Awards 2017 Fan Fiction Awards | The Complete Rule Book

2017 FAN FICTION AWARDS – THE COMPLETE RULE BOOK​

This thread is where you will find every detail of the rules for the 2017 awards. There will be a condensed version of these rules in each of the specific threads that we will be using for the different phases of the process.

Contents

1. Overview
2. Calendar
3. General Eligibility Criteria
4. The List of Eligible Stories and Era Labels
5. Categories and Definitions
6. Eligibility details for specific categories
7. Nominations
8. Nominees going to the voting round
9. Excerpts and synopses
10. Voting
11. Colours for Nominations and Colours for Votes
12. Campaigning
13. Prizes
14. Specific Rules for Volunteers and Unforeseen Situations
15. FAQ

 

OVERVIEW

The 2017 awards process is NOT split by era. All stories will be competing against each other regardless of era, except in some specific categories, namely the five timeframe categories and the Best Author category.

The first phase of the awards is Nominations. This is when any and all users can nominate the stories and authors that will compete in the awards.

The second phase is Excerpts. Nominated authors are asked to supply excerpts of their work to give voters an idea about their writing.

The third phase is Voting. No one needs an explanation about this, right?

The fourth phase is the Awards Ceremony. We announce a few winners every day, so as to let people time to congratulate them.

The last phase is Prizes. Fanficcers usually volunteer to supply prizes for the winners, and we distribute them following the method described here.

There will be individual threads for each part of the awards (Nominations, Excerpts and Voting) along with instructions on how to proceed with that part.

Reminder: the JCF’s Terms of Service and the rules spelled out in the Fanfic FAQ apply to the awards process like they apply to everything else.

The awards volunteer team for 2017 consists of:

A Blind Prophet – nominations and votes assistant
Anedon – prizes assistant
Chyntuck – overseer
divapilot – excerpts assistant
Findswoman – excerpts host
Kahara – nominations and votes assistant
Raissa Baiard – awards ceremony host
RX_Sith – excerpts assistant
yahiko – nominations and votes assistant

 

CALENDAR

The awards calendar for 2017 is as follows:

Saturday 25 February – Friday 03 March: The Awards Guide thread, the Complete Rule Book and the List of Eligible Stories are posted for users to familiarise themselves with the process.

Saturday 04 March – Sunday 19 March 2017: Nominations are open.

Monday 20 March – Friday 24 March: Short break to PM authors for excerpts.

Saturday 25 March – Sunday 09 April: Excerpts are posted.

Monday 10 April – Sunday 23 April: Voting is open.

Tuesday 25 April: The awards ceremony begins.

 

GENERAL ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

Eligible stories are stories that were started OR updated at least once by the author from 01 January 2016 at 00:00:01 PST to 31 December 2016 at 23:59:59 PST. All eligible stories and authors are listed in the List of Eligible Stories, which also includes details of the stories and authors that are not eligible. You can read more about the list here.

• Only stories posted on the JCF are eligible for the awards.

• Stories are not eligible for a category that they have won in the (however distant) past, even if it was era-specific. However, these stories can still compete normally in every other category.

• Reposts of truncated stories are eligible under the same conditions as new stories, with the same restrictions for those that already won an award.

• Multi-author stories are also eligible under the same conditions as any other story. In the case where an author who is not eligible at all for the awards has co-authored a fic during the eligibility dates, the story itself is eligible provided that there are 3 eligible authors for every non-eligible author contributing to the story.

• If you started your story before the move and it is still truncated, it is highly recommended that you either fix it or have a link to another site with the story by the time voting starts. Failing to do so means others cannot read your entire work and may be less likely to vote for you. If there is a link, the version of the story on that site must be compliant with the Jedi Council TOS.

• In the case where an author posted the same story twice in 2016, only the second posting is eligible.

• Stories that were deleted by the author are not eligible.

• Story threads that were locked by the mods for violating the ToS and/or the Fanfic forum rules are not eligible.

• There are specific provisions for eligibility in some categories; see here for details.

• Authors are not eligible for an era-specific Best Author category if they won Best Author in that era since 2012. If they won that category in 2011 or earlier, they are eligible again.

• Writers who were active only as co-authors in 2016 are not eligible for the author categories.

• There are specific individuals who forewent eligibility in one or more categories. These will be listed as such in the list of eligible fics.

• Any user (reader or writer) who was active in 2016 is eligible for the Best Reviewer category, except the overseer, the three volunteers who will be counting nominations and votes, and former winners. You will be provided with a list of ineligible users for Best Reviewer in the List of Eligible Stories.

If you are an author and would like one or more of your stories not to be eligible for the awards in one or more categories, please PM The Golden Yoda to let us know.

 

THE LIST OF ELIGIBLE STORIES AND ERA LABELS

You will find here the complete list of stories and authors that are eligible for the 2017 awards. The stories are listed alphabetically by author, and under each author’s name by era and alphabetically by title.

Please note that multi-story threads are broken down into their constituent parts in the List of Eligible Stories and each story is listed separately. The only case where you will find a series thread listed as a single entry in the index is drabble/flash-fic/poetry threads where every single item cannot be listed individually.

