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Ticalc.org is the premier site in the TI community. It is not only the place where everybody goes to download and upload programs, but it is the very face of the TI community itself. Having your project featured on its front-page news brings with it a high level of prestige and honor; in fact, community members even boast about getting their project featured on ticalc.org.
It has popularized giving out awards to the best programs that were released, having the TI community vote on which programs from the archives they thought were best. The Program of the Year (POTY) award is still ongoing, but the Program of the Week (POTW) and Program of the Month (POTM) awards have been discontinued due to issues with lack of community interest and support (via insufficient number of featured programs being released in the given timeframe), and fairness and impartiality with the program selection.
Program of the Week (POTW) Award
The ticalc.org Newsletter
13 September 1998 — Volume 1, Issue 1
Welcome to the premier issue of the ticalc.org Newsletter! This is a weekly newsletter sent out each Sunday by the ticalc.org staff.
- Bryan Rabeler, ticalc.org newsletter editor
A new feature that will be incorporated into our site is the program of the week award. Some changes have been made in the policy of this award since it was announced. First, each week the award will be awarded to the best, original program released during the past week in each of the following categories:
- Assembly for each specific calculator or all calculators combined
- TI-Basic for all calculators combined
- Computer Utilities
Three categories were made because it was apparent that a TI-Basic program would most likely never be chosen over an assembly program for the award. This also forced us to make a category for computer utilities. However since the volume of computer utilities is rather small, an award in this category may not be awarded each week.
Second, we will also be awarding a program of the month award and program of the year award. At the end of each month, the winners of the weekly award will be voted on by the general public to determine which one will win the monthly award. This will take place in our Survey section. The same will take place at the end of each year for the monthly winners to determine the yearly winner.
The POTW award only lasted a month from middle of September to middle of October in 1998 before it was replaced with the POTM award in October 1998. The newsletter was also changed from a weekly newsletter to a monthly newsletter, and Kirk Meyer replaced Bryan Rabeler as the newsletter editor due to Bryan Rabeler being too busy to organize the newsletter because of his other ticalc.org duties.
Program of the Month (POTM) Award
In 1999 and 2000 a vote was held every month to determine the best programs of the month in the archives. First, ticalc.org selected nominations for the POTM by adding them to the featured program list. These programs then are put against one another for a final vote lasting for one week. Winners were given the priviledge of a special animated screen shot of their program, and they were allowed to display a special graphic on their homepage.
From January 1999 to September 2000, ticalc.org held a vote to determine the best programs of the month in our archives. Every month a few winning programs voted on by the community would recieve the Program of the Month (POTM) title.
Due to lack of featured programs during some months, there were no POTM winners for some calculators. In addition, when only one program was featured, there was no survey voting to determine the POTM winner, and instead that program won the award by default.
Program of the Year (POTY) Award
Beginning in 2003, voting opened to determine the best programs produced in the past year that made their way to the ticalc.org archives. The programs are initially selected from the featured program list where they are then separated and grouped into categories. Voting starts in early December and lasts one week for each category. The winning programs receive the title POTY and recieve a special screen shot and also have the privilege of displaying a special graphic on their homepage. Good luck future POTY's!
Our latest and most prestigious award implemented is our Program of the Year (POTY) award! Using the survey system and our list of featured files, you get to vote for your favorite programs created over the previous year. This award is held every December.
Due to lack of featured programs during some years, there were no POTY winners for some calculators. In addition, when only one program was featured, there was no survey voting to determine the POTY winner, and instead that program won the award by default.
Event History
Ticalc.org was not the first TI site to come up with the concept of handing out an award for the best program, as TI-Files had started the idea with their Game of the Month award that was included as a feature of each monthly newsletter of theirs. The first issue of The Files Monthly was released in February 1998, while the first issue of ticalc.org's weekly newsletter wasn't released until several months later on September 13, 1998, where they introduced the Program of the Week award as well as mentioning the upcoming Program of the Month and Program of the Year awards.
The program feature idea was part of the larger competition and rivalry between ticalc.org and TI-Files to be the top TI site in the community, which kept both sites constantly striving to provide a better experience for the TI community with more content, features, and services. There was also much borrowing between both sites, as somebody would upload a new program to one site, and then it would appear on the other sites in a matter of days. Similarly, ticalc.org expanded when it came back online, and incorporated much of the community focus and ideas that TI-Files had come up with in its absence (see site wars for more information).
- February 1998 — First issue of TI-Files newsletter, The Files Monthly, released, including the introduction of the Game of the Month award
- 13 September 1998 — First issue of weekly ticalc.org newsletter released, including the introduction of the Program of the Week (POTW) award
- 20 September 1998 — Second issue of weekly ticalc.org newsletter released
- October 1998 — Ticalc.org newsletter changed to monthly newsletter, and POTW award is replaced with Program of the Month (POTM) award
- January 1999 — First POTM award is voted on by ticalc.org community via survey
- November 1, 2000 — POTM award ended due to issues with fairness and impartiality
- 2003 — Program of the Year (POTY) award started by ticalc.org
Related External Links
- http://www.ticalc.org/archives/news/articles/0/3/3393.html (POTW Award List)
- http://www.ticalc.org/community/awards/potm/index.html (POTM Award List)
- http://www.ticalc.org/community/awards/poty/index.html (POTY Award List)
- http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/featured.html (Featured Programs)