Thanks for participating in the 2009 Viewers' Choice Awards! The winners have been posted.
Comparing with the last few VCAs, the winners this year seem to be a little more varied. Here are some stats:
# unique winners: 16 videos (out of 22 possible); 17 editors (out of 26 possible)
# videos winning more than one award: 3
# videos winning more than two awards: 1
# editors winning more than one award: 4
# editors winning more than two awards: 2
Closest races: Most Improved Editor, Most Original Video
Biggest lead: Editor of the Year
Some thoughts...
The purpose of the VCA is to engage the AMV community in acknowledging the editors and videos that have stood out above others each year. This selection occurs across different skill levels, tastes, and cultural boundaries. We are a diverse group, and inevitably we will find disagreements with results that are decided by popular vote. This is fine, as long as we respect others' opinions and remember that this is a viewers' choice contest - nothing more, nothing less.
Keeping this in mind, I believe that the best way to improve the VCAs is to get more people watching more AMVs. The more videos that a member has in his head, the more entries he'll consider during the VCAs - and the contest results should (in theory) approach the most "representative" results. More importantly, increased sharing of new AMVs would re-energize this community. I believe that streaming video is a feature that could result in these improvements both for the VCAs and for the overall site community. Unfortunately it was not implemented in time for this year's contest, but hopefully it will serve us well in the upcoming months and the next Viewers' Choice Awards.
There may be some other changes to next year's contest. We might finally make the entries opt-out instead of opt-in, and we may eliminate the semifinal round. These are decisions that can't be made at this moment, as ongoing trends indicate that this site could be a very different place a year from now. The contest coordinator will have to assess where we stand next January and make the decisions then.
Whatever qualms I have with coordinating the VCAs, it nevertheless always provided me with the opportunity to get more in touch with the whole AMV community. I wish all the luck to whoever runs the contest next year. :)












