I'm sorry.

Indeed, which leads me to the question... can someone please nominate some Non-H/Hr Fics? The thread looks so lonesome, and there are wonderful D/G, R/Lu & L/J fics on PK, and it would be shameful if they weren't acknowledged in their own right.

Nielle, who isn't allowed to nominate either and is not above guilt-tripping people.

I realize this is an old rule, but perhaps this should be changed. If a one-shot story was uploaded on Dec 31st, then it may only be nominated in this cycle. Problem is, it only gets a few hours exposure before the close of nominations. Fics finished before Dec 31st get much more exposure, and hence, an unfair (albeit unintentional) advantage.

I have two suggestions for this. Portkeyers are welcome to suggest more, or to comment.

• Limit nominations to fics finished before the start of nominations.
  For this cycle, this means nominations would be limited to stories completed from July 1 to Nov 30 2004.
  
  OR
  
  
  
• Extend nominations period by at least 2 weeks to a month.
  Meaning, this cycle's nominations would end in mid- or end-January.

~Pen

Btw, I edited this thread's title from "Questions (Winter 2004/2005)" to "Questions/Suggestions (Dec2004 / Jan2005)." These winter/summer seasons are not universal references, hehehe. *lives in a region where there is no winter*

I think... the best approach here will be for the mods to check whether a story is completed by the 31 December deadline (or July 31 for the Summer cycle), and remove the nomination from the final listing if it is not completed. (Although I do know that this will be an added burden on our hard-working mods. )

The thing is... completing a fic (except for one-shots) is often beyond the writer's control. No matter the number of reviews begging for speedy updates... sometimes, a story simply takes a long time to finish to the writer's satisfaction.

Nominating an unfinished fic may be seen by some as adding pressure to a writer to get the story done as soon as possible and while laudable, may be something a writer does not agree with... or cannot comply with. (RL issues, for example, can push a fic's updating backwards as I should know.

In other words... if a fic is completed by deadline, well and good. If not... :sigh: apologies to the writer, and the one who made the nomination.

gil
(goes back to polishing his PK Reader's Choice Awards and nominations)

Ah, we are Desperate Wannabe Fic Pimpers.

Yes. We will be checking every Fic that is nominated to make sure it is eligible to be nominated. We know that some Fics that are complete may still be marked as "in progress". I just checked that Fic a moment ago, and the final chapter clearly shows it is complete, even if it is not technically marked as such. So that particular Fic will still count.

In short, yes. Mods who are working on these Awards cannot nominate Fics or have their Fics nominated. This is to prevent accusations of bias. As you can see, for some of us not being able to nominate is very painful.

This has been asked in previous seasons... will leave it to Pat to answer. Essentially it's relative. Some would consider 10 chapters novel-length, while others would consider 40 chapters novel length. Yet you can have a 10 chapter fic with 10000 word chapters, and a 40 chapter fic with 1000 word chapters. So for this we cross that bridge when we get to it.

*checks* As far as I can tell, there are only 3 Fics that were completed on 30/06/2004, Charms, Almost: Version 2 & Amare. So I don't think there is too much risk of that. However, to prevent this in future:

I would agree to that, and even implement it now, however we already have one nomination for a Fic completed after 01/12/2004 so it would be unfair to start that now.

It's all good, I only left it that way because 1) it was already established and 2) I am used to people forgetting there are 2 hemispheres on this planet.

It's not, because we have to check anyway.

That is the heart of it, you can nominate an incomplete Fic, and the Author will be flattered, but if it clearly isn't finished by the time nominations close, it will not be eligible for voting, no matter how spectacular it is.

Nielle, did I miss anything?

Gil, I understand this point. I guess I haven't explained my suggestion completely. Unfinished fics shouldn't be included, that is true.

What I wanted to point out was that newer fics (those completed from, say, Dec 1 - 31, 2004) are at a disadvantage. Esp. one-shots uploaded in that period. Since their completed versions have been up for a shorter period of time relative to the other stories, then they have smaller chances of being read by people, and hence getting nominated here.

That's why I was suggesting that the completion cut-off date should be set earlier than the nominations' closing date. Examples: stories completed on Jul 1 2004 to Nov 30 2004 would be eligible now. Fics completed on Dec 1 2004 to May 30 2005 will be eligible for the June 2005 nomination period.

Nielle, that isn't so unfair if it is made clear that fic is eligible next time around. Or perhaps the cut-off can be moved to Dec 15 2004. (I'm not used to the European dd/mm/yyyy system)

When it should look like this:

Suggestion: With the newer template that pen used, could you just put the title as text, then put in parenthesis (the link=url)? That would be great if you did that for the author as well...

I understand, the same happens to me, however the alert will be sent when the nom is posted, it won't reflect edits. So although it can be changed later, it is up to the Nominator. I will update the template now though. *updates template*

Nielle,

Thanks a bunch for updating the template I like knowing who's been nominated by glancing at my email if I'm in the middle of something... I go back later and read the thread.

Off to do homework/project documentation, et al...

I vote we have a seperate category for the NC-17 stuff. Mainly because I think it would be proper to keep that seperate from non-NC-17... Perhaps labeling them as Smut or Adult?

