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2013 Community Award winners revealed

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19th Dec 2013
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AccountingWEB’s community has thrived in 2013 and it’s all down to you, our members. Here are some of some of the stars who have helped make it a great year on the site.

AccountingWEB's annual Community Awards celebrate the users who make the site a pleasant, useful and fun place to be. We asked for nominations and votes in 10 categories. The voting has now closed and after trawling through the nominations, the AccountingWEB team is proud to announce the winners, who will each receive a small gift from this year's award sponsor, Clear Books.

  • Blogger of the year
    Blogger of the Year goes to Kent Accountant for his Man of Kent. Last year's winner the Flying Scotsman (Accountant in Business) got another nomination this year, as did The FC's Diary, A Mum and an Accountant, and Sir Digby Chicken Caesar. They all deserve congratulations, but members were almost unanimous in their votes. ShirleyM commented: “No drama, no hysterics, but KA writes about real life situations we can all relate to and it makes a damn good read.” Congratulations, Kent Accountant.
     
  • Technical thread of the year 
    The winner of technical thread of the year is a post by gerrysims in November about HMRC’s IT service, entitled Victor Meldrew morning. Nominated by JCresswellTax, the post attracted over 1,000 views and 17 comments, about issues the original poster had with various areas of the Revenue’s online services. And just to confirm that AccountingWEB isn't all about moaning about the Revenue, the next category was very hotly contested.
     
  • Boffin of the year 
    The prize for the most reliable, intelligent and expert member of AccountingWEB goes to Steve Kesby who beat Euan McLennan by 62 votes to 28 to scoop the title. Both are unstinting in the help they ahve offered to other members. As Sheppy307 said of Steve, "His input is technically spot on and he must spend hours contributing." Well done and many, many thanks again Steve!
     
  • Technology champion of the year 
    Cloud-loving green accountant Paul Scholes is this year’s technology champion of the year for his many contributions to cloud and technology threads.
     
  • Quirkiest thread of the year 
    The quirkiest thread of the year is a sad one, which goes to show that people love a bit of heartbreak for entertainment. The winning thread concerned the Death of Ralph in which Glennzy described how his long-living calculator gave up the ghost. Many other members jumped on board in solidarity and offered their condolences and stories of their own calculators that have seen them through their careers. We hope your prize will be of some comfort to you, Glennzy - congratulations! 
     
  • Top comic and Glass half-full award
    One member stood out in two similar categories, so we decided to combine the two and congratulate Mouse007 on being the member who made us all smile the most during 2013. Injecting a little humour is a great way to keep spirits up and Mouse certainly achieved that with his quips and signature animations. The comedy prize is named in honour of Swiss Toni, the elusive Fast Show refugee who made a cameo appearance on the site this year to remind us why RTI was like making love to a beautiful woman.
     
  • Born Dull? Personality of the year
    This category is another old AccountingWEB tradition that celebrates the person who has done the most to dispel the image of accountants as boring and looks beyond the wider membership. We had posthumous nominations for Lou Reed and Nelson Mandela, but in the end the team decided that the prize should go to DJ Derek, the 72-year-old Cadbury's accountant-turned-dub DJ. It's a pity that he's decided to retire after a final New Year's Eve set as we would have loved to hear more about him.
     
  • Best accounting video award
    We launched a Video blog earlier in the autumn to explore the trend for accountants to use the medium to promote themselves by educating and entertaining their clients and prospects. The most polished video was produced by Cassons with their version of Holding Out for a Hero, which amused, entertained and impressed us greatly.
     
  • Member of the year
    This is the big one, and is decided by the number of thanks members received throughout 2013. Three people registered more than 500 thanks from other users, while Euan Maclennan and more than 400 and Steve Kesby was just behind him on volume of thanks. They will all be familiar names to many AccountingWEB members, and a familiar name has come out on top again as our most helpful member - ShirleyM, with more than 600 thanks received. Here are the top five contenders:
     
Member Thanks
ShirleyM 618
Old Greying Accountant 545
BKD 544
Euan MacLennan 468
Steve Kesby 365

Congratulations again Shirley, and a big thank you from the team to all of the contributors who make AccountingWEB such a wonderful, engaging community.

[NB: The table is based on the number of posts that gained thanks rather than the overall total of thanks. See comments below for further statistical discussions/explanations - Ed.]

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Replies (24)

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By andy.partridge
20th Dec 2013 12:18

Amused

Only on AccountingWeb could the sponsor's promotion be dwarfed by an ad from one of their main competitors. Congratulations to all the deserving winners . . . and FreeAgent. 

