Friends,

We are exploring here thru this debate on thoughts opinions and suggestions, and not on only my opinion or any one persons opinion. I would really like to see more members come out and voice their opinion to help us make this process better. If you think its ok as is...please come and say so here, you will help us greatly and we sure will appreciate you doing so.

Thank you those who have come forward already to state their case. :-)

Blessings

Pauline

Hello Pauline!

Nice of you to start a discussion for bettering BFA and maybe change the whole procedure to choose the best forum. I went through all the posts and as I see from the discussion the members want a change.

I have voted in all contest accept the last BFA of the year 2008. From the beginning I was against the judging committee, but the more I think of their work I believe they are needed.

I will be very clear in my thoughts!
First I don't think Bogdan should get involved. Not because he may not be rightful but because Admins are to co-ordinate and tune the community, to guarantee and guard for good health and community spirit and not to decide for AWARDS.

We are Lucky having a caring Admin with highest skills in many subjects. Owners may give attention to give extra REWARDS to active members for very certain reasons, but it is not right to throw over the work of an award to an Admin. They have many other things to do.

If the case it to let Bogdan decide, then I don't find the reason for BFA to exist nor for the Judging Committee.

Do I have any suggestions: YES, I have. I would recommend you to follow Kathleens example in POTW. A multi-nomination system would be more correct but still not good enough to give right winner. There should be additional criteria giving extra points. Those could be calculated by the BFA TEAM.

Basic Criteria:
1) Nomination of seven (7) ranked forums to get plurality and wideness.
2) No self-nominations
3) The Nominators must be active members in the forums they nominate

Forums to be nominated must fulfill
Public forums, 6 months active, 50 members minimum, 12 threads yearly
Nomination of a forum ame be done once per year from January to November. Rights restart every year.
Best forum per month goes to final, the BFA of the year (11 forums).
For the BFA of the Year (December) the choice to nominate shall be 7 of the 11 last winners after an announced list when that thread comes.
 
Additional Criteria
Same as now for the Judging committee. The Judging committee will be there to do same work with same criteria both for the judging members and the forums.
There must be criteria for quality, quantity, performance, etc (same as before).
In many BFAs I was not pleased with the results from the committee but I am not thee who decides their level and skills to judge a forum, neither do I select them. There have been posts about me in forums in form of BTW "I had same experience" but this is not true. I had never the opportunity to be a Judging Committee member because of amongst other things being a "troublemaker" in AdLandPro.

How to give points
Instead of popularity ranking 5,4,3,2,1
The nominations shall get for every:
1st place 7 points
2nd place 6 points
3rd place 5 points
4th place 4 points
5th place 3 points
6th place 2 points
7th place 1 point
To calculate this easy you need an Excel-sheet (10 minutes work)

Total points will be the results of placement by nominations and the points that the committee will give.

Those were some thoughts.
Georgios 

Again...I'll say, I don't want it to change.

It's just my opinion and I know what I'm saying may be hard line.   The day we stop making the decision is the day I stop being involved.

Pat

Hi everyone. I've always voted in the Best Forum Awards and I vote for the forum I like the best. 

I make my choice on content, visuals etc.  I don't vote because of WHO the forum owner is, I vote for the content.  I vote for good forums, where everyone gets along and there are no conflicts going on.

I don't know who the judges are and I'm glad they are kept secret.  I feel the judges have made good decisions in the past.

I like the system the way it is now,  I'm glad the community makes the decisions.

Pat

Hi BFA Team, I agree with Patricia above and I like the way the BFA is now. I did not realize that I was on the poll for May until now. I always delete my old threads and start new ones. So for this reason friends, don't nominate my forum in the future. I have my forum for enjoyment only and I don't want to be in a contest of any kind in the community.  I will continue Pauline to support this forum and help in anyway. I love all the forums that my special friends have created. Thank you all, LaNell

Hi BFA Team.

I like the way BFA works now. I just would say that as I do not participate in many of the forums, my opinion doesn't worth much. The members who post often may have a better opinion.

Regards,

Dimitra