Contest Overview

Quality content that members enjoy reading posted by business-minded people is always an asset to any community. In an effort to encourage community members to post that type of content and encourage long-time posters to continue their efforts, we came up with the Best Forum Award of the Year.

The Best Forum of the Year Award is given to the forum that demonstrates excellence in several categories and criteria such as visual appeal, originality, and more.

How It Works

There are two stages to the Best Forum Award.

During the first stage, each month 1 forum will be selected as the Best Forum of the Month for that month and will go on to the Finals of the Best Forum of the Year Award.

The second stage takes place at the end of the year. All the winning monthly forums from the year will compete for the Best Forum of the Year Award to be held in January of the following year. The winner will pocket a $1000.00 USD in cash. 2nd runner-up will receive $500.00 USD and the 3rd runner-up will get $200.00 USD.

Prizes

The winner from each month will receive a cash prize of $200.00 USD.

The Winner of the Best Forum Award of the Year will receive a cash prize of $1000.00 USD.

Nomination & Qualifying
You can nominate as many of your own forums that qualify each month to compete in the Monthly Round. You can also nominate others' forums as well who meet the qualifications below.

A forum qualifies for nomination if:

Forums which do not meet these criteria will not be entered into the voting process.

Nominations can be made until start of the last full business week of the month.

If your forum qualifies, to nominate your forum click here.

Voting

Once the nominations have been finalized, a list of nominees and links to their forums will be posted in a voting forum. Community members will have a chance to go through each nominee and vote for the one they think should move on to the judging phase for the month. The top 5 forums with the most votes will move on to the judging phase to have their forums evaluated and scored by our anonymous panel of judges.

Note that in the event of a tie for positions within the top 5, all contestants who are tied for that position will move on to the top 5 judging.

Voting takes place in the final business week of the month. Each community member is allowed only 1 vote and voting will take place over 7 days.

The forum with the most votes regardless of a win will be tagged as the "Most Popular Forum" once the results are released.

The Judging Process

The top 5 forums with the highest number of votes will move on to the judging process for evaluation and scoring. Finalists will be graded between 1 (poor) to 5 (outstanding) in the following 5 categories followed by a short comment by each of our judges as to why the forum was given that grade.

The total number for each category will then be tallied up and averaged with the highest scoring forum out of a possible average score of 25 being declared the winner.

The 5 categories are as follows:

Visual Appeal

How your forum appeals to the eye. Factors considered will be things like use (or overuse) and selection of color, type/font style and size, photos and their quality/placement, readability, and relevance.

Originality

How unique is your forum in relation to other forums already out there? Does its idea mimic that of another successful forum? Do other forums mimic yours? Forums that are unique will gain high marks here.

Organization

Is the information you present laid out in a clear and easily readable manner? Does the flow of information make sense? How easy is it to locate additional resources if necessary? Does the ensuing conversation relate directly to the main topic or does it weave in an out of different unrelated topics?

Owner Interaction/Involvement

Forum owners should be directly involved in the forums nominated. You should be actively encouraging relevant discussion with thought-provoking questions and ideas. At the very least we want to see you as the forum owner taking an active role in your forum's development by making regular posts.

Professionalism

How professional is your forum? Do people come there to discuss your topic in a civilized manner? If conflicts erupt, how effective and diplomatic were you at dealing with such situations? Do you address your posters with respect for their ideas, opinions, and views? Are your posts positive in tone?