Or having him win half the categories with two stories? You're on the right track, Bio.

 

PMS much, Bio? You'll notice I supported tossing Romance as well as your decisions to lose others. I'm also for a small number of highly competitive categories rather than lots of meaningless categories, many of which are wired for a single author or support something bizarre. (Best Grammar-Nazi?)

All I did was offer a counter to DS's logic regarding why cross-overs deserve their own category. I'm not necessarily in support of a comedy category or a cross-over category, frankly. Putting them both in AU or even just making a "Best Shezza" category is fine by me.

 

What if a story is nominated for more than one award?

 

Then it'll probably win the category where it has the most votes in, and then be discounted from the rest of the categories. Not sure though, that seems like the logical thing to do.

Also, shouldn't there be some kind of restriction on who gets to vote? I'm not here that long, but maybe only allow people who've been here a few months, at least one month minimum.

 

Your still DLP regardless of how long you've been here shadow, your here to escape the the trash within the many fanfic sites and read awesome quality stories, that alone means your vote should count.

More the merrier as they say.

 

One month should be good, so that nobody will make trolls for the occasion.

 

I think we were shooting more for before 2008. Meaning, anyone who registered prior to the New Year.

 

History shall repeat its self.

 

Changes in a Time of War is ineligible.

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OK. Crossovers, and almost every fanfiction in existence unless it specifically follows canon and does not change a single fucking thing - not even the consistency of Harry's shits - are considered Alternate Universe stories.

But for the purposes of the awards? I'll give it a rundown.

Alternate Universe: If your story begins in August of 1995 and follows canon up until that point and you have Harry utilize any means of time travel or some bullshit tactic to go back into time to change anything that happened prior to August of 1995, this story is Alternate Universe. If your story begins before Philosopher's Stone and has Harry sorted into Slytherin or other houses or belonging to a different family or Aunt Petunia with a different persona, this story is Alternate Universe for the purposes of the awards.

I think it's pretty straightforward. But I know what you're thinking. What if it's canon up until 5th year and then fucking Spider-Man shows up and Harry chills with Spider-Man.

It's a Crossover.

And if it's canon up until 5th year or 4th year or the end of 1st year and then Harry decides decapitating people is a fun thing to do? Macabre. Dark Arts fics and creepy shit go into Macabre, which will also accept the 2 Azkaban stories made in the last year and a half or so if we're feeling pathetic enough to nominate them.

As for General - well - that's pretty much everything else, isn't it? Independent stories, which almost always are Post-OOTP or after a specific time frame, will likely end up here. Post-PS is the breaking point however. Any story that isn't dominantly Harry-centric is also AU; meaning, Marauder's fics and Tom Riddle fics are AU.

So, let's get this straight utilizing examples.

Sounds pretty AU, right?

First passage. Gives the date. At the time where this story begins, information about the death of James and anything subsequent that followed thereafter is unknown. The author can elaborate, just as Post-OOTP people tend to totally forget about horcruxes; jbern decided to totally forget about much of the shit that happened in Book 4. I assume. I read just enough to make this decision.

If he time travels, then it's AU. Otherwise, this story goes into general if someone nominates it.

So any story that isn't Crossover, Macabre or a One-Shot can go into two categories. AU or General. Pick a point on the timeline of Harry Potter. If you choose July 31st, 1996 and proceed from then without drastically changing what happened prior to that date, then it goes into general. You can move forward on the timeline changing what you want from "canon" but you cannot move backwards. If you pick a date to start and Harry moves backwards through any means, it's AU; if you decide that Harry was randomly attacked by beavers rather than a basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets after starting in third year, it's AU.

That's how stories will be removed from threads if they don't follow these guidelines. A crossover story is a crossover story. A story that involves a very dark atmosphere and gruesome violence is Macabre. There are a lot of AU stories and there are a lot of general stories. We looked to make the categories fairly by having at the very least, 5 competitive stories in them. When I saw that, I said ok to it - I didn't see that for the two removed. Maybe I'm wrong and someone can show that to me.

If you disagree, go ahead and fire back. We still got time to change anything if you feel that's a poor definition.

 

Seems the best way to divide up the mass of fics that don't fit in to One Shot or Crossover or Macabre. Even if it does end up with Contemplating Clouds duking it out with Black Comedy and The Lie I've Lived and...

Is it too late for a Romance category? It is? Hmm...

*starts working on Chapter Five, in which it is revealed that Lily is Luna's mother*

 

The problem was highlighted by Veri, or Mors - one of them. I forget . That category awards can either be theme related or genre related. The two don't have to be precise.

We hit a bit of a quandary in that we're trying to incorporate both. If we went all one way, there'd be what? Romance, Comedy, Drama, Macabre and One-Shot?

If someone has a better idea, I'd love to hear it. Banners are easy to make. We need to come up with a list that might be replicated next year rather than redone.

 

Let's just have theme-related awards, with possibly an overall award. People will always bitch about this-fic-should've-got-nominated-in-another-category otherwise.

Does anybody else agree?

Edit: As Bio pointed out in IRC, the comedy and romance sections are pathetically underpopulated. Still, I think theme-related awards with some modifications would be the way to go.

 

The question is - can you name 5 really good comedic stories or romance stories created in the last year that weren't written by Tehan or nonjon? DLP isn't about full-length comedy stories or romance that isn't filled with lulzy smut.

 

Well then we obviously need a lulzy smut category...

 

Raven says stories that updated, rather than were started. And the stipulation remains that no story that won can win again or even be nominated.

.

 

Motherfucker.

I will lol when jbern wins Best Author AND Best Story.

 

I would be very surprised. If you look at the threads for Shezza's stories he has a quite a huge following at DLP and no one will not vote for him because he's a douchebag.

But he won't get my vote.

MIRRAAAAAAAAAAANDA FLAIIIIIIIRGOLD

 

I made three banners for the top of the forum below the banner:







Just in case we wanted people to navigate easily when the forums go up .

 

Have to agree.

Some of the smutty stuff that has been come up with on here is awesome, but wouldn't be likely to win one-shot.

Maybe not actually called the Lulzy-Smut category, but we need something. I want to show my respect for Murphy/Baseball bat!

 

What about Best NEW Author?