Why are there no nominations for Post of the Month lately?

[Squeak]

Originally Posted by Admin Dirk

Who is admin squeak?

Makes no sense. Squeak is way to do that…

[Admin Dirk]

Originally Posted by Squeak

Makes no sense. Squeak is way to do that…

Do you smell toast? Are you okay?

[GodRosen]

Originally Posted by Squeak

Makes no sense. Squeak is way to do that…

The fact I successfully summoned Squeak just made my day.

Wait... He didn't even acknowledged me. He acknowledged Dirk.
Well my had had been ruined. Lol! Kidding. Hey Squeak! Glad you've come to join us on this round of Banter Against Dirkoth.

[Admin Choc]

Originally Posted by GodRosen

Glad you've come to join us on this round of Banter Against Dirkoth.

Wellll #mescrapesthroat... since Dirkoth is sort -of-German-which-is also-Dutch-ish I will definitely be #teamD

Getting back to the subject:

• check that fancy banner with green in it
• Looking forward to use the feedback and get the 'Post of the Month' yeah, Dutch expressionback on the map

[Drifter One]

Had a thought. It doesn't happen often so count yourselves blessed.

What if...

There was a temporary Badge for PoTM winners like those above next to sigs (Event judge, good people, Iron DM winner etc)

PotM winner keeps their badge for 1 year and then it expires.

PoTY winner keeps it by there name tag so we can all bask in their glory for eternity?

We all love a trophy right?

[bananabadger]

I think temp badges are a GREAT idea, Drifter One. I know they have been floated before for other things, and I'm not sure if it is a coding barrier that prevents us or if it might be possible just with some extra time. Thanks for weighing in.

[BlackDragon0]

Originally Posted by Dworin

I am not in favour of requirements and restrictions but encouraging GMs to submit with some periodic prodding might be a good idea (and in fact, this month the quantity of posts in my games was a bit low but the quality was certainly there ...)

Not a bad idea either.

[BlackDragon0]

First, you can give it XP. Next, you can say to the person directly how much you liked their post, in PMS or the xp message.

I have done these. And received some.

Instead, every PotM is there, and is automatically a winner, and can be read by anyone interested - and let everyone make their own judgements.

Not bad idea.

[Jon]

Diving in to answer the original question from my perspective.

I have both received POTM a couple of times and been nominated a few more - I must admit to the ego preen I felt. Even better, when someone I nominated won I felt brilliant - such a reward. (looking at you @creed!)

But I haven't nominated recently. Simple reason, my life's got really busy for a while. The players in my games are showing me a lot of patience (looking at you @creed!) as I've had to cut back on time here. (just running two games and playing in another four or five!), its as much as I can make time for.

Good news though, life changes planned for this summer means I will have more time to do all sorts of things. So I will be back, and put nominations and things like that back on the to do list in the autumn.


In the meanwhile, a big thanks for everyone running the competition and everyone taking care to nominate all those magnificent posts.

(and I promise not take zero votes for POTY personally ... I deserve it for my slack partipation!)

[Lazer]

I just happened to have stumbled across this thread now, as I don't often venture outside of my game threads other than to occasionally peek into Games Seeking Players. I am vaguely aware that there are other things going on around the site, but (as seems to have happened here) I tend to chance upon them only after everyone else has moved on. Why is that? Probably just because my attention wanders and life gets busy. It's like my email inbox; I try to keep it so that I only ever have a maximum of five or six unread emails because that is manageable. If the number gets above ten it starts getting overwhelming and I start to just ignore them, and of course they then build up and up until I have the bailiffs at the door demanding my kidney (or something along those lines). So what I am saying is that I need to keep things tightly focused.

I love the 'My Account' page on the site and I use that as my homepage here. I subscribe to my active games, unsubscribe to any which have fallen idle, and everything is right there, highlighted for my convenience, and nothing to overwhelm me.

So, getting to the subject of this thread, as Mistubachi suggested, I think banners are the best way to reach people. And I think that Drifter One's suggestion of a temporary PotM badge for winners is a good one too, because not only does everyone like a trophy, but people will see these badges on their friend's header and it will serve as a reminder that the competition exists.

Finding ways to make nominations easier might help too. It is already easy, but I believe that the golden rule of web design is to minimise the number of clicks that we lazy users need to do, so if I'm sure I read this somewhere in this thread but can't find it now to properly credit whoever said itthe suggestion that having a PotM nomination being an option on the RPXP button isn't possible for coding reasons or whatnot, how about just a link to the nomination threads on the top menu? Maybe between 'Subscriptions' and '-Support the Site!-'?

Originally Posted by Admin Dirk

What's the word count of a perfect post? Minimum? Maximum?
What elements should a great post contain?
What essential things can be found in a great post?
What does a great post DO in a game thread?
Does spelling, grammar and sentence structure play a role, and if so, how much?

I wouldn't be able to put an exact number on maximum or minimum word counts, but I think to be worthy of a nomination a post would need to be long enough to pull the reader in to the situation that the character is facing. As others have said, a post is not a self-contained story and so can't be judged on all of the same criteria that a short story would be, but it does (or should) serve the overarching narrative. I like posts which allow us to see why the character is doing what they are doing, not just describing the outcome of a dice roll. It is also good to see interaction with other characters, either resolving questions raised in a previous post or giving an opening for another PC/NPC to take up.

As for spelling and grammar (and I would like to add formatting as well), I've got to admit to a little bit of snobbery in that regard. I find it difficult to read posts which lack in these aspects and that does affect my opinion of the post overall, as much as I know that it shouldn't. I would prefer to be able to just look past these kinds of surface details and see what the author is actually saying, but try as I might I still find my judgment impacted by them. It's like that old saying; first impressions last.

Originally Posted by Admin Dirk

Real question for those who would not feel comfortable nominating themselves...

...and if you would submit your art or photo or whatever to the company/contest/gallery when they opened it up for submissions, why would you not do the same for a piece of art that you WROTE? What makes it different?

This is a really good point, I hadn't thought about it that way at all. I would not be comfortable nominating myself because it just feels presumptuous, but I suppose if I was in a profession where self-promotion was the norm I would need to get over my anxiety and do it anyway, even if I didn't like it. But this is a hobby and so the incentive for overcoming my anxiety isn't 'if I don't do it I don't eat', it's just 'if I don't do it one or two fewer people will tell me how awesome I am', Incidentally, I originally got into the idea of becoming a writer rather than something more obvious like being a Hollywood actor because I hated the idea of being famous and having to do all of that promotion nonsense. These days, of course, even book authors have to do promotions so I suppose I'm just lucky that I've never had any success. :-)which doesn't quite have the same impact.