ENnies discussion thread

[Crothian]

I think that we should try to get some new blood on the judging panel this year. I really appreciate the work of the previous judges, but i think that the awards would benefit from at least a partially new perspective, you know? If judges become institutionalised then the awards will start reflecting their biases, even though a lot of us implicitly trust Crotian and T-Billy's opinions anyway. Just a thought.

Last year we had TB (his 4th yeat), Psion (his third), myself (my second), and Joe and Rich who were both first years. I think that was good distrubution of people with a variety of experience with the ENnies.

 

[Rasyr]

Origin Awards has like three categories for RPGs so the ENnies really covers it a lot more thoroughly. And the ENies will highlight the best of d20 as well as the best of other systems. Ya, all the winners won't help you out, but some of them will.

Actually it only has 2 rpg categories this year. Roleplaying Games and RPG Supplements. That is only two awards out of something like 12 or 14.

 

[pensiv]

We need an artist!

I'm an artist!
oh. but so are you

Again I'm gonna ask for someone who knows Macromedia Flash to help with the flash section of the show. I can prepare the artwork - but my workload elsewhere on EN World being what it is I could use the help.

Hey, give me a ring for help with Flash.

 

[jester47]

ok I am breaking the friday rule for this. I am NOT running for a judge position, but I have some ideas on making sure that the voting booth is secure and any yahoo with a computer lab that happens to be a friend of a publisher can't stuff the ballet box.

Who do I talk to?

Aaron.

 

[Michael Morris]

Most technical aspects of the site are my purview, and I in turn report to Russ and Kevin. I am aware that our old system was horribly insecure (and probably hacked) and I will be writing a custom version from scratch. That system will, at a minimum

• Use vbulletin for basic security protocols and authentication of source forms
• Include an md5 hash in the form that is unique to each submission attempt.
• Users will be able to change their votes - guests will get one chance / IP
• IP's will be checked during guest session for change. If one is suspected the vote will be discarded (probable IP spoof attempt).
• Require a turing test be passed before being allowed to vote.

Beyond this there is little that can be done. IP's are too easily spoofed, as are emails and DNS's. If people are hell bent on cheating they will do so. While it will be more difficult to cheat than in years past it is not possible to make it impossible to cheat on any system that is Internet based.

 

[Conaill]

What about the voting system for this year's Ennies - has that been decided already? There were some strong voices against the 0-10 scoring that was used last year. We were pretty much faced with a fait accompli at that time. but i sure hope we can work out something more appropriate this year!

Here's the two threads in which some of those issues were discussed last year:

ENnie Nominations!
ENnies V - and beyond...

 

[Crothian]

The voting is not set in stone yet. If peopel want to talk about voting methosds some more, that should be fine.

 

[JVisgaitis]

If you guys need help in any kind of capcity, please let me know. I can do art, webdesign, and whatever else is needed. I also know a bit of Flash, so if you need help with that, drop me a line. We won't have our own booth this year, so I'll be able to meander the show a bit and help out.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I think that we should try to get some new blood on the judging panel this year. I really appreciate the work of the previous judges, but i think that the awards would benefit from at least a partially new perspective, you know? If judges become institutionalised then the awards will start reflecting their biases, even though a lot of us implicitly trust Crotian and T-Billy's opinions anyway. Just a thought.

Other than imposing term limits (which I feel are arbitrary and unfair), what could be done? The voting is open to every EN Worlder. If the general EN World public decides they want certain judges, I think that those judges reflect the biases of EN Worlders in general, which is kind of the point, given that the awards are being given by EN World.

I'm not saying this about you, but the calls for new blood on the judges panel have struck me as being, in many cases, sour grapes from those who feel they'd have a better chance at being elected a judge themselves if the most popular ones were barred from being judges.

 

[Umbran]

I'm not saying this about you, but the calls for new blood on the judges panel have struck me as being, in many cases, sour grapes from those who feel they'd have a better chance at being elected a judge themselves if the most popular ones were barred from being judges.

To be fair - the fact that some express the opinion from a "sour grapes" perspective does not mean that the thought does not have some merit. True things can still be said by sour people.

I think artificially forcing turnover would be a poor way to manage it. EN Worlders are reasonably mature people. They can see the merits of having new blood for themselves, and vote accordingly.