Yahoo Forum Archive

Hey guys,

Here is this week's list of hard-to-reach authors:

--- Crantz/Snacky CoAuthors (liaison: aranelgoldenflower,
peregrin_ionadATyahooDOTcoDOTuk)
--- Elvenson (liaison: Marta, martaDOTfandomATgmailDOTcom)
--- j_dav (JDE) (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- Liadan (liaison: Cathleen, virginia_lee_redcatATyahooDOTcom)
--- Llinos (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- Mortizya (liaison: DlnevinsATearthlinkDOTnet)
--- pippinfan88 (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)
--- Raniel42 (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- rosethorn59 (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- Tehta (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)
--- viv (liaison: Dreamflower, aelfwinaATgmailDOTcom)

They have all been nominated at least a week and (according to my records at
least!) have not given us any indication that they *know* they've been
nominated. Now, there are several reasons for that. For instance, the author
could be out of touch temporarily (it is the start of summer), or one
volunteer may not have gotten the word to another volunteer yet. These
authors haven't done anything wrong, and there's no need for alarm yet; we
still have a bit of time.

--- All nominations must be 100% completed by June 21. That includes fixing
any mistakes found on the form, so it's good to try to finish the form a few
days before that deadline.

--- All nominated authors must give some indication they know they were
nominated, within two weeks of being nominated. This can mean starting the
form or emailing the liaison. If they don't, the nomination *may* be
withdrawn, at our discretion. (You don't have to be done within two weeks,
you just have to get started.)

So even if you see your name above, there's still time to accept the
nomination. But if you know any of these authors, you may want to drop them
a line and make sure they know they've been nominated. Authors, if you see
your name listed, please contact your liaison for help with your nomination,
or mefasupportATgmailDOTcom for help logging in to our website. We'll help
you get the ball rolling.

Thanks,

Marta (MEFA Admin.)

Crantz and Snacky are friends of my SWG co-mod Tarion Anarore, so I'll drop
them both a note at the email addresses that I have for them for Back to
Middle-earth Month, and I'll see if Tarion has a way to get in touch with
them too.

viv and I are Facebook friends, so I'll leave her a message when I get home
from work.

JDE/j_dav might not be involved in the fandom anymore. I'm not sure. But
I'll try all of my contacts for her and see if I can get any results.

Dawn

--
~oOo~
Dawn Felagund
http://themidhavens.net/heretic_loremaster/
http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Mortizya has been in communication with me, Marta. She can't access the website to work on her form, though.

I've tried to reach Tehta, but have not heard back from her. She's not around much any more, so I doubt we'll get a response before the deadline has passed, unfortunately.

Ithilwen

-----Original Message-----

From: telperion1

Sent: Jun 1, 2010 8:23 AM

To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com

Subject: [MEFAwards] Hard-to-Reach Authors - Week 2


Hey guys,

Here is this week's list of hard-to-reach authors:

--- Crantz/Snacky CoAuthors (liaison: aranelgoldenflower,

peregrin_ionadATyahooDOTcoDOTuk)

--- Elvenson (liaison: Marta, martaDOTfandomATgmailDOTcom)

--- j_dav (JDE) (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)

--- Liadan (liaison: Cathleen, virginia_lee_redcatATyahooDOTcom)

--- Llinos (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)

--- Mortizya (liaison: DlnevinsATearthlinkDOTnet)

--- pippinfan88 (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)

--- Raniel42 (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)

--- rosethorn59 (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)

--- Tehta (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)

--- viv (liaison: Dreamflower, aelfwinaATgmailDOTcom)



They have all been nominated at least a week and (according to my records at

least!) have not given us any indication that they *know* they've been

nominated. Now, there are several reasons for that. For instance, the author

could be out of touch temporarily (it is the start of summer), or one

volunteer may not have gotten the word to another volunteer yet. These

authors haven't done anything wrong, and there's no need for alarm yet; we

still have a bit of time.


--- All nominations must be 100% completed by June 21. That includes fixing

any mistakes found on the form, so it's good to try to finish the form a few

days before that deadline.


--- All nominated authors must give some indication they know they were

nominated, within two weeks of being nominated. This can mean starting the

form or emailing the liaison. If they don't, the nomination *may* be

withdrawn, at our discretion. (You don't have to be done within two weeks,

you just have to get started.)