Each story is labelled by era. The eras are defined as follows:

• Before – the period that precedes the beginning of TPM (33 BBY or earlier)

• PT – the period that extends from the beginning of TPM to before the beginning of SW: Rebels (32 BBY to 6 BBY)

• OT – the period that extends from the beginning of SW: Rebels to before the beginning of Bloodline in the New Canon continuity (from 5 BBY to 27 ABY), or from the beginning of SW: Rebels to the end of RotJ in the Legends continuity (from 5 BBY to 4 ABY).

• ST – the period that extends from the beginning of Bloodline (28 ABY) to the end of episode IX in the New Canon continuity. Stories that feature the following TFA characters in a prominent role get this label regardless of timeframe: Rey, Finn, Poe, BB-8, Kylo Ren, Hux, Phasma, Snoke, Maz Kanata and Lor San Tekka.

• Beyond – the period that begins after the end of episode IX in the New Canon continuity, or after the end of RotJ (5 ABY) in the Legends continuity.

Some stories are given multiple era labels. These are:

1. Stories that are timeframe-neutral. When the contents of the story give no indication or only a partial indication as to the time period in which it takes place, it is labelled with all the relevant eras that match the tag chosen by the author.

2. Stories that are deliberately continuity-neutral. If the author states deliberately and explicitly in the opening post that s/he chose to write the story in such at way that it may be read as taking place in either the New Canon or the Legends continuity, and if this matches the actual contents of the story, the story is labelled with all the eras that apply to it.

3. Stories in which the New Canon continuity and the Legends continuity explicitly co-exist as parallel universes. This does not include stories that merely ‘borrow’ a character from one continuity into the other.

4. Stories that span more than one of these eras through their chronological progression, time-travel or flashbacks. These are labelled with as many eras as apply to them, as long as a substantial portion of the story (25% or more) that takes place in those eras was posted by the eligibility cut-off date. The exception to this is ultra-short stories (less than 500 words) which are labelled only with the here-and-now era. Drabble/flash-fic threads are labelled with all the tags that apply to them.

Examples:

• A story where Kylo Ren time-travels from TFA to the KotOR period, and that takes place in parallel in both eras, is labelled [Before] [ST].

• A story that takes in Beyond but includes a substantial flashback to ANH is labelled [OT] [Beyond].

• A story that takes during ANH but includes only a brief flashback to the Clone Wars is labelled only [OT].

• A story where the author states his/her intention to start during TPM and continue all the way to RotJ, but where no chapters taking place in 5 BBY or later have been posted by 31 December 2016, is labelled only [PT].

• A story that takes place in its entirety during the NJO period is labelled [Beyond].

• A story that takes place in the LotF continuity and merely ‘borrows’ Finn is labelled [Beyond].

• A story that involves parallel universes in which both the Legends continuity and the New Canon continuity take place is labelled [ST] [Beyond].

In the timeframe categories, stories are eligible in any era with which they are labelled in the List of Eligible Stories.

If you have reasons to believe that a story is missing from the list, please PM The Golden Yoda before nominations are open and we’ll (hopefully) provide a valid explanation as to why it shouldn’t be there.

If you have reasons to believe that a story was given the wrong era label(s) within the framework of the definitions above, please PM The Golden Yoda before nominations are open. The volunteers will re-check the story’s era label(s) against the story’s contents and make necessary adjustments. If your story was given multiple era labels, you may ask for one or more of those to be removed as long as your story remains labelled with at least one era.

If you wish to withdraw one or more stories from eligibility for one or more categories, or if you wish to be removed from eligibility altogether, please PM The Golden Yoda before nominations are open.

 

CATEGORIES AND DEFINITIONS

In the following definitions, the word ‘canon’ is used exclusively to refer to the New Canon.

Timeframe categories

Best Story in Before – The best story that takes place wholly or primarily before the beginning of TPM (in 33 BBY or earlier). Any story labelled [Before] in the List of Eligible Stories can be nominated for this category.

Best Story in PT – The best story that takes place wholly or primarily between the beginning of TPM and the beginning of SW: Rebels (from 32 BBY to 6 BBY). Any story labelled [PT] in the List of Eligible Stories can be nominated for this category.

Best Story in OT – The best story that takes place wholly or primarily between the beginning of SW: Rebels and the beginning of Bloodline in the New Canon continuity (from 5 BBY to 27 ABY), or until the end of RotJ in the Legends continuity (from 5 BBY to 4 ABY). Any story labelled [OT] in the List of Eligible Stories can be nominated for this category.

Best Story in ST – The best story that takes place wholly or primarily between the beginning of Bloodline (27 ABY) and the end of episode IX in the New Canon continuity. This also includes all New Canon stories that feature one or more of these characters in a prominent role, regardless of timeframe: Rey, Finn, Poe, BB-8, Kylo Ren, Hux, Phasma, Snoke, Maz Kanata and Lor San Tekka. Any story labelled [ST] in the List of Eligible Stories can be nominated for this category.

Best Story in Beyond – The best story that takes place wholly or primarily after the end of RotJ in the Legends continuity, or after the end of episode IX in the New Canon continuity. Any story labelled [Beyond] in the List of Eligible Stories can be nominated for this category.

Storyline categories

Best Continuity-Compliant Story – A story that does not diverge from or contradict the established storyline (New Canon or Legends) in which it is written. Stories that aren’t blatantly AU and aren’t defined as AU by the author in the opening post or the title bar can be assumed to be canon-compliant. (Note: this is the category that used to be called ‘Best Canon’ in previous years.)