It does take time to get moving, and there was an announcement on the announcements page (in combination with the announcement for the Gallery). In the meantime, you might like to check out the Rec Engine.

Right now, you are allowed to nominate more than one story per category, but we are discussing whether this will remain as such.

What does constitute novel vs. short? Answered here.

Word count cut-off? Nope, there isn't anything like that.

Right now it's not wrong, but the idea is being considered in future Awards.

As Darkstar said, we do have a Smut category, or do you mean having something like this?

* Best Novel-length Fic (JKR's universe) (G-PG13)
* Best Novel-length Fic (JKR's universe) (R-NC17)
* Best Novel-length Fic (AU) (G-PG13)
* Best Novel-length Fic (AU) (R-NC17)
* Best Short Fic (Fluff) (G-PG13)
* Best Short Fic (Fluff) (R-NC17)
* Best Short Fic (Angst) (G-PG13)
* Best Short Fic (Angst) (R-NC17)
* Best Short Fic (Smut) (R-NC17)
* Best New Author (G-PG13)
* Best New Author (R-NC17)
* Best Short Fic (Humour) (G-PG13)
* Best Short Fic (Humour) (R-NC17)

Well, that means two things; more work for Mods (), but also that would depend greatly on the amount of nominations we get. While it may be proper, if there aren't enough noms, there won't be a category.

What needs to be kept in mind is that the most fair and most practical way for this is that only completed fics can be nominated. Yes it is possible it may be forgotten by then, but if you really think it worth nominating, make a note of it for next season. However the best thing immediate thing to do for an incomplete fic you can't nominate is add it to the Rec Engine.

Darkstar has pretty much answered it, but I'd like to add that although we are happy to narrow the current categories, this would only be when we see the current categories can afford it. Fluff and Humour were previously the same category, this season is the first time they have been seperated because it was shown the category got enough nominations to warrant the divide. So essentially we won't add categories unless we see a real need for it and it is something the staff can manage.

*waves at Pat*

Nielle,

Well, no I don't think so.

Or, if memory serves correctly, it wouldn't make much sense, as in the end the story that is considered best by that Author by a large majority of nominators will make it to the polls that will definitely only contain one fic per author.

If you put it like this, it'd be best if you only promoted the one you like best personally, so it'll be more likely to make it to the polls.

Ri

There's an NC-17 forum for that kind of thing.

A story is a collection of scenes put into context, so I had the idea the people would remember specific parts of fics. just as easily as enitre fics. After all, almost everyone has a favourite scene from the HP books. But then, as with most of the ideas I fling at this site, I'm probably wrong or just suggesting the unecasery.

If the catagories are completly diffrent from the existing ones then there's no way there can be a need for it because there aren't the means to facilitate the need. Like, if you have a poll asking for people to choose between red and blue, then no one can vote for green so the need for that option never becomes aparant unless you actualy go out and ask people whether they want it. (Sorry badly explained.)

Well I did have a great long argument about how it could be done without making too much work but it dosen't seem there's much point in posting it. The ideas already been prooved unfeasable, at least in the eyes of the people who do the deciding.

Well thanks for taking the time to think about it anyway.

Well, you can nominate more than one story by the same author in the same category, but only one can be chosen for the final running. This has happened many times, and we just have to try and pick the best one. In the first awards, we had several authors with two, and I think once three, stories in the same category, and we decided that was not very conducive to real competition, as they'd be competing against themselves as such.

So, you can do it, but just know both of them cannot be in the poll for the same category.

Darkstar

that was made by a user in the h/hr nonminations. i thought the limit was 10 nominations. she has like 13. just pointng that out.

Edit: i could have sworn i read that somewhere, but i cant find it. oh well

Yes, but only one fic will make it to voting, as we will not allow one Author to have more than one fic in a category.

People can nominate as many Fics as they like. Then, we collect all those nominations, sort them out and narrow the lists down to a maximum of ten nominations per category for people to vote on. I believe that's what you're referring to.

Nielle, thinking we might need a FAQ.

Okay thanks I decided to seperate them between fluff and humor, since I think one is more fluff than humor anyway.

This is the READERS'S Choice Awards When there's more art to choose from, there will probably be a Viewers's Choice Awards but there hasn't been any formal discussion on the matter yet. How do I know this? I'm the one writing the Gallery right now and there are features being planned that will be pretty nifty in terms of competitions like this.

Hope that answers your questions

Use your computer's copy and paste function to grab the supplied template above. Where it has Link information, use your computers copy and pate function to grab the url of the story, author, and recommendation thread (if there is one), but do it one at a time. In the template where it says link, highlight the word link, then click on the http:// button above the reply box. It will ask you for the url and the link text. Just paste the url for the author in the dialog and type Link To Author after you hit the first ok. When you hit the second ok, it will insert the url tags and replace the link with Link To Author. Do the same for the story link and the recommendation link.

If I'm being too techinical, let me know and I'll try to be less technical. Someone else might bring it down a bit more if you don't know how to copy & paste...

Short answer: No. You will know when we do.

As we speak we're going through all the nominations and working out what will make it to voting. I'm sorry we can't give a specific time-frame, but assure you we will try to do this as quickly as possible.

Nielle,