It's that time of year again

So, here are the details for the (5th) Platinum Blend Cafe Awards 2009:

Starting Date:
Monday 6th July

Time Of First Category Launch:
07:00 BST

Rules & Regulations

1. To vote, you need to PM me (or whoever's in charge) your votes. You can vote for up to ten people. Please rank your nominees in order so I (or whoever's in charge) knows how many points to give them.
2. When PMing me (or whoever's in charge) your votes, you are not allowed to vote for yourself, as it is not fair for everyone else. If everyone's votes for themselves, we won't get anywhere. If you do vote for yourself, your vote will not count. [This rule also applies to the Best Couple category]
3. Please only vote for those people who have posted in the past year.
4. Please try not to announce who you are going to vote for as it defeats the object of PMing.
5. While the Best Signature and Best Profile Photo categories are running, please stick to your signature/profile photo (if you read this) during the week. If you decide to change it while the PMing votes week is still on, it would not be fair for everyone else if you suddenly win or come close to winning, plus you may disadvantage your chances of winning in the process.
6. For the Most Sensible, Supportive, Cheerful and Humorous Poster categories, only vote for those users who are normally sensible, supportive, cheerful or humorous all the time, all year round, and not just clowning about frequently during or near voting time. As a result, that would not be fair for others.
7. For the Best Newbie category, a 'newbie' is anyone whose member number is 34195 or above (based on last year's voting).
   For a list of those members who are eligible for this category:
   

   - Click on Members at the top of the page
   - Go to 'Toggle More Options'
   - Where it says 'Join date', you will need to search for those members who joined more than the 07-03-2008
   - At the bottom of the page, you will need to search for all members by total posts in descending order with 50 results per page. Click on 'Go'.

8. If you are planning to go away (e.g. on holiday) and want to PM me your votes for the category(/ies) you will miss, please let me know beforehand.

Categories
Here is the proposed order of this year's categories:

| No. | Category | Dates of PM voting | Who to PM | Winner(s)|
1. Best Couple - 5th-12th July - barry-clari - Miss Ross/mwl1
2. Most Cheerful Poster - 12th-19th July - Car Expert - barry-clari
3. Most Useful Poster - 19th-26 July - Car Expert - Mad Tom
4. Most Humorous Poster - 26th July-2nd August - Car Expert - petrat
5. Most Sensible Poster - 2nd-9th August - Car Expert - Mad Tom
6. Best Signature - 9th-16th August - Car Expert - andante_in_c
7. Most Intriguing Thread Starter - 14th-23rd August - barry-clari - bernie
8. Best Profile Photo - 23rd-30th August - Car Expert - maledictis
9. Best Newbie - 30th August-6th September - Car Expert - Solari
10. Best Username - 6th-13th September - Car Expert - PianissiMole
11. Most Supportive Person - 13th-20th September - Car Expert - DaisyChain
12.1. Best-Looking Male - 20th-27th September - noodle - barry-clari
12.2. Best-Looking Female - 20th-27th September - Car Expert - lucky045
13. Member Of The Year - 27th September-4th October - Car Expert - barry-clari

[Note: The list is subject to change]

Another award will be handed out to the member who receives the most PM points during the course of the fourteen categories.

For those who don't know much about the awards, and want to take part this year, this is what will happen:

• A thread will be published for each category to inform people they are allowed to vote. All you need to do is to PM the person in charge with your votes (you can vote for up to ten people), and the votes will be recorded in a league table.
• The points system is: 1st = 10 points | 2nd = 9 points | 3rd = 8 points | 4th = 7 points | 5th = 6 points | 6th = 5 points | 7th = 4 points | 8th = 3 points | 9th = 2 points | 10th = 1 point
• If for example, you only vote for one person, they get 10 points. If you vote for two people, 1st will get 10 points and 2nd will get 9 points, and so on.
• The league table for each category will be published periodically throughout the week. However, the number of times this will occur will depend on the number of sets of PM votes received after each update.
• After a week, a final league table will be posted on the thread, with the winner(s) being announced at around 2130 BST.
• At the same time, the PM votes for the next category is introduced. This process will be repeated until all the categories have been done.
• In the event of a tie, the members at the top of the league table will share the award as joint winners.
• Once all categories have been done and a winner is announced for each, there will be an awards ceremony which will take place on Wednesday 21st October at 2030 BST. This is where all the winners virtually collect their award(s).

