GS Member Awards and Criteria

[GS Forum Staff]

The GS Staff has implemented an Awards Program to recognize members for various contributions and achievements as a member of the GS Forum. An explanation of those awards are listed in detail below. Some awards are automatic, while others requires a "request" or "recommendation."

The award icons will be displayed under your user postbit above the Join Date. They will also be displayed in your Profile under the Awards tab.

A request is when you are requesting an award for yourself, while a recommendation is when you are recommending another member for an award. You can request/recommend on the Awards Page.

Recommendations and requests for awards will be carefully reviewed by the GS Staff as a team. If the award is approved, the recipient will receive a PM once the award is posted. If not, no further action will be taken. However, the GS Staff may elect to provide input to an individual request on a case-by-case basis.

Unless otherwise specified, all criteria for "Prediction" and "Special" awards is for the current season that you are requesting or being nominated for. Archived posts, threads, etc. are not counted.

Duplicate awards will not be given for "Prediction" or "Special" awards to prevent redundancy in "displaying" those awards.

Automatic Awards

• Post count - automatically awarded once you reach the required posts.
• Membership - automatically awarded once you reach the required membership time as a member.
• Reactions - automatically awarded once you reach the required number of reactions.

Prediction Contest

• The "Individual" award is for winners for an individual overall event (i.e. Skate America, GP Final, Canadian Nationals, Worlds, etc.).
• The "Overall Combined" award is reserved for the six combined categories below:
  • all Grand Prix events including the Final
  • all Junior Grand Prix events including the Final
  • all Challenger Series events
  • all four National events (Russia, Japan, Canada, and US)
  • all ISU Championships (Europeans, Four Continents, Worlds, Olympic Games, Olympic Team event, Asian Games, Universiade, World Team Trophy, and Team Challenge Cup)
  • all ISU Junior Championships (EYOF, Junior Worlds, Youth Olympic Games, and Youth Olympics team)
  • Note: If 25% or more of the competitions for any category is cancelled, there will be no Overall Combined award for that particular category. For example: if one of the National events are cancelled, no Overall Combined Award will be given for the Nationals Category.
• The "Crystal Ball" award
  • Novice: is for a member who has earned a total of at least 10 Individual and/or Overall Combined awards.
  • Junior: is for a member who has earned a total of at least 25 Individual and/or Overall Combined awards.
  • Senior: is for a member who has earned a total of at least 50 Individual and/or Overall Combined awards.
  • Pro: is for a member who has earned a total of at least 100 Individual and/or Overall Combined awards.
• These awards will be presented shortly after the results have been added to the appropriate Prediction Contest thread. Please note that awards are only retroactive as of the 2018-19 season.

Special Awards

• Community I - This award is reserved for members who have gone above and beyond, performing hours upon hours of volunteer work in the forum for at least one year beginning with the 2016-17 season. This includes updating FF threads (by discipline), running competitions, and maintaining various portions of the forums such as the national threads in the competition forum (i.e. creating and updating events and event info).
  
  
• Community II -This award is given to members who have performed full moderator or admin duties for at least one year.
  
  
• Linguist - This award is reserved for multi-lingual members who have taken the time to translate a minimum of five news articles and interviews (video included) from a reliable news source and posted in the Edge during one season.
  • News from tabloid sites/blogs, snippets from social media, and Google translations will not be considered.
  • Posts must be created individually in the Edge - not in existing threads or in other sub-forums. You can provide a link to your translation in another thread (i.e. Fan Fest) but please do not post the entire translation to two or more different parts of the forum as this is considered double-posting and is against the Guidelines.
  • Translations must also contain a link directly to the original source (original article and/or video). Ensure you ask for permission from the author or publication to avoid copyright violations.
• Commentator - The play-by-plays (PBPs) provided by knowledgeable and fast-typing GS members are highly valued by our community!
  • This award is reserved for posters who have taken the time to provide at least 10 timely PBPs by (discipline) and/or full reviews in the Competition Forum in one season beginning with the 2018-19 season. A full PBP consists of a minimum of 6-10 skaters/teams in a single event (event defined as a competition segment [SP/RD or FS/FD] in any discipline).
  • For example: If a poster does PBPs on all skaters for the men and ladies' disciplines for Skate America, that is considered two PBPs. Large events which have a multitude of skaters (i.e. Euros, 4CCs, Worlds, and some Nationals) would count as two or even three PBPs. So if someone does PBPs for all the ladies at Worlds, that would count as three PBPs.
  • While PBPs for all events are welcomed, only the following events will be counted towards an award: Junior Grand Prix/Grand Prix and Junior Grand Prix/Grand Prix Final, Challenger Series, Nationals, Europeans, Four Continents, Junior Worlds, Worlds, World Team Trophy, and Olympics.
  • Note: To request/recommend this award, please ensure that you include links to the event discipline thread where the PBPs can be found so that the staff can evaluate.

The system is set up so that only nine (9) awards can be displayed on posts under your avatar. However, you can choose the order and which awards you want featured! Just go to your Profile Settings and click on "Feature"

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