Zachary Houghton resigns as an ENnies judge

[Crothian]

Well, to me, judges being paid means monetary incentive, I just don't see how this isn't, no matter what "label" is applied to it (a flat compensation for judges I could understand, but a "percentage" of entrance fees is another story, especially if, as implied, not everyone pays an entrance fee).

Judges have never gotten paid. What Zach is talking about is an idea that was talked about but never implemented. There are lots of ideas that get talked about behind the scenes but only those policies that get announced are the ones you should be concerned with.

 

[davethegame]

It's a policy; it was there before anyone submitted anything; everyone knew about it; it has always been there.

10 entries for a category, or it gets merged into another category. That's how it works.

If there were only nine entries, all a nomination would mean is "it wasn't in the worst half". Nothing to be proud of, really. Even 10 is fairly low in my opinion, but the line has to be drawn somewhere.

The fault does not lie with the ENnies, and it's not the ENnies you should be "infuriated" at and "heartbroken" about. The ENnies judges don't enter products, they just judge them.

OK, back up a sec. I'm not saying I was infuriated at the Ennies. As I specifically said, I have a lot of respect for everyone involved in the Ennies. (If I didn't think they were important, I wouldn't have been liveblogging them, and possibly the only person to have done so.)

But coming in late to the process and looking at that category, and knowing all the work that goes into running an RPG website and putting together an RPG podcast, it was tough to accept that all those things were in a category fighting for the same honor. That's the infuriating and heartbreaking part, not directed anywhere in particular.

I'm not sure what the reason was that there were so few entrants into the category. At the time, I didn't know that 10 was the cutoff, but I was only helping with the submissions of other people's sites and not my own (and had I known, I would have made more of an effort to get my site and other sites to enter.)

Obviously I know now the rule, and I feel pretty confidant that there are more things in place to mobilize the needed number this year. I am hoping, however, that the staff realizes that there is some frustration all around and reaches out to all of us here on the fan side (bloggers, site runners, podcasters, adventure makers, etc.) to improve the experience for everyone.

 

[El Mahdi]

Judges are NOT being paid.

You are welcome to disregard to ENnies for any reason you wish; I'll not argue with you on that. But be informed that judges are not being paid.

If you say they aren't being paid, then I believe they aren't. I'm sorry if my saying that has upset you. I was just basing that from what Zach said in his release. From the way he stated it, it sounded like a done deal. Perhaps a more correct way of saying it then is that it was proposed that judges get paid.

Quote:
"But it clearly is not to be. The ENnies feel that if you submit via link, you should pay an unprecedented submission fee to support the awards. In other words, they are asking you to pay them to consider your product's quality for the award. This donation, as proposed would go mainly to the ENnies, with a percentage going to each judge. Several individuals also wanted this as another "barrier" to the awards process, one of them going so far as to worry "we'll get tons of ill-considered crap that isn't worth the time to download". Hardly the right attitude for a judge, I'd say."

"I will tell you right now, I will not accept one red cent of that money. I'm not saying this because I want a pat on the back, I just want you to know where I stand, as I always promised I'd be direct with you. I disapprove of this measure entirely, and find it to be a move in the wrong direction for the openness and accessibility of the awards. Instead of making a move that in no way hurt the ENnies but instead possibly improved awards participation, ease, and lowering cost for the entrants, they chose to go with a measure that provided a new income source for the awards, but that would do nothing to grow the awards in any sense. Bear in mind, this is despite the ENnies allowing several last-minute "usual suspect" and much-vaunted companies to submit via link at the very end of the submission period last year (for no charge, of course)! I'm not sure where this will lead, or what impact it will have. But at least you'll know where I stood."

If this proposal was not accepted, then great also (I believe that's what Crothian said).

But then this brings up these questions for me:

If this proposal was rejected, why didn't Zach say so in his release?

If he wasn't there, or if this was decided after Zach left, what was the reason behind rejecting this proposal, and did Zach's resignation have anything to do with it?

If the proposal was rejected while Zach was still involved, how is it that he would make this such a prominent part of his reasons for resignation, especially if it had already been resolved?


