Avatar of the Month Award

== Avatar of the Month ==
An old practice among online communities in which nerds argued over who had [[the]] best [[avatar]] in use for that month. It was very common for people to change avatars frequently, either indicating issues with self perception, or just randomly stumbling upon images deemed "cooler" than their current one. Standard procedure dictated that a poll was made with options for different well known members of the community. After a pre-determined period of time (a week was normal, logically it would be less than a month) the poll would end and the winner was declared to be the member who received the most votes.

== Compsci.ca's Avatar of the Month History ==
To date (December 2005), there have been three attempts to host an Avatar of the Month contest, started on:

[http://www.compsci.ca/v2/viewtopic.php?t=1001 May 24, 2003]<br>
'''Nominees:'''<br>
bugzpodder<br>
[[Asok]]<br>
[[Tony]]<br>
FwuffyTheBunny<br>
ShadowStorm<br>
Mint<br>
'''Winner:''' None.<br>
In truth, this wasn't an Avatar of the Month Award thread, but rather a "Coolest Avatar Contest"
No poll was created, and interest seemed to fade shortly afterwards. The thread remains dusty and forgotten in [[the]] depths of [[CompSci.ca]]'s past.
<br><br>
[http://www.compsci.ca/v2/viewtopic.php?t=2043 Oct 05, 2003]<br>
'''Official Nominees:'''<br>
Amailer<br>
[[Asok]]<br>
Mazer<br>
Catalyst<br>
[[Tony]]<br>
Dan<br>
'''Winner:''' Unknown<br>
The first true Avatar of the Month Award thread, this time featuring a poll. According to the statistics shown in the thread, the winner would have been the member known as Mazer, but there are no records to indicate him receiving any awards. Although Amailer managed to get a percentage of the votes, he was later disqualified after it was discovered that he was actually a [[12 year old]].
<br><br>
[http://www.compsci.ca/v2/viewtopic.php?t=3822 Feb 22, 2004]<br>
'''Official Nominees:'''<br>
Paul Bian<br>
Maverick<br>
Shorthair<br>
Mazer<br>
Boarder16<br>
McKenzie<br>
Cervantes<br>
'''Winner:''' Paul Bian<br>
This was the last known Avatar of the Month Award thread on the [[CompSci.ca]] forums. Though there were many familiar names entered this time, the mood had changed dramatically from the previous contests. Most noticeable was the drastic change in Mazer's enthusiasm for the whole affair and wanted to leave it altogether. In the end, Paul Bian was the self proclaimed winner, but has yet to receive any kind of award.

== Conspiracy Theory ==
When it became public knowledge that no winner of the Avatar of the Month Award had ever actually received an award, fear and panic began to spread, and with them, so did suspicion. Members began to develop theories as to what could be going on behind their backs. For instance, it seemed very stranged to a number of people that the only time an Avatar of the Month Award styled thread popped up was between the months of January and December. Some came to the conclusion that there never really was an award. Even though a picture of the award is available for anyone to see on the [[CompSci.ca]] forum, many argue that it looks like an obvious CG fake. Some believe that the whole contest was a trick played by the administrators to collect all of the money the members gambled and spend it on legal copies of Turing.