VCA Unique Category

[Pwolf]

right, lets just get back on topic.

[BasharOfTheAges]

Think of Most Helpful this way:

The org is like a company. They have this neat little end of the year tradition of naming an employee of the year. Management, in their infinite wisdom, has decreed that there's no good metric to determine that, so they should let the employees decide, but being as proactive and inclusive as they are, they don't stop there, they allow everyone who's ever done so much as filled out an application vote on who the employee of the year should be. Great! Big votes! Party time! But, wait. A company down the street has a bunch of employees that applied for jobs way back when - a whole bunch in fact. Man, it seems like just about everyone who works at that other company put in an application back in the day - work's hard to find, don't ya know. Wouldn't it be a lark, they think, if we just voted for one of our guys from our company instead? And they do. Overwhelmingly. And some people at the original company start to think that there might have been a bit of an oversight in place, and don't think it's quite right if someone who isn't an employee wins employee of the year. Sure, the rules allow it, and you're not going to change management's mind about the loophole. Maybe if there was a new employee of the year award that didn't have the loophole in it to begin with... maybe that would help...

[Fall_Child42]

You know, one really big help would be having someone filter the semi finals so that the videos there were actually supposed to be there.

One of the biggest problems I have with the voting system is not that people from other communities come and flood the votes based on some weird nationalistic pride (though this I consider a very strange attitude to have) it's that the videos that win are often not even representative of the award. To go back to bashar's analogy It's like giving Best Financial officer to the office toaster.

Now some categories are subjective and would be hard to filter, we could probably leave those categories alone.
But some categories like "Best First" have a pretty concrete definition. It's either their first video, or it's not. If I recall correctly only one video in the entire list of the semi finalists last year was someone's first video.

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As for the categories,
Best Dinosaur.
We all know Dinosaurs are sweet, but which one is THE sweet. Will it be the T-Rex? Made famous in Jurrasic Park, the Pachycephalosaurus? Or the amazing Ankylosaurus? Only the VCA voters can tell us for sure.

[outlawed]

The reality is the VCAs were always centered around people active on this site because when it started this WAS the only site for the North American AMV community. In fact at that point in time f you used the term AMV community it wouldn't really even apply. Sure people who didn't post on the forums voted but it was never worried about or addressed because most did not see it as a massive problem. And then you had some like me probably who didn't care for the VCAs and thought it was a bad idea for the website. From my own point of view what I'm seeing is that people who are based on other AMV communities started to care about the VCAs for some reason. This is something the creation of the VCAs never took account for. The VCAs were never seen as a "contest" when it started. Any "online contest" was seen as a joke within the North American AMV community back in this website's early years.

The better question to me is why do people from other online AMV communities who are not active on this website care about the VCAs? If anything I would think those other sites would just marginalize the VCAs if they disagreed with multiple years worth of voting outcomes. Especially when you consider the fact that these other AMV community websites have grown in online influence over the last 6 years and are now more prolific in online AMV influence in many ways from what I see. Instead the other online AMV communities seem to really want to win some of these VCAs. Are the VCAs just that coveted elsewhere because this site has been around for so many years?

[Kain-x-spirits]

the other online AMV communities seem to really want to win some of these VCAs.

huh ?

[Zarxrax]

How about something that recognizes a member of the community who has contributed to making the community as a whole better (in one way or another)? I'm not really talking about "most helpful" here as there are plenty of people out there who may or may not necessarily have a huge presence in the forum but work towards giving the community more then just what's there. These people create events such as contests within the community, promote thoughtful discussions, create scripts, tools, programs to make what we do just alittle bit easier... Just as an example, the people I would be thinking of would be:

Godix - Keeping us real and giving us something to discuss from to time.
Brad - Online IC even though he's a lazy bastard
Code - ProjectOrg Editor, various discussion threads, and his recent Lip Flapper
Zarxrax - His work on ZarxGUI

Just to name a few.

I would be slightly opposed to this, because it still just puts the focus on the things that people see. Lots of people are doing work in the background that they never really get recognition for, and a category like this would still be heavily slanted in the favor of people who are doing stuff that is heavily visible to the community at large.

[ProjectBarcodeError]

about the debate, how about a "ambassador" award, like rewarding a member who's making/helping/improving communication among communities?

cause if unactive members in the org but elsewhere ( let's pick chambeyc as a example) get the most votes for the most helpful member, wouldn't that be considered "friendly voting" as well ?

to sum up, if we have a award for a helpful member of the org and a helpful member in another communities, then we'll have a compromise.

it's completely understandable to make recognition for north americans, but let's not forget that working altogether as communities just improves the AMV-Making broadcast.

just my 2 cents.

[Pwolf]

I would be slightly opposed to this, because it still just puts the focus on the things that people see. Lots of people are doing work in the background that they never really get recognition for, and a category like this would still be heavily slanted in the favor of people who are doing stuff that is heavily visible to the community at large.

I agree but that sort of is the point. If someone is doing work in the background, does anyone even know anything is changing or getting better. The perspective of most of the members will still be that nothing has changed. If someone's work is generating a visible contribution to the community, then I think they deserve some recognition over someone who is keeping their work secretive. I guess, at least in the terms of the site admins, it would be nice if there was a bit more transparency. Maybe I'm misinterpreting what your saying though, can you give me an example of someone like this?

[pink haze]

Hm, I think I should -really- stop there and go back to the thread first goal

right, lets just get back on topic.

Some unique category suggestions:

Best Video with a Message
--stole this from the MTV awards =o

Best-vid-that-made-you-want-to-watch/rewatch-the-anime
--because I think giving a series exposure is something a lot of people try to accomplish with their videos, and it's an important aspect of the hobby. Better title ideas, anyone?

Best Long Video
--obvious reaction to last year. =P Should only award *continuous* long videos--not videos that are actually two small vids stuck together, or a series of short vids or tracks.

Best Use of Lyrics
--goes with Best use of Instrumental Music

[gotegenks]

if there really are quite a few of these "background" helpers (at least enough to not have the award pwolf suggested) then how about we have something to recognize these people and what they do, bring them more into the light and thank em for what they might be doing?