The 2012 Posties are coming

[daveharty]

The end of another year is just around the corner, and that means it's time to recognize those who have made outstanding contributions to the BBO Forums in the last twelve months. The 2012 Posty Awards will do just that: give a pat on the back to those posters who have gone the extra mile in their efforts to inform us, instruct us, edify us, and amuse us with their words. Last year's Posties were a big success in my view, and I am hoping for even greater participation this time around. The categories are:

 

Newcomer of the Year

"Bridge in the Real World" Award

Thread of the Year

Individual Post of the Year

Most Helpful Poster for N/B Players (formerly "Most Helpful for B/I")

Poster of the Year

 

Nominations will be accepted until midnight EST (GMT -5:00 I believe) on Friday, January 4, 2013. That should allow for last-minute nominations for good stuff that gets in before midnight on December 31. Nominations can be made in the official thread here; I will also keep an eye on this thread, in case you want to do it here.

 

As we get closer to the end of the year, I will post (in this thread) an update of the nominations I have received in each category so far. Feel free to weigh in on nominations that have already been made; I am thinking in particular of threads/posts that seemed really interesting or funny at the time but don't, in retrospect, quite rise to the level of "classic." I would like to whittle each category down to around 5-7 entries to make the vote more meaningful, so I will make cuts as necessary when it comes down to it (there are currently 10+ nominations for both "Thread" and "Individual Post", and I anticipate more of each), but obviously I would prefer to make cuts democratically and transparently.

 

For those wishing to review last year's awards, the 2011 winners thread is here.

[Antrax]

Can you give a quick recap or summary of what was already nominated?

[daveharty]

Can you give a quick recap or summary of what was already nominated?

Here are nominations received so far. I haven't gone through them at all, so I can't verify, for example, that all the nominees for "Newcomer of the Year" are eligible. I'll do more checking over the next two weeks.

 

Newcomer of the Year: HighLow21, Statto, SteveMoe, Runempard, PhilKing

 

"Real World": FrancesHinden/jallerton, fred, JLOGIC, Fluffy

 

Thread:

Antrax "Blunder Blog" http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/50414-the-blunder-blog/page__pid__605546

S2000magic "Forcing NT" http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/50574-forcing-nt/

SimonFa "2/1 Game Force Alerts in EBU" http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/49868-21-game-force-alerts-in-ebu/

Wayne_LV http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/51017-skill-level/

Antrax http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/50722-an-ominous-hand/

fred http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/50898-declarer-play-problem/

inquiry http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/51200-avoidable-defensive-mistakes/

gwnn http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/50509-pet-peeve-thread/

Fluffy http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/54450-bad-popular-game-at-mps/

Zelandakh http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/54808-mandatory-falsecarding/

 

Individual Post:

DrMunk http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/50865-south-african-precision/page__p__607408#entry607408

mgoetze http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/51026-why-walsh/page__p__609515#entry609515

wank http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/50993-playing-with-randoms/page__p__609151#entry609151

rogerclee http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/50722-an-ominous-hand/page__p__605699#entry605699

JLOGIC http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/51184-unusual-nt/page__pid__611969#entry611969

JLOGIC http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/51686-what-is-your-bid/page__p__618618#entry618618

hrothgar http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/51769-master-points-the-laws-the-acbl-that-sort-of-thing/page__p__620279#entry620279

mgoetze http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/52145-negative-x-then-bid/page__pid__624800#entry624908

han http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/55323-secret-bridge-olympics/page__p__664176#entry664176

 

Most Helpful: awm, gwnn, Zelandakh, helene_t

 

POTY: gnasher, gszes, JLOGIC, mikeh, han, gwnn (the last two were mentioned by Zelandakh in his "500 club" comment, so I considered them nominated), olegru, Zelandakh

[JLOGIC]

Zelandakh for poster of the year, really like his posts even though I'll probably vote for gnasher again.

[lalldonn]

Real world I nominated Justin for winning the Platinum Pairs.

[daveharty]

Happy New Year! I have updated the list of nominees above, so it is current as of now. Nominations will be accepted until midnight Eastern this Friday, then I will use the weekend to wrestle them into a format that we can vote on. Just a few days left to comb back through the forums to find those gems!