So even if you see your name above, there's still time to accept the

nomination. But if you know any of these authors, you may want to drop them

a line and make sure they know they've been nominated. Authors, if you see

your name listed, please contact your liaison for help with your nomination,

or mefasupportATgmailDOTcom for help logging in to our website. We'll help

you get the ball rolling.


Thanks,


Marta (MEFA Admin.)

I don't understand this list how to get off it?

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Diana Nevins" <dlnevins@earthlink.net>
Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 9:23 AM
To: <MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [SPAM] Re: [MEFAwards] Hard-to-Reach Authors - Week 2

> Mortizya has been in communication with me, Marta. She can't access the
> website to work on her form, though.
>
> I've tried to reach Tehta, but have not heard back from her. She's not
> around much any more, so I doubt we'll get a response before the deadline
> has passed, unfortunately.
>
> Ithilwen
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> From: telperion1
>
> Sent: Jun 1, 2010 8:23 AM
>
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
>
> Subject: [MEFAwards] Hard-to-Reach Authors - Week 2
>
>
> Hey guys,
>
> Here is this week's list of hard-to-reach authors:
>
> --- Crantz/Snacky CoAuthors (liaison: aranelgoldenflower,
>
> peregrin_ionadATyahooDOTcoDOTuk)
>
> --- Elvenson (liaison: Marta, martaDOTfandomATgmailDOTcom)
>
> --- j_dav (JDE) (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
>
> --- Liadan (liaison: Cathleen, virginia_lee_redcatATyahooDOTcom)
>
> --- Llinos (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
>
> --- Mortizya (liaison: DlnevinsATearthlinkDOTnet)
>
> --- pippinfan88 (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)
>
> --- Raniel42 (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
>
> --- rosethorn59 (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
>
> --- Tehta (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)
>
> --- viv (liaison: Dreamflower, aelfwinaATgmailDOTcom)
>
>
>
> They have all been nominated at least a week and (according to my records
> at
>
> least!) have not given us any indication that they *know* they've been
>
> nominated. Now, there are several reasons for that. For instance, the
> author
>
> could be out of touch temporarily (it is the start of summer), or one
>
> volunteer may not have gotten the word to another volunteer yet. These
>
> authors haven't done anything wrong, and there's no need for alarm yet; we
>
> still have a bit of time.
>
>
> --- All nominations must be 100% completed by June 21. That includes
> fixing
>
> any mistakes found on the form, so it's good to try to finish the form a
> few
>
> days before that deadline.
>
>
> --- All nominated authors must give some indication they know they were
>
> nominated, within two weeks of being nominated. This can mean starting the
>
> form or emailing the liaison. If they don't, the nomination *may* be
>
> withdrawn, at our discretion. (You don't have to be done within two weeks,
>
> you just have to get started.)
>
>
> So even if you see your name above, there's still time to accept the
>
> nomination. But if you know any of these authors, you may want to drop
> them
>
> a line and make sure they know they've been nominated. Authors, if you see
>
> your name listed, please contact your liaison for help with your
> nomination,
>
> or mefasupportATgmailDOTcom for help logging in to our website. We'll help
>
> you get the ball rolling.
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
> Marta (MEFA Admin.)
>
>

Hi Devona,

The authors on this list have all been nominated for a while, and I'm not sure they *know* they've been nominated. They haven't begun the form at our website where they tell us about their story, and they haven't told their liaison they want to compete.

At least in theory. It's possible there's a screw-up somewhere along the line - for instance, sometimes statuses don't get updated correctly, and sometimes volunteers don't communicate as well as they should.

To get off the list you just need to tell us you know you've been nominated. If you'll tell me your name, I'll make sure you don't appear on next week's list. You can also keep yourself off future lists by beginning your form at our website and changing the status at the bottom of the form to something other than "Email sent to author."

