downwithpants wrote:iit won't turn an unknown vid to a winner...
...in addition, if we're going to have a semifinal round of nominations with 20-25 nominees, some categories will have nominees with only handful of votes. and if getting on a nominations list is any reward, forum promotion can be a factor.
I think you bring up some great points and the 2nd one I thought of later and agree that it may change things. With 20 - 25 semi finalists, that probably means a handful of votes will get you a nomination. Perhaps this will bring up quite a few arguments of validity (i.e. whining) since perhaps only 2 - 3 nominations will get you in (pulled that out of thin air), but that's another topic entirely...
At the same time, I wonder if the finalists (similar to our final 5 - 6 videos in the past) will still be the most popular videos throughout the year regardless? Or if most voters will actually watch all 20 - 25 videos (even the unknowns) and thus vote according to the category parameters (i.e. even if a video is more popular or even better-made, it doesn't mean it's the Best XYZ) and not their initial preferences? Or will most voters still just log on, go to the list, and nominate the videos that they are familiar with and thus the finalists will be the same regardless?
Don't get me wrong though, even if the majority of people do not watch all the videos, I still think it will provide only positive promotion for the videos that are nominated (even if the nomination #s per vid are really low and thus debateable) and thus more people downloading/seeing it. That's always a good thing

.