FanFic Awards

[McCovey Cove]

I used to recall, way back when, that a group of people over at alt.startrek.creative used to hold publicly voteable stories for awards on an annual basis. I forget the term they used, but I always thought it was a great idea.

This group seems to me to be really awesome, and I was thinking that maybe TrekBBS could hold their own awards? I was reading through the Recommendations thread and I thought that all those authors would've been very honored to have such high recommendations. Why not make it official?

Anyone with me on this?

-- ZC

 

[Gibraltar]

So, would this be awards for individual stories, or separate nomination categories for ships, characters, etc? And are we talking different types of stories or story lengths? Vignettes, versus short stories, versus novellas?

I'm all for it, but I think we'd need a quantifiable framework for the selection process and the awards themselves.

 

[McCovey Cove]

I guess it would be whatever we want it to be. Let's discuss

-- ZC

 

[Mistral]

I like the general idea. Maybe we can list a bunch of possible categories in a poll and go with whatever gets the most votes?

 

[McCovey Cove]

We have to first discuss what categories there would be, plus how sub-level an award might be... I mean, obviously we could do cats for Best Dramatic, Best Comedic, Best Technical, etc... but how about Best Comedic Character, or Best Dynamic Crew?

How do we quantify what's good enough for nomination?

-- ZC

 

[Mistral]

Well, if its completely incoherent I'd say it wouldn't be qualified. Perhaps if we limit the # of entries an author can submit? Or did we want to disallow authors from submitting their own stuff and rely on others to submit nominations? Should we hold quarterly awards to narrow the annual award field down?-Cause something written in Jan might get forgotten in Dec but if its a quarterly winner it would automatically got to the annuals-or do we just go with Challenge winners?(that doesn't seem fair-too many good stories that are not in challenge)

 

[McCovey Cove]

Quarterly awards would be interesting, for sure. Problem is manpower and interest.

I wouldn't limit the number of entries from one particular author, but I would limit the nominations for public voting, certainly... to five-six per category. A rotating committee of readers determines who selects the stories for voting, probably with an alternate in case the committee member's works are being reviewed for nomination.

Wow, it's getting complicated already, isn't it?

-- ZC

 

[Mistral]

Hmm I thought we'd just have a poll for each cat and go with the vote-getter du jour.
And if you think its getting complicated now-just wait until we add in the double-blind taste test!

 

[McCovey Cove]

Hmm I thought we'd just have a poll for each cat and go with the vote-getter du jour.
And if you think its getting complicated now-just wait until we add in the double-blind taste test!

LOL.

"We've secretly replaced his fanfic with Folder's crystals. Let's see if he notices..."

-- ZC

 

[Mistral]

Hmm I thought we'd just have a poll for each cat and go with the vote-getter du jour.
And if you think its getting complicated now-just wait until we add in the double-blind taste test!

LOL.

"We've secretly replaced his fanfic with Folder's crystals. Let's see if he notices..."

-- ZC

Seriously, if we want to do this we should try to follow the KISS model.

 

[McCovey Cove]

I agree. But there still needs to be some controls, which might combat simplicity (or may seem to)... that being said, I think we need to determine categories.

-- ZC

 

[Whoa Nellie]

I used to recall, way back when, that a group of people over at alt.startrek.creative used to hold publicly voteable stories for awards on an annual basis. I forget the term they used, but I always thought it was a great idea.

This group seems to me to be really awesome, and I was thinking that maybe TrekBBS could hold their own awards? I was reading through the Recommendations thread and I thought that all those authors would've been very honored to have such high recommendations. Why not make it official?

Anyone with me on this?

-- ZC

You are referring to the alt.startrek.creative annual awards -- the ASC Awards, of which I'm somewhat familiar, check my sig or my websites.

The ASC awards date back to 1995. Voting for the 2007 ASC awards is currently underway. The main purpose of the ASC awards is to encourage feedback for the authors. The awards are feedback based so each 'vote' consists of feedback on the story or author in question. You are not allowed to comment on your own stories. Each and every story posted to ASC during the year, without exception, is eligible for the awards. It takes a dedicated VSO (virtual staff office) to co-ordinate these awards every year including series maintainers who post SoS (status of story) lists throughout the year and who help compile the various series check ballots and final ballot.



This is NOT something I would advise just jumping into. It is not a light undertaking. I would advise anyone seriously thinking of this to make sure the moderators were in on it and to carefully look at ASC's FAQ on the subject. Be warned the ASC FAQ reads like the US tax code due to the problems inherent in running awards of this magnitude. I would also advise contacting Stephen Ratliff (aka Old Man ASC) for help.


Warmest Wishes,
Whoa Nellie


Whoa Nellie's Picard/Vash Romance Fan Fiction Website is at:
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Galaxy/7926/

Whoa Nellie's Sci-Fi Romance Fan Fiction Website is at:
http://www.geocities.com/whoa_nellies2000

 

[McCovey Cove]

/That/'s what I was thinking of. But I haven't browsed USENET since '00, so I'd forgotten the exact name of the awards. And I remember Ratliff (and Marissa) fondly.

