MC Forum Awards #7 Nominations/Final Voting Ballot

[Katzi428]

Katzi, i'm sorry to hear you feel that way but i also understand and respect it since many such awards throughout life whether it be online or real-life can be viewed that way. I've worried about that myself some years back but i do think we have a generally good community here that takes their votes seriously and all in all i'd much rather have them than not. (If i didn't believe that we have a lot of great people here doing great stuff throughout the year that should be remembered and celebrated, i wouldn't have picked up the task of keeping them going after the previous organizer gave up)

Previously i had requested that nominees be named instead of just the winners so that way more people would be included and this year, i suggested changes that allowed for a nominations round and a final voting round again to get a wider variety of people involved and more diverse range of choices. As past organizers have stated and i concur (again, if i didn't, i wouldn't be involved with them) that these are meant to honor the community rather than tear it down. Those that may have had concerns about people being left out that shouldn't be had every opportunity to rectify that in a positive manner by placing their votes during the nominations round for the very people they would have wanted to be named.

But again - as much as i will defend the awards and lay out why i felt they were worth saving, i also fully respect people's right to have a differing feeling about them. Whether it be prom king/queen in high school to being treated differently by possible employers or by waiters/bartenders due to one's gender, age, weight, looks or any number of things that don't matter, there are those of us who may not want to have any type of activity that in some way involves someone being chosen for something over other people (regardless of how well they may be held by the community it's for and are meant in the spirit of celebration as opposed to discrimination) on their radar when they come to the forum - especially if they may be visiting the forum particularly to get away from those elements of "real life".

The bad news is it's too late for me to edit your name out of the ballot (i can't even get mods to sticky these threads), but i'm sure (especially being on the first page) that voters will see and note your reluctence of wishing to be considered as a nominee and will vote accordingly (i can also go ahead and "internally" remove it - that is not count any votes for you from anyone who didn't see your wish to be removed and also take it off the list when the nominations are read during the ceremony).

I would nonetheless like to ask you to reconsider - maybe think about it more after a good night's sleep or some time has passed and if you do decide you would like to remain on the ballot, please post here that you would. Otherwise, like i say, we can be sure to withdraw you for consideration. Sorry you won't be joining us - i've heard the buffet being catered is lipsmackin' good. The seat at the table shall always remain open.

All right. You guys can vote me this year (Only if you want) But next year take me off please. Thanks.

 

[D'Snowth]

Yes, it says a lot people who weren't actually around much end up in the categories.

That's kind of what I was saying too...

Again, I appreciate all the nominations, but again, I don't really feel I qualify for any of them, mainly because there were several extended periods of time during 2010 in which I was absent from MC: both at my will, and against my will.

In a small way though, I'm kind of disappointed I wasn't nominated for the puppeteer category, but that's more understandable, considering I haven't been able to really produce any new puppet content in the last year, so that I genuinely disqualify for as well.

I completely see where Kathy is coming from, because really, in the past year or so, there's been a lot of friction among members throughout the forum, all over "popularity", and which members are "more popular" than others, and which members feel they can't compete in a "popularity contest". MC is no exception, it's like other forums out there: yes, there are some members who are more "prolific" than others, there are some members who are more active than others, and conversly, there are some members who tend to be ignored more than others, and some members who could've very well made excellent additions to the cast of T*K*O when it was still in production. And don't even get me started again on the cliques... because YES, we DO still have some problems with cliques around here: we've had a newer member here within the last few months whose been a friend of mine for a long time, and tried to join in on Hensonville, but told me she didn't feel very welcomed, and didn't feel like she fit in very well.

BUT, the MC Forum Awards ARE a tradition around here, whether people like it or not, you just can't break away from tradition... and I feel like this post ended up longer than I wanted it to be...

 

[Luke]

we've had a newer member here within the last few months whose been a friend of mine for a long time, and tried to join in on Hensonville, but told me she didn't feel very welcomed, and didn't feel like she fit in very well.

I agree with you about the Hensonville and all that. Not that games aren't a valuable part of the forum .. but the site really needs to get back to being Muppet news and discussion first, and games second. I think it'd make for a much better atmosphere if there wasn't so much emphasis on them. Hopefully with all the Muppet movie stuff there will be more for people to talk about.

Good luck to all !

 

[dwmckim]

All right. You guys can vote me this year (Only if you want) But next year take me off please. Thanks.

Noted. And thanks for sticking around for inclusion. You'll have to remind us next year though - my memory's not as quicksilver as it once was.

 

[dwayne1115]

i just can't belive people don't want to win an award.

 

[RedPiggy]

Indeed. In my humble opinion, once you start griping about cliques, you've pretty much created one for yourself.

 

[dwmckim]

Snowth - i see your nominations as being a case of "quality over quantity"

Heck, on a lot of forums - MC, TP, non-Muppet forums, you get some amount of people posting a whole bunch of stuff for the sole purpose of getting their "post count" up and in the process end up with a bunch of posts not really saying anything. I don't associate post count with quality (and hence award-worthiness) - there's always the type that may not pipe up as often but when they do, it's golden.

