Patrick

Christmastime by The Smashing Pumpkins.

I don't know if we have those, but I will say this is a bit more than a participation trophy. To be nominated is pretty cool in my estimation because it means someone thought to manually enter your name in a ballot! That's a pretty solid impression.

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. After almost two months of nominating and voting, the 23rd edition of the KarateForums.com Awards have come to an end. It is now time for us to announce the winners! Before I do so, I wanted to once again congratulate everyone who was nominated. Regardless of whether or not you won the award, the fact that you were nominated means that, when asked to identify a member who really stood out in the past year, your fellow community members thought of you. In the history of this community, only 169 members have ever been nominated for an award. To be nominated is pretty cool, and you should be proud. If you did not win or were not nominated, please don't take it badly. These awards do have meaning, but they are also for fun and not everyone can win or be nominated. Please join me in congratulating our winners. I would like to specifically thank everyone who participated in the process by nominating and voting. It is the community that selected the nominees and decided the winners. There are no KarateForums.com Awards without you. In fact, a majority of our nominees took the time to vote in categories where they were nominated. Since you can't vote for yourself, your choice is to vote for someone else or not vote at all. Though I can't reveal who voted for whom, please know that I appreciate everyone who thoughtfully voted in the categories where they were nominated. It says a lot about you, and I love to see it. If you are reading this now and realizing that you accidentally voted for yourself: Don't worry, those votes were deleted. Without further ado, here are our winners: 1. Member of the Year: @DarthPenguin 2. Community Spirit Award: (tie) @bushido_man96 (for the 8th year!) and @Nidan Melbourne 3. Staff Member of the Year: (tie) @bushido_man96 (for the 8th year!) and @Wastelander (for the 2nd year!) 4. Funniest Member of the Year: @DarthPenguin 5. Karate Contributor of the Year: @Zaine 6. Health and Fitness Contributor of the Year: @DarthPenguin (for the 2nd consecutive year!) 7. Instructors and School Owners Contributor of the Year: @Montana Congratulations to DarthPenguin (3 wins!), bushido_man96 (2 wins!), Nidan Melbourne, Wastelander, Zaine, and Montana! Zaine has now hit the milestone of 5 wins over the history of the KarateForums.com Awards, which places them T7th all-time. In addition, with 3 wins this year, DarthPenguin is now in our top 10 all-time, T10th with 4 total. With their wins this year, both aurik and Zaine have moved themselves into the top 10 for most KarateForums.com Awards wins, as they are both tied in 9th place with 4 wins. Zaine becomes only the second member to threepeat for Member of the Year, following sensei8, who did so from 2009-2011. Congrats all around. For past winners and all of the awards historical data, please check out: http://www.karateforums.com/awards.php Thank you for reading and for supporting the KarateForums.com Awards. Sincerely, Patrick

Hey all, I just wanted to take a moment to wish you a happy holiday season, and a great new year. It's been a really interesting 2024 for KarateForums.com, with our migration to the new software, and I'm grateful for all of the feedback, good vibes, and help that you have offered. I'd go so far as to say this year has been unlike any other year except for maybe 2001 or 2002. Our software can only improve the experience that exists around the thoughtful posts that you make, so it is your contributions that it builds around to do so. Thank you. Patrick

I've really enjoyed reading the replies on this thread. Thanks for starting it, @ryanryu.

Voting is now closed. Thank you to everyone who weighed in! Stay tuned for the announcement with our honorees. Patrick

Thank you to everyone who has voted so far! If you haven't voted yet, please take a moment to do so! It makes all the difference.

Congrats JazzKicker! Thanks for sharing this with us.

Congrats Brian! Happy for you.

