Best Member contest

This could be a contest to recognise the most helpful members in different categories on the forum, a little like the most popular coins but for the people who make Numista what it is !

We could have categories like catalogue improvements, grading, numismatic knowledge, kindest members, most helpful to newbies etc.

Have a nomination period for each category, and those who get 3+ nominations or so move on to the voting phase!

I don't think members would like to be voted for. Something like this has also recently already existed, about 1/2 a year or so ago.

Yeah, Eitan set up this competition a while ago (just before he went rogue) and then promptly voted for himself in all the categories. He had categories like MVP, funniest member, best older member, best younger member, best new member, best long term member. I contributed the prize for one category, I ended up winning it so I offered the prize to the runner up, he turned it down too. Most people don't really want public recognition, they're happy just to help out fellow collectors. But it is a nice idea.

If you want to see the competition (which was a bit of a shambles) then have a look. It's worth a read for some of the comments

https://en.numista.com/forum/topic40042.html

It's personally not an accolade I would like nor would I champion. I think things like this create an atmosphere and a sense of self righteousness which some of our members don't need any more of !

Cita: "Mark240590"​It's personally not an accolade I would like nor would I champion. I think things like this create an atmosphere and a sense of self righteousness which some of our members don't need any more of !

​Haha! Harsh but fair! I'm afraid this idea doesn't get my vote either.

- 1

Point taken guys. Maybe I could win the 'worst idea' category before we kill it completely!

I would have won them all anyway.

Generally speaking in any community, an overall appreciatiation to members who do most of "A", "B" & "C " is welcomed, provided that the management is supportive of that kind of reward/appreciation.

Best member is a lovely way to put this, however, criteria not being established it shades away....

This is a different community.
Here it seems. politics rule!
Xavier has published the main contributor list for a mere 3 days, when the public anger was rolling over the most important contributors, just because they are different from the mainstream expectations (I.E. old school french folks)
This is a weird place, where you are getting acknowledged if you follow the rules silently, no innovations, please.

Cita: "Fluke"​I would have won them all anyway.

​
I definitely think you'd win the 'most humble member' award.

May struggle with the 'biggest ego' one though

Apparently I'd win the "scaring away most members" category

I would disagree with Imre, a lot of the animosity to the ranking system wasn't because there were unexpected people in the top spots, from what I remember of the conversations at the time, people thought it would lead to an unhealthy competition and egotism, also there was a feeling that merely showing how much you had contributed to the catalogue didn't give a whole view of what a worthwhile contribution to the site. There are members who don't add any coins, but spend hours helping people ID their coins, or giving advice to new members.

Cita: "neilithic"​Apparently I'd win the "scaring away most members" category
​
​I would disagree with Imre, a lot of the animosity to the ranking system wasn't because there were unexpected people in the top spots, from what I remember of the conversations at the time, people thought it would lead to an unhealthy competition and egotism, also there was a feeling that merely showing how much you had contributed to the catalogue didn't give a whole view of what a worthwhile contribution to the site. There are members who don't add any coins, but spend hours helping people ID their coins, or giving advice to new members.

​Simply, Neil, it showed the top guys: people with 1000+ coin entries and so...
This is a collaborative catalog so who shall we celebrate if not those who enter coins? ...
I very clearly remember the list. I am a proud number 11, and I know that all those guys from 1-10 and beyond: ALL deserve a major round of applause who have entered coins, modified the catalog and so on... I also remember that Xavier is way behind 25.
Is that a problem? not at all! - that is not the problem of our master!!!

The problem is the non-recognition of all who made this, who did this, who have spent nights just by fun in adding to the catalog and contribute...it has been deleted in just 2 days...

I am tired of all this, but if you do not encourage it will not happen ...

I don't disagree the we should recognise people who have contributed a lot, and the compromise was good. Showing on members' profiles how many coins they have submitted.

The problem was to award grades, having diamond members, platinum members, down to copper members. Who's to say that adding lots of coins is more worthwhile than providing IDs?

To me guys like PetrusAscanus and Quantgeek would be top members for their work in helping members ID coins, but with the old grading system they would only be copper members because Petrus has added only a handful of coins and Quant has added none. Also I would list Bam as a top member for the work he puts in moderating the forums, but again he hasn't added many coins and would only be a copper member.

The feeling from most members was if you were going to rank members by contribution you need to look at more than just additions to the catalogue. This was pretty hard to do and that is why Xavier removed the ranking system and just listed contributions to the catalogue on profiles.

Cita: "oggy"​

Cita: "Fluke"​I would have won them all anyway.

​​
​I definitely think you'd win the 'most humble member' award.
​
​May struggle with the 'biggest ego' one though

​Yeah, I am not that good of an actor

This is the deal with trying things like this, most are humble but others would yell and want everything done strictly by their book, it is just meant to be light hearted "pats on the back" for members who have done something the active forum members have witnessed, but others like imreh would ruin it like he already is above before it even gets started.

In my opinion....
ID's - PetrusAscanus and Quantgeek tie
non patronising, welcoming new members - Neil
Arrogant, rude and likely to scare away members - Imreh and Hamster tie
Best new member - Oggy
recent hard work on catalogue - Jarcek
Most likely to deface coins - me

I can't think of any other categories right now... But those listed above do not mean they are better than anyone else or even the correct choice, but the fact is the voter has heard or visually seen their activity on the forum and that is what it would be about, not everyone on the whole. It is just a bit of fun for the active forum members who post almost every day.

Imreh isn't quite so rude as Imreh pretends to be, don't let him fool you.. I think he secretly enjoys his notoriety but underneath the abrasive facade there is a beautiful person lurking. It's why I like him.

We share a common passion for cultures other than our own and we've been to many of the same places, doing pretty much the same things. It's a decent bet that we have passed each other on some dusty, obscure, no name street without knowing it. We argue about many things, often at length, he's a cultural purist, I'm an anti intellectual pragmatist so I guess it's inevitable. However we remain friends.

He also has a most impressive grasp of the numismatic subject matter and is always willing to help without being patronising and condescending.

Who else am I going to explore the relative merits of Claret vs Burgundy with?

My dear Phil,
I partially agree with you.
Of course Imre is a nice person, and there are tons of women and men who love him.
(mostly women, God bless me! )

But, also Imre is a rude bastard if mis-functions of this site are observed, unethicalities appear, which unfortunately is pretty standard.
I have not seen any - I mean ANY - social media sites where contributions are not welcome, look at Linkedin ratings, booking.com Genius awards, any hotel loyalty programs, tripadvisor ratings, frequent flyer benefits, and you get the idea....

This place seems to be different.

HERE selected few - security-wise non-screened individuals - are taking your silver and gold coins in their hands and play the God. They decide on what is okay to collect and what is not. NOW, I know that I have been side-tracking from the original post. But anyways, Yes, yes and yes, I would recommend all and all ways of recognition to those who contribute and work for this catalog to become the number ONE numismatic source worldwide, that is my vision.

Shamefully Xavier does not expressively share that vision.
But I think he will get there soon.

Fluke, however, we need to burn some witches on the way, I guess! - so count on my bad manners if you will - we/Numista cannot tolerate people like Florino who have erased 2100 medals just by fun, the numismatic-nazis we have still in the game.

Iam I in the running for must mis-sppeled words in a post. Oh I do like a good merlot myself