Arsik wrote on 2013-12-02 04:44
*WARNING: POST MAY COME ACROSS AS DICKISH. THE POSTER IS ONLY EXPRESSING HIS HEARTFELT OPINION, AND IN NO WAY IS HE TRYING TO ATTACK ANY PERSON TO HURT THEIR FEELINGS.*
I told myself, and to others as well, that I'd wait until the event was over to see how you guys handle it before I express my opinion. And, now that it's over (congrats to the winners, by the way), I think I'll give my thoughts on how it was handled. And my thoughts are exactly the same as they were when the awards started this year: you shouldn't have bothered with them.
I applaud the Test crew for taking up the task to continue tradition, despite a fair amount of the community, and all of the staff saying that the awards were nothing but bad news. However, the problem I have was that the crew completely missed the reason we had the tradition, just as the community forgot last year why. And that is to have fun. It wasn't meant to be taken seriously, it was meant to unify the community of this site by going back and looking at all the good fun people had over the past year.
And both the Test crew and the community both took the awards too seriously, just in the opposite extremes. Members last year felt that the awards were nothing but popularity contests (which they are), and should have been actual awards, especially considering that real money was being offered as prizes instead of a digital badge. So they decided to try and sabotage the event by not only bitching and moaning and fighting with the staff who were running the event, but by nominating Splat in categories that he shouldn't have been in (as a way to bully him), as well as voting against people just to prevent them for winning, not because they believe the person they voted for should win.
And of course, this year, as a way to try and prevent what happened last year, you guys took it to the other extreme. Starting off with removing the "joke" categories (which was the act that made me say that this year's event had no hope), you made it go from a "small" get together to remember the good times with friends, where people can sit and joke around, to the freaking Academy Awards, where tuxedos and ballroom dresses are mandatory, and we just sit and wait for the announcement for the winners, just to give them a golf clap.
Which brings me to my next point: No connectivity to the community. You got rid of nominations for each category, and instead opted out for a "you can vote for anyone" approach. Now, instead of having a select few people/threads to choose from for me to explore, and understand why each person was nominated for that category, I have to go through each person's post, and each thread, just to give everyone a fair chance before I decide on a vote. But that's too much work for most people to bother with, so people probably just voted for the first person that popped into their head. There could possibly have been a better thread than what was voted for, or the absolute most helpful person in the beginning of the year, for example. But since they occurred months ago, people probably have forgotten about them and instead voted for something more recent.
And even then, you guys didn't even describe each category to let us know what we're voting for. Sure, some things are obvious, but what's the difference between "Poster of the Year" and "Author of the Year"? And even then, the obvious can still be confusing. I'm going to pick on Kingofrunes, not with ill intent, but as an example. He won "Thread of the Year", but which thread of his won? That category and the "Guide of the Year" had us voting for the person who made the threads instead of the threads themselves, thus making it unfair for other people. I can assume that most of the votes was because of the Merlin thread, but there could also be people who voted for the Master Chef thread, or maybe there were a bunch of animal lovers who voted for his "Chen Loves Boxes" thread, where as the person who has the second most votes probably only has one thread that people associate to them. So right now, King has at least three threads that people voted for, and each thread had less votes than the runner-up's one thread, but combined, they had more votes than the runner-up, thus giving King the win in that category.
And then there's the voting itself. Instead of just writing the coding and giving it to Chise to put on the site, we had to go a different website to vote for this site's members, which to me makes it feel really impersonal. We're told that we could only have one chance to vote, and then halfway through voting, you guys said that "some votes didn't count and will be discarded". So now, as a voter, I'm wondering if my vote was "good enough" or not for you guys. I could have voted for the "Accomplishments Thread" for the "Thread of the Year" category, because, while it wasn't made this year, that thread easily had the most posts, the most discussion, and at one point, people went up in arms when it lost its sticky. But since it wasn't made this year, as far as I know, my vote for that category was thus nullified and that my opinion didn't matter in that regard. That's no different than me voting for Donald Duck for the 2016 Presidential Election, and then being told that my vote got thrown away because Donald Duck isn't real. I have the right to vote, and I should be able to vote for anyone I please. Even if I know that the person I voted for has 0% chance of winning, it's my choice to waste my vote as a voter, not your choice as the overseers to discredit my vote compared to anyone else.
In fact, this whole thing just felt really, really rushed. It went from Ithi asking the community if they want it or not, to BAM, the KR crew is now hosting the event while (as far as I'm aware) the majority of the staff were saying that they didn't want to have it at all. When the admin of the site gets completely blindsided originally by the announcement of an official site event, obviously things were moving a little too fast. And that's ignoring that there's still a month until the end of the year, and important things have been known to have happen between the middle of November and the middle of December. So now we were suddenly thrown into this, despite the community being divided on the issue, with a brand new system where no discussion with the staff or community as to what categories, or how the system was ran. Okay fine, we voted. Now, voting is over, and again, BAM, there are the winners with a general "congratulations". No witty dialogue for each winner, no dramatic reveal, just "here's your winners, kthxbai".