Good on you, Ken! This is very random, but it is top of mind for it because I just discovered something yesterday... do you have CVS near you? If so, see if they have the Sprecher low-cal sodas. They might be hiding in a distant corner, haha. I gave up soda many years ago, and I have never liked diet sodas (or sodas with stevia), so I just rolled with seltzers, which I like. But I happened to see these... and I am kind of blown away. They make a root beer, a cream soda, and an orange cream soda, and are like 35-45 calories for a large can (16 ounces). So far, I have tried only the first two... and they taste very good, just like regular soda. They are sweeter mostly by honey, with some saccharin. I figured I'd never enjoy a soda again, but here I am, enjoying these. Perhaps they would be helpful to you.

At this rate, I suspect we are 3-5 years away from it, Ken. I just wonder who it will be. If Bobby Witt Jr. can continue on the arch he's on, he could definitely challenge the top spot. On one hand, I'm bummed to lose Soto. He was a lot of fun. He's the type of guy that it is extremely fun to have on your team. So, I'll miss him. I love guys who get on base. On the other, I suspect we can build a better team overall team with the $47.5m we offered and/or the $51m that he received. Happy to see Max Fried getting $27.25m of that. I want us to sign Masahiro Tanaka again in order to make a better pitch to Roki Sasaki. Sasaki apparently grew up idolizing Tanaka. It's kind of a zany idea, but if it brings Sasaki, well worth it.

Hello, Welcome to the voting period for the 23rd annual KarateForums.com Awards! Through these awards, we recognize just a few of the individuals who have made outstanding contributions to KarateForums.com in the past year. You submitted your nominations and, from those, we have our KarateForums.com Awards 2024 nominees. In all, 10 different members have been nominated in the various categories that make up this year's awards. They are @DarthPenguin, @Zaine, @bushido_man96, @Nidan Melbourne, @Wastelander, @aurik, @KarateKen, @Spartacus Maximus, @Montana, and @sensei8! aurik, Zaine, DarthPenguin, and bushido_man96 were nominated in 3 categories, the most of any member, followed by KarateKen with 2. Our historical award numbers have been updated and new milestones have been reached! Congratulations to bushido_man96 on being the first member to reach 65 nominations (most all-time), Zaine and aurik on hitting 10 (now with 12, T8th all-time and 11, T10th all-time, respectively), and DarthPenguin on reaching 5 (now with 6, T18th all-time)! With the ballots crafted, it is now time to vote. What You Should Know Before Voting These awards take into consideration all community activity between October 19, 2023 and October 18, 2024. You should vote based upon activity during this period - not activity before or after. To vote, you must have a KarateForums.com account with at least 10 posts made on or before October 18, 2024. You cannot vote for yourself. If you do, it will be removed. Your votes will be kept private. We do not publicly reveal who voted for whom. Please do not attempt to artificially inflate our vote totals in any way. This includes, but is not limited to: Trading votes, encouraging people to vote indiscriminately (publicly or privately), sending spam and any other behavior that could lead to results being artificially skewed. Members found to be participating in these activities will be disqualified from nomination in any category. Please note that you do not have to vote in every category. You can vote in as many or as few as you would like - please go for as many as you feel comfortable with. The more valid votes we receive, the better! Categories The categories are listed below. For each category, you will find a link to the ballot where you can vote. Member of the Year https://karateforums.com/topic/51970-awards-24-member-of-the-year/ Community Spirit Award https://karateforums.com/topic/51969-awards-24-community-spirit-award/ Staff Member of the Year https://karateforums.com/topic/51968-awards-24-staff-member-of-the-year/ Funniest Member of the Year https://karateforums.com/topic/51967-awards-24-funniest-member-of-the-year/ Karate Contributor of the Year https://karateforums.com/topic/51966-awards-24-karate-contributor-of-the-year/ Health and Fitness Contributor of the Year https://karateforums.com/topic/51965-awards-24-health-and-fitness-contributor-of-the-year/ Instructors and School Owners Contributor of the Year https://karateforums.com/topic/51964-awards-24-instructors-and-school-owners-contributor-of-the-year/ Vote Now Please vote. Voting will be closed on December 16, 2024 at 6pm Eastern (UTC -5). Please do not post your votes in any thread. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to private message me or reply here. This is our first year running the awards on our new software. I think everything should run smoothly, but if you run into any issues - for example, being unable to vote, ha - please let me know! Thank you for reading and for visiting KarateForums.com. Your participation in these awards is what makes them meaningful. I can't wait to see who you vote for this year. Sincerely, Patrick

