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

Krystal, I see the point in having lots of categories - one thing I did last summer was add about ten categories. I think I ended up with about two dozen in total.

However, the more awards you have, the more likely it is that people won't vote. It also "dilutes," if you will, what the award means. If you're going to say that the awards are to point out the truly exceptional stories posted here, then having forty categories can lessen the meaning of what we call exceptional.

This is just my opinion, of course, and is up for debate.

There are some categories that I don't think are necessary - for instance, I've seen through my work on the New Stories Index that there are comparatively few song fics and poems. While it's admirable when someone writes a really good song fic or poem, there aren't as many of those as there are, say, drama or romance. The volume of song fics and poems just doesn't warrant categories for each of them. Personally, I'd rather make a note in the vignette category that song fics and poems are also eligible there.

(By the way, the same thing goes for crossovers... I just don't see many of them.)

This last time there were categories for both angst and drama - angst is a subset of drama, so having a second category for it seemed redundant to me.

I was informed that the OC Awards are probably going to be happening this summer, so I think that most of the OC categories can be cut this time, for the sake of reducing redundancy. Along with this, we can probably cut the OC genre category. I like the interpretation of canon characters category, so I'd like to hang on to that one.

I noticed that there was at least one category that was cancelled due to no competition - I believe that it was in the era categories. I think we could also cut down on the number of categories by having only three eras listed - as the new boards are split - and have in-progress and completed categories for each. I agree that it's an excellent idea to recognize completed stories specifically.

I also really liked the "new author" award as well.

Another reason for cutting back on the number of categories is to make the show shorter. While spreading it over two nights could alleviate some of that, I'd really like to see something that can be done in three hours or less. There were some forty categories this last time, and if you posted a new one every five minutes (which is pretty fast for people to be able to reply and such), you'd come up to over three hours. Ten minutes between announcements is more reasonable, and that's almost seven hours.

So yeah, that's almost a full working day - little much to spend in an awards ceremony.

We have smaller awards shows that handle much more specific things, like the OC Awards. While I don't think all of the categories from the big awards should be passed off, some of them can be farmed out and help take the workload off those running the major awards.

Mel

 

There aren't many songfics? I write something like two a month, or more! Check out the list in my profile. Most of my stuff is songfics.

Dana

 

Dana - I know that there are quite a few song fics out there, but I don't know if it warrants its own category. They'd also qualify as vignettes, and whatever genre they happen to fit. Compared to the volume of the other genres, I'd be more willing to cut the song fic category than, say, romance.

I don't want to discourage people from nominating song fics in the slightest - I think it's a perfectly legitimate genre, though they have a tendency to irritate me for various reasons I won't discuss here - but I think it would be better to put them in with vignettes. I just think it's too specific for its own category.

(Sorry if I'm not making sense... It's been a long day. )

Mel

 

I think they could count as vignettes, too, 'cause most of the time, they are.

However, I feel the need to point out that "All That I've Been Living For" may have been a songfic and a one-poster, but it wasn't a vignette. There were several scenes in it, a lot of which were the size of individual viggies.

And there are other stories, like "Not Strong Enough To Say No", that are songfics but aren't vignettes. "Not Strong Enough" consisted of several posts. I can't remember the exactly number. But it isn't a viggie.

Dana

 

Well, you could probably enter them in whatever category they qualify for. If they're a viggie, enter them in the viggie thing. If they're a regular sized fic, enter them in that category. My short fic, "I Stand Alone" was inspired by the song "I Stand Alone" by Godsmack, and it just entered in the normal short, original fic category.

 

Would it be too much pressure on the person running the awards to keep a running Winner's list in the first post as well as posting the announcement within the ceremony? I know that I missed the entire ceremony, as it was held way too late my time, and I quickly grew frustrated wading through all the comments between announcements.

 

Daughter_of_YubYub: (I hope that's your username, anyway) No I don't think it'll be too much a hassle. And we should edit in even if it is a hassle. One thing I wanted to see was a running list of winners, which I didn't find until way back in the last couple of pages. Then I missed the link, too, so that added to some nerves and frustration.

Aunecah

 

D_o_Y - I think that's a good idea. The awards were held at 3am for me, and trawling through that thread was a bit of a chore. It doesn't necessarily have to be done by the same person who's presenting the awards - You could get up a system where one person started the thread and then another posted immediatly afterwards, starting the ceremony. The first person could then keep a running list of the awards in their first post. The benefits of this is it would allow people who logged on part way through the awards would be able to catch up much quicker.

If that's too complicated, a complete list of the winners edited into the first post after the ceremony is over would be nearly as good.

 

First of all, best of luck to Aunecah, Kit, and Mel. I know you?re taking on an enormous job, and I?m very confident you?ll be able to do it brilliantly.

Thank you to those who offered me their thanks, three cheers, and a butterbeer! I appreciate all the gratitude that has been given, and I readily return it.

There is some fantastic awards discussion going on here. You will have to excuse me if I bow out of the conversation, as I?ve been here before and just want a holiday from anything award-related for a while. As always, I?ll be in the background if anyone wants to ask me a question, or when Kit isn?t around, mod help is needed.

Good luck, and thank you!

Am


EDIT: speeling.

 

I know that there are quite a few song fics out there, but I don't know if it warrants its own category. They'd also qualify as vignettes, and whatever genre they happen to fit.

i agree with mely. but i think poetry should still be kept in. the oc stories can have their own awards (i visited that thread after it was first posted and i like the idea). i stayed through about half of the first part. i remember about 40 pages total which was the whole ceremony when i checked the next morning.

~aeryn

 

The problem with the poetry category is that it's even rarer than song fics. I just checked through the index I keep, and there have been twelve posted since 15 March. Several of them were from the same authors.

I'm not trying to say that poetry isn't a valid genre, because it is. I just don't see it as a genre major enough (in terms of frequency of occurrence on the boards) to warrant its own category here. I'm perfectly willing to put poetry in with vignettes, however.

Mel

 

What if you add the viginettes, poetry, and songfics into the same category? I see that problem with that is that combined, the three might make up an enormus amount of fics and they may get left out.

 

I think that's a great idea, KrystalBlaze. I know I started with writing viggies and there are a lot of people who don't want to write epic-long fan fics, and prefer writing viggies/song-fics/poems.

~Inyri

 

I think that's what I said when I brought up the subject - vignettes and poetry can be nominated in any category. (Within reason, of course... )

 

viggies and poetry on the same cat? if it's not too much to have them together like that, i like the idea. songfics will be in there, right?

~aeryn

 

I think the paragraphs should be omitted, since not everyone has a paragraph about their story, and that's not really fair. I liked the structure of the awards, but they went on way too long.

I think the awards should be presented like an awards ceremony. List the nominees, then say, the winner is dadadadada.

I did love the "entertainment" It was pretty fun.

~Rogue