Best Alternate Universe – A story that diverges from or contradicts the established storyline (New Canon or Legends) in which it is written. This is usually, but not always, indicated by the author in the opening post or the title bar.

Best Legends Story – A continuity-compliant or AU story that relies explicitly and primarily on Legends material (defined as EU material released before 25 April 2014) for its plot, characters and worldbuilding. Minor references to characters, planets, species, ships etc from the New Canon are acceptable.

Best New Canon Story – A continuity-compliant or AU story that does not make any substantial use of Legends material. Minor references to characters, planets, species, ships etc from Legends are acceptable.

Best New Canon/Legends Mash-Up – A story that combines explicitly and prominently elements from both the New Canon and Legends continuities.

Length categories

Best One-Shot – A short story posted to the boards as a single entry (as a guideline, less than 5,000 words). This includes, but is not limited to, individual drabbles, poems, flash-fics, song-fics and vignettes.

Best Multi-Chapter Short Story – A story that can be read in a single sitting without being a marathon and that is broken down into chapters (as a guideline, less than 30,000 words).

Best Epic – An epic is a looooong story that requires a marathon of several hours, or a non-marathon of several days, to be read in its entirety (as a guideline, 30,000 words or more).

Best Series - A collection of two or more stories of any length that are interconnected by their theme, storyline or characters.

Genre categories

Best Action/Adventure – The best story in which the characters overcome challenges by means of fast-paced, adventurous activity.

Best Drama – The best story that centres around the protagonist(s) addressing tragic, reflective or otherwise serious issues that impact them on a personal level.

Best Humour – The best story which is comedic in nature by virtue of its characters, situations or dialogue, and whose intention is to provoke a reaction that may range from chuckles to ROFLs.

Best Romance – The best story that centres around the protagonist discovering, exploring and/or developing a strong romantic emotional bond with another character.

Character categories

Best Interpretation of a Movie Character – The best/most faithful/most relevant portrayal in fanfic of any character that appears, however briefly, in any of the 8 SW movies (TPM, AotC, RotS, ANH, TESB, RotJ, TFA and RO).

Best Interpretation of an EU Character – The best/most faithful/most relevant portrayal in fanfic of any character that appears only in Expanded Universe material (New Canon or Legends, including the TV series). No movie characters are eligible under this category, however brief their appearance in the movies.

Best Development of a Game Character – This can be an established character from any SW board or video game, or an RPG character created by the author and transferred to fanfic.

Best Original Character – The best formed, most interesting and most compelling character that was created by an author.

Best Villain/Antagonist – The best formed, most interesting and most compelling character, established or original, who is all-around evil and/or stands in opposition to the main character of the story.

Relationship categories

Best Established Relationship – Any relationship (familial, friendship, romantic, rivalry, etc) between two Canon/Legends characters that is established or strongly implied in New Canon or Legends material.

Best Original Relationship – Any relationship (familial, friendship, romantic, rivalry, etc) between OCs or between an established (from either New Canon or Legends) character and an OC. This also includes a relationship between two established characters that does not appear or is not strongly implied in Canon/Legends.

Other categories

Most Headsplode Moment – An element of a story that makes you go “gah!”, “huh?”, “wow!” or “eek!” because it is unexpectedly humorous, violent, surreal, or otherwise surprising in nature.

Best All-Around – The story that garnered the largest number of nominations and votes across all eras and categories. This is a category for which no nominations and votes are submitted; the winner is determined mathematically.

Author categories

Best Author in Before – The author whose work in Before consistently demonstrates a high degree of skill and creativity in their creation of memorable characters and settings, original plots, interesting themes, and overall depiction of the GFFA. Any author who is listed as a Before author in the List of Eligible Stories can be nominated in this category.

Best Author in Saga – The author whose work in PT and/or OT and/or ST consistently demonstrates a high degree of skill and creativity in their creation of memorable characters and settings, original plots, interesting themes, and overall depiction of the GFFA. Any author who is listed as a Saga author in the List of Eligible Stories can be nominated in this category.

Best Author in Beyond – The author whose work in Beyond consistently demonstrates a high degree of skill and creativity in their creation of memorable characters and settings, original plots, interesting themes, and overall depiction of the GFFA. Any author who is listed as a Beyond author in the List of Eligible Stories can be nominated in this category.

Best New Author – The best author who posted his or her first story on the boards within the eligibility dates. This category is not era-specific. Any author who is listed as a new author in the List of Eligible Stories can be nominated in this category.

Most Versatile Author – The author whose work, in your opinion, tackles the widest range of aspects of writing fanfic (e.g. multiple eras, multiple genres, multiple writing techniques, etc.) This category is not era-specific. Any author who is listed as eligible in any era in the List of Eligible Stories can be nominated in this category.

Reviewer categories

Best Reviewer in Before – This can be someone who does really in-depth reviews, someone who reviews prolifically or whatever reason you think they are the best reviewer in Before. They do not have to be an author at all.

Best Reviewer in Saga – This can be someone who does really in-depth reviews, someone who reviews prolifically or whatever reason you think they are the best reviewer in PT, OT or ST. They do not have to be an author at all.