Basically, what I'm trying to say is, the KR test crew, in them trying to keep a tradition alive, forgot the very reason we had the tradition in the first place: for fun. I understand, things change. I've seen it first hand countless times in this community, considering that I've been with this community since the beginning of MabiGuru. But I just don't understand how an award event for the community can be considered fun when you rush it and take out all the things that should let the community connect, whether through jokes awards that are obviously meant to be not serious, letting people pick who should be in what category, lightheartedly describe what each category was for, as well as the people who won said category. To me, this felt less like an award event, and more like one of those spur of the moment polls that sports/news shows have that have no meaning to them.
Ashikoki wrote on 2013-12-02 05:11
Quote from Arsik;1174649:
[Image: http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view1/1437769/stick-figure-typing-o.gif]
10/10 would circlejerk again.
One of the reasons why I asked for this:
Quote from Ashikoki;1174591:
I'd like to have a look in to the details if you don't mind so I can determine the quality of the event and see what we can do to improve for next year though.
Also, for things like best guide or thread of the year, do we have a specific thread in mind?
was because I wasn't sure exactly how big the participation was, or how specific everyone was being. The entire point of events like these are to bring the community together and get them talking and having fun. This event however, had zero presence.
I won, but there was pretty much no build up, excitement, or thrill. There wasn't any discussion. It just kinda happened and everyone said "well cool", and it was over. How much did I win by? 2 votes? Of the total 5 I got? This worries me. I do understand after speaking to Kenero that in order to prevent this event from becoming sabotaged, the whole process had to be behind curtains. But to be completely honest, without a transparent voting system an event like this is really mundane. Very unfitting for this site.
I believe the biggest mistake was how rushed this event was. I didn't even hear about it until the green light was given, and the event had started before anyone could properly object. By then it was too late and all I got was "we'll see how it goes". Which I grudgingly agreed to.
So how did it go? I want to know the details. From what I've gotten out of it so far, any future End of the Year events would be better off just being how it used to be with nominations and transparent votes. I personally believe last year's little disaster wasn't the community's fault, but rather how poorly organized the event itself was. I looked back in to it and I saw a large number of flaws from how the staff handled it, and the community's reaction was mostly just human nature in a nutshell. I could go in to details, but there would be a lot of finger pointing towards currently active members so I'd rather not. The point is, I think the current staff can handle a normal event.
Hanna wrote on 2013-12-02 05:49
Pretty much agree with arsik on this one
Even though I appreciate the effort you guys killed it but sucking out all of the fun
Cucurbita wrote on 2013-12-02 06:48
We should've had a livestream of this event. That would've been kinda cool.
Quote from Brynn;1174596:
I just lost a lot of respect.
wow, so krischun. much brazilian. very brinn. wow.
Chaos' wrote on 2013-12-02 07:22
First off thx for the win :D
2nd i actually forgot about this event after reading about it last month? ;-; ...
And i joined like a year ago and dont have a clue what happen during last year's event soo no comment
Yai wrote on 2013-12-02 09:08
First of all congratulations to the winners! I am heading out shortly so I cannot give the full data report for the event, but I can give you the winners/second place for the moment along with the number of votes per section.
[spoiler=Data]
Best Poster:
1st: kenero with 9
2nd: gensokyou with 3
Votes for this Category: 38
Best Guide:
1st: chaos' with 8
2nd: kenero with 4
Votes for this Category: 28
Most Helpful:
1st: kenero with 10 (Kenero turned this down)
2nd: kaeporo with 3
Votes for this Category: 33
Best Thread:
1st: kenero with 5 (Kenero turned this down)
2nd: kingofrunes with 3
Votes for this Category: 24
Newcomer:
1st: snowie stormflower with 8
2nd: kapra with 4
Votes for this Category: 25
Best Staff:
1st: ashikoki with 13
2nd: snowie stormflower with 10
Votes for this Category: 36
Best Artist:
1st: murasaki with 14
2nd: yai with 5
Votes for this Category: 28
Best Author:
1st: kenero with 10
2nd: tlcbonaparte, iljimae, kingofrunes, osayidan, chiyuri, cynic, ravendor, mentosftw with 1
Votes for this Category: 18
This is the only category I was not happy with, it was meant to be for people who were good at writing stories.
Funniest:
1st: aubog007 with 9
2nd: splatulated with 6
Votes for this Category: 31
[/spoiler]
To those addressing concerns in the event. You make valid points, I certainly feel like it could have been done better. The main point was to try and overcome the drama of last time, and as a result some of the fun was indeed lost due to having an external anonymous voting system.
I hope that next year a solution can be found that balances both aspects. Maybe the old system could be revisited with some rules to avoid the same drama?
