non-GT event one but I'd also like a fav GT event because GT is a big thing of the year innit
Drop that Dedenne was a pretty limited in-joke tbh even though it was v popular among those that knew it.
Lerroux can fuck off any time

About the section-specific ballot, I don't know if separating them is helping the event any. I feel like it's an unnecessary split and really drops the attention that those categories get. iirc one of the reasons was to make the votes easier to count and mb the whole thing less overwhelming? but I don't think that's the greatest way to encourage voting.

overall though i think i would like categories to focus on recognizing those who actually do things instead of just a selection of people the voter happens to like. more focus on how questions are phrased and such could help that.

 

[Mana1]

I think I've mentioned my opinion on MOTY in terms of staff taking part before, at least in the planning phase. I wouldn't mind seeing staff removed from the main MOTY award, and narrowing down the staff-specific categories a bit.

However, maybe that's just because I'm the one who slips under the radar and doesn't mind so much ><.

Overall, MOTY is always a bit difficult because doesn't everyone just focus on the latter half/third/quarter of the year? That's what's freshest in the mind of us all innit. Hard to remember what the hell was going on in March by December tbh.

I agree, but I'm not sure how to change peoples thoughts on voting. Some people seem to vote for things that are fresh in their minds, whilst others seem to just go with the same default answer - someone who pops into their head. IMO this is probably more of a problem, as it means the same people are winning the same awards all the time.

Some potential examples of status quo:
Hikari winning most and least changed in MOTY2013 (and most changed 2014) as well as most post count obsessed and refresher both years - in fact, Hikari probably has the most repeat wins of any member. But does she really represent this category/the others the best? - In fact, this is probably the reason for the 'least changed' removal :<.
Cid, who I can't say I have spoken, was last on-site in 2013. They were 'most missed' in MOTY2013. Whilst I understand that people may still miss him, shouldn't the focus be pulled to people who left in 2014? Perhaps a phrasing issue.

 

[Hikamaru]

Some potential examples of status quo:
Hikari winning most and least changed in MOTY2013 (and most changed 2014) as well as most post count obsessed and refresher both years - in fact, Hikari probably has the most repeat wins of any member. But does she really represent this category/the others the best? - In fact, this is probably the reason for the 'least changed' removal :<.
Cid, who I can't say I have spoken, was last on-site in 2013. They were 'most missed' in MOTY2013. Whilst I understand that people may still miss him, shouldn't the focus be pulled to people who left in 2014? Perhaps a phrasing issue.

I can see where you're coming from here, it seems like in the last few years people really do think I'm the only one who attempts refreshing during a downtime or that I'm "post count obsessed" just because I tend to be fast-paced when it comes to posting. And here's a snippet of what was my reaction post to the results, when I was voted "Most Post Count" obsessed for what was like second or third year in a row:

"Most Post Count Obsessed"... like seriously how many times did I win this one now? Probably twice in a row I guess, but it seems like people still look at my fast pacing when it comes to posts hahahahaha.

I like won this category and the others you mentioned so much I seem to forget the last time someone who wasn't me won that category. I guess the categories for the 2015 edition could deserve a revamp if we're getting the same results constantly like you said.

As for Cid winning "Most Missed" for like what two years running now? I think the reason why he got voted there a lot was because when he left PC near the mid of 2013 (only a few months after he was modded to The Welcome Lounge) there was so much heartbreak from those members who looked up to him, because he was such an inspiration to them and I don't blame them given how well-detailed his posts were along with a heartwarming attitude in general. But I do see where you're coming from here, maybe next time the category should be focused more on member departures from more recently.

 

[Pendraflare]

Guess i'll reply to this, why not.

Did you like the categories in Member of the Year 2014?
Yeah, I thought some of them were ideas and decisions that I doubt many would think of.

If you voted, did you feel the categories easily related to other members?
I didn't vote. More on that later.

Were the categories fun and/or engaging as far as choosing who fit them best?
I think they were decently made categories that had good selections as to who fit them.

If you didn't vote, how come? What would make you more likely to vote in future MotY activities?
I didn't vote mostly because of how I haven't gravitated to see enough people to the point where I felt I would end up voting for many of the categories at all. That's no fault of the forum, more to me.

If you could suggest anything for future MotY activities, what would you suggest?
Possibly one on most persevering? As in people who have clearly struggled but benefit well? Oh, yeah, and why did Fourth Generation get a MotY voting thread while Fifth Generation didn't?

Anything else you want to say?
Not really.