User blog comment:Fedora Kid/Total Drama Wiki's Hall of Fame - Total Drama: Revenge of the Island/@comment-1734566-20131230211431

OK, so obviously, there's a lot to talk about in the wake of this controversial Staci nomination trolling that seems to have sparked a genuinely intense conflict here, and I'll try my best to keep it simple.

I talked this over with several other users, including some admins, and we've come to the conclusion that this Staci nonsense has raised some questions about the ambiguity of the nomination process and the subsequent vetting by me that each nomination must go through. Henceforth, from now on for the rest of the Hall of Fame series (even though we're already halfway done), Rule #4 will be strictly revised to be much more specific, and will say something along the lines of this: In each nomination that is made, the nominating user must give a detailed argument/description/explanation for why they think the contestant they've nominated should have a chance at being in the Hall of Fame, citing specific examples from either their performances in challenges, alliances they formed, or how they handled their social game, etc., etc. Again, reasons such as "oh, she was friendly and sweet," or "she was involved in this major story with a love triangle," do NOT count as reasons, since those are talking about the character, not the contestant. It's about gameplay, not the dramatic, developmental standpoint. For second, nominations can NOT use speculation, such as "Oh, she would have gone far if it weren't for her elimination," because there is simply no way whatsoever to back this kind of statement up. And lastly, outrageous statements like "she traveled back in time to make this sort of thing happen" will be regarded as trolling, and the person making such statements - even as a joke - will be treated as such.

This instance of Staci trolling obviously started out as a joke, as several users have since come forward, admitted to such, and even apologized for it. Your apologies - and you know who you are - have been sincerely accepted, but this should come as a warning to all: This right here is clear evidence of how even an innocent joke can lead to high tensions and some trolls taking such jokes way too seriously, which subsequently leads to the blog, the process, and the outcome itself not being taken as seriously as it should be. Hopefully, this comment thread will stand as the evidence to support this since, although a very similar situation happened in the original version of the TDI blog back on the reference wiki, the first instance of such trolling gone out of control has been deleted due to being controversial. So let this blog be a lesson attesting to that.

Lastly, again, through my conversations with the aforementioned admin, we have concluded that some nominations here - while they obviously have more merit than Staci - might still be contested. Thus, after reviewing the six current nominations and even briefly recapping over the season to see their performances thus far, we - as in I am not the only one making this decision here, as some would like to believe - have concluded that all of these nominations are indeed legitimate with two exceptions: Dawn and Anne Maria. As such, these nominations are not being denied - they are being contested. I.e., with a lot of time still left in the nominating process, there is still plenty of time for someone - preferably those who nominated these characters - to come forward and plead the case for both. Thus, TotalDramaNaruto and Zannabanna (who made a duplicate nomination for Dawn) are encouraged to come forward sometime before the nominating process ends and argue for why she was a good competitor. Similarly, SoaringSpirits is encouraged to come forward and make a similar argument for Anne Maria. However, anyone can make an argument that they see fit, and it doesn't just have to be the nominators. In the future, however, this will be expected of the nominators in their nominating comments from now on.

And to address the issue of whether or not my personal biases towards the character is clouding my judgment here: Believe me right now, it's not. I've cited numerous occasions before where this has not been the case, but for my sake, I'll recap them all right here: In TDI, I didn't even like Gwen and I hated LeShawna. I nominated and cast my vote for Heather, but when it came to a three-way 2-2-2 tie between LeShawna, Geoff, and Izzy, I had to rescind my vote for Heather - my favorite nominee - and cast it for one of those three. Had this been about my personal rankings, I probably would've given it to Geoff, since he is my 8th Favorite member of the original 22. Izzy is also high up in my rankings, just three spots behind Geoff. Then you have LeShawna, who's my 3rd least favorite member of the original 22 (behind Justin and Courtney), and my 6th least favorite member of the entire cast over the course of the entire series. And guess who I voted for? LeShawna. I may not like her (and I probably never will), but she, in my opinion, played the best game out of those three and was worthy of being in the Hall of Fame. In every blog since then, you've seen similar mentions/nominations from me. In TDA, I listed my three choices for the inductees being Courtney, Harold, and Duncan. I loved Harold in TDI and TDA (though I no longer like him), and Courtney has always been my LEAST favorite member of the ENTIRE cast. Duncan, similarly, is rather low on my rankings. In TDWT, I listed the three in my book as Alejandro, Cody, and Noah. I love Noah and Cody, so that's fair enough, even though I REALLY don't like Alejandro (but have never hated him). I also fully supported DJ being inducted for that season, even though I similarly have never liked him. And, lastly, we have this blog; I never made a nomination (until now, as you'll soon read), and the only two I listed are Scott and Jo. I love Scott, but I couldn't stand Jo in this season. But, similarly to LeShawna in TDI, I concede that she played one of the strongest games and should be inducted for this season. I hope this is enough proof for all of you that I never have, and never will, let my biases affect my judgment with this series.

I will close by making an example out of my actual nomination. Since this is the first time in the HoF series that I never made a nomination right off the bat - and since both characters I mentioned, Jo and Scott, have since been nominated - I will cast my nomination here. I nominate Mike to be inducted into the Hall of Fame for this season. He outright won the challenge for the Maggots in Ice Ice Baby, and competently led his team safely through the mine in A Mine Is a Terrible Thing to Waste. He even formed a fairly solid trio alliance of himself, Cameron, and Zoey just as the numbers were beginning to fall into his favor. His MPD made him a big threat in the game, and it was because of this very threat that Scott targeted him for elimination.

And there you have it. Again, arguments must be made for Dawn and Anne Maria before the nominating process ends, or their nominations might be removed from the final ballot altogether.

Now let's continue where we left off and go on with this incredible process. Soon, it will be time to pick three more inductees for this season.