[gwnn]

 hrothgar, on 2012-January-15, 18:03, said:

Sadly, I think that i shall never top my sneetches post...

Ah good point, that was a great post (and a great thread). May I nominate both?

http://www.bridgebas...ew-star-policy/

http://www.bridgebas...post__p__542218

[daveharty]

 JLOGIC, on 2012-January-15, 16:25, said:

Leave nominations open for more than a few days though so we can

A) Decide on the categories (again I agree that too many categories leaves things watered down and less meaningful)
B) Find individual posts/threads that are good.

Fair enough. I will leave nominations open for another week, until Monday, January 23, at midnight. Then I'll create a separate thread for the "official" voting. On Friday or Saturday, I'll post another list of nominations I've received so far, so others can see if I've made any glaring omissions.

As for deciding on the categories, my strong inclination is to stick with my original list of five awards (Newcomer, Best Thread, Best Post, "Real World", and Best Poster) with the addition of 32519's excellent suggestion of "Most Helpful Poster in B/I". That is such an important function of the BBOF that I think it deserves a separate award. I think issues like instructional vs. non-instructional, A/E vs. B/I, etc. can sort themselves out through the nominations and the voting. There hasn't been much call for increasing the number of awards, so I guess I'll just go with this scheme; if people subsequently decide there should be more/different awards, I can factor that in next year's poll.

EDIT: Also, if you nominate a post/thread, please include links, as gwnn has done above. Very helpful.

[gwnn]

nominate this thread:
http://www.bridgebas...vel-belongs-to/

and this:
http://www.bridgebas...you-have-played

and this: (this is actually a helpful thread)
http://www.bridgebas...ding-judgement/

this was pretty hilarious:
http://www.bridgebas...lay-usa-trials/

(fyi I just clicked on myself and said 'my content' - then it gave me 22 pages of threads I posted in since 15-01-2011, and I looked at some of the threads with the most replies)

[ArtK78]

There should also be an award for "Signature of the Year" for the most creative/funny/unusual signature. Many posters have come up with some great signatures.

[hrothgar]

 ArtK78, on 2012-January-16, 08:23, said:

There should also be an award for "Signature of the Year" for the most creative/funny/unusual signature. Many posters have come up with some great signatures.

I heartily agree with the "Signature of the Year" award suggestion

FWIW, my favorite threads were:

http://www.bridgebas...__1#entry227197

http://www.bridgebas...age__hl__martel

[Fluffy]

As always the only award a spaniard can hope for is the non native english speaker award, but hey! there isn't one , oh well it would go for Csaba anyway, maybe a spannish native speaker award... for Hanoi you say?

I hate popularity contest

[gwnn]

Let me nominate VM1973 for best newcomer. For better or for worse he did challenge mainstream views and stimulated a lot of discussion. My impression was (as I have also written to him) that he didn't always read all the replies but he definitely made us think outside the box. I'm not saying he is better or worse than other newcomers just that I think he deserves a nomination.

[Zelandakh]

For best newcomer I would think SimonFa and Statto are worth nominations. Simon because of well thought out B/I posts and an excellent manner and Statto because he only joined in December but still managed to make a positive impression.

[cherdano]

 Fluffy, on 2012-January-16, 08:50, said:

As always the only award a spaniard can hope for is the non native english speaker award, but hey! there isn't one , oh well it would go for Csaba anyway, maybe a spannish native speaker award... for Hanoi you say?

I hate popularity contest

I nominate Fluffy for the best-nickname-all-time-award.

[32519]

 gwnn, on 2012-January-16, 02:19, said:

Ah good point, that was a great post (and a great thread). May I nominate both?

http://www.bridgebas...ew-star-policy/

http://www.bridgebas...post__p__542218

I need to confess that I didn’t know the story of The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss. I had to do a Google search for it. To save others the need to look it up who don’t the story either, I have copied it in here for you. Read this alongside the thread “The New Star Policy” http://www.bridgebas...ew-star-policy/ Brilliant!

