Voting for the ENnie Awards closes today. One Geek To Another has been nominated for Best Blog, but--as in any competition--there can be only one ultimate winner. While I'd appreciate your vote, it seemed an appropriate time to tackle a difficult topic: being a good loser.

The adage says, it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game. Winning by cheating, or while making the game miserable for the rest of the players may still be winning, but in the long run, it's often a hollow victory.

I also believe that, again in the long run, how you win or lose is as important as how you play the game.

We've all played games with folks who are poor losers. Sometimes it's a maturity-level thing--children get very wrapped up in their recreational activities and sometimes don't have the emotional tools to deal appropriately with losing a game. Thankfully, as they age, most folks learn good sportsmanship both during and after a game, even when the results are important to them, making temper tantrums, table-overturning and emotional outbursts rarer as the age and maturity-level of the players increases.

Other times, however, the poor sportsmanship is more subtle (but no more fun to deal with).

A year ago, there was no such thing as One Geek To Another. Created just after Gen Con 2009, One Geek was started as a way to address etiquette and ethics topics for the geek community, including--but not limited to--the gaming community. Over the past 11 months, we've answered dozens of letters, publicly and privately, and touched on some hard topics, all in the name of smoothing some of the social rough-edges that we geeks are infamous for.

In honor of One Geek To Another being nominated for an ENnie Award in the category of Best Blog (please consider voting, if you haven't already) I thought I'd bring out our first year's worth of topics (27 in all!) in one easy-to-scan summary. Each topic contains a hyperlink to that particular episode, and the full list can be accessed through the One Geek To Another entry in the left hand menu.

Feel free to browse our past episodes, and as always, if you have a question for One Geek, or a topic you'd like to see covered, feel free to write OneGeek@jesshartley.com. I'd love to hear from you!

Introduction and Introductions - The Premiere Episode of One Geek To Another addresses proper introduction etiquette and why it's important even in casual settings (like conventions or the gaming table.)

How Do We Split Up The Party? - A reader writes in for advice on how to ask a problematic player to leave their gaming group.

Dear One Geek To Another,
I'm making plans for a convention that is almost a full year away. I've got three friends (one Single Friend and a Couple) who would like to share a room with me at this convention. However, circumstances are such that I cannot room with all of these people at once.

The Couple wants to stay at Hotel A, which is connected to the convention center because they'll be costuming and don't want to deal with the walk in full costume in the middle of summer.

The Single Friend and I would prefer to stay at Hotel B, which is a couple of city blocks away, generally nicer, and slightly cheaper than Hotel A. Single Friend is not comfortable rooming with a couple (it's not a problem with this specific couple, but he won't room with people in a relationship).

I'm not really seeing any way out of having to make a choice of one or the other, and all things considered I'd rather room with Single Friend than Couple.  My question is this: How do I break it to the Couple that I'm not going to be able to share a room with them?

Signed, Inn or Out

Dear Inn or Out,

When breaking plans (even tentative ones) in any circumstance, the key is to do so is two-fold: Clearly and Early.

You've heard of gaming geeks, of computer geeks, movie geeks and book geeks - but how about a self-proclaimed karaoke geek? (*slowly raises her hand and hopes she's not alone...*)

Think about it - what other pastime combines such an intensive combination of geekitude?  Music geekery, improv, technology and performing arts, all usually wrapped up in a super-social bundle and served with a generous side dish of alcohol and/or self-mockery.  It's a geek fest, waiting to happen!

But, like any other social situation, there are (often unspoken) rules of etiquette that hold domain over the karaoke realm. Those who wander into these dens of reverie sometimes pick up the prevailing social niceties by osmosis, but for new comers, it can be a confusing situation ripe with the possibility for social faux pas.  Thankfully, while the rules may differ from location to location, a few basic pointers will get you through most karaoke outings without stepping on anyone's toes.