The Vgchartz awards.

[Dodece]

These are usually fun ideas. However they balloon into meaningless popularity contests. Whoever has the biggest clique backing them will win regardless of whether there is a merit for it. You also cannot ignore that posters often vote just to remove threats against their guy rather then stating a honest belief.

I recommend a three phase plan. Simple fast and very difficult to abuse. Totally nullifying the group dynamic that basically destroys such games.

Phase 1.

Create ten categories both fame and shame. Then open up a one vote system for posters. Each poster can only vote once, and they must nominate someone not themselves to one specific category. Only the first two hundred votes are tallied. Each nominee can only participate in the first category for which they were recommended. So one person can only compete in one category. Any duplicate votes are discounted but those among the two hundred to cast their vote may only vote in the category they nominated for.

Phase 2.

Run the contest for each group one a day for ten days. Voters must only vote in one contest. So you might only vote in the third or fourth contest only that which matters most to you. So there can be no cheating, because cliques are generally stupid. They will blow all their votes on the first day voting for just one person never thinking beyond the fact that they can't help their other buddies down the line. They can also only give one vote for one point. The contestant with the most votes in twenty four hours wins.

Phase 3.

On day twelve you take the ten winners and have your contest for poster of the year. Once your at that point you can take the gloves off and have whatever is the most intense system you can imagine that doesn't allow gang rape evictions.

Categories

1. Scholar
2. Statistician
3. Orator
4. Prognosticator
5. Humorist
6. Zealot
7. Anarchist
8. Troll
9. Satan
10. Saint

You can spread the joy out over two weeks. The system keeps the voting simple no complex rules to follow beyond one vote and only in one thing. Should be interesting to see how smart these forums are. How will you spend your one vote will it be to help a friend win a contest or to save someone from a horrible title. After all someone is bound to nominate someone for a bad category they do not belong in. Depends entirely on who gets to the mad dash first. So your posse cannot really back you up. That means the voting will be honest. The only thing we need be wary of are clones and you can discount any poster with less then thirty posts.

Anyway that is where my thinking takes me.