-- ZC

 

[RevdKathy]

What Whoa Nellie said, really. I'm not sure whath this would add, and we already have the 'challenge'. That is what makes us distinctive. If you want awards, you'd probably need a lawyer on board. Why not submit items you're particularly proud of to ASC?

 

[McCovey Cove]

It was just a thought. Sorry to have bothered.

-- ZC

 

[RevdKathy]

Not a problem. I have raised the issue in BR, as I think you'd need permission from someone higher up than me anyway.

 

[CeJay]

I do kinda like the idea as well but agree that this would be of a scope a lot bigger than we might be able to handle.

A proper award, one which is suppose to mean something, needs wide ranging support from the community as well as commitment and recognition.

It wouldn't be like the monthly challenges as we'd be takling about a great number of potentially real lengthy stories. And if you make it as simple as a general poll, you simply ensures that the most propular stories win awards.

If the most popular stories are also the most deserving is of course an entirely different argument.

 

[Mistral]

I was thinking a more amature thing-that's why I suggested a poll and nominations from others. It keeps it simple and clean.

 

[Whoa Nellie]

I was thinking a more amature thing-that's why I suggested a poll and nominations from others. It keeps it simple and clean.

Then I don't see a reason to do it. That is really just a rehash of the recommendations thread in a different form.

What has made the ASC awards so noteworthy over the years has been the wide scope and the fact that the award is feedback based. (The amount of points received for each vote depends on the length of the feedback given in the vote.) My co-author and I have been given other awards for our stories; but our ASC Awards are the ones we most proudly tout.

On ASC any story NEW TO ASC posted that year is eligible for the awards (so basically every story posted to ASC is eligible for the awards once no matter the pairing, subject matter, rating, or series). There was a big discussion a few years back about WIPs. The decision was made that they are eligible for feedback only and not placement in the awards until the year they are finished. I've been on ASC for about a decade and watched the dedication and hard work that make the ASC awards possible. The VSO spend all year working on the awards. There is an elaborate FAQ to deal with the rules, a webpage dedicated to the voting on the ASC archive site, measures to ensure no cheating, a yahoo group dedicated to award posts, SOS (Status of Stories) lists posted throughout the year to make sure stories posted to ASC are known to the VSO, check ballots to make sure all stories are known and categorized correctly before the voting begins, not to mention a discussion every year on how to make it go more smoothly the next.

If you want awards, you'd probably need a lawyer on board.

:thumbsup:

Why not submit items you're particularly proud of to ASC?

I must agree with RevdKathy. Posting to ASC (alt.startrek.creative) is very easy, especially if you use a web based newsreader like google groups http://groups.google.com/.

Warmest Wishes,
Whoa Nellie

Whoa Nellie's Picard/Vash Romance Fan Fiction Website is at:
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Galaxy/7926/

Whoa Nellie's Sci-Fi Romance Fan Fiction Website is at:
http://www.geocities.com/whoa_nellies2000

 

[Mistral]

I was thinking a more amature thing-that's why I suggested a poll and nominations from others. It keeps it simple and clean.

Then I don't see a reason to do it. That is really just a rehash of the recommendations thread in a different form.

What has made the ASC awards so noteworthy over the years has been the wide scope and the fact that the award is feedback based. (The amount of points received for each vote depends on the length of the feedback given in the vote.) My co-author and I have been given other awards for our stories; but our ASC Awards are the ones we most proudly tout.

On ASC any story NEW TO ASC posted that year is eligible for the awards (so basically every story posted to ASC is eligible for the awards once no matter the pairing, subject matter, rating, or series). There was a big discussion a few years back about WIPs. The decision was made that they are eligible for feedback only and not placement in the awards until the year they are finished. I've been on ASC for about a decade and watched the dedication and hard work that make the ASC awards possible. The VSO spend all year working on the awards. There is an elaborate FAQ to deal with the rules, a webpage dedicated to the voting on the ASC archive site, measures to ensure no cheating, a yahoo group dedicated to award posts, SOS (Status of Stories) lists posted throughout the year to make sure stories posted to ASC are known to the VSO, check ballots to make sure all stories are known and categorized correctly before the voting begins, not to mention a discussion every year on how to make it go more smoothly the next.

If you want awards, you'd probably need a lawyer on board.

:thumbsup:

Why not submit items you're particularly proud of to ASC?

I must agree with RevdKathy. Posting to ASC (alt.startrek.creative) is very easy, especially if you use a web based newsreader like google groups http://groups.google.com/.

Warmest Wishes,
Whoa Nellie

Whoa Nellie's Picard/Vash Romance Fan Fiction Website is at:
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Galaxy/7926/

Whoa Nellie's Sci-Fi Romance Fan Fiction Website is at:
http://www.geocities.com/whoa_nellies2000

Forget I said anything-obviously I am speaking from a position of ignorance and shall now shut up-completely-about this subject. Sorry I displayed my absolute stupidity for all to see, Nellie. The idea of TREKBBS having their own awards for fiction was sooo childish-what was I thinking?