Please ask any questions here, or else PM me, Darkstar, or my partner in crime, Joyce Cohen.

Have fun, fellow PK-ers!

Darkstar

As a big D/G supporter, I'm going to nominate D/G authors and stories. Last time you had special categories for non H/Hr stories, because the majority of PKers are H/Hr shippers, and D/G, L/J and R/Lu fics would just get overriden.

Will it be like this too this time? Because I read through the Explanations, Rules etc. and the Nominations thread, and you didn't mention anything about that. If I just missed a part explaining this matter, then I'm sorry, and probably stupid.

Ri, already collecting nominations in a word file

Ri--

Yes, it will be like last time, with non-H/Hr fics in a wholly separate area. We had to do it like this, because otherwise the predominantly H/Hr crowd would snuff out the other ships. So don't worry, all shall be taken care of.

Darkstar

Thank god for that! Or rather, thank Pat and Joyce for that

Ri, whose list suggests heavy Wonk-nepotism in the H/Hr area (because I don't read that many H/Hr, if they're not written by fellow wonks)

Just out of curiousity how do you handle it with old nominees. Says someone dos nominate a fic which had been already in the first award's nominated but didn't win. Do you accept it or rule it out? And what about the winners some might not know which were the winner of the previous awards and nominate them once more.

Like I said just wondering but mind you it might be a good idea that authors can't nominate themself.

We treat it like the Academy Awards, say. There's a period of eligibility. If a fic was eligible in the previous period, then it's ineligible in the current period. We actually did have a few fics that were nominated in the first awards nominated last time, and they were automatically removed.

And yes, authors cannot nominate themselves. That decision was made last time after a few authors decided to do so. All fics nominated by their author not nominated by someone else are automatically removed, no matter what.

Also, Joyce and myself cannot be nominated, since we run the awards.

Hope this clears everything up.

Darkstar

Hi! Question here: "short fics" are not limited to one-shots, right? I already have 2 stories in mind, but they're at least 5 chapters each. *checks* One has 8,000+ words, the other almost 17K. They should go to the Short Fics category right?

Anyway, I'm sure you (Joyce & Pat) will sort out our nominations.

Oh, if you two want to put up announcements in the related forums like Fic Recs and General Fanfic Discussion, be our guest. I'm pretty sure Magpie wouldn't mind having those in Recs.


~Pen

On the question of length: "Short" does not have to be a "one-shot;" it can have multiple chapters, as long as it's not a novel.

And on the question of rating: An NC-17 novel-length fic would go in the novel-length category. The "smut" category is for "short" fics (see above).

Don't worry about all this too much, now, though. Pat and I will check each nomination and take care of sorting them out. The categories now are to just to do preliminary sorting to make our lives a bit easier

~Joyce~

Hi,
I was just wondering where you exactly post your nominations? I'm pretty new to portkey ( well, I wasn't here for the last awards) and wasn't sure. I've looked around for a thread to post them onto but I really can't find one.

Sorry to bother you!

Sweetkiwi456

Nominations haven't started yet, so it's no surprise you couldn't find anything.

Nominations officially start on June 1st, as far as I know (Ha, question: June 1st when? Because Pat and Joyce are both in America. For people in Australia or Eastern Asia like Nielle and Pen nominations might start on June 2nd like this)

I guess you'll know by then. Don't worry, there will be threads for it Pat and Joyce managed to make everything user friendly last time, and I'm quite sure everything will be clear by then

to Pat and Joyce

Ri

Well, we know when it starts but I don't know when it ends. So my question should be how long will nominating remain open.

~Phoenixwriter

sweetkiwi--The Nominations thread does exist, in the same area as this forum. However, it's currently locked, so no posts can be made there.

Ri--June 1st means midnight on the East Coast (since Joyce is technically the boss, we go by her time )

Diana--The nominations will be open until midnight on June 30th, after which, the nominations thread will be locked and we should have the polls up later on July 1st (it does take us a little time to get everything sorted out.) The voting will be from July 1st to midnight on July 31st. If there are any ties, a tiebreaking round is held for one week, after which winners will be announced. If there are none, winners will be announced on August 1st.

Darkstar

Um, can the same author have more than one story in the same category in the voting part? Or would he/she have to choose one story and let that be voted on?

~Kris

Kris--No we decided that each author can only have one spot in each poll, as we had some difficulties with that situation in the first awards. Joyce and I decide which story we think is most likely to win, and place that one in the poll.

Darkstar

Uh, another question from me. About the difference between AU and JKR Universe... If the story is based on books #1-4, it's JKR, and if it's #1-5, then it's AU? So Amynoelle's story Circle of Friends would then be AU? I nominated it under JKR, but I still wasn't sure. So what's what?

Kris--The rule about that is that if it is still possible in the JKR Universe, then it's JKR. If anything is out of line with those established facts, then it is AU.

Basically, if it doesn't contradict canon, it's JKR.

Darkstar

Where would Action/Adventure stories fall? I noticed there was no listing for that field. This isn't a self-promoting plug I'm just wondering.

Since Action/Adenture fics tend to take a while to resolve, they generally go into one of the two novel length categories.

Darkstar

Hey there, i wanted to nominate Neil for Best new Author but i think he joined on 31/12/03. I know u said within the last 6 months but an exception like should be ok shouldn't it?

