I like firebrdo88’s idea of putting the voting on the main page or if it could always be at the top of “New Threads”

If more people did vote instead of the same group of around 50-80 people it might be less predictable results and appear less biased.

I always thought it was a little weird that it was in “Auto Appearance And Detailing” because there are deserving cars that win where the detailing isn’t the primary concern. There are awesome cars that win with dirty interiors (what I’d consider dirty), door jams, and engine bays but are awesome performance cars that are finished and super bad a$$. Not everyone with a top thirdgen cares about detailing that much. Classically detailing is an important part of “car shows” so I get it, but maybe what makes these online contests more interesting is that a subjectively cool Thirdgen that would be shunned at “car show” can win. Having a panel of judges might detract from what COTM is and take away from the variety we get. I see a lot of car shows where the winner is the highest value flawlessly restored “old, rare car” but sometimes not the “coolest” car that people are actually more interested in.

I like the idea that you can think someone’s car is cool, for whatever reason and nominate it. Folks might start to think about what the “judges” would think and only nominate classic show-winners.

I don’t think it’s bad the way it is, but nothing wrong with discussion. I wouldn’t oppose a change or a panel for COTY, but I also think it’s fine the way it is too.

The trivia idea is cool too, but that’s a lot of work for someone to commit to..

It crossed my mind that it might be interesting to have a popular vote and a panel of judges that score the cars and come up with a score system and their own rankings.. It could be like Rotten Tomato’s where you have the Critic’s score and the Average Viewer score.

Its interesting how some movies get a low score with critics and score high among non critics..

How do we decide on judges? Is it a rotating panel? Just asking how it would be done if it was started..

I’d say there should be a uniform score sheet

-Paint
-Originality
-Wheels
-interior
-engine bay
-value
-rarity / pedigree
-overall presentation
-bonus custom fit and finish
.... etc etc

There should be a scoring system and the judges would have to compile them via email and maybe the high score wins..

Judges could put in some notes as well and they could be anonymously compiled in an outcome report..

This would be less focused on the stories/popularity and more on the car as it sits..

i.e. for originality almost no car would be a 10 except for original tires, exhaust, etc.. A low mile original car with a Flowmaster and an interstate battery would be a 9 and points deducted from there.. a custom car could make up points in presentation and anything above a 7 in fit and finish gets 4 bonus points to make up for a low originality score.. Could do half points too..

just a spitball..

How about inviting the last years COTM winners to judge the following year?

Having looked at this a couple times over, I'd like to weigh in with my opinion(s) as follows:

1. Anyone is free to start a poll outside of COTM at any time.
2. That said, I do tend to be mostly in agreement with those who have questioned exactly what it is we're trying to fix.
[ If a general desire to have more polls to vote in, and propel more cars into the narrow spotlight at one time is the motive here, please allow me to use the UFC as an analogy. Any UFC fans here? I consider the time between about 2005 to about 2012-13 or so to be the heyday of the UFC (at least for me). I knew who the fighters were, and I knew a little about the fighters. I bought nearly every Pay Per View because I was genuinely interested in the fights. Rashad Evans, Chuck Liddell, Rampage Jackson, Lyoto Machida, Frankie Edgar, BJ Penn, Matt Hughes, Anderson Silva, Thiago Silva, Karo Parisyan, Randy Couture, just to name a few...those were my guys. And I was happy to shell out 50 bucks and throw a BBQ and watch these guys fight. And the fights mattered. Now...there's like a thousand fighters to keep track of, most having contrived personalities, if any at all, and other than way too many watered down pay per views that aren't worth the price of admission, there are free fights on TV three (3) times a week. Its not special or even that interesting anymore. Point being, we should at least give some serious reflection on what it is we're trying to do before potentially watering the site down with multiple contests and polls ].
3. A couple of the ideas floated on here for categories sound like fine ideas, however...
4. I think some of you might be overestimating the potential longevity of such polls, i.e. are we going to have "Engine Compartment of the Month" every month? As it is, I think an extraordinary engine compartment (or other feature) can go a long way in propelling a car into COTM / COTY.
5. I think some of you might be overestimating the stamina that people might have as far as running and judging multiple polls.
6. Who's to say that the COTM Winners would be inclined be admins for the purpose of COTY or COTM? And who's to say that their judgement is more sound than that of the collective 60 or so people who generally participate?
7. I appreciate the time that someone took to contemplate and then articulate a preliminary judging criteria, but I'd have to say that to my eye, at a glance, those criteria seem to favor stock, unmodified cars.
8. While anyone is free to start any poll outside of COTM at any time, one idea that I do stand against is that of a separate COTM judged by a panel of "judges". This would lead to the possibility of two (2) COTM Winners - a "people's choice" winner and a "judged" winner. So, which is more legitimate? We don't need that.
9. Speaking from experience, I must warn you not to overestimate your own endurance as it pertains to facilitating a program along the lines of COTM on a very sustained basis.
10. If anyone has a strong desire to give of there time and become more actively involved [with COTM], I can try to help make that happen. I don't know how JT would feel about it, but I'm not against it.

I like the concept - I really do. I see where you’re going with putting it on the more obscure “gems” to reveal themselves.
One inherent problem in the process as you’ve described it is that it seems to involve two(2) nomination threads (or two voting threads - however you want to look at it) . Either way, that’s a lot to squeeze into a 30 day period.

One shortcut might be to *try* letting people nominate themselves one month and see how that goes. I suspect that we’d probably not see many “new faces” as a result. I think the surest way to raise COTM’s profile is to connect it to all the forums - not just Auto Detailing and Appearance.

Another potential downside to allowing “self-nominations” could be a marked increase in quality control input on my part. Telling people that their car, or their nominee doesn’t quite cut it for COTM isn’t the most comfortable aspect of the job.