Notice - The Whiffie Nomination process has changed for 2009

[philp]

The Academy has made a decision that will save me, er, I mean them, much time in the nomination process.  The nominations for each category will be selected from the Sway the Whiffies thread: http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,23097.0.html

We will go through this thread and take all postings and put them in whichever category they fit (can be more than one) and then create polls for each category.  This should mean about 40 hours or so less work for me, er, I mean the Academy.

What does this mean to you?  If you like something that has been posted in 2009, make sure it gets placed in the above topic so it will make it to the nomination process.  If it isn't in that thread, it won't be on the ballot.  So, start going through some of the threads and sway the vote.

A quick look through the thread shows the following:
Biplanes - 2
Helicopters - 1
Armor - 2
Ships - 1
Figures - 0
Dioramas - 3
Sci-Fi - 2

I know there are other good ship, armor, and sci-fi builds out there but no one has seen fit to add them to the thread.

There will be some new Categories this year (still working on them) and some of the ones from last year will be retired (think, it only got 2 nominations, and you can figure some of those out).  The Best Profile will be changed to the Best Profiler.  You can decide on who you thinks meets that description.

I hope to post the final categories sometime in November but don't wait for that to start adding builds (even your own) to the sway thread.

[Stargazer]

Strictly GENUINE whiffing, not even a category for CGI or photo-manipulation? 

[philp]

You never know.  If there is enough support for items that would fit.

[Weaver]

You could have a category for best photo of a model (including photoshopped backgrounds, etc..)

There's also a case for saying that folk who manipulate photos of real hardware to illustrate an idea are performing the same service as more traditional profilers, and so should be either included as profilers or get their own sub-category.

[nev]

A quick look through the thread shows the following:
Biplanes - 2
Helicopters - 1
Armor - 2
Ships - 1
Figures - 0
Dioramas - 3
Sci-Fi - 2

Interesting - I wonder if its worth for certain subjects that they all de facto go straight into the whiffies?  I imagine the number of completed figures and ships would be in single digits.  Armour & Sci-Fi should certainly be more populated though.

Biplanes runs the risk of BdB finishing 1-2-3 :p  and helos....well we've already had the Beat The Air Into Submission GB, with a vote for a winner, doesn't feel like much point nominating the others if you know what I mean.

[philp]

Ah, but GB winners don't always take the Whiffie.  There are those builds which didn't get done during the GB but get finished afterwards.  Then there are builds which were done before the GB or even started after.  There are a few builds in the Landspeed GB that can flesh out the Auto category and there have been several builds in the Ship threads.  The Figures may get a miss this year.

[Weaver]

Also, a build might be in a themed GB, but it might be a contender in other Whiffie categories such as Best Paint.

[ChernayaAkula]

Is there a complete list of the categories? And are there sub-categories (like best re-paint, best kit-bash, best scratch-built) and if there are, how fine are these (like best re-painted prop, best re-painted jet)? What about backstories? Wasn't there a "Whiffy"^TM for those last year?

A complete list of the categories would be very helpful (or a pointer to where they're written down and I didn't find them ).

[philp]

Moritz,
The final categories for this year have not been picked yet.  Should have the final list sometime in November (hopefully early).
You can add builds to the sway thread without picking a specific category.  The Academy will review them and put them in the category(ies) they fit in.  Just make sure you link to the thread and a pic is nice so we don't repeat too much.

Here is the list of last years categories to give you a head start.  Most of these will stay the same but some will be deleted and some new ones created.
http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,22568.0.html

[ChernayaAkula]

<...> You can add builds to the sway thread without picking a specific category.  The Academy will review them and put them in the category(ies) they fit in. <...>

Ah, I see!  Thanks for the heads-up! 

[Bungle]

Please excuse me if I'm speaking out of turn here but I am in a bit of a quandary. I certainly appreciate all the good work the Academy (er... Philip) is doing and I love the idea of the Whiffies but I have a kit that I have exhibited this year that has not appeared in the shortlist. Now this is possibly because it is a heap of laughable dross, a total waste of plastic/filler and many wasted hours but my fear is it has been overlooked.

Now I already have a kit nominated (thank you) but in my personal opinion I have produced better this year and yes I was hoping to have another nominated. Of course I could be totally crass and nominate it myself but that's hardly the done thing is it. It must take hours for the Academy to review all the finished projects and I take my hat off to them but I was wondering if we could make this easier for them. Perhaps a new thread where members could upload a single image of their completed item 'For consideration'. One entry per member - a kind of 'their own best effort'. If the Academy then decide to include items from this thread in the Whiffies then all the better.

Gentlmen... you are doing a splendid and almost thankless job (almost.... as I'll say thank you).


Bungle

[philp]

Bungle,
The thread that is open is called "Sway the Whiffies", therefore, putting a picture and link to what you feel is your best build(s) is well within the realm of good sportsmanship.  There are obviously many builds that are not part of this thread (yet) because only a small number of people have been putting stuff here.  Hopefully, a few other well placed threads will help change this.

