porkenbeans wrote:Maybe someone can explain all of this to me.
I can understand recognizing someone for there valuable contribution in making a map. This is a good idea. But,
It seems to me that, the "most noble contributor", "honorable contributor", "cartographic commendation", and "cartographic distinction", awards are all pretty much the same thing.
No, they're not.... think of it like the Oscars, where you get awards for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Picture, Best Original Score, Best Original Song... they're all similar, but distinctly different!
There are two levels of award for making a general contribution to the foundry - 'Honourable' and 'Most Noble'. Think of this as the best Supporting Actor and best Actor equivalents; although the Most Noble award will be more akin to a Special Award.
There are also two levels of award for making a map - 'Achievement' and 'Commendation'. The 'achievement' award will be given to the up-to-two people who earn the current mapmaking medal. The purpose of the 'commendation' award is to give recognition to people who are credited for working on maps, but who are not elibible for the official CC medal. This of this as the best Song and the best Score...
The 'distinction' award will be to recognise particularly successful or groundbreaking maps; this could be equivalent to any map that might earn a distinction such as Best Cinematography, Best Foreign Language Film, or Best Documentary Feature etc.
The tutorial award and the conquest award are pretty self-explanatory.
The real purpose of having the breadth of awards/medals/icons, and the slight overlap with current CC medals is to bring together all the names into a single Roll of Honour and a permanent Hall of Fame. You're correct in saying that there is no need for the double-award for people who already receive mapmaking/contest medals, but they will be included on the Roll of Honour for completeness. For sake of continuity, it may be desireable to have an alternative icon with a style that corresponds with the full range.