My list originally was a lot more...erm...blunt. I have however toned it down a little. I've always had the opinion that these awards need not include so much negativity. I was never a fan of the more negative awards. I changed my mind this year. I like having a forum to offer my genuine opinions, much like the Spill Your Guts thread, and I feel that above all else these awards should be an opportunity to share your POSITIVE feelings and spread some cheer to the members who post here.
However I have changed somewhat this year. My positive attitude towards those members I feel deserve it seems somewhat invalidated by the fact I dont tend to share any negativity I also feel. I have to admit that 2011 on MB has frustrated the absolute crap out of me. I have made a habit out of logging in and logging out within seconds. 2010 was a great year here, with what I feel was a sudden influx of well written members who were taking their time to share their music taste with us and more importantly, give the forum a reason to go and check out whatever it was they were posting about. Most of what I have seen here this year has been one line or one word posts, all from the same small group of posters, that give me no reason to care about even what it is about. Why add a post to a thread along the lines of "I like this band" or "I liked their first album" or something equally as useless?
Saying that there HAS been a lot of good this year, even if I feel it was outweighed by the utterly pointless and wasteful. Also I just know there are members out there who I should have been paying attention to this year, had I had the patience to wade through all the crap. I'll try and catch you all next year!
So this may be watered down, as I still cant bring myself to be unnecessarily harsh. It's only a flippin' forum after all. I'm not straddling as many fences this year though.
Best Avatar: I rarely remember them, to be honest. I always remember
Satchmo's though so lets say him.
Sexiest Member (Male): I dont think I've paid enough attention. I dont even remember what RVCA looks like and he seems rather popular in this category.
Sexiest Member (Female):
NSW - Very naturally beautiful and either not arrogantly so, or doesnt even realise it, which is a wonderful quality.
Lateralus - Everything I posted above, combined. Very naturally attractive and very humble and friendly to boot.
Paloma - I'm actually not a big fan of tattoos but some people just suit them down to the ground. Plus you can't help but notice those eyes.
To be fair though, there are so many good looking women on MB. So many I felt deserved a mention but the rules dont allow it. Aurora, Pedestrian, Burning Down, Vanilla, Holly984, ThePhanastasio, AwwSugar...all deserved nominations in their own right. I've said it before...I'm sure a lot of them are liars.
Most Inane: Personally I feel that this year, MB has produced several high-volume posters who have posted much but offered little of personal interest to me. And I don't mean that they have not shared the same taste in music as I do or similar interests. I mean they make post after post and I wonder simply how any of it is of any interest to anybody. I'm not claiming that it ISNT, just that I personally cant quite fathom it. So in that case if you want inane, or insignificant, then I would have to nominate
Duce. He has a post count that should not be possible to have within a year and I can honestly say that apart from the odd creepy comment or TMI moment, I dont remember a single one of them. I may recall him mentioning, in passing, bands and artists. However I have no idea what his favourites are or even WHY he likes he likes or WHAT he likes about what he likes. I would also put
S_k in this same category.
Most Enigmatic:
Burning Down. I have even tried to get to know her a little better, to learn more about her and what she's all about, and I still couldnt tell you much about her at all.
Angriest Member: Big3 has always been angry and completely, mind-****ingly bewildering with it. I still don't understand.
Biggest Drama Whore:
S_K I feel deserves a mention for spitting his dummy out and storming out when things started to heat up here, over something I still cannot completely get my head around. It all seemed like a big fuss about pretty much nothing to me.
DJ has seemed to be shadowed by drama at every turn this year.
Dirty was more of an attention/drama whore than he let on. He claimed to care very little about this site, claimed he was only here cause he couldnt find a good sports forum, claimed he didn't need this forum, spent his time trolling and baiting members of this forum (and thats the way I see the ongoing Dirty/Paloma saga this year too, even if you dont) out of what I can assume was sheer boredom, and then after being warned time and time again and given chances to save his account in the form of temp bans, cried and whinged like a child when he finally got banned and made a mass amount of further accounts to troll the forum and the mods and also beg to be unbanned. Bull****ter, waste of moderators time, and a drama whore.
Nicest Member:
Aurora - I think I vote for this girl every year in this category. A real genuine person. A real friendly person who seems to respect and care for others. She seems to have matured and come into her own a little more this year. She was never immature or childish or anything, but I think shes become much more of an adult this year, and for all shes changed she still seems to be a wonderfully sweet girl.
