No. Any negative awards would be a bad idea as that person will certainly feel bad about it. For example (no offence), what if you won that kind of award for Breaking Ties under criteria No. 1? Wouldn't feel great would it? It would be doubly bad as some authors have extremely temperamental egos (as shown by Vorlorn last year who stropped because he came SECOND).

 

I'm with MS on this one. We rant and rip into those deserving on the forums enough as it is. I'd rather see only positive awards... or if you're doing negatives, then let's do only negatives and more humorous razzie type 'worst' sorts of awards.

 

Feel free to put mine under a 'worst' award, criticism just bounces off me .

 

Heh, actually, my own fic getting the "reward" crossed my mind while I was recommending that. Of course, my vote would have gone to Saving Conor series or something similar...

But anyway, I can see how some authors wouldn't take the heat well.
Maybe not then...

 

Maybe a challenge award for challenges themselves, you know, great ideas that no one has taken yet. That could be a good way to popularize these ideas and put some spotlight on them, maybe interest an author or two to take them over.

 

That sounds like a good idea. Though I don't think there've been enough challenges to really challenge for the award. (bad pun)

 

Great graphics Bio.

 

I thought about some of those categories the last time, but I grew tired of creating banners, and I was afraid that the same author would win too many categories.

The only main rule about nomination should be that you can't win an award more than one time. But you can be nominated unlimited number of times.

What do you think?
1. add the new categories to the old categories
2. only use the new ones.

If two, should we remove one or more of the old categories.

 

Well, I think that awards for different genres should match categories in the library, they feel rather good after that last reorganization.

 

I think (and I know BioPlague disagrees with me here) that they should be merged. Use the best of old and new then see how it goes.

 

With the following five categories:
Best Story
Best Noir
Best Fantastical
Best One-Shot
Best Newcomer Fanfic

The chance of a single story winning more than two is - if the peramaters for each are followed - almost impossible. A story that wins "Best Story" may capture "Best Noir" or "Best Fantastical" but it would be hard to capture all three as it would require a fairly complex alternate universe that is coherent, a dark atmosphere that is palpable and a plot that is stellar. If there is a story out there that deserves all three, than frankly, it deserves all three. But what are the chances?

If a story is focused on a noir setting, it will have a better chance at getting the award as it doesn't try to do so many things. It may win best story.

As for Best Newcomer, I doubt someone who writes a first fic is going to get Noir, Story, Fantastical and One-Shot - same for One-Shot; there isn't enough time to establish a setting beyond a quick thrill or journey in 15,000 words.

What it comes down to is how we excute voting, which is why I believe strongly in the 3, 2, 1 Voting System. Each person that votes can vote for three stories in each category - a first place vote for his (or her) number one story that is worth three points towards the overall score, a second place vote for two points, and a third place vote for one point.

Scenario utilising voting
27 Members ranked Harry's story, My Miserable Life first, Hermione's Bitching for Dummies second and Ron's How to Become Useless to Society third.
24 Members ranked Ron's first, Hermione's second and Harry's third.
2 Members ranked Hermione's first, Ron's second and Harry's third.
The totals would thus be, Harry with 27 first place votes at 3 points a piece (81) and 26 third place votes at 1 point each (26 points) for a grand total of 107 points; Hermione's story received 2 first place votes at 3 points each (6) and 51 second place votes at 2 points each (102) for a grand total of 108 points; Ron's received 24 first place votes at 3 points each (72), 2 second place votes at 2 points each (4) and 27 third place votes at 1 point each (27 points) for a grand total of 103 points.

So we see that this 3, 2, 1 system allows for a more competitive air and also forces voters to not just pick the first thing they think is good. Choosing who is second or third on your list will have a heavy impact, as you can see through Hermione, who only received 2 first place votes, but carried heavily in 2nd place votes. It shows that people were split on the stories of Ron and Harry but consistant in thinking Hermione's story was the next best thing, which, would be a stronger vote in my opinion.

