Just a thought

Just thought of a couple interesting little contest ideas that might be a nice addition to the site. Doing a Character of the Month, Member of the Month and Monthly Feautred Thread. Character of the Month would be based on number of threads completed, quality of those threads or even based on the greatest ammount of improvment over the course of the month. This could be decided either by a poll or by staff decision. Member of the Month would likely be decided by a poll near the end of the month and based upon friendly interaction and general agreeability between players. For this one we could have a nomination thread open throughout the month where people could put in the names of people they thought deserved to be member of the month, and then near the end a poll can be thrown up so everyone can vote. As a general rule we if someone was CotM or MotM then they can not be nominated again for another three months, this way we get to see fresh faces and it prevents a single person from dominating both positions..

Feautred thread would likely be done by staff and would be basically deciding on a single thread that the staff feels best captures the essence of IDBZ and/or is the most impressive or immersive that had been written in the month. There are several ways this could be handled but what seems the most simple would be for every staffer to keep a list of threads that impressed them and at the end of the month discuss amongst themselves which they think is the best suited for the title. All of this would be a good way to promote activity, quality writing, site-wide harmony and to reckognize those who embody these traits. There could be rewards for earning these titles, or being in the elected thread, but I think this system works best without giving rewards, instead making it just a reckognition of efforts by characters and their writers.

So what do you guys thinnk?

Its been done before at lots of sites. I don't see why not. It could show a little abit of the characters story or what they do with that said character.

I'm for this Idea.

^ And reason for them being the Character of the Month.

I think Broly suggested this too before. It's a good idea. Just been so dang busy. Ruurik, you wanna take point on this?

I might need a little help here and there but yes I'd be more then happy to spearhead this. Although I would like to discuss how everyone thinks this should be implemented. As staff decisions or player votes?

I suggest the following awards.

PvP Master: Members (staff and regular alike) may each nominate one member with whom they have RP'ed and provide a link that shows the nominator and nominee RP'ing together. The thread provided will serve as the reason for the nomination. Threads listed must have been completed within the last two months of the nomination for them to count. Staff can then decide on a winner.

Lone Ranger: Broly or Goku (Being the only graders on the site) list three to five solo threads they enjoyed reading and grading within the last month. Members cast their vote for the winner.

A member could also receive 1 action point for nominating a member for the month's PvP Master. This would help promote additional activity between members and for participation in the nominations.

Great Idea Ruu

Brian and I both agree the system doesn't need rewards. The reward of being featured for the entire month should be enough. So there's our branching point. I also think it should be staff decision as to who wins, simply because it is easy for members to out vote someone who deserves a title because they aren't "friends." However, I do believe nominations should be allowed as a member input.

Chi Chi wrote:Great Idea Ruu

Brian and I both agree the system doesn't need rewards. The reward of being featured for the entire month should be enough. So there's our branching point. I also think it should be staff decision as to who wins, simply because it is easy for members to out vote someone who deserves a title because they aren't "friends." However, I do believe nominations should be allowed as a member input.

Part of me agrees with the staff decision thing, another part of me doesn't. I mean, staff is still only human, and will naturally be biased towards or against some people. Then again, I think a discussion on the staff forum about a winner would be a good idea and help eliminate some of our natural biases and cast things in a more objective light.