I was wondering whether it might not be possible, and if so, desirable to add a "Recommend" button to each post (to go by the "Top" and "Report" buttons).

One push per person per post, with a real time counter for each post so everyone could see how many recommendations everyone else had given it, and a separate thread which ranks all nominated posts in descending order of the number of nominations, also updated in real time (or at least with refresh screen and/or opening the thread) Only full members allowed to vote.

At the end of the year, rather than going through the lengthy and laborious nominations and then votes in multiple categories, all that needs to be done is to collate the total number of recommends. The forum its in deterimines which forum it's in. If it's a thread opener, it's up for best topic in it's forum. The overall winner is the overall best topic/post, etc.

We'd still need nominations & votes for the best overall debator and the other personal awards, but with the topic- and post- related nominations taken care of automatically, that would be a lot easier to deal with.

Any thoughts? (Not least from Mike, who'd be able to say if it was technically feasible).

PS - apologies if I've raised this before, but on the one hand software advances all the time, and on the other my memory is a bit woolly today.

I think that's a good idea, if doable on this forum. I know other sites do this.

I'm not sure I like the idea of the most "Recommended" post/topics automatically becoming the "Best Of ..." It'd be too easy for a lot of members to miss some of the better posts.

I think it'd be better to make the top five (or seven, or ten) the nominees, but still give everyone the chance to vote.

Or instead of a recommend, a thumbs up and thumbs down button. I definitely think people'd use the down on ALL of handsomeguy's posts.

It's an interesting idea. But with certain award categories, it doesn't work - best quote, for example.

However, for the best topic categories, I agree that a nominate button would be great at the top of a thread as well as one for best post by individual posts. A nomination forum would also be cool, so long as it was a list of recently nominated going by date of the nomination and not by the number of nominations. If you do it by most nominated, you may never see the nominated topics coming later in the year. And, I prefer to see the tally when the final awards are announced... you can even list the top five in each forum category with the first being the winner... ties can be voted on in runoffs.

I think most of the individual debater categories might be best left as they are... with the exception of best overall debater... maybe put a nomination button in the profile section so that people can go to a member's profile to nominate them for best debater.

I don't think a thumbs up / thumbs down thing is good for the year in review. I've always felt the awards were about highlighting the best of and not highlighting what people may view as the worst.