As for the character awards: the character awards should be ran in the same method and I think a story that wins all four would have to be better than J.K. Rowling's series, as there isn't a dynamic character amongst them. People will have characters that stick out to them - such as LT2000's Harry as an anti-hero or whoever. Anyone who picks one story for all four is just being retarded and while that will happen, I believe people will wise up and realise that there are characters that stick out in many of the stories they read and they will vote remembering that, if told beforehand.

As for it being a popularity contest - show me an award ceremony that requires subjectivity that doesn't have this and I'll write Grand Theft Potter. It happens.

 

I agree with Bio. If there's a story that would win the best story award and the best noir award, it's just fair to give the story both. Only to give one award to a story isn't as good I think. I also like the vote system. Maybe there are better ones, but I don't know them and Bio's seem really fair.

 

One thing that could be debatable in the 3,2,1-system is that, while nearly nobody may think a story to be the best in a category, it may take the win, as your example demonstrated (if you changed just a bit, Hermione might win).

That is fine if you deem the story better that appealed to everyone decently, rather than the story that is rated top by half of the community and less great by the other half. If however you think that a story which only few think is best should not win, one might consider giving more weight to the first place, e.g. 4 or 3.5 points.

I'm not sure either way, just wanted to point that out.

On the topic of categories, I think there shouldn't be too many categories, and they shouldn't correspond to the library.

Props for the proposed categories, but I'm not sure about the Anti-Hero one. Wouldn't an anti-hero be one who strives to be heroic, but fails? I think instead of that, we could use something like "Best Moral Struggle" or maybe a "Most Realistic Character" that incorporates human shortcomings, vices and weakness.

I don't think any negative awards should be given. Most disappointing is, I think, highly subjective and there are too many possibilities, especially if you want to include those that are unfinished. Also, it would be kinda mean to single one (or three) out of that bunch out.

On the requirements, a certain length should be met, at least a few chapters should be out, the plot should have moved forward. That is, of course, subjective, but I think that would be better than a certain limit.

€dit: Ok, Link provided us with the exact definition. But I must say, it seems too much like a categorisation of the type of "Light!Harry", "Dark!Harry" and "DarkButLightsided!Harry", too much of a plot-driven character, like the categorisation in the library... (I hope I got across what I meant to say...)

 

"An anti-hero in today's books and films will perform acts generally deemed "heroic," but will do so with methods, manners, or intentions that may not be heroic."

Definition and explanation here

 

Ahem. I got props on this if I ever choose to do a completely messed up and stupid idea.

A question: Is Slash allowed? There are some good slash fics like Lightning on the wave's so if it is allowed...

 

Technically slash is allowed, but as this is a democratic sysem, I'll read Grand Theft Potter if a slash story wins an award.

 

On Anti-Heroes:

My objective was to remove categories I thought were too fadish - Dark But Light Sided Harry as a category for a story award is a fad, as using an Anti-Hero "to drive the plot" will occur infrequently and can go up or down. That would be like adding a Vampire!Harry Stories category for story awards or a Unicorn!Harry Stories category for the awards - it seems a bit ridiculous but the fact is, you're basing the award not on the story but the character.

In reality, I only allowed three main character awards and considered the fourth a homage to FanFiction (where the author inks what he envisions and that comes in the form of the Best OC Award).

The other three however, are more classical - the Hero (Light), the Villain (Black) and the Anti-Hero (Gray). While the Anti-Hero is good, he is bad by moral standards; the hero is always good and the villain is always bad.

DarkButLightSided Harry Stories award authors for the character - not the story; the character is the focal point of the award and as DarkButLightSided Harry fits into the Anti-Hero, it makes both story awards and character awards more prestigious - you cut the useless category and add another perameter to an award that seems more desirable than DarkButLightSided (DBLS) Harry Story of the Year. Not only that, you also give another perameter to Best Noir; Best Noir would be more desirable than DBLS Story of the Year.

Any Character Award, to me, is only beaten in speciality by Best Fanfiction award, IMO - at least I tried to make it that way, by setting the limit at five, and actually going with four (I had Heroine in mind but thought better of it).