Member of the Month
 

As you can see from the new index page we have, we will be adding a Member of the Month. If you happen to win then you'll be featured on the front-page, accompanied with your website link if you have one set in your profile options. Your name will also become blue so that you stand out, and the MOTM award will appear below your name alongside any other awards you may have.

However, my question is, how do you wish to go about it? Karl initially wanted to do it all automagically, although I feel it's more of a communal thing which will get the community involved in the decision-making. My proposition is that we have a list of members that have really stood out based on the amount of thanks they've received, we'll then leave the final decision up to the members - every single month, to decide who they feel should become the member of the month.

Does this sound good to everybody? Or do you have any better proposals?

I think that the community should be able to vote, but not based on the amount of thanks(because some people might not use the feature, but people are still helpful if you get what I mean..).

They should just be able to nominate whoever they want, that's what I think anyhow..

Maybe also let users put themselves up for MOTM if they feel they deserve it, sometimes you can miss the little people out :-)

My only problem with leaving it to the community is they will vote for the same member time after time. It's just the way people are, they warm to someone, then that someone gets their vote. Just like in politics :)

I honestly don't see the problem with basing it off the thanks, maybe have the admins or a select few pick the MOTM from a bunch of preselected members (these would be auto selected based on an algorithm).

Look at it this way, through the month we're thanking members for their posts, so obviously I liked their post in order to "thank it".

You're already saying you like the member or member's contributions because you thanked them. Therefor member of the month can and should be based of these thanks, not based off people feelings on the day.

So if I post several articles, and being really helpful, but people post thanks in the threads, along with feedback. That way I won't get any thanks, but I've still be really helpful that month. So the "thanks" -system can't really be used for such a feature.

Also, people might spam -thanks a special user's posts because they might be friends or something, and that way a really not- helpful member gets nominated.

And as for the problem with nominating the same user, just have it that you can't be nominated to x MOTM in a row, where x is a number of your liking.

Well not necessarily Tanax. The final decision would still be down to the admins, there would be no chance of someone getting through via spam votes. The thanks are there to recommend members who qualify for MOTM, final decisions would obviously still be down to the Admins.

Restricting the MOTM is also a big no imo, if you deserve it two months in a row, then you should get it two months in a row. You can't punish people for being too good a member.

I just don't see member voting being the best way. Yes it gets the community involved, but I don't see it being fair due to my previous point. People will repeatedly vote for the same individual, it's just the way people are. If you want proof of this go to any other site that does MOTM like that. You'll no doubt see the same members getting MOTM - infact just take a look around, people stick with that they know, you can see it everywhere in the world.