Thanks (0)
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By User deleted
20th Dec 2013 12:21

Curse you ....

... ShirleyM :o)

Thanks (1)
Teignmouth
By Paul Scholes
20th Dec 2013 12:27

Thanks

Technology!?  I've spent half the morning battling with it....and I'm losing....as I've said this is all a symptom of being bored rigid by accountancy & tax.

Many thanks to Accweb for providing such a great platform for sharing and to my wife Sue & terrier Franky, for always lasting 20 mins before falling asleep lsitening to me going on about The Cloud.

xxx

Thanks (2)
Replying to atleastisoundknowledgable...:
By Howard Marks
20th Dec 2013 13:01

Well done

Paul Scholes wrote:

Technology!?  I've spent half the morning battling with it....and I'm losing....as I've said this is all a symptom of being bored rigid by accountancy & tax.

Many thanks to Accweb for providing such a great platform for sharing and to my wife Sue & terrier Franky, for always lasting 20 mins before falling asleep lsitening to me going on about The Cloud.

xxx

 

You deserved a bigger write up seeing as tech/cloud is on everyone's lips right now - your insight is fantastic as have been your many PM's over recent times.

 

davidwinch wrote:

Congratulations to all the winners - and to the AWEB team for making AWEB such a useful and interesting site!

David

 

And how on earth this man didn't manage a mention i'll never know - deserves his own category I think?!

 

Great work to all involved and a very Merry Xmas!

Thanks (0)
By ShirleyM
20th Dec 2013 12:38

Just seen this article

I am quite embarrassed! I haven't been on AWeb so much this year and fully expected to be pipped by other more regular posters.

Thank you for the thanks, everyone.

Congratulations to all the winners, and the close runners, and especially to all AWebbers who make this such a great forum.

Thanks (2)
By Steve Kesby
20th Dec 2013 12:45

Wow!

I never win anything. I'm Baffoon of the Year. Excellent! Thanks again to all who voted and said such nice things.

Thanks (6)
Sarah Douglas - HouseTree Business Ltd
By sarah douglas
20th Dec 2013 12:46

Well Done

Hi 

Congrats Shirley.  Well deserved .  Congratulations to everyone .  Hope everyone has a lovely Christmas and New Year 

Thanks (1)
David Winch
By David Winch
20th Dec 2013 12:50

Congratulations!

Congratulations to all the winners - and to the AWEB team for making AWEB such a useful and interesting site!

David

Thanks (6)
Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
20th Dec 2013 13:11

And thats a big thank you.

From Glennzy. Like Steve its the first thing I have ever won. Well done to all the other winners and thanks again for voting for Ralph. Well done Shirley you have been a big help to me over the last year or so.

Thanks (1)
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By cathygrimmer
20th Dec 2013 13:54

Congratulations!

Congratulations to all the well-deserved winners. For those who fly solo like me (in more ways than one!), having my AWeb virtual colleagues helps me not to get lonely. And keeps me both entertained and informed!

Although I have recently acquired two new kittens (which makes 4 cats in total - officially a mad cat lady now) to provide company - which makes 5 of us at the Raven Taxation office Christmas party this year!

Happy Christmas everyone!

Cathy

 

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By Andrew Ross BTCSoftware
20th Dec 2013 14:00

Congratulations to all the winners

You help to make this such a lively community of debate and constant interest for practitioners seeking information.

But particular congratulations to the wonderful ShirleyM from all your fans here at BTCSoftware.

We've seldom had a more rigorous evaluee!

Very best wishes,

Andrew

Thanks (1)
By A mum and an accountant
20th Dec 2013 14:04

Well done

Congratulations to all the well deserved winners!

And thank you to accountingweb for being such an interesting and useful website for accountants.

Thanks (1)
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By Jill Murray
21st Dec 2013 06:22

Congratulations all - and thank you from Cassons Heroes!!!

Congratulations to all of the AW Community Award winners - and thank you AW for inserting the video for the year category!   We are absolutely thrilled and honoured to have won!  Our offices closed at 12:00 on Friday for our Xmas party but I was keeping an eye on the website for the announcement so we were able to announce our success at the party - just before everyone saw the "out-takes" video!  Thanks from all at Cassons - the award is VERY much appreciated!