Best Reviewer in Beyond – This can be someone who does really in-depth reviews, someone who reviews prolifically or whatever reason you think they are the best reviewer in Beyond. They do not have to be an author at all.

 

ELIGIBILITY DETAILS FOR SPECIFIC CATEGORIES

Eligibility details for the timeframe categories:

• Stories that won Best All-Around in Before and Beyond in past awards are not eligible for Best Story in Before and Best Story in Beyond, respectively. These are indicated in the List of Eligible Stories.
• Stories that won Best All-Around in Saga in past awards are not eligible for Best Story in PT, Best in OT and Best Story in ST. These are indicated in the List of Eligible Stories.
• Stories are eligible in any era with which they are labelled in the List of Eligible Stories. See here for details.

Eligibility details for Best One-Shot vs Best Multi-Chapter Short Story

• Multi-chapter stories of less than 5,000 words are eligible under Best Multi-Chapter, not under Best One-Shot.
• Stories posted as a single entry that exceed by far the 5,000 word limit are also eligible under Best Multi-Chapter, not under Best One-Shot.

Eligibility details for Best Series:

• Stories that form a series may have been posted in the same thread or in different threads (or a combination thereof).
• The stories constituting the series can be of any length, so anything between a series of drabbles or a series of epics is eligible under this category.
• The stories constituting the series may be belong to the same era or to multiple eras.
• For a series to be eligible, at least one of its component stories should have been posted or updated within the eligibility dates. This means that other components can date back to 2015 or earlier, or can have been started in 2017.
• A series authored by multiple writers is eligible under this category, as long as there is demonstrable evidence that the component stories are interconnected.
• Individual stories that are part of a series thread are also eligible in other categories as standalones under the same conditions as any other story.
• ‘Archive’ threads where an author posts all his/her miscellaneous one-shots are not eligible as a whole, but a combination of stories from such a thread is acceptable if they are interconnected.
• A series that won Best Series in the past is not eligible for it anymore, but any stories added by the author since s/he won the award are eligible as standalones.
• Nominators will be required to list the individual stories that they view as forming a series. The only exception to this is drabble, poetry and flash-fic threads that could not be broken down into individual items for the List of Eligible Stories.
• In the scenario where two or more nominators choose to nominate different but overlapping components of the same series, the nominations will be merged and the series will go to the voting round (if applicable) with the largest number of components.

Eligibility details for the character and relationship categories:

• A character or relationship that won a particular character or relationship award in the past is eligible for it again, provided that it is for a different story.
• A story that won one of these awards in the past is eligible for it again, provided that it is for a different character or relationship.

Eligibility details for Best Author:

• For an author to be eligible for the Best Author category in a specific era, he or she must have posted in 2016 at least one story labelled as belonging to that era in the List of Eligible Stories. The List of Eligible Stories List indicates which authors are eligible in which era.
• Authors are not eligible for an era-specific Best Author category if they won Best Author in that era since 2014. If they won that category in 2011 or earlier, they are eligible again.

Eligibility details for all author categories:

• Writers who were active only as co-authors in 2016 are not eligible for Best Author.

 

NOMINATIONS

Nominations are coordinated by Chyntuck. The awards assistants for nominations are A Blind Prophet, Kahara and yahiko.

Because of the larger volume of categories and stories that nominators need to tackle at once in this year’s setting, the nominations period will last for sixteen days (two weeks including three weekends). The Nominations Thread will consist of:

• a reminder of the nomination rules,
• a reminder of the categories and their definitions, and
• a nominations form that you will fill and send to a sock.

Your PM will then be opened and read by the volunteers who will count your nominations and contact you if there is a problem (e.g. if you forgot the link, if the story you’re nominating isn’t eligible, etc.)

For nominators

• Anyone is eligible to nominate, whether writer, reader or lurker. No need to sign up as in the past.
• Anyone caught voting multiple times with a sock will be banned and will no longer eligible to participate in the awards in any way.
• Lurker accounts will be verified by the mods to ascertain that they are not socks and nominations will not be counted if the account is deemed suspicious.

For writers

• You may submit nominations like any other user.
• You may not nominate yourself. This includes stories that you co-authored.

Nominations rules

• You may nominate up to two stories in every category. This means zero, one or two.

• Similarly, you may nominate up to two authors and up to two reviewers in their respective categories.

• You may not nominate the same story in more than three categories. This is to ensure that a wide variety of stories appear on the nominations list.

• In the timeframe categories, your two nominations should be by different authors.

• In all other story categories, your two nominations cover at least two different eras, with eras in this case meaning Before, PT, OT, ST and Beyond as described in the list of eligible stories. If you nominate a multi-era story as one of your choices, it is acceptable to nominate a story that is labelled with one or more of those tags for your other choice. Examples: Nominating one story labelled [Before] and one story labelled [PT] is acceptable – Nominating one story labelled [Before][PT] and one story labelled [PT] is acceptable – Nominating two stories that are both labelled [Before][PT] is acceptable – Nominating two stories that are both labelled only [PT] is not acceptable.

• In the Best New Author and Most Versatile Author categories, your two nominations should also cover at least two different eras, with eras in this case meaning Before, Saga and Beyond. Examples: Nominating one author who is eligible only in Before and one author who is eligible only in Beyond is acceptable – Nominating one author who is eligible both in Before and Saga and one author who is eligible only in Saga is acceptable – Nominating two authors who are both eligible only in Beyond is not acceptable.

