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Congrats anuiby...
 
Excellent choice, Coz!

Aniuby, Congratulations! I was very impressed by the feedback you gave in the Guess the Author Challenge -- excellent stuff that any author will benefit from!

I'd love to hear more about your writing background.

Rensslaer
 
Congrats, aniuby! You are clearly deserving of this award.
 
Congratulations aniuby, certainly well deserved!
 
Dear all, thank you very much for your well-wishes. And indeed a great thank-you to coz1, who decided to take the massive gamble of giving me this award. I say it's a gamble, because I've actually had very little interaction with him until recently - apart from posting in Guess the Author, the only other occasion was a now-deleted post. And it's also because in all honesty I don't see myself as a particularly notable fan. It's true that I do leave lengthy replies when I comment, but mainly because I believe in speaking my mind, and only in AARs that I particularly like or find noteworthy, or those which have yet to attract a degree of support which I feel they deserve.

Since my usual style is to go on at length and natter on a long rambling tangent, feel free to skip the following to find out the new Fan of the Week. Or if you really wish to have your eyes assailed by reams and reams of words, feel free to open the spoiler tags.

The truth is that I can't deny that I often have negative feelings about certain aspects of AARs and AARLand, but since AARLand operates on a policy of 'if you have nothing good to say, don't say it', these thoughts often go unvoiced - indeed, there are many who loathe the concept of criticising someone else's work of art or self-expression. However, I will share them if the AAR author demonstrates or expresses that they are receptive of opinions that are anything shy of the out-and-out approval which is widespread in the community. I also tend to stay away from AARs that are already extremely popular, since they're already well-subscribed, and Hearts of Iron fans would no doubt loathe me for never visiting their board (forgive me, I have a pathological fear of those lozenges denoting military deployments). But for those people out there who think I'm an absolutely terrible example of a fan, I give you this reply - I don't always agree with people's nominations for AARLand awards either, so we'll consider it evens.

A couple of remarks, and to answer a couple of questions - to coz1, DensleyBlair, and Gen. Marshall I will forever be 'a nooby' because I guess it reflects my perspective of the world - always to make judgements with an open mind and not base it on preconceptions, assumptions, or reputations. The name 'aniuby' actually came out from those days of MUDs, when people could name their characters whatever they wanted, so lots of people named their characters after nouns like 'Somebody', 'Nobody', 'That Guy' and so on, so you'd get interesting messages like 'Nobody is in the room. Nobody slaps you around with a giant trout. Nobody killed you.', et cetera. For me, it's always exciting to be new, wide-eyed, and inexperienced, and sometimes even to be perceived as such - although it may not be very happy for the person who was headshot by a newbie. It's not always been fun and laughter, though, I've become a natural target of sorts for mock-teasing humorous put-upons, even in this forum, and I've actually previously been banned by some overly-serious roleplaying GMs for my username. And finally lots of people think only a male person would have such a nutty username.

To Rensslaer and Seelmeister, thank you very much for your compliments. But I hope I'm not disappointing you by saying that in truth I have no actual 'writing history' of which to speak. I think that all my inclination towards writing reflects is the fact that I was fortunate enough to have a good education and excellent teachers who taught me the value of literature and the importance as well as the art of criticism, and being a humanities/social science student lends one the natural instinct of going on at length. I have never published any works in anything more widely circulated than a school newspaper or an individual blog post, and most certainly never made any money from my writing endeavours. I do write casually - I worked on a multi-part novel when I was younger, and also embarked on several mini-novellas and short stories, but these were never distributed and eventually decayed into the 'old shame' every writer keeps hidden from their public portfolio. In fact, my current AAR is my most sustained piece of fiction-writing since ... since really long, in fact. Now, if only it had a wider audience, that would make me very happy indeed =)

On that note, as a contribution to AARLand I've actually considered two proposals for initiatives which I'd like to share with the rest of the community. The first is a 'Critic Clinic' of sorts, whom AAR authors could consult for a quick review of their AAR and some basic guidance. I feel this would be helpful as while many AAR authors ask their commentors for frank and honest opinions on the quality of their work, few readers have the time and the patience to write out proper words of guidance and criticism. So why not ask a group of people who have made it their interest to read and review AARs? No doubt these assessments would be affected by the tastes of the reviewers, who may not be natural fans of the AAR in question, but perhaps a view from a distance would be the best way to get an impartial critique which would help that AAR author improve their style.

The second is a survey of AAR styles to assess the level of interest in different types of AAR, so that potential AAR writers can have a sense of the scale of the audience to whom they are likely to be catering, as well as serving a basic human interest function to fellow denizens of AARLand. AARs (in general, not each individual AAR!) will be divided into categories, such as Gameplay, History-Book, and Narrative, and within them into sub-categories e.g. First Person Narrative, Third Person Narrative, Shifting Perspective, and so on. New categories could be added after feedback, and modifiers could be applied (e.g. No pictures, No metagaming, No gameplay, Final Destination) to further refine each individual's tastes. I believe this would make an interesting monument to the diversity of opinions, among both readers and writers, which we have in AARLand.

Thoughts, anyone? Feel free to PM me on any of these issues, to avoid filling this thread with OOT posts, and I'll go into depth about some of these proposals in a more appropriate place, preferably just after the conclusion of Guess the Author. And if anyone would like a AAR reviewed or critiqued, don't hesitate to let me know!

Anyway, as is my style I'd like to pass this award on to someone who has yet to receive it before, or indeed to someone who has never received any award at all. However, the former is indeed hard to find, as it only makes sense that the fans who make their contribution the most visible have already received this award at some point in time, and the latter category of deserving fans is rarer yet. As such, I'd like to take a leaf out of coz1's book and pass this award on to a noteworthy fan of AARLand who has also made his/her presence felt in the giver's own personal projects. There were several I considered in this role - one is a noted multi-recepient of this very award (you know who you are), one I've already previously recommended for an award, and the other just received a different award today, so that narrows my choice to just one more.

Please put your hands together for Xenophon13, the new Fan of the Week!

Xenophon13, while having previously been recognised for his excellent Victoria 2 AAR Tales of an AARchipelago, is also a regular commentor on other Vicky 2 AARs, demonstrates an awareness of CK2, and recently he has diversified his interests to include EU3 as well! He is also the type to leave pithy, well thought-out comments, remarking on game mechanics, strategy, themes, and certainly going much farther than nodding approval alone. Last, but not least, he will be the first recepient of this award whose username begins with X!

He epitomises aspects of what I'd like to see more of in these forums - a diversity of interests, the ability to share insight on a variety of topics, and a willingness to give new, relatively inexperienced, and untested AAR authors a vote of approval, and I hope more fans like him will emerge in the future. So congratulations, Xenophon13!
 
That must have been one of the longest nomination speeches in this thread, but still worth reading it. :)
Reminds me that AARland is truly a jewel amongst internet chatting forums. And that being the reason why a large amount of Paradoxians have spent over a decade soon here.

Anyway, gratz to Xenophon13!
 
Congratulations Xenophon13!

A very interesting read of a passing-on speech, aniuby - certainly the longest I've read. Some interesting points were made, and those initiatives sound like good ideas. The former seems like it could fit well if the SolAARium were revived, but I think the closest I've ever seen to the latter is a one-off survey asking various questions about genres and their respective popularises.
 
Finally a guy I can honestly say I've heard about. What more; he's writing an HoI AAR at the moment! :)

I'm forwarding the congratulations, let's hope he deserves it! :p
 
Congrats Xeno.