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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

MOD A Few announcements/questions from your mods! Please read!

Discussion in 'Fan Fiction and Writing Resource' started by mavjade , Dec 1, 2013.

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  1. mavjade

    mavjade Former Manager star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 10, 2005
    Hello fanficers!

    Bri and I have a few things we need to tell you, though it's not enough to do an entire 'State of the Fanfic Address' but needed to be said. We also have a question we want to ask you and a plea for help, so please read the entire thing!



    Colors for Challenges
    Previously only mod challenges and the occasional other challenge has been allowed to have colors for awards, but after quite a few people asking we have come up with a colors for challenges policy. That policy is as follows:

    1. Only 1 non-mod challenge where colors are eligible may be running at a time.
    If your challenge currently is colors eligible (i.e. the winner(s) get colors as a prize) and someone else wants to host a colors eligible challenge, it will be discussed how long your challenge will remain colors eligible if it is an ongoing challenge. If it's a one time challenge, the new host will be given a date as to when they may host their challenge, which will be sometime after the previous challenge has ended. If it's an ongoing challenge and the decided time is up, you may continue your challenge but winners will not receive colors.

    2. Only free standing challenges that would be open to writers of any era may be color eligible, no discussion threads or indices may host a challenge for colors.

    3. Color eligible challenges must have a clear winner. It can be discussed between the host and the mods how many winners there are and how long the colors may be given. The mods have the final decision on how many people and how long the winners will receive colors based on the complexity of the challenge.

    4. If your challenge only has a few people participating over a certain period of time, your challenge may become no longer colors eligible. (This will be discussed between you and the mods, before the decision is made.) The host of course would be free to continue the challenge without the winners getting colors.


    Awards
    We didn't get as many people responding to the awards survey awhile back as we hoped, but the feed back we did get was great! We got enough that we feel as though we can give the awards another shot with a few changes to previous years. Overwhelmingly people stated they wanted winter awards, fewer categories, a few fun categories, some kind of prizes and to keep the eras separate.

    Regarding Prizes
    We love this idea, but we are going to need your help. We can't give colors to all winners because even with fewer categories we would be looking at potentially >30 winners across the three eras and that's just too many. So we were hoping some of you could volunteer to do something for a winner: write a short story for a winner, make a icon, make cover art, do a drawing, ask someone you know to do any of these thing, etc. Creativity is great!
    If you would be willing to do so, please let us know here in the thread or via PM and how many things you would be willing to do. If you don't know what you want to do yet, that's fine, just let us know you plan on helping out with prizes!


    Running of the Awards
    Years ago the awards were run by the mods, but then the tides changed and the mods were simply around to make sure everything was on the up and up.

    As always, to keep it fair, you aren't allowed to be nominated in an era where you are volunteering. But with so few people really participating in the awards, we want everyone to participate. So with that in mind, we were thinking about going back to the old way and we would run the awards, but we want to know your opinion on this matter. This wouldn't be to take the awards out of everyones hands, but more to cut down on confusion with the move/truncation issue and to allow for maximum participation.

    As with most things having to do with this years awards, this could change in following years as fanfic continues to change.

    Again, please post your thoughts here in this thread or via PM.


    Thanks for reading, and as always we welcome thought, comments, rotten tomatoes, etc.

    ~Mav and Bri


    tl;only skimmed:
    1) If you want to do a challenge and want to award colors for the challenge, reread the guidelines before asking.
    2) If we are going to have prizes for awards, let us know if you are willing to volunteer to make/create something.
    3) Let us know if you are okay with the mods running the awards.
     
  2. Iverna

    Iverna Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 20, 2008
    I honestly don't mind who runs the awards - I'm fine with the mods doing it. In terms of prizes, I can volunteer to make some fic covers like these for the winners. The only caveat would be that I'll only design covers using existing pictures (official art, my fan art, or other people's fan art if they give their blessing), not draw or paint something new. I have a form of sorts for them to fill out, including links to pictures they want me to use, so I know what they want.
     