 

NOMINEES GOING TO THE VOTING ROUND

Rules for going to the voting round

Principles:

• There should be 5 stories going to the voting round in each category (or authors, for the author categories).

• No story should compete in more than three categories in the voting round.

• We should avoid a situation where two stories by the same author or two elements from the same story (e.g. characters, relationships) are competing against each other in the same category. This also goes for two series by the same author in the Best Series category.

The only exceptions to these principles are the scenarios described under points 5d, 5e and 5f below.

Procedure:

1. Nominated stories are prioritised within each category where they were nominated according to the following criteria:

a) The stories that garnered the largest number of nominations in the specific category are ranked first,​

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b) The stories that garnered the largest number of nominations across all categories are ranked second,​

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c) The stories whose authors garnered the largest number of nominations across the board (including author categories, but not reviewer categories) are ranked third.​

The top five stories go to the voting round, with the following caveats:

2. Once the process outlined under rule 1 is complete, stories that are nominated in more than three categories are identified. Those that make the top five in more than three categories are eliminated based on the following criteria:

a) They go to the voting round only in the three categories where they rank highest,​

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b) In the scenario where the stories are ranked equally in all categories, the number of nominations they received in each one of the categories at stake is taken into consideration,​

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c) In case of a tie for third place, they drop out of the category(ies) where the same author has another nominated story in the top five, or a story that would make the top five if there were dropouts,​

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d) If the tie cannot be resolved under rules 2b and 2c, the author is sent a private message and asked in which category s/he would like to compete. If the author doesn’t reply within 24 hours of the PM being sent, a category is drawn at random.​

3. In the scenario where two or more stories by the same author that don’t fall under rule 2, or two or more elements of the same story (e.g. characters, relationships), are competing against each other among the top five of the same category:

a) Only the story/element that ranks highest in this category goes to the voting round,​

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b) In case of a tie between stories, the story that goes to the voting round in the fewest other categories is chosen,​

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c) In case of a tie again between stories after step 3b, or in case of a tie between elements from the same story under step 3a, the author is sent a private message and asked which story/element s/he would like to compete in this category. If the author doesn’t reply within 24 hours of the PM being sent, a story/element is drawn at random.​

4. For the author categories, authors are prioritised as follows:

a) The authors who garnered the largest number of nominations in the given author category are ranked first,​

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b) The authors who garnered the largest number of nominations across the board go second.​

5. Additional criteria:

a) When establishing the total number of nominations garnered by a story across all categories, nominations garnered in the Best Series category are counted at the level of the individual story.​

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b) When establishing the total number of nominations garnered by an author across all categories, nominations garnered in the Best Series category are counted at the series level, i.e. a series is counted as a single entity. In the event where different components of the series received a different number of nominations, the largest number is chosen.​

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c) Collaborative works count towards the total “points” of each individual author involved in the collaboration.​

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d) If any of the rules above causes a category to have fewer than 5 nominees in the voting round, the rule is waived for this specific category and we move on to the next rule.​

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e) If the criteria listed above cannot resolve a tie for fifth place in a given category, the nominees in the tie go to the voting round if they are 3 or fewer (meaning that a total of up to 7 nominees go to the voting round in this category). If they are 4 or more, none goes to the voting round as long as there are still at least 3 nominees going to the voting round in the category. In case neither option works, all the nominees in the tie go to the voting round.​

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f) In the event that the above rules result in an excerpts thread with more than 250 entries (meaning an average of more than 8 nominees per category), we will switch back to the old principle “an author cannot go to the voting round in more than three categories, excluding author categories” (instead of “a story”) under rule 2 and apply the rest of the rules mutatis mutandis as described above.​

6. For the Best Reviewer category:

a) The five reviewers who garnered the largest number of nominations go to the voting round.​

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b) In case of a tie for fifth place, all those in the tie go to the voting round.​

Examples

Example of how to rank stories in a fictional ‘Best Story’ category

The nominees are:

• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Márquez – 4 nominations for Best Story – 9 nominations across all categories – the author has a total of 11 nominations across all categories (for all his fics + author categories)

• Les Misérables by Victor Hugo – 2 nominations for Best Story – 6 nominations across all categories – the author has a total of 7 nominations across all categories (for all his fics + author categories)

• Drifting Cities by Stratis Tsirkas – 1 nomination for Best Story – 4 nominations across all categories – the author has a total of 4 nominations across all categories (for all his fics + author categories)

• The Spy who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carré – 1 nomination for Best Story – 1 nomination across all categories – the author has a total of 2 nominations across all categories (for all his fics + author categories)

• Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo – 1 nomination for Best Story – 1 nominations across all categories – the author has a total of 7 nominations across all categories (for all his fics + author categories)

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – 1 nomination for Best Story – 1 nomination across all categories – this is the author’s only nomination across all categories (for all her fics + author categories)

• Little England by Ioanna Karystiani – 1 nomination for Best Story – 5 nominations across all categories – the author has a total of 5 nominations across all categories (for all her fics + author categories)