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of Devona
> Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 10:36 AM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [SPAM] Re: [MEFAwards] Hard-to-Reach Authors - Week 2
>
>
>
> I don't understand this list how to get off it?
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Diana Nevins" <dlnevins@earthlink.net
> <mailto:dlnevins%40earthlink.net> >
> Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 9:23 AM
> To: <MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <mailto:MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com> >
> Subject: [SPAM] Re: [MEFAwards] Hard-to-Reach Authors - Week 2
>
> > Mortizya has been in communication with me, Marta. She can't access
> the
> > website to work on her form, though.
> >
> > I've tried to reach Tehta, but have not heard back from her. She's
> not
> > around much any more, so I doubt we'll get a response before the
> deadline
> > has passed, unfortunately.
> >
> > Ithilwen
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> >
> > From: telperion1
> >
> > Sent: Jun 1, 2010 8:23 AM
> >
> > To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <mailto:MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com>
> >
> > Subject: [MEFAwards] Hard-to-Reach Authors - Week 2
> >
> >
> > Hey guys,
> >
> > Here is this week's list of hard-to-reach authors:
> >
> > --- Crantz/Snacky CoAuthors (liaison: aranelgoldenflower,
> >
> > peregrin_ionadATyahooDOTcoDOTuk)
> >
> > --- Elvenson (liaison: Marta, martaDOTfandomATgmailDOTcom)
> >
> > --- j_dav (JDE) (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
> >
> > --- Liadan (liaison: Cathleen, virginia_lee_redcatATyahooDOTcom)
> >
> > --- Llinos (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
> >
> > --- Mortizya (liaison: DlnevinsATearthlinkDOTnet)
> >
> > --- pippinfan88 (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)
> >
> > --- Raniel42 (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
> >
> > --- rosethorn59 (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
> >
> > --- Tehta (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)
> >
> > --- viv (liaison: Dreamflower, aelfwinaATgmailDOTcom)
> >
> >
> >
> > They have all been nominated at least a week and (according to my
> records
> > at
> >
> > least!) have not given us any indication that they *know* they've
> been
> >
> > nominated. Now, there are several reasons for that. For instance, the
> > author
> >
> > could be out of touch temporarily (it is the start of summer), or one
> >
> > volunteer may not have gotten the word to another volunteer yet.
> These
> >
> > authors haven't done anything wrong, and there's no need for alarm
> yet; we
> >
> > still have a bit of time.
> >
> >
> > --- All nominations must be 100% completed by June 21. That includes
> > fixing
> >
> > any mistakes found on the form, so it's good to try to finish the
> form a
> > few
> >
> > days before that deadline.
> >
> >
> > --- All nominated authors must give some indication they know they
> were
> >
> > nominated, within two weeks of being nominated. This can mean
> starting the
> >
> > form or emailing the liaison. If they don't, the nomination *may* be
> >
> > withdrawn, at our discretion. (You don't have to be done within two
> weeks,
> >
> > you just have to get started.)
> >
> >
> > So even if you see your name above, there's still time to accept the
> >
> > nomination. But if you know any of these authors, you may want to
> drop
> > them
> >
> > a line and make sure they know they've been nominated. Authors, if
> you see
> >
> > your name listed, please contact your liaison for help with your
> > nomination,
> >
> > or mefasupportATgmailDOTcom for help logging in to our website. We'll
> help
> >
> > you get the ball rolling.
> >
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> >
> > Marta (MEFA Admin.)
> >
> >
>
>
>

Hi Dawn,

Thanks for doing all this. If you actually get in touch with any of them,
let me know and I'll annotate the list over at LJ, saying they've been
contacted.

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of Dawn Felagund
> Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 9:59 AM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [MEFAwards] Hard-to-Reach Authors - Week 2
>
>
>
> Crantz and Snacky are friends of my SWG co-mod Tarion Anarore, so I'll
> drop
> them both a note at the email addresses that I have for them for Back
> to
> Middle-earth Month, and I'll see if Tarion has a way to get in touch
> with
> them too.
>
> viv and I are Facebook friends, so I'll leave her a message when I get
> home
> from work.
>
> JDE/j_dav might not be involved in the fandom anymore. I'm not sure.
> But
> I'll try all of my contacts for her and see if I can get any results.
>
> Dawn
>
> --
> ~oOo~
> Dawn Felagund
> http://themidhavens.net/heretic_loremaster/
> http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>

Hi Ithilwen,

Thanks for letting me know. I've updated the list over at LJ, to show Mortizya is taken care of so other people won't try to email her. Hopefully.

If you hear back from Tehta let me know.

