RamNation Forums

2008 Awards and Rankings: Introduction

Welcome to the eighth-annual RamNation Awards and Rankings, which is our chance to determine/honor the top 65 posters (as well as a group of "honorable mention" posters), and other specialty award winners from the 2007-08 posting year. With thousands of active posters, it gets more and more difficult to narrow down the best to a group of 65, but every year we take our best stab at it and honor who we believe are the elite of RamNation.

We do advise you to follow the navigational menu from left to right, starting with the trivia, then moving to the specialty awards, then to the rankings, and finally to the Hall of Fame. If you browse out of order, you may learn details earlier than you wish.

Please remember, the rankings are done in good fun, without scientific means. It is a completely subjective process without many checks and balances, so take them for what they're worth. We've seen a wide variety of responses over the years, from posters gloating over their rankings, to posters complaining about their ranking and threatening to quit the site. Whatever floats your boat! We determine the top posters through a simplistic set of criteria. Of course, it helps if a poster is very active on the site. We also give high marks to posters who traditionally post the most intriguing messages, the posters who regularly make us laugh, the posters who have demonstrated the best knowledge and most insightful information, the posters who regularly stimulate a significant amount of board traffic, and the posters who have been most valuable to creating worthy discussions on the board. Oh, and of course, class, intelligence, humor, uniqueness, and other characteristics help too.

All of our top posters will receive individual icons to honor their achievement for one year, until next year's rankings are released. The No. 1-ranked poster gets his own icon, the rest of the Top 25 get a unique icon, and the remaining No. 26-65 posters get an icon. Hall of Fame members get an icon that stays with them forever.

In addition to the extensive rankings, the Specialty Awards include honors for such categories as the Buff Hater Award, Best Handle Award, Funniest Poster, Glass Half-Full/Glass Half-Empty Awards, Post of the Year, newly renamed Bill "Doc" Sullivan Award, and much more. We also have other fun stuff, like trivia questions, specialty awards, and Hall of Fame inductions, which you can peruse by clicking the navigational links at the top or bottom of each Awards/Rankings page.

We also have inducted another class to the Hall of Fame, which honors the best posters in the history of the site (only members who have been on the board for five or more years are eligible). Two more legendary posters have been inducted to the Hall of Fame this year, so you won't want to miss that section. To acquaint yourself with historical awards and rankings dating back to the inaugural year in 2001, click the "History" button on the navigational links bar at the top or bottom of each page.

Lastly, to those of you not included in the awards or rankings, don't be offended. This is not an exact science, and inevitably a few deserving posters slip through the cracks each year. If you post regularly during football or basketball season and then disappear completely in the offseason, it is very easy to be overlooked by the voting committee. Just remember that your participation on the message board is what makes this site so great. For those of you who did find yourself among our rankings, congratulations, and thanks for your efforts!

Thanks to everyone for being part of this website. Enjoy.

--Joel Cantalamessa (Good SHEPHERD), RamNation Staff