• Achilles’ Fiancée by Alki Zei – 1 nomination for Best Story – 1 nomination across all categories – this is the author’s only nomination across all categories (for all her fics + author categories)

The top two slots are filled by the fics that garnered the largest number of nominations in this category, namely:

1. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Márquez – 4 nominations for Best Story​

2. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo – 2 nominations for Best Story​

All other fics received only one nomination in this category. The next slots are therefore filled by the fics that garnered the largest number of nominations across all categories:

3. Little England by Ioanna Karystiani – 5 nominations across all categories​

4. Drifting Cities by Stratis Tsirkas – 4 nominations across all categories​

All other fics received only one nomination across all categories. The next slots are therefore filled by the remaining fics based on the total number of nominations their authors received for all their stories + the author categories:

5. Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo – the author has a total of 7 nominations across all categories​

6. The Spy who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carré – the author has a total of 2 nominations across all categories​

7. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – the author has a total of 1 nomination across all categories​

7. Achilles’ Fiancée by Alki Zei – the author has a total of 1 nominations across all categories​

The stories are therefore ranked in the following order:

1. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Márquez​

2. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo​

3. Little England by Ioanna Karystiani​

4. Drifting Cities by Stratis Tsirkas​

5. Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo​

6. The Spy who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carré​

7. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen​

7. Achilles’ Fiancée by Alki Zei​

A few scenarios for selecting the stories going to the voting round

In the scenario where Les Misérables by Victor Hugo is nominated in another 3 categories where it ranks higher, it drops out of this category under rule 2a. The list of stories going to the voting round is:

1. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Márquez​

2. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (drops out under rule 2a)​

3. Little England by Ioanna Karystiani​

4. Drifting Cities by Stratis Tsirkas​

5. Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo​

6. The Spy who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carré​

7. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen​

7. Achilles’ Fiancée by Alki Zei (these last two stories drop out because we already have 5 fics going to the voting round in this category)​

In the scenario where Les Misérables by Victor Hugo is nominated in another 3 categories where it is also ranked second with the same number of nominations, it drops out of this category under rule 2c. The list of stories going to the voting round is:

1. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Márquez​

2. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (drops out under rule 2c)​

3. Little England by Ioanna Karystiani​

4. Drifting Cities by Stratis Tsirkas​

5. Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo​

6. The Spy who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carré​

7. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen​

7. Achilles’ Fiancée by Alki Zei (these last two stories drop out because we already have 5 fics going to the voting round in this category)​

In the scenario where Little England by Ioanna Karystiani drops out of this category under rule 2a, the list of stories going to the voting round is:

1. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Márquez​

2. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo​

3. Little England by Ioanna Karystiani (drops out under rule 2a)​

4. Drifting Cities by Stratis Tsirkas​

5. Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo (drops out under rule 3a)​

6. The Spy who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carré​

7. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen​

7. Achilles’ Fiancée by Alki Zei (these last two stories both go to the voting round under rule 5e)​

In the scenario where no story must drop out of this category under any item of rule 2, the list of stories going to the voting round is:

1. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Márquez​

2. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo​

3. Little England by Ioanna Karystiani​

4. Drifting Cities by Stratis Tsirkas​

5. Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo (this story drops out under rule 3a)​

6. The Spy who Came in from the Cold by John Le Carré​

7. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen​

7. Achilles’ Fiancée by Alki Zei (these last two stories drop out because we already have five stories going to the voting round in this category)​

 

EXCERPTS AND SYNOPSES

The excerpts period will be coordinated by Findswoman. The awards assistants for the excerpts period are divapilot and RX_Sith.

Authors have the choice to provide either a synopsis or an excerpt of their stories that go to the voting round.

Each author will receive a PM with the list of their stories for which excerpts/synopses are needed. The authors will then send their excerpts by replying to this PM. The volunteers will verify that the excerpts submitted match the specifications defined below and will ask the author to make adjustments if needed.

All excerpts will be posted in one thread, with a breakdown by category.

Authors may submit their excerpts/synopses at any point during the excerpts period, but it is recommended that excerpts are submitted as early as possible so as to give voters as much time as possible to peruse them. No excerpts can be submitted once voting begins.

The Excerpts Thread will be open for sixteen days (two weeks including three weekends) before voting starts.

• For the timeframe categories and the author categories, as well as the Best Epic and Best Series categories, the excepts/synopses should be 600 words at most. For all other categories, the maximum word count is 300.

• As not every processor counts word the same way, we will use this online word counter. Anything over the limit will be cut to the limit.

• Authors who choose to provide an excerpt may preface it with a very short introduction. The maximum word count for this introduction is 50 words in addition to the excerpt’s maximum word count.

• Excerpts can be one continuous passage of the story or several fragments, provided that the total word count is within the limits set above.

• For the Best Series category, the author(s) may choose to submit an excerpt/synopsis from one story or several excerpts/synopses from the different stories that constitute the series, provided that the total word count is within the limit of 600 words.

• For the author categories, authors may submit any sample of their writing that was posted on the JCF within the eligibility dates. This may be an excerpt from a single story or excerpts from several stories, provided that the total word count is within the limit of 600 words. Authors who choose to provide synopses instead of excerpts may also provide synopses of several stories within the word count limit.

 

VOTING

The voting process is coordinated by Chyntuck. The awards assistants for voting are A Blind Prophet, Kahara and yahiko.