Links from last year's awards

• Main Awards Thread, with links to separate awards threads
• Awards Ceremony preparation
• Awards Ceremony itself

If anyone has any suggestions for new categories or constructive suggestions for improvements, that would be very much appreciated too .

Note the tiebreak rule has changed after the slight controversy from last year, where joint winners are possible this year.

Also, Most Cheerful Poster (cat. 2) has replaced Most Enjoyable Thread.

I will be monitoring most of the categories, but when I'm not here, someone else will monitor them in my absence. Note that the votes for the first category need to be PMed or emailed to barry-clari as I'll be away on holiday.

Car Expert

Ok, so we might just as well give "Best Couple" to mwl1 and Miss Ross and "Most Cheerful Poster" to barry - that'll save us a couple of weeks bother.

Why, why, why, why, why?????

My feelings exactly.

*must remember to clear space in the PM box...*

It's unlikely I'll be online for the evening of 5th, so I'll aim to launch category no. 1 on the morning of 6th, before I head off to work.

*must remember to send Barry votes before I go away...*

Car Expert

Bit of harmless fun I suppose... but as for profile pictures, do you set up a gallery of them or something? Going through people's profiles would be a lot of work...

I rotate mine quite frequently but doubt anyone notices I'm quite averse to keeping a proper photo up as I quite like my anonymity (plus I hate my own photos!)

Your present one is reinforcing my secret suspicion that you are a girl...

Meh, shaddap. I'm allowed to like profound and poetic statements. How about now?

That is SICK!

???

Reverted to something a bit more my style now. Meh, I actually had a proper photo up last night but changed it after about 20 mins when I decided that I didn't like the idea

Good... though not quite as good as my pacman one

What I tend to do is start a new thread the week before to allow people to describe their profile photos. Of course not everyone is going to reply but at least it'll help save a bit of time when it comes to voting

Car Expert

I loved your pacman profile pic : I think you should put that one back sometime

Don't know if you want to change your initial post CE, but I'll launch Category 1 (best couple) at around about 7am on Monday 6th July

That was great

They say video games are a bad influence, but if that were true then in the day of pacman, everyone would have been running around in dark rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive music.

Oh...wait

'Tis changed now

Car Expert

hello cello has stolen my pacman picture!!!

H3ll hath no fury like Carol scorned

Absolutely - hc had better watch out...

I wouldnt want to bump into you in a dark alley way!

Posting in this thread and *still* having the offending profile pic... brave indeed! Wait til she gets her talons into you

rats have talons ?!

This just gets better...

Shame Carol's gone offline, this could have been entertaining

Anyway, in an attempt to get back on topic...

Vote for the Bellringing Thread (Percussion forum) As the most interesting!

And vote me for best spammer! Oh..wait...

Nice signature by the way

Car Expert

It's either extremely late, or very early, however

I see I'm going to have to keep you all in order when I monitor the first category next week!...

Indeed you would not

Talons??
hc has been keeping his inbox full so I can't tell him off...
I see he has changed it now, and actually it's rather funny

Ok, now I don't like you again

I would have wiped the floor with him

I lovelovelove awards giving outness SPEECHSPEECH anyone? (i think typed speeches should be required from prizewinners)

I think there should be a category for most random poster.

THATISALL. thank you

lovelovelove <3

Lauraaaa

Just noticed something - why has the 'ABRSM' text been deleted from the thread title?

Car Expert

I just realised people do make speeches.........................................

Probably because it isn't actually "official", and the ABRSM don't want people getting confused

Hmm... it's never been an issue before...

Car Expert

I demand a most hyper ctaegory.

that is all.

I'm not on the most cheerful poster board. That's just wrong.

That's because you joined on the same week, and probably because you're not that cheerful anyway

Car Expert

I am to cheerful.

I am going to win Best Signature, Most Intriguing Thread Starter, Best Profile Photo, Best Newbie, Member Of The Year , and Best Username.

I suspect not!

However, "Most Delusional", perhaps....

Positive thinking - like your style

How about best one of these....?

This is a quick reminder in preparation for the next category:

The next category, to start tomorrow, is Best Signature, so (if you read this) please decide on a signature you are going to stick with throughout the week (unless in skylark's case for example where it has to be edited daily, or in any other important case). I'll be keeping a close eye on those signatures which receive votes

Car Expert

Have I got any?

Any what, spam?

Votes? Never.