RinkAwards: Rules
Procedure
- The winners of the RinkAwards are determined via a two step
voting process. First, the nominations are voted upon by casting votes
on a pool of all eligible entries for each category. The ballot will
be available for examination prior to the start of voting, and some
time will be allowed for people to bring errors or omissions to my
attention. After the first round of voting commences, the ballot will
be immutable except in extreme circumstances.
- The eligible entries with the most votes in a category become nominated
for that category. (The number of nominations permitted in a category
depends on the number of eligible entries, but it will never be less
than two or more than five.)
- Shortly after the close of the first round of voting, the
RinkAwards nominations are announced, and voting on the
winners will commence. While in the nominations round of voting, each
voter gets as many votes per category as there will be nominations in
that category, this second round of voting only permits one vote per
category per person.
- Some time after the close of voting, an awards ceremony will
take place in RinkChat to announce and award the winners.
(The date and time of the ceremony will be announced on the awards
page well in advance.) The winners, if present, will be permitted to
make brief speeches, and, as with any awards ceremony, there will be
some moments of comedy and music. To bring the event full circle, a
transcript of the evening will become a RinkChat archive and
therefore an eligible contender for the following year's
RinkAwards.
Protocol
- Prior to the first round of voting, the ballot will be made available for
examination. During this time, any errors or omissions spotted may
be brought to my attention by sending email to
rinkawards@rinkworks.com.
After the first round of voting commences, the ballot is immutable and
may not be changed except in an extreme circumstance, determined at
the discretion of the administrator of the RinkAwards.
- In the Best Male/Female Conversationalist and Best Male/Female
Comic Improvisor categories, anyone who is nominated multiple times
for the same category may request that some entries be removed from
the ballot. In this way one may guard against splitting one's own
vote. It is recommended that eligible winners restrict themselves to,
depending on the circumstances, no more than 3-5 eligible entries
per category. This only applies to the four categories mentioned above.
Requests for entries to be removed from the ballot should be sent to
rinkawards@rinkworks.com.
This rule is ONLY in effect prior to the start of the first round of
voting. Eligible entries will not be removed while the voting process
is underway, nor will nominated entries be removed prior to the start
of the second round of voting.
- Anyone who is a registered user of RinkChat may vote in the
RinkAwards. If you are not a registered RinkChat
user, you will be eligible to vote as soon as you register, even if
you register when the voting process is already underway.
- It is NOT permissible to cast multiple ballots by registering votes
under multiple RinkChat names. Only one set of votes per
person is allowed. Anyone found filling out multiple ballots under
multiple aliases will have ALL their votes thrown out.
- You may vote in as many categories as you wish. Do not cast votes in
categories if you are not familiar with the contenders running in it.
(In this regard, users not wholly familiar with the RinkChat
archives may find voting on the winners easier than voting on the
nominations; when voting for the winners, one need only be familiar
with the 2-5 nominated entries in a category to cast an educated
vote.)
- Your votes may be changed at any time, for any reason, prior to the close
of voting. Simply log back into the ballot, add, remove, or change
whatever votes you please, and save the changes. Note that, to cast
a vote, you do need to hit the 'Save Votes' button; it's not enough
simply to select choices from the drop down lists.
- Voting tallies are kept confidential; they will not be released to the
public.
- Ties are permitted. In the event of a tie in the first round of voting,
it will be possible to end up with more nominations to a particular
category than originally planned. For example, if a particular
category is intended to have five nominations, but the first round of
voting shows a two-way tie for fifth place, there will in fact be six
nominations for the category. A tie for first place in the final round
of voting will result in multiple winners for the award.
- Keep checking the RinkAwards area for updates
and announcements. The various dates for the start and close of the
voting sessions and the RinkAwards ceremony will be announced
there first; in addition there will be news items about the
RinkAwards posted there periodically.
Back to the RinkAwards.