The voting period will begin after the excerpts period is over and will last for fourteen days (two weeks including two weekends). The Voting Thread will consist of:

• A reminder of the voting rules,
• A list of the fics that made it to the voting round, broken down by category and (where appropriate) by era,
• A voting form that you will complete and send by PM to a sock.

Your PM will be opened and read by the volunteers who will count your votes and contact you if there is a problem.

Voting rules

• Anyone is eligible to vote, whether writer, reader or lurker. No need to sign up as in the past.
• Writers may not vote for themselves, including for stories that they co-authored.
• Anyone caught voting multiple times with a sock will be banned and no longer eligible to participate in the awards in any way.
• Lurker accounts will be verified by the mods to ascertain that they are not socks and votes will not be counted if the account is deemed suspicious.
• You can vote only for one nominee in each category.
• You can vote only for the stories that made it to the voting round (obviously!)

 

COLOURS FOR NOMINATIONS AND COLOURS FOR VOTES

Colours for nominations

As a nominator, you could win colours! In order to encourage users to nominate as many stories as possible in as many categories as possible, we will be giving one week of colours to the two users who send in the the largest number of nominations across all categories. In case of a tie between three or more nominators, two names will be drawn at random.

Colours for votes

As a voter, you could win colours again! In order to encourage users to vote in as many categories as possible, we will be giving a week of colours to the two persons who send in the largest number of votes across all categories. In case of a tie between three or more voters, two names will be drawn at random.

 

CAMPAIGNING

Campaigning for nominations and votes is not allowed, not for stories you authored, not for stories you read.

• Encouraging your fellow users to participate in the awards is acceptable in the course of normal thread posting.
• Thanking your nominators once in your story thread or the title bar is also acceptable.
• Anything that can be construed as campaigning will be removed by our friendly neighbourhood mods. This includes, but is not limited to, upping random threads with only awards-related posts.

 

PRIZES

Collection and distribution of prizes will be handled by Anedon and divapilot.

We hope that, like in previous years, fanfic readers and writers will volunteer to provide prizes for the winners. Prizes can be cover art, drawings, e-books, colours, advertisement space, fic-gifts, anything else you would like to provide. If you want to contribute, please PM Fanfic Prizes with your ideas or anything you would like to do to help with prizes, even if you’ve already expressed interest. The more crazy ideas, the merrier!

Offering prizes is an entirely voluntary process and we all know that creating them takes time, energy and battles with Darth Real Life. Those eligible for a prize understand that they may not receive their prize overnight and those offering a prize commit to delivering it within a reasonable timeframe.

If you win multiple categories, it is possible you may not be given multiple prizes, depending on the number of prizes we have available.

Thanks to the amazing Raissa Baiard, all winners will get a winner badge and printable certificate.

How will it work?

Due to the nature of the prizes we have to award, there really isn’t a fair way to distribute them. There will be a list of all proposed prizes and the winner will choose what they want as their prize.

1) The order in which eras go will be drawn at random.

2) The three Best Authors in each era will choose first.

3) The Best New Author will go second.

4) The Most Versatile Author will go third.

5) The person with the most wins (excluding author categories) will go next. If there is a tie, a name will be drawn at random.

6) The person with the second largest number of wins will go next.

7) The two person with the third largest number of wins will go next.

8) Rinse, repeat until all winners have received a prize.

11) If there are any leftover prizes, we will restart this process from step 4 for any authors who have more than one win.

12) There will be a special prize for Best Headsplode Moment.

12) The prize for Best Reviewer is a week of colours and a title.

To make it as fair as possible, prizes will not be given out until all awards are completed. All winners will be announced in the Awards Ceremony, and only then will prizes be distributed.

 

SPECIFIC RULES FOR VOLUNTEERS & MODS AND UNFORESEEN SITUATIONS

Volunteer and mod participation in the awards

Volunteers are eligible to compete as authors in the awards provided that their volunteer work does not involve accessing or discussing, however remotely, actual nominations and votes. Any volunteer who wishes to discuss nominations and votes once the awards process is under way must forego eligibility to do so.

The mods are not involved in running the awards, and as such they are eligible to compete as authors like any other user of the boards. If their intervention is required on a matter that involves nominations and votes, they will withdraw their eligibility to address is.

Volunteers and mods can participate in nominations and voting like any other user of the boards. However, the volunteers who are counting nominations and votes must send their nomination/voting PMs in the first 48 hours of each process and before any PMs from other users are opened for counting.

Unforeseen situations

The awards rules described in this thread are as comprehensive as possible, but it cannot be excluded that an unforeseen situation arises and is so extreme that changes must be made. In the case of such an unforeseen situation, the volunteer team will consult among themselves to find the best possible way to resolve it and a formal announcement will be posted in the Awards Guide thread.

If the unforeseen situation affects nominations and/or votes, only those volunteers who are not competing as authors in the awards will be consulted.

If the volunteers cannot reach a consensus among themselves, the mods will be brought into the consultation. If the issue at stake has to do with nominations and/or votes, the mods will forego eligibility in order to resolve it.

 

FAQ

1) I liked having awards by era! Why don’t we have eras this year?

