Renos

Wow LOTS of new ensigns! Congratulations to you all. Welcome to the fleet!

Congratulations and welcome to the fleet

Wow, thats really interesting. It would definately be quite cool to updates this along the lines suggested and have it on the wiki.

Congrats on passing the academy and welcome to the fleet.

Welcome welcome. Great to have you with us.

Congrats on passing the academy and welcome aboard.

Congratulations all and welcome to the fleet

Congrats on finishing the academy. Good to have you with us.

Welcome all, glad to have you with us.

Welcome and welcome back! Good to have you both with us.

I guess the answer to that depends upon how the judging panel works. If it is the case that the judges just read the sims, choose the one they think is the top sim and then vote on that, then they are doing nothing very different to whats being done now, except that there are fewer opinions in the equation. If however you are reading them sims and having a discussion about it then this is more time consuming. You must first read and decide which sim you think is the best and then justify it. The part that takes the extra time is that you must also take into consideration the others points. There is debate, and you may need to go back and look at things again. This is a good thing in a way, but more time consuming. It also depends on the judges themselves. If judges are simply selected from a random group of volunteers or whatever. People naturally have their preferences - some like action, some like mystery, others romance. Any panel of judges would need to be as fair as possible. For example. I believe the judges of the writing challenge produce good, high quality sims themselves. They are experienced and have been in the community long enough to tell a good sim from a bad or average one. We would need a panel like that. (That limits the pool of volunteers a bit.) I do believe that most people read all the sims before they vote, I believe that people who vote in the competition are actually interested in it and the sims that are nominated. There may be the odd person who only reads one or some of them and then votes but overall I think the majority will read them all. They don't all come in at once, they come in dribs and drabs over the course of the round. If you check in regularly it's easier and more manageable to keep up to date with whats been nominated. At the end of the day, the more people who get involved and take an interest in the competition then the less impact any little things like that would have overall.

I think Malcolm has a fair point and considering how many entries there are to some rounds of the top sims i'm in agreement that it would be too much work to do a judges panel for every round. I don't agree with ballot stuffing, I think the best sim from any round should win. I can understand the point about crew unintentionally stuffing the ballots but as I have gone through the rounds I feel that the votes (from all crews) have been spread out between all entries. I think, at least for the vast majority, people are in keeping with the spirit of the competition. I can't think of a single person who would try to stuff the ballots. I don't know why more people don't take an interest in and vote for the top sims. Perhaps a bit of PR, maybe a news snippet and a OOC point at it would draw people's attention to the fact it exists. I remember telling someone on my crew once that I liked their sim so much that I put it up for top sim and they had no idea what I was talking about. I think the first thing to try is to get activity up. I don't know what other ships do, but we often put out reminders to check out the top sims for whatever round is on, places of note of the forums, whatever it may be and it seems to be working as many have pointed out - we have an active crew, I think when you have people who are enthusiastic about these things it spreads around. I like the current system. I like the fact that the people choose. We have judges doing the writing challenges, so to have the two competitions and the 2 systems is great in my opinion. There might be the odd person who would be inclined to vote tactically, I believe they really are in the minority, the more people who actually got involved the less of a problem there would be all round.

Congrats and welcome to the fleet!

Congratulations guys, welcome to the fleet!

OOC: Thanks to Zonhar for coming up with the pretty title "Awaken, from dreary night newly shaken, and squeeze the hand of faithful few." -Jason Kelly 2011 IC: ((ICU ward, Sickbay)) oO What is that wretched beeping? Oo :: It had been going on for what seemed like hours, refusing to allow him to remain sleeping, when that was all he wanted to do. He reached out in the darkness, aiming for his bedside table to smack his alarm off. His hand met with nothing but air and he was instead assaulted by a searing pain shooting through his chest. Lord, his right side was killing him:: ::Voices echoed around him. He caught odd words like ‘ventilator’ and ‘dexalin’ and ‘rexlin’ and wondered if he’d dozed off in one of his pathology classes again, but that wouldn’t explain the beeping:: ::He felt a warm hand on his forehead and it was soon joined by a soft voice, but it was fuzzy, he couldn’t understand what she was saying, not that it mattered much. He was being dragged back into sleep and found no reason to fight it:: ::There was that beeping again. And someone had apparently placed a fifty pound weight on his chest while he’d slept. He was too old for these pranks. He tired to sit up but found his lack of breath made it rather difficult. He tried for a deep inhale and was stopped by a sharp pain. Lord, his right side was killing him. All sorts of pokey things were pulling at his arm. He scratched at it, the movement causing him to jerk away in pain. Oh, what was the point? He let his head sink back into his pillow and he drifted back to sleep:: ::That voice was back again. She kept asking for someone – it was a familiar name.::: Voice: Davies, do you know where you are? ::He was sleeping soundly in his quarters. Or trying to sleep, rather. The real question was what she was doing there. He recognized the voice but couldn’t put a name to it. He knew though, she didn’t belong in his bedroom. But, since she was there, she could bring him some water. His throat was on fire:: Voice: Davies, do you remember what happened? :: What was she on about? He opened his eyes and tried to focus on the blurry blue figure in front of him. He tried to blink the image into focus but wasn’t having much luck, and though it was blurry, the room surrounding her was distinctly NOT his quarters. He squinted at her and tried to swallow against his dry throat:: ::There was that beeping sound again, only now it was faster. He attempted to sit up but a cough bubbled up in his throat and had him doubled over in pain. His side was killing him. Hands were on his shoulders, rubbing gently. Her name suddenly popped into his head:: oO Jen Oo Malcolm: Davies, it’s all right. You’re in Sickbay. ::No wonder it didn’t look like his room. He laid back against the pillows and watched as she moved away from him. Panic swelled in his chest and he reached out, catching her hand in his own:: Davies: Wait. Don’t leave me here. ::She gave his hand a squeeze:: Malcolm: I’m not going anywhere. ::The beeping slowed again and he closed his eyes. He tightened his hold on her fingers, just incase she forgot to stay:: TBC… Ensign Christopher Davies Medical officer/pathologist USS Avandar simmed by Lt. Jen Malcolm

Congrats guys and welcome to the fleet.