[General Topics] quicksite:
Just clarifying: you can nominate as many achievements as you like

(This post originally occupied the first post spot on this thread. It is the initial December 20, 2009 post, along with all initial set of updates )

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UPDATE #8: Jan 6, 2010 : Based on User feedback, there has been some re-organizing of the CATEGORIES for Recognition, splitting the Recognition into these three larger Headings:

1 •••• WINDOWS MOBILE Operating System

2 •••• ANDROID Operating System

3 •••• Sitewide Information Access & Support

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UPDATE #7: Jan 6, 2010 : A beautiful, bold, unique logo has been commissioned for the Devvy Awards... and all 2009 1st Place, 2nd Place, and 3rd Place Achievement Recipients will win a very striking T-shirt bearing the logo, the year, and Category of Nomination. I think any developer would be proud to wear such a shirt. (as for paying for them, I'm going to ask for donations. I am paying a good deal of money for the Logo Design, because I want it to look "A-LIST" in stature, and will also kick in $200 towards the production of T-shirts for winners. In future years there will probably be sponsored device gifts of a significant nature. Year 1 will be more modest, but I think in that way very cool too)

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UPDATE #6: Dec 26, 2009: For all those who said the process was too aggressively fast as to be realistic, you're right. Based on various advice, NOMINATIONS now open and extended to Jan 15, 2010. Then Voting takes place Jan 16-Jan 31. ... Please take a moment to add nominees, see the categories in Post #2. Android developers are missing in action so far.

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UPDATE #5: Dec 22, 2009: Flexing quickly to suggestions and concern areas, I propose these schedule changes and would like feedback: NOMINATION PERIOD: extended up to December 31, 2009, 8pm GMT. VOTING PERIOD: dramatically extending this to be the entire month of January 2010. List of Recognition Recipients for the 2009 (XDA) Devvy Awards: Published first week in February 2010. Comments?

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UPDATE #4: Dec 22, 2009: I am going to use POST #3 as a place where a summary of the latest discussions or unsettled issues are listed, picked from within the body of the whole thread. Right now per Dave Shaw's suggestion I am going to add a category around Tutorials, Guides, Manuals, Wiki Writing, but ask for suggestions about what it should be titled and what it should encompass?

Also: Per the number of people (4 at this time) who've registered concerns about an inadequate process, please could you each comment in the thread to just narrow down a bit further what your biggest concern areas are?

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UPDATE #3: Dec 21, 2009: See Post #21: in reply to a comment by Dave Shaw: Should Instructional Design/ Technical Writing be a Category, for wiki and guide contributions?

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UPDATE #2: Dec 21, 2009: Honing the nominating & voting process & philosophy: See Post #20: Clarifications: There is no limit on the number of people or achievements you can nominate. There are comments to the effect: "it's really hard to choose within ROMS"... Can I suggest including as many as you feel worthy of notable achievement? ...

Then, the actual Voting process will, hopefully, largely expand the number of people here who are merely offering nominations, thus letting a larger base make those decisions. But that comment in #20 also raised this suggestion from me, and I'd really like to see feedback: in the voting stage, perhaps there should be a vote for 1st place choice, as well as 2nd place choice, as well as 3rd place choice... not just as possible tie-breakers but also to increase the recognition, and emphasize the non-competitive nature of the intention of the recognition. So the results of voting would include, for each category:

First place:__________

2nd place: _____________

3rd place: __________

Comments? Suggestions? Views? ... please help shape this to be meaningful yet not exclusionary in its results

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UPDATE #1: Dec 20, 2009

Synchronicity is in the air. I did not see the thread already started by vijay which also proposes developer awards. I posted there that this was complete synchronicity, with this idea being kicked around in posts in other threads over the last month. But as I just noticed, vijay's thread was posted MARCH 3, 2008 -- well over a year ago. And its premise was that "nominations are premature". I couldn't disagree more: the time has arrived; and the time is now. .... I will read that entire thread and see what is duplicative and what is different. But if there is no specific mechanism in place right now, I intend to carry out this gameplan. And if there is, if the concepts are mergeable, I will work with them of course. /quicksite

------------ ORIGINAL POST ------------

December 20, 2009

Fellow XDA-ers: There is so much outstanding development work that goes on here in this expansive, multi-sectioned site... work that not only makes phones more usable, more finger-friendly, take up less resources, but also look slicker too. And now that Android development has catapulted into the Windows Mobile mix with that platform witnessing exponential growth in just these last 2 quarters (all the buzz this Christmas holiday season), it feels right that there be a new form of recognition for outstanding achievement in development for the year 2009.

Thus, the Devvies: year one. And XDA Devvies in particular.

I think it’s fine if this occurs quite hastily this year, and I believe that very quickly any various bumps that arise can be solved in XDA collaborative style.

