Judging Rules

First of all, the judging will take place as follows. Whether it was done this way in the past or not, this is how it going to from here on out be carried out. First of all, all nominations will be given in post form on ljawards. Then, on the 13^th and 28^th of each month, the nominations will be collected, starting on the date after the last results were posted and ending on the day of the collection, by either a fellow judge or myself. Following the collection, the final nominees list will be posted in judges by the collector. Then, judges will have until the end of the 15^th and 30^th to vote. Therefore, there will be two votings a month, each 15 days apart. All nominations made between the 13^th and 15^th and the 28^th and 30^th will be counted towards the following list. Once the winners are concluded, they will be posted in ljawards and a courtesy e-mail or comment will be sent to them so that they know.

All of the judges will be broken into two groups: Group A and Group B. Unlike the past, where the list was broken between the groups, now, the actual voting will be broken up. Group A will vote for all categories on for the 15^th voting and Group B will vote for all categories for the 30^th voting. I will have a list of who is in which group in about a week, when I have gotten an updated list of active judges. If we recruit new judges, they will be added to one of the two groups, trying to maintain an equal. The purpose of this is so that each judge will have to forfeit only an hour of time a MONTH... intead of weekly exhausting voting. I hope that this system works out. If it does not, we will revert to the old system.

The following are the rules when collecting nominations and/or votes:

• when someone makes more than three (the new limit, read the rules) votes, collect the first three they mention.
• when someone nominates more than once a week, totalling more than three votes, again, collect the first three they mention. for this reason, it is important to at least glance at the dates of the posting.
• when someone votes for either "nicest person" or "most helpful" and does not supply a reason, ignore the vote.
• if two people have a two or three way tie, it is acceptable unless the tally is one for each. for instance - one category with three winners, all only having one vote. in such an instance, go through each nominee and, using your best judgement, choose the one that you think should win. again, notice the rules: to not take likes or dislikes into consideration.
• if two journals end up being the same person, ignore it, and count each journal independently. if necessary, when voting, vote for both explaining the reason.
• if a journal has been suspended, deleted, or the use tag is faulty, ignore the nomination/votes.
• at the end of vote tallying, check to see if anyone is eligible for the silver/gold star.

• do not vote for a category you are nominated in.
• do not vote for someone because you feel sorry for them, or they're your friend, etc.
• try to reply to the voting posts in comment form. try to refrain from posting individual votes to the community, it's easier for the person rounding up the votes if it's all in reply to one post. :)

Notice: The Judges Community is now CLOSED MEMBERSHIP.