ID, I'm sorry you feel it is just another popularity contest. That was not the intend by any means. The intent was to honor Rabbit and the wonderful work he did on the forum and that is how the Rabbit awards came to be.

The Best Contributor award was designed not just to be a popularity contest but to recognize those who add to the forum through their posts, support of other forum members, etc, it is not intended to be based on post count or to be based on how much time they spend on the forums, or how long they have been involved in BDSM. The intention and design behind it was to recognize ALL members, from the members who have been here for years but only have a few posts... posts which are well thought out and made with meaning, caring and support to encouraging the newer members to openly share their experience, concerns and growth and to cover everyone in the middle as well.

The Best Introduction award was created to encourage new members to post and share so that those on the forums would stand a better chance of getting to know them. The intent was to encourage people to make that first post and to recognize the new members for taking the time to join in and participate if they so wish.

If you don't wish to participate with anything to do with the awards that is your right as a member, and I encourage you to exercise that right. But, some here do wish to participate, and have tried to create the Rabbit Awards in such a way that they would be as fair as possible and as open as possible to those who do wish to participate.

They were simply made to honor someone who did a lot to ensure that all of us had the opportunity to express opposite points of views in a friendly, civil, open manner. That being said, it saddens me that even something that was intended to be done as a tribute has created controversy...