NOMINATION PERIOD: Now, December 20, 2009 until December 28th, 2009 (Update: Propose this be extended to Dec 31, 2009, 8pm GMT)

VOTING PERIOD: Dec 29, 30, 31 (Update: Propose this be opened up to occur throughout the entire month of January 2010)

WINNERS ANNOUNCED: First week in January, 2010

VOTING MEMBERSHIP: I propose it be all XDA-registrants who have had a minimum of one month membership since their join date, and who have posted at least one comment in that period prior to today December 20, 2009 (to demonstrate participation vs lurkers who signs up and go away)

PROCESS: (1) I propose that this become the official nominating thread, and after a week of seeing how this is playing out, perhaps a different thread could be started that contains a poll, which lists the various nominees to date, as a way to capture and coordinate the suggestions made, and make it cleaner to then add additional worthy nominees who seemed to have fallen through the cracks.

(2) I also propose that for a nomination to become officially included, it must be seconded by at least one other member (and perhaps a requirement that this “second” has participated in at least one of the nominee’s release threads?)

(3) Nominations proposed in this thread should include the following minimum requirements:

• User name and profile link of nominee

• The application or other specific achievement of the nominee, with link to its release thread.

• A short phrase description of what the released app/ROM/widget/skin/etc is and principally does.

• A short explanation for why it is outstanding.

But to facilitate ease of participation in rapidly seeding this thread, user names can be listed in a post with simply the description of the object of achievement... and others can add a more complete nomination post after gathering up this material.

(4) Off-topic comments and posts that simply throw water all over the idea may be deleted if they serve no advancement of this nomination process. However, further suggestions, refinements to, disagreements about the current proposals are all welcome, as well as comments endorsing the idea... But, as the ad-hoc organizer of this XDA Devvy process, I will reserve the right to delete comments that, again, are simply here to trash the idea. We all know what excess negativity does to derail anything. And, at the end of the day, if you really despise this idea, go initiate your own. :)

CATEGORIES FOR RECOGNITION OF ACHIEVEMENT: I propose this start modestly, with not too many categories. Year 2 can refine the process and add or subtract categories of recognition. See Post # 2 for the list of categories.

I will update this post as I can (given this is a holiday crunch) with Most Current Update at very top. That’s it for now. Let’s recognize the great work that occurs here. There are many forms of expression of appreciation: #s of downloads, user comments in threads, donations to the author, and this adds another dimension of recognition. It’s not a competition, and hopefully will never be treated as such. It’s peer-to-peer recognition. We’ve often seen great apps/roms/etc get lots of downloads and users, yet no donations, despite incredible #s of hours of hard work across multiple months. So if nothing more, it’s nice to receive recognition for hard work that has paid off.

/quicksite (If anyone wants to volunteer to help run this, PM me please)

----- Dec 22, 2009: Initial Post -----

There are 2 major issues to resolve as quickly as possible, and thus I ask for as much input as people are willing to write:

(1) New Categories have been added/proposed: #s 7, 8, 9

These need to be sorted out:

• What specific language should be used to capture the Category Name?

• Does the OS-related category feel right? (I'm a not a software developer; just a usability designer, so I don't know the correct terminology)

• Do they encompass the right collection of achievement-types?

• How would you change them completely if they don't sound like they can hold up over time, over years to come?

(2) Voting Period big adjustment:

Enough people are concerned about too aggressive a time-frame to conduct this properly that I propose the changes listed in Update #5 in post #1:

Nominations thru the end of the year, Dec 31st, 8pm GMT

Voting throughout the entire month of January.

(3) What else needs to be discussed/ hashed out? Still looking for a few helpers. Thanks orb3000 for volunteering to help.

Excellent, thank you. Someone has voted "good idea but not sure how you will execute in this time frame". Fair enough, but this is my framework:

1. Quality of work will prevail, but I am willing to have some clumsiness this first time out, especially in a rushed timeframe. Imperfect (but fair & reasonable) process. If the nominations don't proceed rapidly enough, I will seed this year's nominees, along with any helper helper who volunteers here. It is not hard at all to know which of the applications or ROMS are most appreciated here. If nothing more, a reasonable first-pass list can be compiled by surveying 100 members' sig files.

2. If there's a decent nominee list as determined by those volunteering here, then voting will begin.

3. If an inadequate or too sparse a list is compiled, the timeframe for nominating will be pushed out, thus the voting period as well.

4. If the voting period yields an underwhelming # of votes per category, then the Voting Period will be extended until the end of January.

5. If there still seems to be a statistically too-low number of votes by the end of January, then the 2009 awards shall be deemed a beta, with simply the Listing of those apps/etc recognized in the nominating process as the outcome for 2009. However, even in such a case, amongst those who choose to volunteer here to help pull this together, there will be a conferring of the minds and possibly there will be a set of "Unofficial" choices made for recognition of achievement. And the process will be greatly refined, improved, enhanced, and thoroughly democratic by the time for the 2010 Devvy Awards nominations to begin.

6. Too much pondering on the thoroughness of process on this maiden voyage will just result in paralysis. There will be some form of results for Outstanding Achievement in Development for 2009 regardless.

Please comment on this as well :) .