On January 1st, I (and hopefully a few others) will go through this thread and create the Nomination polls for all the categories.  Those will be posted around January 15th (hopefully).  At that time, everyone on the forum will be able to vote for (nominate) up to 5 in each category.  The top 5 in each category will be added to the Whiffie ballot and that will go out once again for the final vote with the top 5 nominated builds vying for the Whiffie of the Year.

I have planned this to coincide with the Academy Awards like last year but just found out the Oscars have been moved back to March 7th to accommodate the Winter Olympics.  I am not sure I want to wait that long to announce the Whiffies but see what feedback I get on this (you know that all the stars last year where checking their Blackberries, iPhones, etc during commercials to see how the Whiffies were turning out).

Last year I had everyone scan the forum for builds that qualified and send me an email listing their 5 choices for each category.  There was a lot of feedback that it took too long to go through the forum looking for things.  Also, many who did submit choices, didn't nominate stuff in every category or even 5 in the categories they did submit.  The email process meant I had to go through each email and locate the builds (usually had to find the threads), compile the nomination lists from those, add up the votes and find out who would be on the final ballot.  To say that was a little time consuming would be an understatement.  Having one thread where we can gather the nominations from to start will shave hours off the process.  Using the polls will also save time by showing which 5 will move on.  For that reason alone, I want to keep everything in the one thread. 

So, submit your build to the existing thread.  Submit other builds that you like (if you don't want competition, only submit those that fit other categories  ).  Tell your buddies to submit what they like.  If everyone goes through and submits even just one build that has not already been submitted, there will be hundreds of items for the nomination process and that much less chance a build will be overlooked.

Phil Peterson
Mini-master of Ceremonies

[Logan Hartke]

The thread that is open is called "Sway the Whiffies", therefore, putting a picture and link to what you feel is your best build(s) is well within the realm of good sportsmanship.  There are obviously many builds that are not part of this thread (yet) because only a small number of people have been putting stuff here.  Hopefully, a few other well placed threads will help change this.

...

Last year I had everyone scan the forum for builds that qualified and send me an email listing their 5 choices for each category.  There was a lot of feedback that it took too long to go through the forum looking for things.  Also, many who did submit choices, didn't nominate stuff in every category or even 5 in the categories they did submit.  The email process meant I had to go through each email and locate the builds (usually had to find the threads), compile the nomination lists from those, add up the votes and find out who would be on the final ballot.  To say that was a little time consuming would be an understatement.  Having one thread where we can gather the nominations from to start will shave hours off the process.  Using the polls will also save time by showing which 5 will move on.  For that reason alone, I want to keep everything in the one thread. 

Philp, I'm sure that going through each of the emails is time consuming and it sounds like this year is the better process.  Can I suggest something, though?  Instead of placing threads in certain areas to make people nominate more, can you just create the appropriate Whiffie nomination thread in its most logical location?  We can turn the category listing into a directory.  Make each category a link that will send them to the nomination thread.  At the end of the nomination period, create the polls as you suggested.  It should be that much easier since each nomination thread will be in the place where the people that know the category the best are already looking and you'll just do each category one at a time anyway.

Does that make sense?  I can help with the process, as well.  I can edit the category listing to make it a directory and create some of the new Nomination threads if you like.  I just think it makes the most sense to split it up that way, where people will already be looking at the images.

Cheers,

Logan

[philp]

Logan,
I am a little confused by your suggestion (I will be 49 on Saturday so sometimes you need to type slower).  My thought for this year actually adds a step to make things easier .  Last year I asked everyone to go through the entire forum and look for 5 per category and email me.  I added all the nominations and the top 5 nominees were picked for the final ballot which everyone got to vote on.  This lead to a lot (and I mean lot) of the categories having 2-3 popular nominees and a bunch of single nominees.  The Academy (meaning me, last year) had to go through and pick which ones I wanted to add to the final ballot to flesh out each category.  Some categories, I had to scour the forum looking for enough nominees (Best Fictional Country, Figure, Ship) and others even I couldn't come up with enough (Raspberry Ripple and Most Improved).
This year we will use the Sway thread to gather the Nominees.  Then the first polls will go out to pick the 5 for each Categories that will be on the final ballot.  New polls will be created for the final vote.  The final polls will be located in the Whiffies section.  Had pretty much thought to have the nomination polls there also.  Want to keep it all pretty much together so that people don't just vote for aircraft, etc but also sci-fi, armor, profiler, story, etc.  If they are located in the sections then there is a better chance only those people who go to those sections will vote for those entries (hey, it sounded good when I said it).
The initial reminder thread(s) are to make sure someone puts in a few ships, cars, helicopters, storylines, most improved, etc in the Sway thread so that they will end up on the Nomination polls.  Then, if it is something or someone you didn't think of, you will have a chance to say, yeah, I like that build or their work and maybe you will give it the extra attention it needed to make it to the final vote.

Feel free to PM or email me if I have completely misinterpreted your idea.

[Logan Hartke]

Sent!

Cheers,

Logan