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of Diana Nevins
> Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 10:24 AM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [MEFAwards] Hard-to-Reach Authors - Week 2
>
>
>
> Mortizya has been in communication with me, Marta. She can't access the
> website to work on her form, though.
>
> I've tried to reach Tehta, but have not heard back from her. She's not
> around much any more, so I doubt we'll get a response before the
> deadline has passed, unfortunately.
>
> Ithilwen
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> From: telperion1
>
> Sent: Jun 1, 2010 8:23 AM
>
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <mailto:MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com>
>
> Subject: [MEFAwards] Hard-to-Reach Authors - Week 2
>
> Hey guys,
>
> Here is this week's list of hard-to-reach authors:
>
> --- Crantz/Snacky CoAuthors (liaison: aranelgoldenflower,
>
> peregrin_ionadATyahooDOTcoDOTuk)
>
> --- Elvenson (liaison: Marta, martaDOTfandomATgmailDOTcom)
>
> --- j_dav (JDE) (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
>
> --- Liadan (liaison: Cathleen, virginia_lee_redcatATyahooDOTcom)
>
> --- Llinos (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
>
> --- Mortizya (liaison: DlnevinsATearthlinkDOTnet)
>
> --- pippinfan88 (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)
>
> --- Raniel42 (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
>
> --- rosethorn59 (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
>
> --- Tehta (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)
>
> --- viv (liaison: Dreamflower, aelfwinaATgmailDOTcom)
>
> They have all been nominated at least a week and (according to my
> records at
>
> least!) have not given us any indication that they *know* they've been
>
> nominated. Now, there are several reasons for that. For instance, the
> author
>
> could be out of touch temporarily (it is the start of summer), or one
>
> volunteer may not have gotten the word to another volunteer yet. These
>
> authors haven't done anything wrong, and there's no need for alarm yet;
> we
>
> still have a bit of time.
>
> --- All nominations must be 100% completed by June 21. That includes
> fixing
>
> any mistakes found on the form, so it's good to try to finish the form
> a few
>
> days before that deadline.
>
> --- All nominated authors must give some indication they know they were
>
> nominated, within two weeks of being nominated. This can mean starting
> the
>
> form or emailing the liaison. If they don't, the nomination *may* be
>
> withdrawn, at our discretion. (You don't have to be done within two
> weeks,
>
> you just have to get started.)
>
> So even if you see your name above, there's still time to accept the
>
> nomination. But if you know any of these authors, you may want to drop
> them
>
> a line and make sure they know they've been nominated. Authors, if you
> see
>
> your name listed, please contact your liaison for help with your
> nomination,
>
> or mefasupportATgmailDOTcom for help logging in to our website. We'll
> help
>
> you get the ball rolling.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Marta (MEFA Admin.)
>
>
>
>

Would you send me website address please.

Devona

--------------------------------------------------
From: "telperion1" <marta.fandom@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 5:38 PM
To: <MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: RE: [SPAM] Re: [MEFAwards] Hard-to-Reach Authors - Week 2

