Looking for volunteers for SDMB APAS

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I want to recruit a panel of Dopers into the the SDMB Academy of Posting Arts and Sciences. I’d like to get two representatives from each of the nine forums here, so that’d be […counting on fingers… …now going to toes…] um, eighteen.

If you’re interested in applying, just decide what is your favorite forum, and drop me a note in this thread briefly stating why you would be a good representative of the forum. Preferably, it will be a forum that you’ve posted in and are familiar with. Just post a note here, something along the lines of…

Oh, me, me!!! I’ve posted in Humble Opinions a hundred times and I know how to get to all the good stuff!

Mods and admins are not eligible, for obvious reasons.

Okay, here’s what the Academy will do. The two forum representatives will collaborate and submit four (different) nominations for 2001 awards from his or her forum for each applicable category. Categories will include, but will not be limited to:

Best Overall Poster
Best Overall Post
Best Overall Thread

Plus, similar awards targetted to each forum, as in Best Pit Rant, Hardest General Question, Most Mundane Thread, and so on.

Academy members will correspond in secret by e-mail, and nominees (with links!) will be posted here. Then award winners will be announced as soon as all balloting is completed. Academy members may nominate only from their own forums, but all academy members may vote for the winners from among the nominations that are not from their forum. I cannot nominate, but I can vote. (That makes me effectively a tie-breaker.)

Winners will receive the coveted Brass Tuba award (named after our wonderful administrator, the lovely and talented TubaDiva) along with lots and lots of praise and attention.

So, any questions? Any volunteers?

2

Great idea! I would love to help out. I don’t think I’m quite qualified. You’re sure to have a ton of volunteers.

3

Now, Ultress. With 1700+ posts and recognition from Cecil, surely you’re qualified. But thanks for the moral support! :slight_smile:

4

At least one third of my posts have come in MPSIMS. I feel I have adequately mastered knowledge of that which is:

  1. Mundane.
  2. Pointless.
  3. Stuff
    [ul]*I must share[/ul]

As my post count would indicate, there are few things too mundane or pointless for me to post them. However, I like to think that I have removed at least a modicum of the mundanity or part of the pointlessness and given my audience something worth their while to read.
[/BS]

I think it’d be cool to do this. And I wanna. I don’t think I’m more than marginally more qualified than anyone else, I just been here a while and I know my way around, so to speak. Pick me!

5

Yep, Pun, I think you’d be perfect.

We are pleased to welcome our newest Academy member, iampunha from MPSIMS.

6

WWWWWWWWWWWWWHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

[sub]Oh, and thanks, Lib:)[/sub]

7

I’d like to be a qualifier for the Pit comittee, for one simple reason. I can’t rant very well, I post alot in the Pit (mostly one liners), BUT!! I can tell a good rant.

Am I at least in the running?

8

How about me? I’ve been here as long as anyone, and I definitly have a grasp on what is M,P and I know stuff when I see it.

9

Twist, yeah, I’ve seen some of your Pit stuff. I think you have a good grasp of a good rant. Okay, you’re in.

Welcome to our newest Academy member, TwistofFate from the BBQ Pit.

WeirdDave, okay, good enough for me.

Welcome to our newest Academy member, Weirddave of MPSIMS.

Okay, that’s it for MP.

You three can contact me through the moderators. I’ll respond to your e-mails, and then you’ll have my address.

10

Sheesh, who gets GD? Modesty would get the better of us. Can we nominate people? I’d nominate spiritus or collounsbury, but they aren’t the most frequent of posters. I’d nominate myself but, well, I’m not sure I fit the bill.

So, yeah, I guess am volunteering for GD anyway. I’ve lost too many arguments in there to not know who is who. IMO. YMMV. :slight_smile: At least 98% of my posts have been in GD. I am never away from the board for more than two days. I obsess over power… oh, wait, better not mention that.

But sheesh, picking the best post in GD is going to be… whoo-boy, a debate in itself. Do semantics count? :wink:

11

Eris, I’m delighted that you’ve volunteered! You’re in.

Welcome to our newest Academy member, erislover from Great Debates.

There are hundreds of posters I’d love to have, but those who volunteer (barring some weird thing like a Lolo-type volunteering) and whom I know to be familiar with their requested forum will get the job.

As to the particulars of qualified posts, we’ll discuss those as soon as the Academy is complete.

12

Oops, Eris, I almost forgot. Contact me through a mod to get my e-mail address.

13

I got a better idea, Lib. Why don’t you simply send the academy members a message from your e-mail account? Cut out the middleman. 'Cuz I ain’t got your address either, I’d have to bug one of the admins to get it.