NSW - I can't think of a time where she has been unkind or even confrontational. To anyone. If she has been to you, then I can assure you that you deserved it.
Janszoon - If Janszoon told me that somebody was a twat, I would probably believe him. I would believe him, without knowing anything about them, because I would think he would have given them the benefit of the doubt first and been very patient before coming to such a conclusion. Thats the way he comes across to me anyway. He seems the kind of person that would try to see the good in somebody before coming to that conlusion. How certain banned members (coughBoocough) fail to see this is quite frankly beyond me. I followed the Boo Boo saga this year and so I know Janszoon was in the right but even if I hadn't, I wouldn't need anyone to tell me. As my patience with people around here (maybe in r/l too, I'm not sure) has suffered this year and I don't feel quite the same person I once was, I see little change in the way Janszoon operates here.
Best Debater:
Tore, who else? Honourable mentions to
Janszoon &
Urban. I put Urbans name forward not for the same reasons I put the others forward but because it always seems to me that he doesn't give a **** and so will say whatever he feels, offend the easily offended along the way, and keep it up until the member in question gives up and leaves him alone.
Worst Debater:
Depends what we're debating but if it were something personal then I would hope, I stress the word hope, that I could take any criticism involved. I don't think
S_K can. I think he would claim that he could, claim that his feelings werent hurt, claim that he wasn't pissed at you for voicing your opinion, yet still attack you passively aggressively. There are no smiley emoticons in r/l though so I don't know how he deals with his business in the real world. Honestly, I would love to see him post with some real emotion. If I felt as though he was, I wouldnt skim so many of his posts.
Vegangelica could easily be voted for EITHER best of worst in this category. I like that she puts so much thought and time into her posts, quotes sources to support her stance, but as much as I want to I often just can't afford the time it takes to read what she posts.
And
Dirty just couldn't debate at all as he couldn't quite take on board differing points of view.
Best Writer:
Pedestrian takes the top spot for me.
Tore is still right up there, and
Trollheart deserves a mention.
Biggest Virtuoso: I honestly dont know. If I was forced to throw three names out there then I would think back to a previous members comp and say
Lateralus, Freebase and Tore.
Smartest Poster:
Tore, obviously.
Freebase is rather annoyingly intelligent at times. I mean that in the nicest way possible.
Funniest Member:
Janszoon has always cracked me up. The toying with and eventual destruction of moronic members here is so enjoyable to watch.
Urban also has always cracked me up. He does very similar things but much more bluntly, which is also entertaining. Of course
Right Track needs to be mentioned. The undisputed King of the sig-worthy quotes.
Best Mediator:
Janszoon again. I try to be fair and so does he, but seems to make a lot of heated situations void by simply frustrating people until they give up.
Biggest Troll:
Baggs. The prog-master is one of the most irritating trolls I have ever had the misfortune of encountering in my time here.
I know little of
Tumors music taste still as I see her hunt for attention much more than I see her make genuine posts or discuss music.
TheVirgin - No explanation needed
Biggest Contributor: I always saw
Tore as the biggest contributor when he was a mod here and he still deserves mention. Now I'd have to say that
Pedestrian has took over where he left off. You don't have to be a mod to be the biggest contributor but I simply dont think that anybody has been able to contribute more than these two.
Most Improved Member: I dont feel qualified to contribute to this one, sadly. Only name that comes to mind is
Vanilla. Maybe it's because I've only really gotten to know her this year or maybe she really has been posting more indepth, quality reviews and such this year than previous years.
Most Underrated Poster: Having looked at the nominations already given, it delights me to see that I can't vote for Pedestrian in this category. I'll say
Unknown Soldier, Stu & MoonlitSunshine.
Most Mainstream Music Taste: The only names that come to mind are members I personally have encountered taking it upon themselves to expand their music taste and so I dont feel they qualify as I'm not sure how mainstream their tastes even are.
Most Obscure Music Taste:
Bob
Dankrsta
Best Music Taste:
Jackhammer, as little seems to be off limits. Always willing to try something new. I also really like
Duga and
Zer0's tastes in music.