[Antrax]

I think you missed JLOGIC's nomination of Zel for POTY.

[Antrax]

Also thanks for doing this. But mostly the first one.

[daveharty]

I think you missed JLOGIC's nomination of Zel for POTY.

Thanks, fixed.

[cherdano]

It feels weird to see PhilKing nominated for Newcomer of the year. He really wasn't around a year ago?

[Antrax]

Assuming this was an honest question and not a way to say how great he is: yes, PhilKing joined in the middle of the year. I also agree he posts like he's been here forever, so I suspect a considerable amount of lurking beforehand, but that shouldn't count against him ;)

[JLOGIC]

He just posts like the good english crew and is a very experienced bridge player obviously. Confidence that you are right goes a long way in posting like a vet

[mgoetze]

Confidence that you are right

HighLow21 had plenty of that. ;)

[BunnyGo]

It feels weird to see PhilKing nominated for Newcomer of the year. He really wasn't around a year ago?

 

Indeed, he's new, but writes really well. At first I thought it was Phil trying on a different nom again.

[mgoetze]

I'd like to propose a new award: "best result in a BBF vs. Cayne match" (to be measured by margin of IMPs). ;)

[gordontd]

He just posts like the good english crew and is a very experienced bridge player obviously. Confidence that you are right goes a long way in posting like a vet

For those who don't know him, he's written several books, has won the Gold Cup three times, and coached a team of juniors who became World Champions.

[daveharty]

Just over 24 hours until nominations are closed. Get those nominations in!

[helene_t]

antrax for most helpful

philking for newcommer

fluffy http://www.bridgebase.com/forums/topic/54450-bad-popular-game-at-mps/ for thread of the year

[gnasher]

In the thread nominated by Helene, there's a post by Justin that AWM appparently wanted to nominate for Best Post:

 

http://www.bridgebas...post__p__651861

 

(AWM's comment about the nomination is two posts further down.)

[han]

While several of the nominated posts were thought provoking or made me smile, only the two posts of Justin (pass vs 2H and the matchpoint problem) informed me, instructed me and amused me at the same time. I am new to this, how do we vote? If his three nominated posts receive the most votes together but fewer individually, does he still win? If not I suggest all Justin voters strategically pick his pass vs 2H post.

[helene_t]

If not I suggest all Justin voters strategically pick his pass vs 2H post.

Obviously we should apply the "alternative vote" as it was called in the recent debate about electoral reform in the UK. You can pick one Justin post with another (say) Justin post as substitute. Then as soon as it appears that your first pick is not going to make it, your vote is transfered to your second choice. That system is (almost) immune to tactical voting.

[han]

How does that system work? Say there are three choices, A, B and C. 40% of the population votes for A, and picks B as substitute. 25% of the population votes for B, and picks C as substitute. 35% of the population votes for C, but picks A as substitute. Who wins?

[MickyB]

Obviously we should apply the "alternative vote" as it was called in the recent debate about electoral reform in the UK. You can pick one Justin post with another (say) Justin post as substitute. Then as soon as it appears that your first pick is not going to make it, your vote is transfered to your second choice. That system is (almost) immune to tactical voting.

 

Under AV, the post that comes 2nd or 3rd may win!

[helene_t]

If the relation is transitive we should just use the nominee that beats everyone else head on head.

 

In your case the relation is non-transitive so the system defaults to a heuristic that first eliminates B, then reassigns the B-votes to C. So C wins.

 

This is a bit arbitrary but usually the relation is transitive. Maybe this is not a good assumption for such small polls as this one.

 

So maybe my idea wasn't so well thought through. Not sure what would be a better alternative, though.

[MickyB]

How does that system work? Say there are three choices, A, B and C. 40% of the population votes for A, and picks B as substitute. 25% of the population votes for B, and picks C as substitute. 35% of the population votes for C, but picks A as substitute. Who wins?

 

The lowest-scoring candidate gets eliminated first and their votes reassigned, then the second-lowest, etc. I am not sure what happens in the event of a tie.