As per cliques, they are always going to exist. I was largely absent from the forum for a few years in the mid-00s due to my personal life needing too much attention (back when i was both disowned by most of my family and thrown out of my family's home and lost my longtime job both for being gay pretty much back-to-back) and upon returning, i was a little concerned with how it seemed like there had been such a huge focus on the role playing game threads and how if you weren't a part of that you were a bit more out of the loop. That's changed. I've seen the forum go through periods of major cliqueishness and as i said, that's always going to exist to some extent but i really don't think today's MC Forum is as extreme as it had been in times past. I think people here have occassionally seen where my claws can sharpen when i see something that i think would have a more detrimental effect on the fandom community at large so i'd like to think that the fact that i'm currently a large part of keeping the awards going says a lot. Trust me on this - if the atmosphere was such that i felt they were ultimately a waste of time i wouldn't have anything to do with them - point blank. Remember that i picked up the gauntlet while my offline life is still a mess - still unemployed (with only a month left til my measly-enough unemployment "benefits" about to run out) and concerned with my ability to survive (and for that matter how much i ultimately want to) and taking drastic measures to pay bills or have basic needs (with some "needs" like food or new contact lenses turning more into lesser "wants"). It would be very easy for me to not care or get involved but i really did not like the way they were nearly dropped like a hot potato when 2010 was a good year for the forum.

You don't like the idea of the awards - you can ignore them the same way those not into RPGs can ignore those threads or those who aren't into all the various Henson worlds can ignore the sections of the forum devoted to them. Obviously, the more people who take part, the better the results but i won't force anyone to do so because no one should.

Having worked for a decade in market research i can say that the opinions of those who are more negative are always more sought after because they typically represent a portion of the population that have valuable feedback that often gets underrepresented. So yeah - i'm gonna encourage those who are more apt to see how the awards could go down a negative road to take part precisely so that their ideas of how they should be moved closer to that direction. Like i say - people can moan and groan about how some people should have been included - but where were the votes from the people grumbling the loudest? Funny how that tends to work out.

At any rate - at the end of the day, the spirit and intent of the awards is for celebration. If they aren't your cuppa tea, then i'd reccomend putting them on your ignore list rather than spoiling it for those who view them more positively by hijacking the thread with incessant grumbling.

 

[dwayne1115]

i feel the same way, and I think a lot of people don't have to come on here, but they do and i think they should be recongized.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Wow- just wanted to say thank you for whoever nominated me for some categories. Wasn't expecting that at all.
And to address what some forum members were expressing, I can understand some of those complaints to a degree. Awards in general can feel like popularity contests, but I don't think they have to be. And I don't think I've ever noticed any cliques in the whole time I've been posting on this forum.
I think it's a pretty simple thing really. If you want to be involved, then start posting somewhere- whether it's in a particular thread or in one of the games or whatever. Even the news reporting and "serious discussions" and such - remember that the primary subject matter is The Muppets! It's all meant in fun. I would say just post away and enjoy it. If you don't want to participate, then you certainly don't have to- but if you do want to participate somewhere, there's nothing holding anyone back from doing so.
Anyway- I think the awards thing is just fun to read and participate in- and I honestly don't care if I win a thing or even get nominated. It's fun to join in happiness for others winning awards because everyone else out there is just as eligible if not more so as me.
So I guess I will get in my vote on the nominations now and look forward to the mayhem, craziness and fun sure to ensue on April Fools' Day.

 

[dwmckim]

Just to add a final point to my above post, i think things like the forum awards are very much a practical application of a self-fulfilling prophecy where people can either choose to be part of the solution or part of the problem.

If enough people choose to see them as cliques congratulating their own and don't get involved as a result then that's precisely how they'll turn out because those that could have represented the parts of the forum outside of that mentality weren't represented. If a select few only take part, the end result will be their own voices. The more people who get involved, the more representative it becomes and more fully represents the best of the best.

I know that some of the people i voted for would not have been there if i didn't throw in my vote - and that i would have been disheartened if they ended up absent, but because i threw in my two cents, not only are they there but others may seem them and think "Oh, OF COURSE! How could i have overlooked them?" I also know there's lots of other great choices that slipped from my own memory that other people may have voted for (which some thankfully did and unfortunately others didn't). I had my own ideas of what made up "the best" and then afterward seeing other people's choices and views of their perceptions of "the best" brought to my mind things i overlooked and forgot about as i've said elsewhere i already know some categories where i'm voting for something different than what i nominated because now having been reminded of it/them, realize it's an even better choice. I'm very thankful for and ecstatic about votes like that because they made the awards stronger and brought an even more worthy player to the table than what my own perspective/memory allowed for.

If the voting pool is devoid of all those who feel they aren't a strong enough representation of the forum, then it won't be since they're lacking the input of those who could have made some marvelous choices. They end up being a representation of those directly taking part - and not representing those who don't. They're what we collectively make them. (Maybe we should call them "The Skenfriths")

I'm here to celebrate. Who's with me?