14

What exactly would be the point of these awards? Why do we need to begin rating each others contributions?

If that is what we want, why don’t we just petition the Admins to turn on the rating feature available in vBulletin, then we could just engage in continual orgiastic back-patting, ass-kissing, and ego stroking.

But, if you are going to go ahead, I would suggest that a year is too broad a period. This board lives in cycles of months, not years.

15

With all due respect to LIB, and knowing fullwell I run the risk of being labelled Chief No Fun of Way Too Serious Tribe, I feel obliged to post to say that I think this is a bad idea. Well-intended, but bad.

I can’t think of anything more likely to underscore accusations of cliquishness and marginalization than for a group of people (a clique?) to get together and decide who’s the best poster.

Everytime these “SD Prom King and Queen” or “My Favorite Poster” threads get started, people’s feelings are hurt, if in only the mildest way, to see the lists they are not on and the number of times their names are not mentioned. And how can we continue to protest that posting here isn’t a popularity contest if a group of us decides to hold what is clearly a popularity contest?

I know that lots of you probably consider this to be a really fun idea, and I’m certain that’s why LIB proposed it. But I’d just ask that you consider whether or not there isn’t a down side to it, and if it’s worth possibly making hundreds of respected posters feel sort of bad just to make one feel really good. Having spoken my peace, I’ll shut up and should this idea move forward I’ll say no more about it. But please give some thought to what I’ve said.

16

Though I agree, Jodi, about the “best poster” schpiel, I do like the best thread idea for certain. Sort of a “mini-threadspotting” for specific forums, you know?

But even still, I would certainly justify my “best poster” vote if it came down to it in as objective a manner as I could regarding information presentation, solid argumentation, et cetera.

But as far as "clique"ishness goes, hell, that happens anyway. Might as well try and remove party politics or caffiene from the coffee (er, wait——). However… wasn’t something like this done before and resulted in, well, some bad feelings? (a certain poster’s sig line, for example)

Not that that would stop me, mind you, I don’t say stuff to intentionally be mean or nice when I render a judgement, but it might not go over well with the rest of the board. :shrug: I think it would be fun, and it is probably the closest I’d ever come to being a Mod which is sort of something I fantasize about. I guess Ayn Rand never killed that altruistic spot in me! :smiley: muuust… volunteer… services… GAAAAAAAAHHHH (Atlas Shrugged bursts into flames)

17

Jodi, I’d have to disagree - although I know what you are rtying to say. We would all know who the judges were and how they picked their posters/threads/posts - we could always comment on any of their picks (debate them even, as eris said). So I think this would be just another activity in SDMB. And since Libertarian placed it in MPSIMS, it should be viewed in the spirit of the forum…

Lib, as much I as I would love to help, I don’t qualify for any forum. I will, however, watch with interest and lobby for my favorite posters/threads/posts. That brings up an interesting thought - will you provide time for working ove… I mean lobbying the judges, or is that stricktly verbrotten?

Will the entire board be able to nominate posters/threads/posts?

18

Okay, UncleBeer, no problem. You’re right, it should have been through the Admins, where I’ve gotten e-mail forwarded on a few occasions in the past. There are too many Lolos hanging around here to provide our standard e-mail address, but if necessary, I’ll pick up one of those trash accounts with Hotmail or something.

I’ll figure out something in that regard. Thanks.

Attention Academy members: do any of you know how to set up a Yahoo group? Would that work for our purpose?

Obfusciatrist, the point is to have fun. You may be right, though. The awards maybe should be quarterly. The Academy will consider that.

Jodi, you’re right. There is that downside. Unfortunately, there’s a downside to everything. There’s even a downside to not forming the Academy and having these awards. I think there might be people who post and are not popular, but whose contributions have been both good and unnoticed. Done in the right spirit, our project can actually show that there indeed are no cliques. Posts (especially here at SDMB) are an art and a science, and they, and the people who create them, deserve recognition.

A big part of the fun will be when the posts are linked, people read them, and feel edified by the experience.

Trade, you can feel free to lobby the Academy members. Too bad you’re not volunteering yourself. Had this been a more active recruitment, you (and Jodi) are one of those I would have asked to participate.

The entire board may make suggestions to Academy members in whatever manner they see fit, through posts, e-mail, whatever. But only the members themselves may make official nominations that will be voted on.

Sorry it took a bit to get back. I started a new game of Civ3. Be back again in a few…

19

Yahoo groups are pretty easy to start up, all you need is an email address.

20

Which, BTW Lib, I have, and it is intuitively my SDMB name at yahoo. Thus, instead of the “get Lib’s email from mods” Lib can “get erl’s email from boards.” :smiley: