TLK Fan of the Month?

[DGFone]

This idea randomly popped into my head randomly, and I've been thinking about it for a few days. In the end, I think I would like to see a "TLK fan of the month" contest on here. From what I see, there is still enough TLK spirit around to enable such a contest, and it might even perhaps increase use interest in the TLK topics (or any TLK related topic, such as fanart and fan-fictions and all that).

Starting next year (as in, after the winter break), I will be able to start this contest fairly quickly. So what about it? Would you guys and gals be interested in this contest?

Since I am thinking that I will at least start it no matter what, think of this more of an announcement rather than a maybe-maybe for the contest.

[Si-Amber]

I'd be for it if it stops all the "MoTM is a popularity contest" whining!

Seriously though, it sounds like a good idea.

[UncoordinatedPisces]

It does sound like a good idea :3

[WildSimba]

I say go for it, why not, it can't hurt anything. I don't think it'd ever cut down on any whining for the MotM contest, I honestly haven't seen any whining there in a good while but then again I haven't been on in a while. But whether or not it'd have an effect on that it sounds like a fun idea.

[KingKivuli]

Question about this. Will it be one off or you planning to do it monthly?

I ask because couple years ago I held a one of version of it, and it worked out OK. However there is a reason I didn't make the awards only about TLK, and had it as a contributing factor instead. If you hold this month by month on 'Who is the fan of the month' your really limiting people who can win, as the only those who post in relevant sections can be eligible, that is how it looks anyway. This of course will cause the same people to win over and over, or if you run it like MOTM, run out of 'viable' candidates and then it will either die off, turn into a popularity contest, or worse still, lead people to spam over the TLK sections just to show face and the forums get bogged down again

I do understand where you are coming from, you have shown your dislike and shared your thoughts on MOTM with me, for months in a row, but as I said, if this runs monthly you are practically forcing peoples hand into posting. In terms of the MOTM, I look at the recent winners and I don't see a popularity contest anymore. Everyone who has won has been a strong member of the forum in all fronts, including a love and appreciation for TLK. Just being an active and caring member on the forum. If you don't love TLK then people naturally do not stay here. The contest has change for the better over the years it has been here, including changes and contributions you made

That my 2 cents in, I think a monthly contest is forcing people. Also running it along side MOTM.. yeah people are going to get confused over it.

[WildSimba]

Question about this. Will it be one off or you planning to do it monthly?

I ask because couple years ago I held a one of version of it, and it worked out OK. However there is a reason I didn't make the awards only about TLK, and had it as a contributing factor instead. If you hold this month by month on 'Who is the fan of the month' your really limiting people who can win, as the only those who post in relevant sections can be eligible, that is how it looks anyway. This of course will cause the same people to win over and over, or if you run it like MOTM, run out of 'viable' candidates and then it will either die off, turn into a popularity contest, or worse still, lead people to spam over the TLK sections just to show face and the forums get bogged down again

I do understand where you are coming from, you have shown your dislike and shared your thoughts on MOTM with me, for months in a row, but as I said, if this runs monthly you are practically forcing peoples hand into posting. In terms of the MOTM, I look at the recent winners and I don't see a popularity contest anymore. Everyone who has won has been a strong member of the forum in all fronts, including a love and appreciation for TLK. Just being an active and caring member on the forum. If you don't love TLK then people naturally do not stay here. The contest has change for the better over the years it has been here, including changes and contributions you made

That my 2 cents in, I think a monthly contest is forcing people. Also running it along side MOTM.. yeah people are going to get confused over it.

Yeah I think we've definitely learned our lesson before that contests aren't necessarily the best way to bring back activity to certain sections. It shouldn't really be something that's forced, we're all TLK fans here, there's only so much that can be talked about with TLK. That's why there's also social areas here, too. Unfortunate thing is when you've been in the TLK community for over 5 years, you learn that a lot of what can be discussed has been discussed and pretty much everything has been exhausted already. It's unfair to think that that section would be just as active as it was years ago, there's less interest in the films now, everything's been said. It's a nearly 20 year old film series now lol

Maybe if not monthly, it can be something that happens every once in a while, just exclusive to TLK section of the board. Like, I don't know, once every 2-3 months. I do think you have a good point that the same people are pretty much going to be chosen over and over again with the kind of activity the section has. I don't think it should be ran along side MotM, but more so as a separate contest like the Graphic Artist of the month one.

I also agree that the MotM contest seems a lot more strong now, and I've pretty much agreed with every winner of at least these past few months. I think this contest could also have some potential too, if you don't have unrealistic goals.

But as I said before, in my personal opinion I don't think it'll hurt to try.

[FlipMode]

This idea randomly popped into my head randomly, and I've been thinking about it for a few days. In the end, I think I would like to see a "TLK fan of the month" contest on here. From what I see, there is still enough TLK spirit around to enable such a contest, and it might even perhaps increase use interest in the TLK topics (or any TLK related topic, such as fanart and fan-fictions and all that).

Starting next year (as in, after the winter break), I will be able to start this contest fairly quickly. So what about it? Would you guys and gals be interested in this contest?

Since I am thinking that I will at least start it no matter what, think of this more of an announcement rather than a maybe-maybe for the contest.

Good idea, we did have an annual award for this and it was as fine running and smooth as any other award thread.

What I will do is offer some counter arguments to some of the feedback posted above because it seems like people are posting things that could potentially be an issue but actually wouldn't be.

"The same people winning it over and over due to inactivity in the section" - Not really. Sometimes the same people win the graphic artist contest, it's no less of an achievement though. You would still need to consistently be a really good TLK fan and show your passion for the series continuously in order to continue to win the award. This, on a TLK forum, would be a good thing then.

Same applies to "limiting who can win" - if the award doesn't apply to you then sorry but not everything in the World is made specifically to appeal to every single person. If you are the kind of person who would never, ever write fan fiction for example, then you're not going to be able to enter the fan fiction contest. Similarly, if you come on MLK and hardly ever discuss its subject matter then you're unlikely to be nominated for this TLK fan contest.

That's not to say that people who mainly post in the OT sections are not equally as important to the community as someone who strives to keep the TLK fandom spirit going. That's why there are other awards BESIDES the TLK fan award. For a while on here it almost felt like a two sided affair - you had the people who post mainly in OT almost being looked down on by the high and mighty who feel like people should be posting in TLK sections more and it does have to stop. Every single member on here is equally as important to the community and pleasant atmosphere that has kept me coming back here for years.
So the more awards there are running, the better as far as I'm concerned.

As for forcing people to post in those sections, again, it doesn't really. True if you wanted to win the award then you probably would but it's still a choice. I am the kind of person who occasionally writes fan fiction but I can tell you that the fan fiction contest has inspired me more than once to devote some time to writing a piece. The same applies to this, it would inspire me to get more involved in the TLK sections but as has been said, we are all TLK fans to some degree on here anyway so.... How exactly is it a bad thing? It's still going to be a choice to post in the TLK section but it may encourage people to at least have a go at posting in them, which let's be honest, isn't encouraged nearly enough on here as it should be.

Also running it along side MOTM.. yeah people are going to get confused over it.

Really? One of them says "TLK fan of the Month" the the other says "Member of the month"... I don't see how that could be any LESS confusing. One is for showing your passion for the film franchise, the other is for being a generally all round decent member.
I for one, post in most of these sections on the board but my time in the TLK sections is a "time not withstanding" affair. If I have the time during my visit to make a few decent posts and actually contribute something to those areas then I will yeah but I'd rather make some decent OT posts like this one here.
You may have noticed I tend to make long posts in the Persona Issues forum for example, because trying to help out fellow members on here is more important to me than posting in the TLK sections. Everyone on here only has so much free time and whether they devote more or less of their time to the TLK sections doesn't mean they aren't fans or are missing the point of the forum. It just means they don't have the time to devote to it is all, fair enough, right?

[DGFone]

I completely agree with Flip's reasoning on this one. So initially, I would like to try and make the contest monthly. I can also see some of your guys' doubts about it, but I don't think that it's going to be much of an issue.

Will it add more focus on the TLK sections? I hope so. But will it force more TLK activity? Of course not. Does the Member of the Month Contest force people to be nice and all? Somehow I doubt it. These contests reward behavior for whatever they are for (being a good member, being a good artist or writer, etc), but they force activity, and they don't punish the reverse. When someone's a bad member, we don't give them a "shame of the month" award or whatnot. They might have to deal with breaking rules, but that's not related to the member of the month contest. On the other hand, it does encourage members to be nicer to one another and be good members all around if they hope to win the contest.

So that's what I am hoping that the TLK fan of the month contest will do. Members who are still active in the TLK sections can be recognized for it, and it might encourage older members to perhaps revisit the sections again. We did reset the sections very recently, and look at how many posts and topics are in there already. Even old "burnt out" topics such as the obvious "why do you love The Lion King" get posts now. It was an old topic and I created it as soon as i could for the very reason being that while some members might feel like all that has being said was said, but there is always someone new with someone to say.

Even if it won't bring back activity, I would still like to give a little something to the fans of the movie who continue to spread that love. I have no doubts that there are enough members to fill that spot for an entire year.

I also see no reason why to keep new members from being legible for the award right off the bat. I don't see why a TLK fan of the month award should require a three month waiting period or whatnot. If someone new joins and comes to MLK with a lot of new and interesting ideas? Yeah, I will allow them to be nominated for the award, they deserve it.

[Timon the great]

All my thanks here goes to DGFone for coming up with this idea. I am completely for it and I think that regardless of what "negative" responses a few on here have said already, it will benefit this forum in one way or another, regardless if it really works in the end or not. Because after all and in truth, this is a forum built on TLK and the films. Not a theme.

That said, it's about time that something like this is implemented where it could beneficially encourage activity in the LK areas in a couple of ways (especially in the film sub forums) and not just in the OT ones like "The Den" that always seem to get all the activity/attention here on MLK.

This of course will cause the same people to win over and over, or if you run it like MOTM, run out of 'viable' candidates and then it will either die off, turn into a popularity contest, or worse still, lead people to spam over the TLK sections just to show face and the forums get bogged down again

I just don't see how this would apply to what DGF wants to do. On the contrary, if a member (especially a new one) wants to spam in the LK sections, wouldn't they choose to do this in any kind of circumstance?

I just don't feel what you said would turn out to be like this. To be very honest, something like what DGFone wants to do will actually motivate me to legitimately discuss more about TLK, more than anything else.

Maybe I haven't been on MLK long enough to assess what you said, when it was started. Two other forums I've been a member of have had other members spam whenever they wanted to, regardless of events, as far as I can remember. But I won't 100% disregard what you said, especially since you're an admin and you've been here longer than I have.

[FlipMode]

It was an old topic and I created it as soon as i could for the very reason being that while some members might feel like all that has being said was said, but there is always someone new with someone to say.

Exactly. You know that almost sums it up actually. Some people who use the "everything has already been said, there's no fresh topics" didn't even try to get active in the TLK sections to begin with and are either using it as a cop out or just assuming that they have nothing new to add.

The topic DGF mentions "Why do you love The Lion King?" for instance. Is a good example, a lot of us here like it for the obvious reasons (excellent animation, excellent music, excellent yada yada) but some of us like it not just for that but for different, even personal reasons such as being able to relate to the characters or the plot.
No matter what your opinion is, you should never feel that posting it wouldn't be contributing to that thread. Even if it is something obvious that someone has already posted so many times and it is cliched, it's the way different people present their opinion that make it interesting and keep the discussion going. I for example like to ramble on in my posts (dunno if you noticed...) so even if I do share the same thoughts as someone else, the way I present those thoughts and add them to the thread may spark off new / interesting discussion or even resurface old discussions. I mean gee, you CAN talk about the same subject more than once y'know.

So I encourage everyone to be active in ALL areas of the board, not just the TLK ones. Even if you don't for example make graphics, or draw fan art.... Just taking the time to comment and offer feedback on other people's work is contributing something and that is better than nothing at all. Same goes for the TLK sections, you may think you have nothing new or interesting to add but you do, you just need to take a few minutes to write it down and post it is all.