Proposal: Have forum specific awards for posters
 

As I brought up in my TB campaign, I would like to bring the idea of giving awards to posters each year for specific forums. How this can be done is left up to discussion however the idea I believe is one that deserves a thorough conversation. Some ideas I have:

1. Either voted on by the members at large, the mods, TB, Randy or some combination of all of them.

2. Include awards for the most heavily posted in forums as many aren't frequented nearly enough to warrant recognition of 1 of 10 people who may have posted in that forum in the last year. Thus some criteria would need to be developed as to which forums to include.

3. What awards should actually be given? I think a couple easy ones are: most helpful poster, most knowledgable poster, rookie of the year. Just some that come to mind.

3. Include in the avatars of those who have been recognized with the award and year won.

4. Give some type of tangible award for this honor. Certainly Randy and others would have to tap into their contacts to come up with an ecert, flight, etc perhaps.

5. Shooting for the stars on this idea if lifted off the ground. Formally present these awards at a year end DO somewhere. A free flight to the winners (if it is decided a small number are given) or other type of freebie to honor them formally.

There are concerns which need to be discussed but I feel this is an good idea and can really enhance the "community" of Flyertalk.

There is the idea, discuss amongst yourselves, I'll give you a topic, flyertalk is hobby or an obsession. Hmmmm.

Thank you for giving this your attention.

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Are you including forums that are not travel related, such as OMNI and OMNI/PR? Maybe it's best to start somewhere with a trial program, say with a couple of airline or hotel programs, and build off of that.

Who would manage this program? Talk Board? Moderators? Could you get both of those groups to agree on ground rules? Can Talk Board establish policy for forums if the moderators don't want to buy in? I think it's best to sort out this part of a program before you decide what forum to implement it in first.

Sounds like the proverbial can of worms to start trying to singling out individuals with awards and would rather revert to something more user based as a reputation rating, though know even that yardstick isn't without its limitations. Just MHO, of course.

Agreed. This is a bad idea. I know it is well-intentioned. Do you get an award because you posted some secret 4x mileage earning ultra discount premium class fare with the world going at it and it disappearing in an hour? Or do you get an award because you didn't post it.

It is a wholly-unnecessary layer of whatever you want to call it. Besides, since I'd win in every forum that I post in, it would be hardly fair. :D

I like the concept, but as others have pointed out the devil is in the details of who gets to vote on the awards. And the problems just snowball from there.

I have always been in favor of a reputation system that is difficult to manipulate. That way the users get to vote on status, and we status-seekers (most FTers, I'm sure) can pander for votes all day if we like.

I have given a fair amount of thought to how to design such a reputation system, but as long as we are running vanilla vbulletin software we are limited to its native functionality in this area. I hope that future versions of vbulletin are sufficiently improved that we can experiment with enabling reputation without precipitating any civil (or uncivil) wars.

+1

For a long time in the earlier days of FT a self appointed committee gave out (quarterly I believe) Omni awards. Usually granted for a body of work.

Cuz, I remember that. Just about phased out when I got here. I do remember the Old Gold awards, or was it a luggage tag??

Back to the Op's statement. FT is a collective. A great post by someone new (like yourself) ;), or an oldtimer all hold water. While I would agree that every forum has a cheerleader (or 2 or 3 etc), all of us contribute to make FT better today than it was yesterday.

For example, just because I've done the BRT for 9 years, does that entitle me to an award for making and contributing to a better Flyertalk? How about other long term annual DO'ers? And what about Secret Santa.
I'm not doing this for any award; and i dare say the same for the others. We're doing this because, well, we like doing it! ;)

I know that I'm special, and I don't need an award to prove it. :p

dh

The idea itself is great but I'm really afraid of the logistical nightmare and the games that people play for and against "nominees". This could setup some "ugly" dynamics that are unintended - similar to the "Ambassador" program that was discussed a year or two ago.