Patrick

Hope everyone who celebrates had a nice Christmas. Patrick

Thank you for the thoughtful replies, all. And thank you for sharing that, Wayofaswede. That means a lot. Patrick

Belated welcome, KevinD. Glad to have you here. Patrick

Thanks for sharing this, Ken. I hadn't seen it. Patrick

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. After more than a month of nominations and votes, the 2019 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. Out of the 18,292 registered members in the history of this community, only 156 have ever been nominated for an award. So 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. Several 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. Without further ado, here are our winners: 1. Member of the Year: Spartacus Maximus (for the 3rd time!) 2. Community Spirit Award: sensei8 (for the 7th consecutive year!) 3. Staff Member of the Year: sensei8 (for the 3rd time!) 4. Funniest Member of the Year: tallgeese Note: This award came by unanimous nomination, which is why there was no voting ballot. 5. Karate Contributor of the Year: (tie) Wayofaswede and Wastelander (for the 2nd time!) 6. Health, Training and Fitness Contributor of the Year: bushido_man96 (for the 3rd time!) 7. Instructor Central Contributor of the Year: DWx Congratulations to sensei8 (2 wins!), Spartacus Maximus, tallgeese, Wayofaswede, Wastelander, bushido_man96, and DWX! Wayofaswede is a first time honoree. Congratulations as well to sensei8 on reaching 25 wins, the most all-time, and to bushido_man96 and tallgeese for picking up their 15th wins, tying for the second most ever. 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

That sounds confusing, Bob. Hoping you get some answers as soon as you can. Will be thinking good thoughts. Patrick

Voting is now closed! Thank you to everyone who voted. Results will be announced in the coming days. Patrick

Welcome aboard, Capella. Sorry again for those login issues. Glad to have you! Patrick

Thank you so much for sharing this, Brian. It means a lot to read it, and I'm so glad that this community is able to fill that gap for you and others and help you stay connected to the martial arts in those moments where you feel like you might be drifting away, even temporarily. Thank you for helping to create a space where that is possible! Patrick

Hope everyone is wrapping up a nice holiday weekend. My Thanksgiving was great. We visited my girlfriend's family and were able to get an amazing spot for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade because her sister worked on it. Pretty low key time! Patrick

Hey all, In notifying those who had been notified, the link came at the end of a sentence and, if you didn't realize it, the link included the period at the end of the sentence in the link itself, which means the link didn't work. As this may have stopped some people from voting, I am going to extend voting to December 6. So, if you haven't voted yet, please do! Thanks, Patrick

Hello, Welcome to the voting period for the 18th 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 2019 nominees. In all, 12 different members have been nominated in the various categories that make up this year's awards. They are Spartacus Maximus, JazzKicker (first time nominee!), Alan Armstrong, Fat Cobra, JR 137, pers (first time nominee!), sensei8, bushido_man96, Wastelander, DWx, Wayofaswedem and scohen0300 (first time nominee!). Congratulations to all of you! bushido_man96 and sensei8 lead in nominations with 3, followed by Alan Armstrong, DWx, JR 137, Spartacus Maximus, and Wastelander with 2. Our historical award numbers have been updated and new milestones have been reached! Congratulations to bushido_man96 on reaching 45 nominations (now with 47, the most all-time) and sensei8 on reaching 35 (now with 37, second all-time). With the ballots crafted, it is now time to vote. What You Should Know Before Voting 1. These awards take into consideration all community activity between October 19, 2018 and October 18, 2019. You should vote based upon activity during this period - not activity prior to or after it. 2. To vote, you must have a KarateForums.com account with at least 10 posts made on or before October 18, 2019. 3. You cannot vote for yourself. 4. Your votes will be kept private. We do not publicly reveal who voted for whom. 5. 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. 6. 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://www.karateforums.com/member-of-the-year-vt52832.html Community Spirit Award https://www.karateforums.com/community-spirit-award-vt52833.html Staff Member of the Year https://www.karateforums.com/staff-member-of-the-year-vt52834.html Funniest Member of the Year Only one member was nominated in this category. As such, that member is the honoree. In order to not give the person away, their nomination has been temporarily excluded form our historical totals, but they will be revealed when the other winners are revealed. Karate Contributor of the Year https://www.karateforums.com/karate-contributor-of-the-year-vt52835.html Health, Training and Fitness Contributor of the Year https://www.karateforums.com/health-training-and-fitness-contributor-oty-vt52836.html Instructor Central Contributor of the Year https://www.karateforums.com/instructor-central-contributor-of-the-year-vt52837.html Please note: I made an error in regard to our New Member of the Year category as, based on our criteria, no members were eligible. I apologize for the confusion. As such, the New Member of the Year will not be awarded this year, but I hope to bring it back in the future. Vote Now Please vote. Voting will be closed on December 6, 2019 at 8 PM Eastern (UTC -5). Please do not post your votes in this or any thread. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to private message me or reply here. 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

