It's that time of year again

Here are the details for the (6th) ABRSM Platinum Blend Cafe Awards 2010:

Starting Date:
Sunday 18th July

Time Of First Category Launch:
21:30 BST

Rules & Regulations

1. To vote, you need to PM me (or whoever's in charge) your votes using the messaging tool in 'My Controls'. If you have my email address or are friends with me on Facebook, you can send me your votes in either of those methods instead if you prefer. 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. You are not allowed to vote for yourself, as it is not fair for everyone else. 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 - the past year being from the 18th July 2009 onwards.
4. Please try not to announce who you are going to vote for in the public domain as it defeats the object of private messaging.
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 even 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.
7. For the Best Newbie category, a 'newbie' is anyone whose member number is 74026 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 08-29-2009
   - 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 send your votes for the category(/ies) you will miss, please let me know beforehand.

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

| No. | Category | Dates of PM voting | Who to PM | Winner(s)|
1. Most Supportive Person - 18th-25th July - Car Expert - barry-clari
2. Most Humorous Poster - 25th July-1st August - Car Expert - clavicembalo
3. Best Profile Photo - 1st-8th August - Car Expert - Clari-Netty
4. Most Enjoyable Poster - 8th-15th August - Car Expert - clavicembalo
5. Best Signature - 15th-22nd August - Car Expert - skylark
6. Best Newbie - 22nd-29th August - Car Expert - clavicembalo
7. Most Sensible Poster - 28th August-5th September - barry-clari - Mad Tom
8. Most Cheerful Poster - 5th-12th September - barry-clari - barry-clari
9.1. Best Looking Male - 12th-19th September - DaisyChain - Solari
9.2. Best Looking Female - 12th-20th September - barry-clari - missypiano
10. Most Useful Poster - 19th-26th September - Car Expert - Mad Tom
11. Best Username - 26th September-3rd October - Car Expert - PianissiMole
12. Best Couple - 3rd-10th October - Car Expert - Mad Tom & missypiano
13. Member Of The Year - 10th-17th 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 are unsure as to how the awards process work, and want to take part this year, this is what will happen:

• A thread will be published every week for each category in the Forums Cafe to inform people they are allowed to vote. All you need to do is to PM/email 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 usually at around 2130 BST on Sunday evening.
• At the same time, voting for the next category is introduced. This process will be repeated until all the categories have been completed.
• 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 (date to be confirmed). 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 that Most Enjoyable Poster (cat. 4) has replaced Most Intriguing Thread Starter.

I will be monitoring most of the categories, but if I'm not here, someone else will monitor them in my absence. I will be away on holiday during the beginning of September, so votes for categories 7, 8 and 9.2 need to be sent to barry-clari. Votes for category 9.1 will need to be sent to DaisyChain.

Car Expert

Already?!

CE, I'll be coming back from the Cardiff forum events on 19th September - results for best looking female will be online on 20th September instead.

Cor blimey, this is the thread/topic that I use to mark the passsage of time and my does it pass quickly!

Have edited the schedule

Are you likely to start and finish your other categories first thing Monday morning as usual, or will it be, like me, Sunday evenings?

Car Expert

Everything else should be as you do it, CE. I'll say if there's any change to that.

Wouldn't mind a copy of those 'trophy' smilies, when you have time. Thanks!

I see silly season on the forums is approaching again!

This implies that there's a sensible season

If we're going to be away and computer-less, can we send votes in advance for particular categories, or does that make life too complicated?

Sorry, just looked back at the rules - hadn't got as far as H first time of reading!

Certainly for my categories, yes : and I suspect CE will say the same.

Equally, for my categories, if you want to send your votes in any other way apart from forum PM, feel free to.

Thanks Barry - I did find the bit about sending in advance eventually! I never read instruction booklets all the way through either!

How exciting!

Yes, that would be no problem

Car Expert

Well, I'm all for silly season...
... could use a bit of fun right now.
I checked in at the 2009 Awards to see what it was all about and just about fell off my chair chortling... Hope I can jet in from wherever I am to the 2010 event.

There are a lot of people here on the Forum who I'd like to celebrate but they just don't seem to pigeonhole into any of these categories... more like most encouraging, most erudite, most illuminating, most thought-provoking most hilarious/worst ever puns and just plain old "who's your favourite Forum poster". But you've been doing this very well for a while now so better just shut up and vote.

Can't believe it's this time again!!

Some of you may have noticed we have a brand new category for the awards starting next week

Most Enjoyable Poster, to define it simply, is an award for those members whose posts you enjoy reading. Previously we had Most Enjoyable Thread - those who were around in the earlier incarnations of the awards will remember that - so it is very similar to that, except you are voting for posters, not threads.

I should also say in advance that the voting lines for Most Enjoyable Poster will close as normal at 2130 BST next Sunday evening (15th August). However, I won't be here to publish the results on time as I will be out, so the results will be published on Monday instead. As a consequence, the voting lines for the following category - Best Signature - will open a little earlier than usual at around 1930 BST on Sunday 15th before I go out.

Car Expert

You can't lie - I do post intriguing threads and enjoyable posts

Voting for most sensible poster will open on the morning of 28th August - I won't be on the forum at all on 29th.

I'm thinking of newbies...not doing well...had to take three out of my shortlist because they fall just before the cut off date for newbies ...