This feels familiar

[drivingblind]

Those of you who voted in the Ennies last year may remember that they started late (like this year) and then after a day or two of voting had gone past, something went south and it had to get restarted, with everyone who voted early needing to cast their votes again

Comments

[matt_m_mcelroy]

http://www.flamesrising.com/ennies-summer-revolution

http://www.rpgnews.com

Also submitted to GamingReport and other spots...

[animadversio]

I ranted pretty much this same point this morning, on my Twitter (madwabbit for anyone not following, and desirous of emo mind-dumps and excessive use of profanity), except mine was laced with the F-bomb. Not exactly constructive, but I pulled the Tweet after someone pointed out that while they may have messed up (which they did), it was (as you said) not intentional, and that being a dick about it (which I was) wasn't helpful.

Still, it's got to be said that if they want to be respected as a professional gaming award, while obtaining financial support from the community and sponsors at the same time, then as you've pointed out, these kinds of problems should have been ironed out LONG ago.

[chrishanrahan]

As a retailer when I hear continued issues like this, it really diminishes the relevance of the awards. It's not going to get me to hang any signage. it's not going to get me to order up. You get the idea. The Origins Awards also have their own issues, and many look to the Ennies as the "real" industry awards...but if you have this kinda crap as part of the process every year, I mean...damn.

[zacharythefirst]

It does suck. For everyone--including the ENnies folks. And I think if having the technical side of things squared away well in advance isn't a top priority, well, then, I don't know what would be.

I'm huge on communication--as a judge and as part of the ENnies--and I have to agree, Fred. It doesn't send the right message for communication, preparation, or professionalism. And that's unfortunate, because I think the awards have a lot of good momentum. But its things like these that can lose trust and goodwill really quickly.

[drivingblind]

It sucks because I know part of me, emotionally, regards this as "strike two", given that the same issue happened last year. Two years running means there's no allowance for not catching stuff like this in a third year -- even though I can be rational and think my way around that, I'm not sure the voting public at large will feel that way. And it absolutely kills any momentum the awards get from the community at large if we're banging the gongs and getting out the vote as soon as it goes live -- only to have all the votes we drummed up nice and early go down the shitter.

[botrytis]

That's unfortunate.

[jcfiala]

Unfortunately, most local stores here in Denver don't carry 90-95% of these products, so I think I'll just skip voting anyway.

Sigh. Denver used to be better. These days the only items in the list I own I had to order online.

[aeforge]

To this end what someone should do every year is take everyone that's nominated in the ENNies and give them a page (or a half page) in a catalog that is sent to retail stores, such that more people can be exposed to these products even if it's only a blurb and a single image.

We as an indie community need to do more to expose ourselves. Pun intended.

If anyone's got any great ideas, I'm in. Let me know.