Please vote for the Instructor Central Contributor of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2019. Award Description: This award is for your favorite contributor within the Instructor Central forum - a member who has added substantial value to that section in the past year. Here are the nominees: sensei8 DWx Spartacus Maximus Voting will be closed on December 1, 2019 at 8 PM Eastern (UTC -5). Please do not reply to this thread. Thank you for voting.

Please vote for the Health, Training and Fitness Contributor of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2019. Award Description: This award is for your favorite contributor within the Health, Training and Fitness forum - a member who has added substantial value to that section in the past year. Here are the nominees: Alan Armstrong bushido_man96 scohen0300 Voting will be closed on December 1, 2019 at 8 PM Eastern (UTC -5). Please do not reply to this thread. Thank you for voting.

Please vote for the Karate Contributor of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2019. 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: Wayofaswede Wastelander JR 137 Voting will be closed on December 1, 2019 at 8 PM Eastern (UTC -5). Please do not reply to this thread. Thank you for voting.

Please vote for the Staff Member of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2019. 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: sensei8 Wastelander DWx bushido_man96 Voting will be closed on December 1, 2019 at 8 PM Eastern (UTC -5). Please do not reply to this thread. Thank you for voting.

Please vote for the Community Spirit Award in the KarateForums.com Awards 2019. 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: JR 137 pers sensei8 bushido_man96 Voting will be closed on December 1, 2019 at 8 PM Eastern (UTC -5). Please do not reply to this thread. Thank you for voting.

Please vote for the Member of the Year in the KarateForums.com Awards 2019. 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: Spartacus Maximus JazzKicker Alan Armstrong Fat Cobra Voting will be closed on December 1, 2019 at 8 PM Eastern (UTC -5). Please do not reply to this thread. Thank you for voting.

I don't think anyone ever does! Thanks again. Patrick

Nominations are now closed! Thank you to those that nominated. Ballots soon. Patrick

Happy Veterans Day! Thank you for your service. Patrick

Last call for nominations! They close tomorrow night. You can consider them open until I post a reply on this thread saying they are closed. Thanks to those who have added their voices! Patrick

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 October is... Nevinyrral, who now been Member of the Month twice! I think it's pretty neat to pick up another Member of the Month almost 9 years after your first! Thanks for being such a great contributor for so long, Nevinyrral. Sincerely, Patrick

Hey scohen0300, Thanks for sharing this! An odd technical glitch caused this topic to have no title, which is why I believe it didn't receive much response. I have fixed this and added a suggested title (feel free to adjust if it doesn't fit). I wanted to bump this up so that others could now see it. Sorry about that. Thanks again! Patrick

Thank you to everyone who has nominated so far! I have decided to extend nominations another week until November 12! If you haven't been able to find time yet, I hope you'll participate. You can nominate for as many or as few categories we you would like! Thanks, Patrick