As a long-time posting award dictator, allow me to make one small suggestion, Moby. When creating the initial post, go to the post, click the quote button and copy/paste it into your new thread (editing as necessary). That allows the little arrow that links you to the nominated post. Also, include the nominee names in the poll. These people deserve recognition!
Good suggestiong, but actually ones that I've already either thought of or tested.
Clicking the quote button would work for posts from the JREF forums, but the majority of nominations and finalists do not come from the JREF forums. I could include links, but CT forums have a habit of deleting posts or indeed entire threads, and the link may be dead, meaning that the only evidence of the nomination is a screenshot (noms with no screenshot or link are immediately discarded). In other words, it's either track down the specific reference for each individual nom, or leave all the references in the nominations thread. To avoid a disproportionalte amount of work, I choose the latter.
As for posting the names of the nominees - last month I decided to experiment with making the finalists anonymous. The reason for this is that I don't want people to vote for a
person, I want them to vote for what was actually said. I want people to look and say, "Hey, #25 is really bizarre and funny, I'm going to vote for that one," rather than saying, "Hey, that Dylan Avery is stupid, I'm going to vote for him."
Once the voting closes I do reveal the winner's identity and present him, her or it with the award.
Thanks for the suggestions though!
