Beta Key Self-Nominators - Page 54

Hmm. I guess this particular post is directed at Hot_Bid (I assume that he has had the most to do with the selection process for this particular 'competition' than any other person, though I assume that solely because of his posts in this thread [and the fact he is OP, ofc]):

The more I consider this thread, the more concerned I am as to its intentions, or at least its validity.

To be honest, I don't really see the necessity of this thread at all. If the initial contest was still continuing as (ostensibly) planned, there should be no difference between those who nominated themselves and those who were nominated by another, in view of the competition itself. Of course, I assume that the people judging the competition (presumably yourself & other mods) would judge each respective nomination entirely by its own merits (we all know you're not idiots), thus leading to the logical end result that those who had already contributed the most to the site, and perhaps those who instead presented some promise of contributing to the site & community, would receive keys.

Instead, this post appeared. Now here is where I'm not sure I'm comfortable with how things are turning out.

Now, if the goal is to give the keys to those who are 'deserving' in the TL community, then as far as I can see right now this could've been done (and, in my increasing opinion, should've been done) without the use of this 'sub-competition' which by its very existence undermines the point of the original nominations. The keys could've been given out as planned, and those who clearly weren't ever in the running could just have been told 'sorry, perhaps in the future, when you've contributed'.

Such an outcome is already whatis likely to happen: by HB's own first/last posts (re. keys given out in the event of not enough unnominees - yes its a word.) :

"If there are too many people still on the list after 48 hours, nobody gets any."
...and later:
"I'm not sure where they are going because I'm not in charge of that, but I can say they most likely will not go to low post count self nominators."

Essentially, unless I am mistaken, there are two outcomes to this competition. Either enough people opt out, and the keys are given out based upon TL staff/other judges' decision on who is 'deserving' (which is entirely fair, and as far as I can see, exactly how the competition was planned), or all but 2 or 3 opt out, and the message of 'stubborn belligerance brings reward' rings out, likely at the expense of those who opted out despite in many peoples' opinions (eg. the judges of the competition) being more deserving than those who may eventually get a key in this method
(and before any smartass points it out, yes I self nominated, no I do not consider myself particularly more worthy than most others in the thread, and no, I don't think the above outcome is actually likely to happen).

tl;dr(and who could blame you):

Basically, I'm not entirely sure what this thread was meant to achieve. If people genuinely had second thoughts about self-nominating, then a thread that said 'post here if you want to unnominate' would have done the trick. A thread promising an unknown number of Beta keys to those who stuck it out, only if those around them bowed out respectfully, just seems a little too much like mind games to me.

Perhaps I'm entirely wrong in my line of thinking, or just out of line posting it here, but I'll post it anyway, so that I might review it in the morning (its almost 2.30am here o__0 ).

Kev