The guest of honor: Are site awards detrimental?

I suppose I mostly don't see the point. I mean, roleplay is a collaborative effort. It's not a competition. I would guess that adding an element of competition can only detract from the sense of collaboration.

And really, I find it hard to believe that winners are exclusively chosen on the content of their posts, rather than at least partially out of OOC friendship. If a person was a dedicated and talented poster but never said a peep in chat, would they really be voted for? Call me cynical, but I doubt it.

Having said all that, I've never been a part of a site that does it, so I have no experience with it. I don't have much desire to change that, though.

 

Many good points have brought up. I suppose it would depend on the member-base and how a character or thread, or otherwise is chosen. Now for those that are done randomly well, I like that for a spotlight, so hopefully no one gets left out. Ever. As, its quite true. On some sites cliques just happen and some people just cannot find middle ground. I'd hate for anyones feelings to be hurt, but they have been on some places with MOTM, COTM, etc.

 

I hate the idea of roleplaying becoming something of a popularity contest. I look at these different awards and contests as something of a gimmick, bells and whistles geared at making the community more active, but I think if you have a good community, you don't need these things, and in the end I feel like they only serve to divide people into cliques and alienate new-comers.

 

I started doing a monthly spotlight on members that have caught my attention with their dedication and contributions to the Star Army community, and it's been received very positively by the membership. At first it was just to recognize one person who had been doing a lot of work on the wiki, but people loved it so much they asked me to make it a regular thing.

 

I don't do any of that currently, but I wouldn't be against doing it in the future. I love the idea of quote of the month.

 

In my opinion it can be kind of tricky, and how well it works depends entirely on your member base! I'm lucky that on the site I'm staff for, we have great members who don't really get worked up over who wins or doesn't win the of the month, so it's a fun way to kudos people who have done something very funny or very plotworthy or feels-worthy. On the other hand, I've also seen it turn sour fast. So I guess be cautiously optimistic?

 

I think they give you something to aim for and a sense of achievement when you get an award.

 

As an admin I've been lucky that I've never had a bad experience with awards among players overall but while it's fun at first, I find players generally lose interest after the first few months, especially if it's vote based awards so I stopped doing them in my games. As a player, I think they can be fun but awards are not a deciding factor or something I pay much attention to when I look for a game to join.

 

Never tried that and I don't think I'll do in the future. We're more focused on writing stories and optional features tend to fall flat unless they're seen as needed.

 

I think they can be fun if the members are allowed to have the say in them. I don't care for admins that do it but to each their own. It is not something we tend to do on sites we own.

 

I don't really like them to be honest. Yeah, it's nice to be nominated, and they can be fun, but there's a dark side to it as well. I was on a board years ago which had a yearly awards thing, and the first year I was there, almost all the awards went out to the moderators.

If you have this feature on a site, then moderators should be exempt from being nominated.

It can also be used (directly or indirectly) to make members feel bad if they see the same writers being nominated month after month and no matter how much effort they put into their posts and characters, never get nominated for anything. I think it's a distraction and I don't participate in them (at least when it comes to nominating people and voting.)

 

I feel the same way as Icewolf. Many boards I've seen have either awards or honors for one thing or another; some even have competitions. So often though you see its the staff who receive the accolades when they shouldn't even be involved. I've asked some of my members and staff about it, they're not interested, with most of them telling me its a waste of time.

 

Sometimes I go back and forth on this. While I think it's good to give members recognition especially ones that are actively contributing, I get the feeling at times it becomes a popularity contest. If there's voting involved, it can become like that. But it also might not be great to have only the staff picking. Tricky. I guess things like quote of the month and thread of the month are innocous enough and still fun!

 

It depends on the community of writers that you're working with; are they mature? Can they handle good-natured competition? Or will it turn into something petty that will make people mad?

 

We had end of year awards in some of the e-feds I used to write in. I liked them. Because the e-feds have a competitive component, it made sense to have awards for best feud/storyline/character/match and so on. They motivated the writers to be even better.

For a non-competitive RP I can see how they might be discouraging, because they're introducing a competitive element when everyone is there just to relax and write based on their own whims.

 

Mostly I find it to be an UTTER headache for admins to take care of. I mean we, as site leaders, have enough on our damn plates without pestering people to vote on a monthly Top member thing. I could see doing a "featured character" that changes weekly and isn't voted on or anything and is set up so everyone gets a turn. But that's about it.

 

The way I see it, this question depends almost entirely upon exactly how awards are handed out.

Characters of the month and players of the month--That stuff makes me uncomfortable as an end-user, even if I'm the one winning them. It's a nice gesture, I guess, but I really just don't want to be compared to other writers in a competitive environment. It would be far, far more meaningful and make me a lot happier if someone just came up to me and told me they enjoyed writing with me. I'm here to weave compelling characters and stories for other people to enjoy, not to compete.

I would also shudder at the idea of moderating a competitive awards system myself at the admin-level. Just the idea of not being able to appreciate posts subjectively brings a frown to my face. I suppose I could just let people vote, but what's the point in a glorified popularity contest?

But then you have like, awards systems. Make 20 posts. Max out your character's level. That stuff is great for me. It's less of a competition and more a hallmark of your personal progression. A badge you can wear with a bit of pride.

 

I like awards! On my site, we have general awards that everyone is eligible for, such as hitting a certain number of posts, doing a particular thing in a thread, participating in an event, etc. Everyone can collect these cute little badges that display in their profiles, and I think that gives everyone a fun goal to work toward. But I also like the idea of OTM's. Not of the month's, but of the moment's. I think that some people should be recognized for their efforts, and I think it also bolsters community when everyone comes together to read everybody's threads and really get invested in each other's characters. But you also have to be able to read your community. It shouldn't be a competition. If there's a popularity or other issue, then maybe it's best to discontinue OTM's.

 

I've never been super into OTMs, but it's more a personal thing than me thinking it'll hurt my site. I like to think that they're FINE generally, but I just never found competition my favorite. A lot of my members seem to want them, though, so maybe it's just as simple as polling your board and seeing what the majority is. XD

 

I can see both sides of it, tbh, as someone who has joined a site that had awards/spotlights and felt a bit like an outsider. But I also enjoyed it as an active member to be able to see my character/thread/etc liked so much that it was voted in.