  3. mavjade

    mavjade Former Manager star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 10, 2005
    Thanks so much Iverna! I'll add you to the list! Using existing art is perfectly fine!
     
  4. Ceillean

    Ceillean Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 13, 2001
    I don't mind if the mods run the awards. I do have a question, though. Is this truncated issue ever going to be fixed? For the awards, it would be helpful to actually read a bit of the story. I know that authors post their excerpts but it would still be helpful to skim through the entire story. Which, obviously, isn't possible at this time.
     
  5. Briannakin

    Briannakin Former Manager star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Feb 25, 2010
    We are hoping the truncation issue gets fixed soon, I just asked Grimby if there has been an update (you guys are not the only ones in the dark). Hopefully we can tell you guys an update soon, but it has been one of those "one step forward, oh, poop, one step back" sort of things.

    We have figured out a way to deal with the truncated posts in terms of the awards. Basically we are saying that say fics that have been started/updated since the move are both eligible but for ones with truncated posts, authors that are nominated have to edit all the truncated posts if they have a back up so that voters can read the entire fic here.
     
  6. WarmNyota_SweetAyesha

    WarmNyota_SweetAyesha Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Aug 31, 2004
    I do not mind if the mods run the awards. Sounds like a fair decision on handling the truncation issue until :p @};- ... I will be very happy to write a fic-gift for the winner of an award. :D Very happy indeed. [face_dancing]
     
    earlybird-obi-wan likes this.
  7. Jedi_Lover

    Jedi_Lover Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2004
    So even if they have the story posted over in FFN, they will have to untruncate the entire story here to be eligible? That is no big deal for the 5K word story, but mine are usually over 100K words. Not fun. Also, if we were allowed to link to FFN then it would be so much easier to read then reading a post here and then scrolling past comments. I know there is a no link rule, but we can put them in our signatures and I can't see why we can't put at the beginning of a nominated story an Author's Note that says: "To see a full version of this story go to the link in my signature".

    No matter...I am willing to pay for an original art commission (up to two people in the drawing) for a winner. I talked to my friend VagabondX and he said he would work with a winner to draw what they want if possible. He does comic book type of art of people, not landscapes. Here is a sample: http://vagabondx.deviantart.com/art/Amazing-Friends-with-color-387727672
     
    Nyota's Heart likes this.
  8. Ceillean

    Ceillean Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 13, 2001

    What about stories that are endlessly long? That's asking a lot for someone to edit their entire story for the sake of the awards.
     
    Nyota's Heart and Jedi_Lover like this.
  9. Briannakin

    Briannakin Former Manager star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Feb 25, 2010
    Mav and I will discuss this. I see your points and we have talked before about allowing links. But there are also some issues with allowing links.

    EDIT: Mav and I agreed to links, but there will be some guidelines. We will get into them when we do the actual award threads.
     
  10. Juliet316

    Juliet316 37X Hangman Winner star 10 VIP - Game Winner

    Registered:
    Apr 27, 2005
    Will NSFFW be eligible for awards?
     
  11. moosemousse

    moosemousse CR Emeritus: FF-UK South star 6

    Registered:
    Oct 3, 2004
    I can make icons for the winners. I can do an icon for each category or a custom one or whatever really. What I'm thinking is that I make icons for all the categories as that'll be easy to do and then do a custom one for those who want it.
     
    Jedi_Lover likes this.
  12. Jedi_Lover

    Jedi_Lover Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 1, 2004
    What are the dates of eligibility for fanfic nominations? Wasn't the last awards ceremony in 2011? Are we going to allow stories that were completed after the last awards ceremony be eligible for nomination? Or are we just looking at stories written in 2013?
     
    Nyota's Heart likes this.
  13. earlybird-obi-wan

    earlybird-obi-wan Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Aug 21, 2006
    And I will do the artwork gifts
     
  14. Briannakin

    Briannakin Former Manager star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Feb 25, 2010
    No, you will have to pester the NSWFF mods for NSWFF-specific awards.