> Hi Devona,
>
> The authors on this list have all been nominated for a while, and I'm not
> sure they *know* they've been nominated. They haven't begun the form at
> our website where they tell us about their story, and they haven't told
> their liaison they want to compete.
>
> At least in theory. It's possible there's a screw-up somewhere along the
> line - for instance, sometimes statuses don't get updated correctly, and
> sometimes volunteers don't communicate as well as they should.
>
> To get off the list you just need to tell us you know you've been
> nominated. If you'll tell me your name, I'll make sure you don't appear on
> next week's list. You can also keep yourself off future lists by beginning
> your form at our website and changing the status at the bottom of the form
> to something other than "Email sent to author."
>
> Marta
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
>> Behalf Of Devona
>> Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 10:36 AM
>> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
>> Subject: Re: [SPAM] Re: [MEFAwards] Hard-to-Reach Authors - Week 2
>>
>>
>>
>> I don't understand this list how to get off it?
>>
>> --------------------------------------------------
>> From: "Diana Nevins" <dlnevins@earthlink.net
>> <mailto:dlnevins%40earthlink.net> >
>> Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 9:23 AM
>> To: <MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <mailto:MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com> >
>> Subject: [SPAM] Re: [MEFAwards] Hard-to-Reach Authors - Week 2
>>
>> > Mortizya has been in communication with me, Marta. She can't access
>> the
>> > website to work on her form, though.
>> >
>> > I've tried to reach Tehta, but have not heard back from her. She's
>> not
>> > around much any more, so I doubt we'll get a response before the
>> deadline
>> > has passed, unfortunately.
>> >
>> > Ithilwen
>> >
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> >
>> > From: telperion1
>> >
>> > Sent: Jun 1, 2010 8:23 AM
>> >
>> > To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <mailto:MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com>
>> >
>> > Subject: [MEFAwards] Hard-to-Reach Authors - Week 2
>> >
>> >
>> > Hey guys,
>> >
>> > Here is this week's list of hard-to-reach authors:
>> >
>> > --- Crantz/Snacky CoAuthors (liaison: aranelgoldenflower,
>> >
>> > peregrin_ionadATyahooDOTcoDOTuk)
>> >
>> > --- Elvenson (liaison: Marta, martaDOTfandomATgmailDOTcom)
>> >
>> > --- j_dav (JDE) (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
>> >
>> > --- Liadan (liaison: Cathleen, virginia_lee_redcatATyahooDOTcom)
>> >
>> > --- Llinos (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
>> >
>> > --- Mortizya (liaison: DlnevinsATearthlinkDOTnet)
>> >
>> > --- pippinfan88 (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)
>> >
>> > --- Raniel42 (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
>> >
>> > --- rosethorn59 (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
>> >
>> > --- Tehta (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)
>> >
>> > --- viv (liaison: Dreamflower, aelfwinaATgmailDOTcom)
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > They have all been nominated at least a week and (according to my
>> records
>> > at
>> >
>> > least!) have not given us any indication that they *know* they've
>> been
>> >
>> > nominated. Now, there are several reasons for that. For instance, the
>> > author
>> >
>> > could be out of touch temporarily (it is the start of summer), or one
>> >
>> > volunteer may not have gotten the word to another volunteer yet.
>> These
>> >
>> > authors haven't done anything wrong, and there's no need for alarm
>> yet; we
>> >
>> > still have a bit of time.
>> >
>> >
>> > --- All nominations must be 100% completed by June 21. That includes
>> > fixing
>> >
>> > any mistakes found on the form, so it's good to try to finish the
>> form a
>> > few
>> >
>> > days before that deadline.
>> >
>> >
>> > --- All nominated authors must give some indication they know they
>> were
>> >
>> > nominated, within two weeks of being nominated. This can mean
>> starting the
>> >
>> > form or emailing the liaison. If they don't, the nomination *may* be
>> >
>> > withdrawn, at our discretion. (You don't have to be done within two
>> weeks,
>> >
>> > you just have to get started.)
>> >
>> >
>> > So even if you see your name above, there's still time to accept the
>> >
>> > nomination. But if you know any of these authors, you may want to
>> drop
>> > them
>> >
>> > a line and make sure they know they've been nominated. Authors, if
>> you see
>> >
>> > your name listed, please contact your liaison for help with your
>> > nomination,
>> >
>> > or mefasupportATgmailDOTcom for help logging in to our website. We'll
>> help
>> >
>> > you get the ball rolling.
>> >
>> >
>> > Thanks,
>> >
>> >
>> > Marta (MEFA Admin.)
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>
>

Hi Devona,

You can find our website at

www.mefawards.net/MEFA2010/

You will need a password to log in. You may be able to retrieve this using the "Forgotten password?" link. Alternately, if you'll give me your name at our site, I will email you your password privately. (I gather you're one of the authors listed below; let me know which one and I can look up your info. for you.)

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of Devona
> Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 7:04 PM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [SPAM] Re: [MEFAwards] Hard-to-Reach Authors - Week 2
>
>
>
> Would you send me website address please.
>
> Devona
>

Devona Abel
djasister@windstream.net

Hi there!
Since I'm about to shamelessly self-nominate my three qualifying stories, I
thought I'd also offer to make a few (or slew, depending!) banners for this
year's MEFAs as I did a few years ago. Is there a place at the yahoo site
for FAQs for sizes, and what's desired in various categories? I know I made
some for more obscure categories that ended up not having enough entries, so
I'd rather focus on categories that can be pretty certain to have enough
entrants. I'd also be happy to make some general nominee banners and can
take requests if desired!

