2005 Member Awards

Greg Bernhardt

You can begin voting!
http://www.physicsforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=167

hypatia

What tuff choices! Everyones a winner on these lists. Good job!

saltydog

I disapprove of viewing the poll results before the awards are given out: A thread in the Mind and Brain forum asks, "why is it that we like people who agree with us?". Same dif with associating with a "winner". There is a subconscious tendency to lean to the person who is "winning". That says, "I'm a winner too, my genes are selected as well. My lineage is protected". This in my view may skew the results and thus I suggest next year voting is done without access to the results until the winner is determined.

hypnagogue

I agree with saltydog, actually. Being able to see who has how many votes at any part during the process almost undoubtedly changes the way in which votes come to be distributed. In the future we should hide the polls from public view until they officially close. The voting process would be fairer, and moreover, I think there would be more suspense and excitement as well.

Moonbear

That's a good idea. Why didn't anyone suggest it before the voting began.

Just as a reminder to everyone though...everyone nominated is deserving of the awards or else they wouldn't have been nominated. I think if it was up to the mentors, we'd give ribbons to everyone on the list; the voting gives the members a chance to have a say about who they think the most knowledgeable and helpful people are around here (we seem to have a few write-in votes too that help alert us to some other notable members who may have slipped under the radar or who may have become less active that may become involved again if they see how much their posts were appreciated by the members).

Lisa!

I agree with saltydog too.And you know it was exciting only for the first day. Now I even don't feel like going to vote for the funniest member since I think my vote would be useless. I want to thank mentors for their good choices in all categories except 2 of them. And I really regret for viewing poll results and reading some people's explanation for their vote, because somehow it affected my vote!

EDit: Personally I had no idea who these voting would be. I evn thought it was us who suggested the nominees!

Danger

I also agree with Saltydog, although it never crossed my mind until he mentioned it. For the same reason, I don't approve of pre-election results being broadcast in 'real' elections. One caveat to that is that PFers are probably less easily influenced by the opinions of others than the general population. If we weren't the analytical sort, we wouldn't be here.
I should also take the opportunity here, by way of honouring a lot of candidates, to explain that I've refrained from voting in any categories that I don't visit (Biology, Chemistry, Math...). Although I greatly appreciate the contributions of all nominees, I don't know enough about them to form an opinion.

Lisa!

You're right. In some categories that I was sure whom I was going to vote for(like astro /cosmo, biology, ...), I voted and then look at the results or read others' oppinions, but it wasn't the same for other gurus especially those of them that I had a hard time to choose 1 of the people in the list!(In this case most of people vote for the person who stand more chance!)

Astronuc

I concur with saltydog and for much the same reasons as Moonbear and Danger mentioned. Everyone nominated is deserving of recognition for their contributions.

I agree with hypnagogue that the tally may influence some people, but I think, or at least I hope, that most PFers would not be influenced by the tally but rather maintain independence of reasoning and vote on the merits of the matter.

honestrosewater

Just to be different, I disagree. (I hope you all appreciate how funny that is.) Well, I partially disagree. I like being able to see how the voting is going so I can use the information to make what I think is the best decision. For example, if I were torn between two people in one category and saw that one of them was going to win in another category, that would break the tie because I'd rather give two deserving people each an award than give two awards to one and none to the other. Spread the love, I say.

And people might still be influenced by the posts in the thread -- not that being influenced is necessarily a bad thing.

What about summarizing the things you guys have mentioned here in Greg's first post in each thread? You know, little "How to Choose Your Guru" instructions. They could even be added to the threads this year.

Oh, and a link from each nominee's name to their profile would be extra convenient for those of us who like to read or reread their posts before making a decision or to get a taste of the cream of the crop.

Greg Bernhardt

Well I hope members don't take the awards too seriously and remember this is all for fun. I also hope members do continue to vote for those who they really feel deserve the vote and not who is winning. Think of the polls as a tip jar. If someone in the polls has positively affected you then you should tip them, that lets them know. Even if they aren't going to win, they member you voted for will see they have some "tips" and feel good. With all that said, in retrospect hiding the results does seem like a good idea and might make things more competitive. We'll look into doing that for next year. But again lets just have fun and enjoy the once a year activity, it's not about who wins, everyone is a winner in the polls and the forum.

marlon

Actually me too. I am convinced that people will vote for whomever they want without being biased by charts. People vote for their personal favourite.

Great idea.

I also would like to add that the number of posts should also be a consideration when chosing a guru. I mean, it expresses how much the candidate has been "working" on this forum. Commitement should be rewarded, that is my point.

regards
marlon

hypnagogue

Perhaps we can try to consciously block out any effects that seeing current results might have on our choices, but just the mere act of taking in the information most probably automatically influences us on a subconscious level. If that is the case, our votes may be influenced even without our awareness that this is happening; it might be that we swear up and down that seeing results has no effect but in fact it does. (I would not expect something like this to make a difference if a person already has a clear favorite in mind, but if someone is noncommital among a number of choices, or does not have a strong opinion for any other reason, I would expect the voting results to be somewhat different depending on whether or not current results are displayed.)

matthyaouw

You guys could always not click "view poll results" before you vote you know...

Astronuc

Good point, I had forgotten about that. One does not need to see the tally before voting, but one can choose to do so if it has some impact on how one votes.

saltydog

Well Greg, I don't want to cause trouble cus' I suspect I'm on a few sh*t lists in here but I think the awards should be taken seriously: a "math guru" or a "physics guru", the others, is serious and requires enormous effort and talent to achieve (my view anyway). I take them seriously and expect a command of dialogue with substance from all of the gurus. Might not the receipents of the awards take some offense to your statement above?

Greg Bernhardt

I didn't say to not take it seriously, just don't take it "too" seriously. The staff creates the polls in a way that it doesn't matter who wins, every member on the poll list for each group in our eyes is already a guru. The nomination should be the honor and the public vote should be considered an honor too, but mostly for fun. The awards event should be a time to give thanks to all the nominated members and not get overly concerned who wins.