Awards The late-2002/early-2003 Fanfiction Awards Ceremony --- Discussion in progress.

I can understand wanting to see first and second, but when there are five stories in a category and you post all but one of them, that gets really disheartening. My opinion is that first, second, and third shouldn't be posted - if we had fifteen nominees in each category, I'd be for it too, but with so few in some categories, it's probably best not to list off all the stories but one as having placed.

 

However, there is a matter of taste and discretion when it comes to the host being eligible for awards.

I think its simply because I've never liked the idea of someone basically giving the award to themselves. I know they aren't voting for themselves, but the idea of someone virtually opening the envelop and going "Oh! I won" has always struck me as a little strange.

I guess a way of getting around that is to have multiple presenters. Which I would be cool with.

How would that work? I'm afraid I'm not following you.

From memory I think two awards categories were announced per day. I'm not quite sure and I'd have to dig it up again, something I don't have time to do at the moment.

Kithera

 

Kit', did you mean these awards presented by Talon Squad Leader? They're the first ones I can remember, way back in 2000. As I read back through this thread, though, I see that the entire ceremony was stretched over a period of almost a month and then died before completion. I don't think following this example is a good idea.

I think Gandolf the Grey did an awards show, too, in late 2001.

 

I think having the awards over a week, or maybe a weekend, would work out a little better. That way, everyone actually gets a chance to show up, noone has to stay awake long hours, and it doesn't end up stretching for a month(Which would, undoubtably, kill them the way Jane fears).

 

If they ARE held in one day, not over an extended period, they should be held earlier than 8PM board time. That's really late for a LOT of people.

The Academy Awards are actually held over two days. All the technical awards are given the night before, unless it's something big, like Special Effects (GO LOTR!) or Sound Editing. We don't have to sit through those, though. I'd kinda be like giving an award to the guy who programmed the markup codes so we could put smiley faces in our posts. Very cool thing to have done, but not relevant to us.

Dana

 

Plus, if they're held that late at night, people are a lot more susceptible to emotional stress from anything that might go wrong. Has anybody else noticed that it's easier to deal with small and big emotional stresses during the day than it is during the nighttime?

 

Yes, as a mother, I can testify to the fact that it is much easier to deal with stress when you are well-fed and well-rested. Most people are tired by nightfall, whether they realize it or not, and things that wouldn't ordinarily bother them during the day can be major catastrophes if they happen at night.

 

I agree that the ceremony should be held earlier. I missed the entire six hour ceremony because it didn't even start until 11 pm my time. Actually, I agree stretching the awards is probably the best option, since anytime we hold them will be the middle of the night for someone. Just because a time zone doesn't exactly dominate the community doesn't mean we should leave the people in it high and dry.

 

I would rather have the awards start sometime early in the evening (say: five or six) than at eight o' clock. By that time I'm usually sleepy and only want to go to bed - and considering that the awards are going to take at least a couple of hours to get through, I'll miss at least part of it. (This, of course, is completely my scenario. )

As far as the ineligiblity/eligibility of the host to have awards: I'm with Mel on this one, though I can see where you're coming from, Kit'. Having the host's awards be nullified simply because (s)he's hosting the show is kind of counterproductive, IMHO. I think we should have the people counting the votes to be different than the host herself/himself - namely, it would be the best if we got the nominations and then pick authors who hadn't even been nominated to do the vote-counting. Mel's idea of bringing in people from out of the fanfic community to do the counting also works.

Secondly, Mel said something about it not being allowed to have a dummy username for the awards, itself, whose password will be revealed later to the general public just in case it wants to recheck the voting methods. Why

Aunecah

 

Could you imagine what could happen to a sock with an open password? I know fanfic people wouldn't do this, but say we had a sock named fred and we opened that sock to the JC community to check votes.

A member comes in and gets Fred's password and logs on as our vote counting sock. He then goes mental with flames and trolling and so forth. In the meantime while the admins are trying to catch it and IP ban it, someone else logs on as Fred. They then get caught as the alledge spammer/troller.

Aside from my 'worst case senario' the idea of an open sock with several people in possession of the password has been outlawed by the modsquad for some time now.

*

I wouldn't mind so much if the host won something and someone else stepped in and gave the award. I have just always thought it looked bad when someone opens the envelop to see who won only to announce it was themself.

Kithera

 

I agree that it's a little inappropriate for the host to present their own awards. The problem could easily be solved by the presenter being someone who does not have a current fic, or maybe a mod. If someone wants an awards ceremony and hosts one, it is also likely that they would like an award too and that people who would enter the thread, seeing that it was made by their favourite author would also vote for them. This would skew the entire system.

 

Hm, I'm with Imzadi. I think truly that to prevent any accusations, the ideal is that the host either has no current fics or announces that s/he is not eligible for nomination.

And maybe if the awards weren't quite so stretched out...I know poor Amidala got hit by Darth RL, but December nominations to May announcements is 6 months! Co-hosts might work better for this big "Reader's Choice," so that if one gets hit by RL, the other can carry on.

I love the way that links and segments of story were posted though. Amidala did a lot of work and it shows. Three cheers and a glass of butterbeer!

 

Yikes, stretched over a month!? That's way too long. I know I'd certainly lose interest in it before the end!

However, I can see making it a two-night event. We could have, say, the genre and length-based awards one night and then the timeperiod, best author, and whatever I've forgotten the next night. How does that sound?

