What is your preference for a player to get a commendation?

[Tizzy_Tormentor]

It goes to the one who left the best impression, so it varies. As a rule, I try to comm DPS, the underappreciated heroes (at least ones that can dish out some sick damage)

-If someone is cracking jokes and has a good attitude, it will often go to them, at least if their performance was decent.
-If everyone is silent, I will give it to DPS who did the most, unless the Tank/Healer did something particularly impressive. If I am also a DPS, I will usually give it to my partner if they were good.
-If the healer is going balls to the wall on their DPS while keeping everyone up, will likely give it to them.
-Tank rotating his cooldowns well and keeping his buffs/debuffs up, may give it to them.
-Oh, a Bard that sings or a Dragoon that actually combo's Ring of Thorns are in the serious contender for getting a comm, I almost never see it in the DF (though I sometimes see BRDs singing something like Ballad when no one needs it and where Requiem would be much more effective)
-If no one did a particularly good job and were silent the whole run, I generally won't comm anyone.

I almost never give comms based on names or appearances, though I did give one to a Highlander wearing shades named Arnold Schwarzenegger purely based on that fact.

[Astyrah]

in no particular order:

As a Damage Dealer
- i give it to my co-DPS who did the most damage and made the run faster
- i give it to the healer who manages to keep the tank and the party alive in case the tank decided he wants to pull everything and tank it before the next boss room
- i give it to the tank who knows how to position the boss effectively or the mobs effectively which help ease some gimmicks/mechanics

As a Healer
- i give it to the tank who knows what his tank stances do and when to dance
- i give it to the BRD who sings foe's
- i give it to the co-healer who would dps and not just sit there and spam heals
- i give it to the best DPS if the rest of the party is bad

[Train88]

I don't have rules for commendation. It means i'm appreciative or supportive of that person. So if someone knew the mechanics very well, or if it was someone's obvious first time (for effort), i'll commend for caring.

[Canadane]

If I'm not on my tank, I give it to a tank that lives up to my tanking standards and expectations, which is honestly rather high.
If you've tanked for me and gotten my comm (and somehow know who gave it to you) you should feel honoured!

Otherwise it's someone that showed great ability in using their class. This can easily not apply to a team and I do sometimes go without giving a commendation.

[Heliantheae]

I give it to the friendliest one or one who can make me laugh. If I get a bunch of mutes then I give it to whoever I feel like. If the other DPS can out DPS me I give it them or if we move at an nice I'll give it to the tank or healer. Unless it's the Vault, I always comm the healer in the Vault.

[Catwho]

My rule of thumb has been this: All other things being equal, assuming that everyone performed at a base level of competency
- Healer coms tank
- Tank coms healer
- DPS com each other

If someone has done an especially great job, or the person by this measure did an especially poor job, I'll commend someone else. But this rule of them holds up pretty well, I've found.

[Dragon_Sanders]

As a BLM as well as a new, most time I give it to healer just because I might have made them suffering additional work, for my unskilled job.
Sometimes healers are in poor condition, or I really have not made obvious mistake, or just because others are more attractive, I may consider others, such as tanks who pull steadily or players who give useful advice/encouragement to the news.
Anyway, I do not know so much about who "play well", so it's unnecessary to trust my judgement...

And one more thing, when I play the dps role (my second job is tank), I really don't care if I receive a commendation.

[JumperX]

my comm goes like this:

- if someone say -oh a new player- and start to make retarded emotes such as /shocked, /panic, /disappointed while we haven't even started moving because we are waiting for our healer buffs ( the green leaf can be a great deceiver ), they automatically get no comm.
- If someone start to auto-attack and start to blame our healer because they didn't get heals, and the dps didn't dodge the AOE, they get no comm.
- If they healer starts to auto-heal or stay in cleric stance the first 10 mins and doesn't do a good job healing, gets no comm
- if dps start to attack while I am pulling, they get no comm.

I think the hardest times were when I got two excellent dps and a healer. I understand some people don't start to talk in the first 5 mins or so. I have done that. Sometimes, you need to warm up to the people you are running the dungeon with. I got a very quiet party until we started to kill some mobs. They didn't talk much, but by running and doing a good job, we bonded and started to talk.

I wish I could give comm to all of them. It was a tough decision, but I ended up giving the comm to the Monk because he knew when to provide his AOE skills, dodge everything, use DOTs, how to position himself according to his skills, don't stand right behind or in front of me (I got a few dps that even when I re position myself, they decided to stand in front of the mobs), and allow me to pull the mobs before going crazy and attacking everything.

[Atoli]

I'm kind of amused that people are offended that some of us give comms based on our own arbitrary rules, when they do the same
I see the concept of "healer comms tank, tank comms healer, DPS each other" again and again in this thread, and I have to ask:
How is that any fairer?
Now I'll be honest, I'm fairly greedy for comms (although I'd never ask for them directly), so I perform to the best of my ability while also being friendly, open and communicative, explaining things and all that.
If most players actually followed the concept mentioned above, I'd never get more than 1 commendation per run, and even the most horrible failing and rude player would get exactly the same amount.
Why should I bother to do my best if being a detriment to the party gets awarded the same?
How is that fair in your eyes?

[Rawrz]

If the dungeon went smoothly order of general commendation:
1) If new player(bonus) , commend new player.
2) Commend if exceptionally engaged and friendly.
3) Commend Tank if on Healer and reverse. Commend other DPS if on DPS.

If anyone has a poor attitude, I'll move on to the next person on the list. Most partys start on 3, because no new players enter the dungeon, and no one usually talks, so you can't really gauge their attitude. That's how my commendation system works.