Snowie Stormflower wrote on 2013-12-02 09:56
Quote from Yai;1174706:
[spoiler=Data]
Best Poster:
1st: kenero with 9
2nd: gensokyou with 3
Votes for this Category: 38
Best Guide:
1st: chaos' with 8
2nd: kenero with 4
Votes for this Category: 28
Most Helpful:
1st: kenero with 10 (Kenero turned this down)
2nd: kaeporo with 3
Votes for this Category: 33
Best Thread:
1st: kenero with 5 (Kenero turned this down)
2nd: kingofrunes with 3
Votes for this Category: 24
Newcomer:
1st: snowie stormflower with 8
2nd: kapra with 4
Votes for this Category: 25
Best Staff:
1st: ashikoki with 13
2nd: snowie stormflower with 10
Votes for this Category: 36
Best Artist:
1st: murasaki with 14
2nd: yai with 5
Votes for this Category: 28
Best Author:
1st: kenero with 10
2nd: tlcbonaparte, iljimae, kingofrunes, osayidan, chiyuri, cynic, ravendor, mentosftw with 1
Votes for this Category: 18
This is the only category I was not happy with, it was meant to be for people who were good at writing stories.
Funniest:
1st: aubog007 with 9
2nd: splatulated with 6
Votes for this Category: 31
[/spoiler]
The amount of actual votes cast is surprisingly small.
Will you be posting full details later?
Quote from Yai;1174706:
Best Author:
This is the only category I was not happy with, it was meant to be for people who were good at writing stories.
I can imagine this category being either misunderstood or 'overlooked', as in there are plenty of good storywriters out there, people just go tl;dr on them.
Also Best Author = Best Thread, to some or most people, which is also why the winner is the same.
This category could have been left out or made into a story-writing contest, instead.
Chockeh wrote on 2013-12-02 10:19
Quote from Yai;1174706:
First of all congratulations to the winners! I am heading out shortly so I cannot give the full data report for the event, but I can give you the winners/second place for the moment along with the number of votes per section.
[spoiler=Data]
Best Poster:
1st: kenero with 9
2nd: gensokyou with 3
Votes for this Category: 38
Best Guide:
1st: chaos' with 8
2nd: kenero with 4
Votes for this Category: 28
Most Helpful:
1st: kenero with 10 (Kenero turned this down)
2nd: kaeporo with 3
Votes for this Category: 33
Best Thread:
1st: kenero with 5 (Kenero turned this down)
2nd: kingofrunes with 3
Votes for this Category: 24
Newcomer:
1st: snowie stormflower with 8
2nd: kapra with 4
Votes for this Category: 25
Best Staff:
1st: ashikoki with 13
2nd: snowie stormflower with 10
Votes for this Category: 36
Best Artist:
1st: murasaki with 14
2nd: yai with 5
Votes for this Category: 28
Best Author:
1st: kenero with 10
2nd: tlcbonaparte, iljimae, kingofrunes, osayidan, chiyuri, cynic, ravendor, mentosftw with 1
Votes for this Category: 18
This is the only category I was not happy with, it was meant to be for people who were good at writing stories.
Funniest:
1st: aubog007 with 9
2nd: splatulated with 6
Votes for this Category: 31
[/spoiler]
To those addressing concerns in the event. You make valid points, I certainly feel like it could have been done better. The main point was to try and overcome the drama of last time, and as a result some of the fun was indeed lost due to having an external anonymous voting system.
I hope that next year a solution can be found that balances both aspects. Maybe the old system could be revisited with some rules to avoid the same drama?
LOL, he should have won them all.
Yai wrote on 2013-12-02 10:40
Quote from Snowie Stormflower;1174711:
The amount of actual votes cast is surprisingly small.
Will you be posting full details later?
I can imagine this category being either misunderstood or 'overlooked', as in there are plenty of good storywriters out there, people just go tl;dr on them.
Also Best Author = Best Thread, to some or most people, which is also why the winner is the same.
This category could have been left out or made into a story-writing contest, instead.
Only around 10 votes were not counted because they were basically someone voting a name in every category. There just weren't many votes to begin with.
Kingofrunes wrote on 2013-12-02 12:49
I'm not sure how I feel about the results now. Only reason I won is because Kenero turned it down. She would have won 4 awards O.o
But I'll accept it. Was really nice for Kenero to turn down a few to give others a chance. The reason for the small votes is probably what Arisk pointed out. I hate to admit it, but he is kind of right on this one.
Also it would have been nice to know what thread people voted me for.
Considering only 3 votes for me, would be easy for those 3 people to say why.
Sepia wrote on 2013-12-02 16:10
Don't know why anyone is surprised by this.
Brynn wrote on 2013-12-02 16:14
On to the next year! I'm sure this will be done a lot better in 2014.
Cannibal wrote on 2013-12-02 23:32
Quote from Brynn;1174750:
On to the next year! I'm sure this will be done a lot better in 2014.
Only if it goes back to how it was, lmao.
I mean it's cool that the KR crew did this, and I understand the effort, but it's shit. The build-up and the excitement were what made the awards fun, not the shitty, low-quality, anime badges. Like Arsik said, it
is a popularity contest. That's what all awards are, unless you're in fucking second grade and you don't want hurt feelings.
Anyone who ever took this shit seriously in the past is dumb as hell though. It's supposed to be fun. This shit isn't serious. This shit isn't the Grammy's or a presidential election.