The Sneetches
This story is an allegory for prejudice and discrimination, and also offers a lesson of materialism and entrepreneurship.
Sneetches are a group of vaguely avian yellow creatures who live on a beach. Some Sneetches have a green star on their bellies, and in the beginning of the story the absence of a star is the basis for discrimination. Sneetches who have stars on their bellies are part of the "in crowd," while Sneetches without stars are shunned and consequently mopey.
In the story, a character named Sylvester McMonkey McBean, calling himself a "fix-it-up chappie," appears, driving a cart of strange machines. He offers the Sneetches without stars a chance to have them by going through his Star-On machine, for three dollars. The treatment is instantly popular, but this upsets the original star-bellied Sneetches, as they are in danger of losing their method for discriminating between Sneetches. Then McBean tells them about his Star-Off machine, costing ten dollars. The Sneetches formerly with stars happily pay the money to have them removed in order to remain special.
However, McBean does not share the prejudices of the Sneetches, and allows the recently starred Sneetches through this machine as well. Ultimately this escalates, with the Sneetches running from one machine to the next,
"until neither the Plain nor the Star-Bellies knew whether this one was that one... or that one was this one or which one was what one... or what one was who."
This continues until the Sneetches are penniless and McBean departs a rich man, amused by their folly. Despite his assertion that "you can't teach a Sneetch," the Sneetches learn from this experience that neither plain-belly nor star-belly Sneetches are superior, and they are able to get along and become friends.

[gwnn]

I didn't know of them either (except they were vaguely familiar). This cartoon is well worth watching

[Antrax]

Now I'm all conflicted. I came in here preparing to post how these things are popularity contests, but now I found out I'm one of the popular kids. So, uh, thanks guys.
To play along, not sure which category this would fall under (probably most helpful B/I poster?) but I think FrancesHinden definitely deserves a nomination. That is, a whole bunch of people do (for real, it's astounding how many world-class players here find time and interest in helping newbs), but hers are the posts that consistently go past the "wtp barrier" and cover every angle for me.

[daveharty]

 ArtK78, on 2012-January-16, 08:23, said:

There should also be an award for "Signature of the Year" for the most creative/funny/unusual signature. Many posters have come up with some great signatures.

That's a great idea. I'll add it as a bonus category. Nominate away!

[daveharty]

 hrothgar, on 2012-January-16, 08:42, said:

I heartily agree with the "Signature of the Year" award suggestion

FWIW, my favorite threads were:

http://www.bridgebas...__1#entry227197

http://www.bridgebas...age__hl__martel

Both good threads...and both several years old.

[jjbrr]

 ArtK78, on 2012-January-16, 08:23, said:

There should also be an award for "Signature of the Year" for the most creative/funny/unusual signature. Many posters have come up with some great signatures.

[gwnn]

 ArtK78, on 2012-January-16, 08:23, said:

There should also be an award for "Signature of the Year" for the most creative/funny/unusual signature. Many posters have come up with some great signatures.

Thanks to me yes!

[straube]

I nominate awm for poster of the year. He's particularly helpful in the Non-natural Systems Forum

[jillybean]

I will nominate all the posters who respond in a helpful, non-sarcastic way to the questions posted in the B/I forum. There are too many to list, I'm afraid I would forget someone if I tried but I hope you know your input is much appreciated.

[mikeh]

I like the idea, but I am conflicted when it comes to poster of the year.

What are we looking for?

For example, I can think of a number of candidates...including some I won't mention for space reasons.

Justin is obvious....a combination of quantity and quality, delivered, especially this year, with non-condescending politeness. Even, and perhaps most often, when I disagree with him, I feel I have expanded my horizons.

Fred: to me, just as obvious. He posts rarely, but imo the quality of his posts is of a more uniformly high level than those of anyone else.

Jillybean: I think she would get my vote on this one. She posts on a regular basis and has a great attitude towards the game. She posts to get answers, and her followups reveal that she reads the responses to her questions with that goal in mind. She is by far and away the most prolific B/I poster we have, and her topics and the answers they generate appear to me to be more relevant to the average player than many of the more advanced/expert threads.

Jb asks rather than answers, but we'd have a very poor forum if we didn't have people willing to ask questions. We never see from jb a post, the purpose of which turns out to be either to show off or to prove to a partner than he or she was wrong...her posts always seem to be from a genuine desire to improve....and that's what this forum should be all about. Hence I think that the person who generates the most useful discussions is as worthy as or more worthy than the person who provides the most useful answers within those discussions.

I almost didn't post, because there are a number of others worthy, imo, of mention in the context of poster of the year. I'm not going to name names, because I might have overlooked somebody...besides, if you list, say, 8 names, why not 9? and so on.

[Elianna]

I would like to nominate Helene for best upvoter.