Likewise.
What an interesting debate you have here. And of course, once GreyICE butts in, he acts unduly hostile while butchering his own argument.
GreyICE, what Lady Lambdadelta said was that having an arbitrary cutoff date for nominations is the problem. Moving that date to an arbitrary different date does not solve anything. Either way, players who joined the site shortly before the cutoff date will not have equal opportunity of being considered for the newbie scummy. That is why your suggestion of moving the date to February or March does nothing to fix the problem, and tanstalas was correct to point that out. Next time I suggest that you think before you accuse someone else of failing.
Having read through the debate, I have my own idea for how the rules should be corrected, based on some of the suggestions already made.
1. Any player can be nominated for any game they
completed
during their first year of play.
Lady Lambdadelta said that all games joined by a player during their first year should be evaluated, but while this is perfectly fair in theory, it is impractical in reality. Nominations can only be made based on completed games, so it would make sense to me that only games completed within the first year should be eligible. Suppose the player joins a large theme game that runs for months, and is still ongoing when the judges have to make their decision? To avoid such troubles, only completed games should be considered.
2. Players can be eligible for the newbie scummy for two consecutive years at most.
Let's face it - having a cutoff date is necessary in practice. There must be a point after which no new nominations are accepted, so that judges can begin their work. To make this fair, players can be nominated for two consecutive years. Suppose you joined the site four months before the cutoff date in 2010? You can be nominated in 2010 for any game you completed before that cutoff date, or you can be nominated in 2011 for any game you completed during the eight months after the cutoff date. For the sake of simplicity, only one nomination should probably be allowed, so you can't be nominated again if you were not awarded a scummy the first time.
I rather like what zoraster suggested as well, namely that the newbie scummy could be awarded twice a year. In that case, players could be nominated for any game they completed within their first six months, and they would be eligible for their first two year halves. This way a player could only have been on the site for one year in the most extreme case before receiving the newbie scummy.