    We are keeping the old nomination rules, which are: any fic that has been started or updated since the last awards cut off date (which I believe was June or July 1st 2011) are eligible. We know that older fics (ones done after the last awards but before the move) are at a disadvantage because people's memories tend to suck, and because of the truncation issue, but they are still eligible. Keep in mind that we do allow reposts of stories, and we will allow reposts to be eligible, provided that they haven't been in (nommed or won) any previous awards.

    Thank you moosemousse and earlybird-obi-wan.
     
  15. mavjade

    mavjade Former Manager star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 10, 2005
    There will be a whole thread on eligibility, how they will run, etc forthcoming. We just really wanted to get an idea of how many people would be willing to help with prizes and the thoughts on us running the awards.
     
  16. Tarsier

    Tarsier Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2005
    I am okay with the mods running the awards. Actually, I've always thought that made a lot more sense, I just thought the mods got tired of doing after a while. As a side note, I never quite understood why the the people running the awards we're allowed to be nominated. I understand why someone in the running shouldn't be the only one counting votes in their category, but other than that I don't see the harm. Which is to say, I don't know about other people, but I'd be fine with allowing the mods' stories to be nominated in the upcoming awards.

    To me, winning an award is the prize. I think a badge (like they give for winning Nano) that could be posted on the winning stories or used as an avatar would be award enough for winners. (I suppose that's my way of saying I don't know of anything I could do to help out with prizes :p) On the topic of prizes - looking back at the other thread, there were some suggestions for "door prizes" to get people to participate/vote. Is that idea still being considered?
     
  17. Briannakin

    Briannakin Former Manager star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Feb 25, 2010
    I can't speak for Mav, but I'm MORE than fine with not being eligible for awards. It comes with the package of being a mod and we are ok with it, otherwise we wouldn't be mods. I love that you think we are honest people (and we are) but we just want to make this as fair and as transparent as possible :)

    We are definitely thinking of having random prizes for voters.
     
  18. mavjade

    mavjade Former Manager star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 10, 2005
    I am also more than okay not being eligible for awards, like Bri said, that kinda comes with being a mod.

    Yep, it is! :) This info will also be in the forthcoming thread about the awards.
     
  19. mrjop2

    mrjop2 Jedi Knight star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 6, 2007
    Sorry I did my survey so late, I guess I haven't checked back with the resources as often as I should. I am so glad that the awards are back on, and I will definitely participate. I like the idea of prizes to encourage participation. I think it's very important that good stories are acknowledged with these awards. It makes people feel good that they actually wrote something that people like. I'm for the mods running the awards, especially if we simplify the process a little. I really like the idea of volunteers to help create cover arts, character sketches, or something as simple as a fan fiction.

    To encourage more voting, I'm not sure what the old way is, I'd say allow people to vote in any saga (SWFF or NSWFF) and make it a rule that you can not vote for yourself. To further promote voting for all possible catagories, and does so according to the set rules, keep track of the names who do vote, if possible, and after the awards, as a thank you, maybe have a thread recognizing those who voted, and each weak promote two or three (depending on how many participates fully) of their stories a week (or month). A story of their choosing. It's like saying, "these people have took the time to vote or volunteer, and make these awards something special, and as a thank you, please check out these stories of theirs and leave kind comment and thank them for helping make these awards a success!" Nothing much, just a thread that updates every week or month with hyperlinks to their stories that they have chosen to be promoted for this special thank you thread.

    Don't know if that's possible, or if it would be too much work, but it could encourage some voting or volunteering.
     
  20. mavjade

    mavjade Former Manager star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 10, 2005
    Look for a thread on the awards soon-ish!


    These two things are already the case. The only stipulation was when people were volunteering to count the votes they couldn't be nomminated in the era in which they volunteered.

    Don't know if that's possible, or if it would be too much work, but it could encourage some voting or volunteering.[/quote]
    Interesting thought!
     
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