Thanks (1)
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By agburton
21st Dec 2013 08:41

Thanks so much to all the contributors

I set up as a sole practitioner nearly seven years ago, and am pleased tor report the small practice has been successful and achieved the business plan I set myself. But I certainly would not have achieved nearly so much had it not been for AW, and Any Answers in particular. Most of the time it is not asking questions that solve the problem, but searching other answers whihc usually provides the help needed. (I did learn the hard way early on, though, to look carefully at the date of posting: if you don't do t his you can of course get out of date advice!!)

 

So thanks again to everyone at AW and merry Christmas and successful new year to all!

 

Thanks (1)
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By blok
22nd Dec 2013 19:24

.
Congratulations winners
Merry Xmas and all the best for 2014

Thanks (1)
Stepurhan
By stepurhan
23rd Dec 2013 09:48

So close

I was only a few hundred thanks behind the member of the year top 5. :-)

Congratulations to all. Well deserved accolades all round.

Thanks (1)
By mrme89
23rd Dec 2013 11:25

Congrats

Congratulations to all the winners, and also to the members that came so close to winning.

 

We have seen members come and go over the course of year, but the regular contributors are always here to offer a helping hand and that's why this site is so great.

 

Shirley only beat me by 617 thanks, so I hope to be a serious contender next year ;-)

 

Merry Christmas everyone!  

Thanks (1)
By BaronGreenback
24th Dec 2013 00:49

"thanks" not adding up

https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/anyanswers/question/thanks

 

Flash did a bit better than credited, along with others

Thanks (0)
By ShirleyM
24th Dec 2013 08:41

Past winners

Serious proposal for next years awards: I think past winners should be excluded from winning  a second time.

This would spread the joy around more people. Maybe allow past winners to win a different award, just not the same one each year.

I do truly appreciate the thanks everyone gave me, but I feel like I am hogging this particular award and it embarrasses me, and anyway .... the 'thanks' are reward enough. :)

EDIT: I would be quite happy for my proposal to be retrospective and applied to this years awards.

Thanks (1)
By Democratus
24th Dec 2013 08:41

Serious proposal for next years awards: No

Shirley, you and the others set the bar, if you are not in the race then there's no competition - if it is indeed competitive (I think not). All were deserved winners and many honourable mentions also awarded.

 

What a great website - Dull and Boring - i think not.

Thanks (1)
Replying to andy.partridge:
By BaronGreenback
24th Dec 2013 09:03

not counted

Democratus wrote:

if you are not in the race then there's no competition

 

There's no competition when they don't count the thanks ...

 

Thanks recorded Friday 12/04/2013

ShirleyM 1739

BKD 926

DavidWinch 506

FlashGordon 826

Peter Saxton 1122

OGA 825

and what are they now, only just over 8 months later ?

Thanks (0)
John Stokdyk, AccountingWEB head of insight
By John Stokdyk
24th Dec 2013 09:22

Numerical discrepancies

If you subtract the number of thanks from April from the current totals, there are some discrepancies with the totals, but our measure was the number of thanks posted from January 2013 until 20 December. So your comparison is not able to identify those thanks posted between January and April, which includes the busy self assessment period and Budget conversations. Having done the subtractions, the differences are not material - ShirleyM would still run away with it.

It's a dynamic figure, too, since people can also "unthank" previous thanks.

Since I was the one who counted the individual posts to get the totals (the person who does our SQL queries wasn't around), I will invoke the old rule that the editor's decision is final.

Thanks for the suggestions about changes for next year - I'm tempted to share the love, as Shirley suggests, but it's hard to ignore the weight of statistics (anomalies excepted, of course ;-).

Congratulations Merry Christmas to all our Thanks monsters - and to the members who give so much positive feedback.

Thanks (2)
By Mouse007
28th Dec 2013 16:33

So why

didn't my thanks get counted then?

 

 

Thanks (0)
John Stokdyk, AccountingWEB head of insight
By John Stokdyk
28th Dec 2013 16:45

You didn't make the top 5, Mouse

In the absence of running a database query that returns all the thanks posted during the year, I went back and counted the number of posts that had been thanked, rather than the total number of thanks posted (if you get my meaning). That would discount the overall total you racked up - where another of your posts mentions 380ish thanks, I counted 236 thanked posts compared to Shirley's 618. So even if you added in your multiple thanks, you're still lagging behind Shirley.

I accept it's a rough calculation, but we wanted to have the decision in time to congratulate the winners in last Friday's newswire. When our SQL guru gets back in the new year, I'll post corrected figures.

My apologies to those who have been upset by the discrepancies - we intended this as bit of feelgood fun rather than an exercise for your auditing skills.

Thanks (1)