~Thevina (thrihyrne on LJ)


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hiya Thevina,

Thanks for the offer! We have an FAQ on the official "requirements" - size
and the like - here:

http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2010/index.php?page=FAQbanners

I will also have our banner coordinator, Neume Indil, get in touch with you
to discuss what is most needed in terms of content. She can also clear up
any more questions you have about banners.

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of Thevina Finduilas
> Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2010 6:54 AM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [MEFAwards] offer to make banners/icons
>
>
>
> Hi there!
> Since I'm about to shamelessly self-nominate my three qualifying
> stories, I
> thought I'd also offer to make a few (or slew, depending!) banners for
> this
> year's MEFAs as I did a few years ago. Is there a place at the yahoo
> site
> for FAQs for sizes, and what's desired in various categories? I know I
> made
> some for more obscure categories that ended up not having enough
> entries, so
> I'd rather focus on categories that can be pretty certain to have
> enough
> entrants. I'd also be happy to make some general nominee banners and
> can
> take requests if desired!
>
> ~Thevina (thrihyrne on LJ)
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>

Thanks Dawn :D

Crantz and Snacky have got in touch. I think the MEFA email just hit the spam box.

Pip

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, "telperion1" <marta.fandom@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Dawn,
>
> Thanks for doing all this. If you actually get in touch with any of them,
> let me know and I'll annotate the list over at LJ, saying they've been
> contacted.
>
> Marta
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> > Behalf Of Dawn Felagund
> > Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 9:59 AM
> > To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> > Subject: Re: [MEFAwards] Hard-to-Reach Authors - Week 2
> >
> >
> >
> > Crantz and Snacky are friends of my SWG co-mod Tarion Anarore, so I'll
> > drop
> > them both a note at the email addresses that I have for them for Back
> > to
> > Middle-earth Month, and I'll see if Tarion has a way to get in touch
> > with
> > them too.
> >
> > viv and I are Facebook friends, so I'll leave her a message when I get
> > home
> > from work.
> >
> > JDE/j_dav might not be involved in the fandom anymore. I'm not sure.
> > But
> > I'll try all of my contacts for her and see if I can get any results.
> >
> > Dawn
> >
> > --
> > ~oOo~
> > Dawn Felagund
> > http://themidhavens.net/heretic_loremaster/
> > http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> >
> >
> >
>

Hooray! One round of harassment worked. ;) Here's to hoping the other
authors I contacted yesterday get in touch as well. Being familiar with all
of their work, I would love to see them compete. :)

Dawn

On Wed, Jun 2, 2010 at 10:11 AM, peregrin_ionad
<peregrin_ionad@yahoo.co.uk>wrote:

>
>
> Thanks Dawn :D
>
> Crantz and Snacky have got in touch. I think the MEFA email just hit the
> spam box.
>
> Pip
> --
> ~oOo~
> Dawn Felagund
> http://themidhavens.net/heretic_loremaster/
> http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Coolness. :-) I've marked their names off on the list over at the mefas LJ.

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of peregrin_ionad
> Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2010 10:12 AM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [MEFAwards] Re: Hard-to-Reach Authors - Week 2
>
>
>
> Thanks Dawn :D
>
> Crantz and Snacky have got in touch. I think the MEFA email just hit
> the spam box.
>
> Pip
>
> --- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <mailto:MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com> ,
> "telperion1" <marta.fandom@...> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Dawn,
> >
> > Thanks for doing all this. If you actually get in touch with any of
> them,
> > let me know and I'll annotate the list over at LJ, saying they've
> been
> > contacted.
> >
> > Marta
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> <mailto:MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com> [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> <mailto:MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com> ] On
> > > Behalf Of Dawn Felagund
> > > Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 9:59 AM
> > > To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <mailto:MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com>
> > > Subject: Re: [MEFAwards] Hard-to-Reach Authors - Week 2
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Crantz and Snacky are friends of my SWG co-mod Tarion Anarore, so
> I'll
> > > drop
> > > them both a note at the email addresses that I have for them for
> Back
> > > to
> > > Middle-earth Month, and I'll see if Tarion has a way to get in
> touch
> > > with
> > > them too.
> > >
> > > viv and I are Facebook friends, so I'll leave her a message when I
> get
> > > home
> > > from work.
> > >
> > > JDE/j_dav might not be involved in the fandom anymore. I'm not
> sure.
> > > But
> > > I'll try all of my contacts for her and see if I can get any
> results.
> > >
> > > Dawn
> > >
> > > --
> > > ~oOo~
> > > Dawn Felagund
> > > http://themidhavens.net/heretic_loremaster/
> > > http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org
> > >
> > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
>
>
>
>