The answer to this is a combination of the following parameters:
1. The volunteers’ availability,
2. The ginormous imbalance between the size of the eras (Before would have only ~25 eligible stories, as opposed to ~120 in Beyond and a whooping ~325 in Saga), and
3. The difficulty to define eras in the first place due to the New Canon/Legends split.

We tried to compensate for this as best we could with an expanded list of categories and some era-specific categories, as well as a set of rules to ensure that no single era can monopolise the awards. We hope that this will ensure fair representation for all eras in nominations and votes, but the proof will be in the pudding

2) Why do we have so many (or so few) categories?

In 2015, we had two eras with 13 categories in each for a total of 26; in 2016 we had four eras with a total of 45 categories (=7+15+15+7+1).

We felt that we should expand the list of categories to compensate for the fact that we have no era breakdown this year, but at the same time we didn’t want to expand it to a size where it becomes unmanageable for nominators/voters and volunteers alike as all nominations and votes must be submitted at once. The current list of categories is the best middle ground we could find.

3) Why do we have all these complicated rules? The two nominations in each category must be in different eras, I can’t nominate the same story in more than three categories... What a headache!

The idea behind all these rules is that no single author should sweep the awards. The awards are meant to be for fun, and if one author wins pretty much everything, it’s fun for them but not so much for everyone else. In the current setup, we are hoping to have a wide range of winners from every era, genre, style and whatnot.

4) Do I have to nominate two stories in each category? Or can I nominate only one?

You can nominate up to two stories in every category. This means that you can nominate only one if you prefer it that way, but we encourage you to take advantage of the possibility to nominate two. Being nominated is a good way for authors to get some visibility for their work, so it would be nice for them. Plus, the more stories you nominate, the more likely you are to get colours! See here for details.

5) Do I have to nominate stories in all the categories? Or can I send nominations for only some categories?

You don't have to nominate in all the categories. Sending in nominations for a few categories is perfectly acceptable. However, there again, we encourage you to nominate stories and authors in as many categories and eras as possible, so as to give visibility to the largest possible number of writers. And don't forget the colours! See here for details.

6) What should I do if I want to nominate a story that is not on the List of Eligible Stories, or if it’s not labelled in the era where I think it belongs?

You should first verify if the story appears on the list at all. If it’s not there at all, please PM The Golden Yoda about it and we will (hopefully) supply a valid explanation why it shouldn’t be there (e.g. it was reposted under a different title).

If you believe that a story is listed under the wrong era(s), again, please PM The Golden Yoda. However, bear in mind that the era tags used by authors on the boards don’t match the definitions we are using for the awards, so double-check first that the story does belong under the label we gave to it as defined here.

7) The list of eligible stories specifies only author and title, where can I see details about the stories?

Check out the How to Find Stories section in the Master Resource Index for a list of current indexes.

8) Some stories and authors/users are listed as “not eligible” in the list of eligible stories, why is that?

Some authors are not eligible for the Awards this year, either in a specific era or in general, because of their role. This includes: Chyntuck who is not eligible in any category as overseer, and A Blind Prophet, Kahara and yahiko who as nominations and vote-counting volunteers are not eligible for Best Reviewer.

Furthermore, stories that already won one or more awards in the however distant past are not eligible for those categories anymore, but they can still compete in every other category. The same goes for authors and reviewers in their respective categories.

Individual authors may also choose to withdraw some or all of their stories from the awards, in which case the stories will be listed as non-eligible.

9) I sent my nominations PM, but I changed my mind. Can I send another PM?

No, sorry, you can’t. The volunteers are expecting to deal with a large amount of nominations, especially in light of the fact that you have the option to nominate two stories per category, so please don’t drive them crazy and send your nominations PM only once.

10) I missed the deadline for nominations, can I still send a nominations PM?

No, sorry, you can’t. Once the deadline passes, the nomination totals are collated and the PMs are sent to the authors for excerpts. We can’t change the result halfway through.

11) I’m an author and the excerpts thread went up before I could send in my excerpts, can I still send them?

Of course! You can send your excerpts/synopses at any time during the excerpts period. Just PM them to the volunteer who contacted you, and they will be posted within the day.

12) I’m an author and voting started before I could send in my excerpts, can I still send them?

No, sorry, you can’t. Once voting begins, the excerpts period is over. We tried to contact you and we couldn’t find you, but we can’t change anything once voting starts.

13) Can I vote for more than one story in each category?

No, sorry, you can’t. You have to vote for one story only. We need to choose a winner, that’s what voting is for.

14) Do I have to vote in all the categories? Or can I vote only in some categories?

As stated above for nominations, you don’t have to do anything. You can vote only in specific categories, but there again, we encourage you to have a look at the excerpts and vote in as many categories as possible, so that authors get the recognition they deserve. Oh, and did I mention the colours?

15) I sent my voting PM, but I changed my mind. Can I send another PM?

No, sorry, you can’t. The volunteers will never be able to keep track of votes if people start changing their minds. Take the time you need to prepare your PM, and please send it only once.

16) Oh boy, that’s a lot of stuff you made me read. What’s in it for me?

By participating in the awards as a nominator and a voter, you get to tell other users of these boards about your favourite stories and to give your favourite authors some well-deserved recognition. You also get to read stories you hadn’t noticed before, that will be nominated by other users. And, well, if you nominate and vote, there’s a little something in this thread about winning colours!