Yes, please, everyone participate in the RPCs! I'm keeping it open until the evening of the 29th my time, so please write something, even if it's only 100 words! I've heard lots of ideas about high school, secret agent and hospital AUs and I would love to read each and every one! Remember, judges can compete too!
So, the RPAs.
When it comes to history, apparently there was an RPA in 2005 that ran similar to the MotY, but the first one that ran like these ones we have now was back in 2011 and ran by Rika! They were once every 2 months for a little bit (Diamond1304 ran the next one) and were a bit more active than any of the ones we had recently. And that was because it was easy to vote; one name per category.
After that, I took over and continued with the same way, but changed the every two months to every season (cutting it into quarters). I made new emblems to make it seem fresh and new. After I saw the many people voting for previous winners, I changed it so the last winner couldn't win it again, to make sure we kept the ball rolling and sharing the awards around. I added the description that people had to add in because I felt like most people were just voting for the sake of it, and it felt rather empty when it came to counting up votes.
2012 I shook it up by incorporating the secret judge panel which were chosen by me. So this ran like this for a year and I was actually pleased with the winners. It felt deserving and a far more meaningful process rather than just counting up tallys. The only real problem with it was time and it took us a lot of time to come up with a winner. But, I think it was worth it.
SV ran the last two I was associated with before they just kind of fizzled out, before Pete brought it back half a year later.
So, what do I think? They are both a good and bad thing.
Good? It's like the academy awards or olympics time of year. Everyone gets all chirpy and excited to see winners and honestly, we could see an improvement in posts. It was good motivation to get yourself out there and we always saw a bout of RPs popping up just before it was RPA time again. There was a nice spirit around and it was great to be a part of it. And when it came to announcing winners, we had a lot of gratified people and a lot of good sportsmanship.
But, there were some bad points. I saw an uncomfortable amount of people saying "aw man i wish i won an award" and "i never win an award im just not good enough ):". Not only was this dampening the spirit but this is textbook bad sportsman ship (and guilt tripping on the judges, honestly). When it came to judging i felt that some of the judges were emotionally swayed by these people and sometimes thinking that giving awards just to make them feel better about themselves, which is not exactly what the awards are about.
honestly, i don't care about the awards themselves. i know ive won awards and im grateful to those who have voted but theyre just awards. bits of words that say i did something. and i would give all those awards and all my emblems and my modship and even my cherished username away just to see this community lighten up and come together and be happy. because that's what i love most about the RP Corner, is how friendly and supporting we are of one another. and i get to see these from all the best angles. its my favourite part of being mod. :)
so, yeah. what i would love to see this award ceremony and all year around is spirit. liveliness! be proud of one another! we've all done a great job creating stories with one another and even if you don't win or don't even participate, everybody deserves to be congratulated. well done everybody!!