Short of saying that he was speaking out of school, or was incorrect, the release from the ENnies didn't cover the above questions.

Maybe a point by point of what is incorrect in his release and statement of resignation, and possible explanations as to how any misunderstandings may have occured, might clear things up.

 

[Crothian]

If this proposal was rejected, why didn't Zach say so in his release?

For many of those questions you have to ask Zach. As far as I know he didn't talk to any of the staff about being frustrated with things or that he was thinking about resigning. The hint I had that he was thinking of resigning was reading that he resigned.

With any group or committee there is a lot of back of forth of ideas and who wants to do what. We are still in the discussion phase of many of the issues he's talking about. I'm not going to guess as the reasons why Zach said and did what he said and did.

 

[El Mahdi]

Judges have never gotten paid. What Zach is talking about is an idea that was talked about but never implemented. There are lots of ideas that get talked about behind the scenes but only those policies that get announced are the ones you should be concerned with.

I stand corrected about judges being paid.

I'm sure that the ENnies staff would have preferred that things talked about behind closed doors, and things proposed but not accepted, had not been made known to the general gaming public. But Zach's statement has now made that moot. Now that the cat's out of the bag, these things that Zach said make me wonder about the intentions and ethics of some on the ENnies staff. I, and the general gaming public, have a funny way of deciding for ourselves what we should and shouldn't be concerned with.

 

[El Mahdi]

For many of those questions you have to ask Zach. As far as I know he didn't talk to any of the staff about being frustrated with things or that he was thinking about resigning. The hint I had that he was thinking of resigning was reading that he resigned.

With any group or committee there is a lot of back of forth of ideas and who wants to do what. We are still in the discussion phase of many of the issues he's talking about. I'm not going to guess as the reasons why Zach said and did what he said and did.

True, some of those would definitely need to be answered by him (speak up if you're listening in).

But, some of those don't need to be answered by him (and weren't answered by anyone else, yet):

Was the proposal to give a percentage of the entry money to judges rejected before or after he left?

What were the reasons why the proposal was rejected?

If it was rejected after he left, what role did his resignation have in the decision?

 

[RangerWickett]

I haven't been involved in these discussions, but I have had a lot of interactions with nearly all of the ENnies staff, and I cannot imagine any of them being motivated from greed. The ENnies were a money drain for a long while, but the people in charge still put them on because they wanted to honor the folks who make the games we love.

The judges each have to read tens of thousands of pages of products, and do so in a period of, what, less than 2 months? They don't get paid for it, aside from the benefit of having a ton of gaming products that I believe at least a few of them auction off.

They're good people. Hell, in the gaming industry there isn't even enough money for it to be worth trying to be greedy. Even if the awards were considering an entry fee, it would go to covering costs, not lining the pockets of the judges.

 

[Crothian]

make me wonder about the intentions and ethics of some on the ENnies staff.

Honestly, I wouldn't read to much into it. With a group of people sometimes it is good to suggest ideas that are not going to be liked to get people to talk about them and see if that discussion comes up with a good idea from a bad one. That a bad idea was shot down I would think would be a positive thing.

 

[CaptainChaos]

For many of those questions you have to ask Zach. As far as I know he didn't talk to any of the staff about being frustrated with things or that he was thinking about resigning. The hint I had that he was thinking of resigning was reading that he resigned.

He was apparently getting advice from "the RPGPundit", according to a thread on theRPGSite. If he listened to anything that guy had to say, it would explain a lot.

 

[Crothian]

Was the proposal to give a percentage of the entry money to judges rejected before or after he left?

What were the reasons why the proposal was rejected?

If it was rejected after he left, what role did his resignation have in the decision?

Nothing has been officially rejected or accepted at this time. Denise, the Business Manager, is away on a weekend vacation I believe, so discussions with her have to wait till she gets back.

No one though has supported the idea that I have seen and I no one seems like they were thinking of changing their mind.

His resignation more then likely with mean that we wait for the new judge to be contacted and he (the new judge) will get a chance like everyone else to weigh in on the decision.