Biggest Music Nerd: Last year I was listening to a disgusting amount of new music. By that I mean new to me. I was always listening to something. I could be listening to 15, 20, 25+ albums a week on a good week. This year I simply haven't. I have a new job after a 2 year period of unemployment, I have less time to myself, I have more things on my to-do list and so neither the time or the motivation is there. I do still listen to music and I do still check out new stuff but really when compared to last year it's in pathetic amounts. This makes me envious of people like
Jackhammer to no end. He's been through rough spells himself, on the employment front. He's been in and out of work and yet it always seems he has that same passion, that same drive to constantly be expanding his musical horizons. And I'm younger than him! It truly is shameful.
Also, from one or two brief conversations with
Pedestrian, I can't help but notice just how much music she is listening to. Get a life for Gods sake.
I'm gonna say
zer0 as well. Definitely reminds me of certain mates of mine, who I can talk to about music all day long.
I also had to give Bulldog a shout here.
Best Thread Starter: Not a clue
Most Missed Poster:
NumberNineDream, Holly984, Molecules, James, UnchainedBallad, Right Track, Lateralus, Piss Me Off...and where the chuff did Sidewinder go? I know some of these are actively posting, but I've missed their presence at some point this year.
NND is a huge, monumental loss to this forum. I couldn't think any more of her than I do. I voted Holly cause she disappeared off the face of the Earth completely without a trace and I always vote Molecules. I will continue to do so until he's back here full time, the bastard.
Thread of the Year: Nope. Nothing coming to mind for this one, I'm afraid. There are probably several but my 2011 MB memories all revolve around the same small set of posters, none of whom have anything interesting to offer.
Journal of the Year:
Pedestrians. Not only has she decorated it well and clearly put a lot of time into the presentation of it, she has blended the music related posts with off-topic posts well which is something a lot of members dont do and it really does help to digest the journal. It offers an insight into her music taste, her first impressions on a band or an album, her thoughts on some of her more favourite artists and also a really genuine, honest, rather beautiful account of who she is. There has been one or two posts in it that have to be among the most emotional, heart felt I have had the privelidge of reading here. Some people may wonder why I objected to posts made my Duce in one of my nominations above and wonder why that may bother me so much. This is why. This journal alone pisses all over the entire post counts of many of our members.
Trollheart again deserves a mention in this category. I'm always approving posts for that bloody journal.
Moderator of the Year: Mods, I love you all. I think we have a great team of mods. Not everyone is gonna agree, not everyone is frankly gonna understand enough to have an opinion that reflects accurately back on us, and some people are gonna disagree with everything I say. Thats just the way it is. We will continue to be criticised for either a) treating everyone the same and not taking individual circumstances and variables into account when making a decision and b) for giving different treatment to different members instead of following the same set of rules for every one of our members. Sometimes I feel as though we can discuss how to improve and suggest changes to implement to ensure we are modding this place the absolute best we can until we're blue in the face and we're still gonna be damned either way, because it's always gonna be impossible to please everyone. Even though I personally feel that every mod here does a stand-up job, I have to say that
Pedestrian wins this hands down. It isn't even close. Pedestrian didn't get much of a warm welcome when she was modded. From the community that is, not the mod team. But she has worked harder than anyone this year to improve this site. I've seen many people complain that not enough is done to improve things around here so I hope you all took notice. Pedestrian IS trying her best to make MB a more enjoyable place to visit and personally I think she's doing an outstanding job.
Best New Member 2011: I dont feel qualified for this one either.
Member of the Year 2011: I don't even need to clarify this one, do I? I'm thrilled to see
Pedestrian get so much recognition for her contributions this year. It's not only justified but it's long overdue, and yes I do realise that she hasn't been here all that long really. She clearly has a passion for music and for a place to discuss it, and she has done more than anybody over the last 12 months to make MB a better place to visit, to discuss music, and to improve the community. When we were discussing candidates for new mods I was strongly in her corner and it should go without saying that so were the majority of the mod team. However the sheer volume of work she has been doing for this site is staggering and I have to admit she has far exceeded my already high expectations of her. A wonderful addition to the forum and the mod team and if anyone is going to contribute to better and improve MB then it is Pedestrian. If she doesn't win Member of the Year then it's a complete injustice. Shame on you if you were one of the members to make her feel so unwelcome when she was first modded.
/The Pedestrian Awards 2011