Dana, I definitely agree that it should start earlier. It was a Friday night for me, and I'd been up since fairly early that morning. I didn't have the energy to stay up the whole time, even though I was nominated in one of the later categories.

Again, I like Seb's idea of having multiple presenters. Having a different one for every category seems a little unwieldy (actually, I'm imagining myself trying to coordinate this and ripping my hair out when someone doesn't show up... ), but I think it's definitely reasonable to bring in new people to present. Perhaps for, oh, I don't know, the genre categories, we could have volunteers presenting the awards?

Okay, at the risk of opening up another can of worms... can we please resolve who's doing the hosting, so whoever it is can get moving on the planning? As far as I can tell, Kit', Aunecah, and I are the ones who want to - would the three of us being the hosts/coordinators be acceptable for everyone?

Mel

EDIT: I can spell... right...

 

I agree, let's get this resolved. If you need my vote for the three of you together, you definitely have it.

 

I'm all for the multiple runners you mentioned. Heck, if it makes it easier for you people to get done faster, toss together a few more deputies, if you can

 

Perfectly agreeable to me; anyone willing to take on such a completely thankless task deserves nothing but gratitude.

May I say, BTW, that when I ducked out of here a few days ago, it felt like I was leaving an acid bath - so it's good to see that there's been some major resolution of differences.

And may I add one observation? It takes real class to offer up an apology - especially when there is plenty of crow to go around.

Very classy, Ladies and Gents. Nicely done.

CYN

 

Actually, I think three is plenty - too many cooks spoil the broth. The only point where you'd want to have more than that, potentially, is for vote counting, where you just don't want to make a mistake. When that happens, you want it to be right, and you can't have too many people verifying counts.

Mel

 

[face_shocked] [face_shocked] [face_shocked] Man, I go out of town, and when I finally get back and have time to check this thread, I find out I won an award! [face_shocked] I didn't expect that at all. Thanks to everyone who voted for me! Congrats to all the other winners and nominees! And Am, thanks again for doing this!

 

I think you three would be good cohosts. And the idea of presenters is cool too, just as long as they aren't running in the categories they're presenting for.

And stretching it sounds great too. Maybe less categories? There were a lot this time, but I know that was because we had created a thread about it and that's what was agreed upon.

Tae

 

I don't mind co-hosting, particularly with Melyanna and Auencah. I think it would be good to get a few people together and get a range of different ideas - not to mention sharing the workload.


Hugs
Kithera

 

I'd like to support the idea of posting the results over a two day period as it seems this way more people would be able to pop in. The time difference does make things difficult - no doubt about that. I also think it's a good idea to have a team doing the job rather than one person.

I personally liked the idea of having us write little paragraphs detailing what we liked about the stories/characters, but I think it might be better not to keep that idea. I know a lot of people found it a bit off-putting, and many just didn't bother.

I'm happy with the first, second and third placings - but I agree it's unfair to have a situation where one person misses out. Maybe we could just have first and second.

And yes - it should be just a fun thing. There are a lot of excellent stories out there that didn't get voted for at all. One thing I'd like to mention is that, speaking as someone who has taught English and Communications, it's great to see writers developing their skills by posting on these boards. I've seen quite a number beginning a little shakily and then improving out of sight - and that's cool. It certainly proves the old adage that practice makes perfect. I think all the writers should give themselves a pat on the back.

 

I really liked the paragraphs too, and I only got one. Maybe instead of posting them they could be sent via PM to the authors?

Tae

 

I've been following this, but didn't want to say anything because of the tensions, but bravo on getting back on track, guys. And a big "GOOD JOB!" to Ams on doing the awards, I don't believe I ever told her that.

As for the awards, I like HandmadienErtaie's view with the paragraphs being sent via PM.

EDIT:

In concern to the numbers of catergories, I think the number was perfect. It spanned all inches of the boards.

 

Krystal- I disgree. I know quite a few people (actually, all of them) are very unhappy with the awards ceremony.

The main reason is the number of categories. Simply put, there are far too many of them. Do we really need an award for "Best Supporting OC Male Character in a JA Story" (or something like that)? It's just a tad too specific.

Let's face it- not everyone is going to win. And just being nominated should be an honor in itself. I can see best Comedy, Best Drama, Best Action, and Best Fan Fic overall. I can see Best Male/Female Characters (both original and OC), as well as supporting characters. I can see best author and best collaboration. I just don't see the need for best song or best poem.

Another major reason why everyone I've talked to about these awards ceremonies is that there are too many "clicques". Granted, we can't force people to vote, but people were certainly intimidated by the sheer volume of categories.

I know I was.

With that being said, I think Ami did an excellent job carrying out the awards. The comments for each author or his/her fic were tasteful, and the markup codes made it look sharp. Listing the top three vote receivers was also a superb idea.

I just think it was a little excessive. Perhaps an excercise in moderation would make the awards a bit more prestigious.

Like I said before- not everyone can win. The only way to make something prestigious is by making it hard to attain. To use a current example- the Stanley Cup is often lauded as the best trophy in Sports, simply because it is so difficult to get.

 

I agree on decreasing the amount of categories.

But I'm not quite sure what you mean about "I know quite a few people(actually, all of them) are very unhappy with the awards ceremony"

Do you mean that you know all the people who are unhappy with the awards ceremony, personally? I wouldn't think that's possible, unless *very* few people were unhappy, but I'd be willing to accept that.

Or do you mean that you know that *all* people in the boards are unhappy with the awards? Because that would be a downright lie. Just checking for accuracy, and being able to understand what you're talking about.