Neil is eligible. His first fic was completed within the required time period. For fics with more than one chapter, the date of eligibility is taken to be the date when it was finished. This is because incompleted fics are not qualified.

So do not worry, you may nominate him if you so choose.

Darkstar

I'm just wondering, but I am aware that in PK, we are limited to 10 choices per poll. So what happens when there are more than 10 nominations in a given category? Does the organizers pick who goes into the 'finals'? If so, what is the criteria that the organizers use to determine which nominations get into the final poll?

I'm just wondering, because looking at the nominations thread (and being only the first day), I find it mind boggling that every fic that is nominated gets a chance to be voted on in the poll...

There isn't any actual form to the process. Basically, Joyce and I sit down, browse through fics, read some reviews, number of nominations for that fic, and debate which we think deserve the nomination most. It's difficult, and not perfect, but it's unfortunately what we have to do to resolve it, and sadly, a lot of very good fics never make it to the final cut.

Darkstar

Hey maybe we could do a kind of American/Pop idol thing... where we have to vote off the worst ones... *LOL*

MC - who actually has 2 stories that qualify... but one is PURE smut thanks to NAPPA! Maybe we could have a Challenge only catagory....

There seem to be quite a few 'new' people joining the forum and posting straight into nominations. I'm not trying to instigate blame or anything but I just thought it was a little suspicious when some of these people didn't have any info filled out on their user profiles.

So, anyway, do the number of nominations a fic. gets better its chances to win?

About how many fics will end up in the polls for voting... it really should not go above 10. What's the point if every Fic that qualifies makes the shortlist?

How about a list of honourable mentions to every story that was mentioned in the nominations thread (that qualified for submission) but did not make it to polls? At any rate, it will save people hunting through the nominations thread.

Thanks to Pat and Joyce for clearing up issues this early. Now everyone is getting a better picture of how fics make it to the shortlist, and on how each entry's eligibility is verified.

I should've made clear that increasing poll choices and multi-phase voting were but a few of many possible ideas. I don't necessarily like them myself or have thought them through. I throw them here, in the hope that they'd stimulate better ideas from our fellow PK-ers.


Unsolicited Suggestion Alert!
(hidden in SPOILER tags so you can skip them):

SPOILER!

This relates to a question asked shortly after the previous awards.

Having plenty of nominations for a single category could perhaps be solved by splitting the category into more specific ones.

Say, if there are plenty (20+ ?) nominations for Fluff/Humor, perhaps they should be divided into Best Fluff Fic and Best Humor Fic. Take note of the big IF.

If there are too many noms for the novel-lengths, maybe those categories should be rearranged as: Novel - Length Action / Adventure, Novel - Length Drama, etc. Or disregard the Fic Length altogether, and make all categories by genre.




And yes, I know these changes entail plenty of work. Again, these are mere brainstorming, not well thought proposals.

Alright...

Honourable Mention: This is a good idea, I think. I'll bounce some ideas off Joyce the next time I see her about how to implement this.

Fic Categories: I have considered the Action/Adventure quagmire myself several times before. Generally, what we are able to do as far as categories goes depends on the number of nominations. That was really the deciding factor in the splitting of ships last time; we just barely had enough to warrant creating a wholly separate poll for each (though admittedly, we did have to ask MalfoyMyFerret for some help getting two more D/G fics).

I'd also like to state that sometimes, the length of the nomination thread is misleading. I'd say that at least 50% of the nominations we have are repeats, which means we actually have less fics being nominated than it can appear.

Now, on to saying something with actual meaning, instead of random explanations...

It is highly possible we could create splinter categories, either this time around or the next. However, that depends mostly upon YOU the readers. We need you to nominate fics in order for us to do any kind of separation.

My next two suggestions for streamlining the nomination process also has much to do with the proactiveness of the readers.

These awards are for the readers. We want your input, and we want to know which fics you want to see up there and being voted for.

This means that you can help us greatly. You'll notice we openly invite you to create threads for fic discussion on this board. Doing so will help state the case for why this fic should be nominated, and it helps Joyce and I make our decisions, by seeing what YOU, the readers, are saying about this fic, not what WE, the mods, personally feel about it.

However, only once in the history of the Portkey Reader's Choice Awards was a fic discussion thread opened. We want to hear your input! Help us out.

You can also do this, not just by discussing fics, but also by providing us, in your nominations, perhaps, with links to any recommendation thread the fic might have.

It all comes down to this: These are your awards. They are run, by us, voluntarily to give you something fun and exciting to do. They exist for your benefit. Joyce and I cannot do everything. We need your help to make these the best possible awards we can.

Darkstar

Sorry, another question following on from before (I didn't explain it properly). Is there anything stopping people making alt accounts and nominating themselfs? That's what I was trying to get at before.

First of all, Darkstar, thank you for enlightening us about the 'streamlining' process. I was afraid that I was asking a question brought up in previous awards, but was much too lazy to read through all of them to actually find out if my query has been asked before.

Secondly, thank you again, but this time is for your effort and time you and Joyce have spent and will spend on these awards. I unfortunately, belong to the 'lazy bum' category of people (those who want to do something but too lazy to put the effort towarsds it), and so I really do realize how much energy is spent to keep these things going.

And now, to my post...