Hey folks, I just wanted to apologize for the delay here. Everything is ready to go, but when I went to post the polls, I realized that there was no way to hide the results, which I like to do to maintain some suspense, to not influence voting, and so that we have time to audit the results to remove any votes where a member voted for themselves or where a member was not eligible to vote but voted anyway. I am working on finding a solution and am getting close. Thank you for your patience. Patrick

Please vote for the Member of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2024. Award Description: This award is intended to acknowledge the member who you feel best exemplifies the qualities that KarateForums.com puts a premium on. Knowledge is valuable, but most valuable is a kind and helpful nature. You don't need to be a martial arts expert to be nominated for this award - you need to be someone who is kind and who shares what they know in a productive fashion that helps others. Here are the nominees: @DarthPenguin @Zaine Voting will be closed on December 16, 2024 at 6pm Eastern (UTC -5). If you have any questions, please contact me via our contact us page or private message. Thank you for voting.

Please vote for the Community Spirit Award in the KarateForums.com Awards 2024. Award Description: This award should go to a person whom you feel has a strong passion for this community. A person who is all about the home team - in this case, KarateForums.com. Here are the nominees: @bushido_man96 @Nidan Melbourne Voting will be closed on December 16, 2024 at 6pm Eastern (UTC -5). If you have any questions, please contact me via our contact us page or private message. Thank you for voting.

Please vote for the Staff Member of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2024. Award Description: This award is the same as the Member of the Year award, except that this award is for current staff members only (except Patrick). Here are the nominees: @bushido_man96 @Wastelander @aurik Voting will be closed on December 16, 2024 at 6pm Eastern (UTC -5). If you have any questions, please contact me via our contact us page or private message. Thank you for voting.

Please vote for the Funniest Member of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2024. Award Description: Humor is an important aspect of the forums, and this award recognizes the member who has brought a smile to your face many times. Here are the nominees: @aurik @DarthPenguin @Zaine Voting will be closed on December 16, 2024 at 6pm Eastern (UTC -5). If you have any questions, please contact me via our contact us page or private message. Thank you for voting.

Please vote for the Karate Contributor of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2024. Award Description: This award is for your favorite contributor within the Karate forum - a member who has added substantial value to that section in the past year. Here are the nominees: @aurik @KarateKen @Zaine Voting will be closed on December 16, 2024 at 6pm Eastern (UTC -5). If you have any questions, please contact me via our contact us page or private message. Thank you for voting.

Please vote for the Health and Fitness Contributor of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2024. Award Description: This award is for your favorite contributor within the Health and Fitness forum - a member who has added substantial value to that section in the past year. Here are the nominees: @DarthPenguin @bushido_man96 Voting will be closed on December 16, 2024 at 6pm Eastern (UTC -5). If you have any questions, please contact me via our contact us page or private message. Thank you for voting.

Please vote for the Instructors and School Owners Contributor of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2024. Award Description: This award is for your favorite contributor within the Instructors and School Owners forum - a member who has added substantial value to that section in the past year. Here are the nominees: @Spartacus Maximus @KarateKen @Montana @sensei8 Voting will be closed on December 16, 2024 at 6pm Eastern (UTC -5). If you have any questions, please contact me via our contact us page or private message. Thank you for voting.

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. We recognize one member every month as the KarateForums.com Member of the Month for their positive contributions to this community. Our honoree for August is... @JazzKicker! Thank you for all of the contributions that you have made over the last 7+ years, JazzKicker! You bring a lot to our community. Thanks, Patrick

Congrats Ken! Thanks for sharing.

That's great, Bob! Happy to hear it.

Thank you for writing this, Brian! It means a lot, and I'm so glad that you found this community so long ago.