I know that Liadan knows she has been nominated. She's been having some technical issues and security issues with her hardware and she told me she never received the email from her liaison. I'll keep you updated, and I'll try to reach JDav, she has retired from the fandom, but I believe she wouldn't mind knowing her story was nominated.

Thanks,

Olorimë

Hey guys,

This week I want to talk about the nomination form. Whenever a story is
nominated, the author fills out a form describing it. The form can seem as
long as Boromir's quest to Rivendell :-P, but it is very helpful to both the
readers who will review your story, and to the volunteers who will sort the
various stories into categories and subcategories. I thought I would talk
about how the various information is used. I've written this week's post
mostly to the authors, though I think it will be helpful to readers as well,
as it shows you where the website gets the information displayed to you.

****************************************

The form begins with some very basic information, which is mostly used to
help us make sure your story is eligible. (Some of it is also useful to
categorizers and people reading the story.)

You can change your story URL if you like. If someone read your story one
place (and so used that URL), but you prefer the version you have posted
somewhere else, go ahead and switch it out.

The Story Type and Story Length serve two different purposes, though your
answer to both may be similar. Story types are for categorizers. We will set
up special subcategories based on story type, so that all the drabbles, and
all the poetry, and all the WIPs compete against each other. (For MEFA
purposes a drabble = exactly 100 words, or a series of the same.) You should
select the story type that you most want to compete against. So if your
story is both a poem and a drabble, you should decide whether you want to
compete against other drabbles or against other poems and select that as
your story type.

(A quick word on WIPs. WIPs are by their very nature still being written.
The information you give us should reflect your story *at this time*. If
anything changes, you should contact us and we will update your information
for you. This includes finishing the story, but also if its rating changes
or if you want anything else on the form updated. Email any changes to
mefasupportATgmailDOTcom.)

Story length is more purely for your readers' benefits. Many people will
want to budget time to read longer stories, so identifying your story as a
novel lets your reader know, "don't leave this one until the last minute."
Aside from drabbles, we don't automatically categorize based on length. If
you *want* to compete just against longer or shorter fic, you should select
the Genres: Longer Works or Genres: Ficlets main categories as one of your
choices. (Drabblists don't need to do this, since they're already competing
against other drabbles.) Of course, novels and ficlets are also welcome in
the other categories as well.

We don't require authors to label their stories as slash or het (or gen!)
per se, because for many readers the pairing is more important than that
distinction. Some may find Fingon/Maedhros more plausible than
Aragorn/Finduilas, or vice versa. However, we do ask that you list any
romantic pairings that are important to your author, and that you label
gender if it isn't obvious. (You may use 'm' for male characters and 'f' for
females, if you don't want to give away the characters' identity.) This
gives readers the info they need to make an informed decision, using
whatever factors are most important to them.

**********************************

Once we have this basic information, it's now time to move on to the info we
use to sort your stories into categories and subcategories. At the MEFAs,
every story gets put into a main category and a subcategory. You tell us
what main category you want by choosing your first, second, and third choice
categories. These can be certain genres (including lengths, like Ficlets or
Longer Works), races, or time periods. Categories will then be divided into
*sub*categories, groups of 6-12 pieces, and that's the stories you'll be
competing against. But categories are very important, too. All the stories
in your subcategory will come from the same main category.

Basically, the categorizers will

1. Look at all the nominations that selected "Races: Elves" (or whatever) as
their first choice category.
2. Divide that up using the story type.
3. If there are between 6-12 entries in that group, then that group will
become

--- Races: Elves: Drabbles
--- Races: Elves: Incomplete or
--- Races: Elves: Poetry

4. If there are more than twelve entries we break the stories up further,
using the other questions in this section of the form.
5. If there are less than six entries, we start moving stories around, into
their second or third choices.

That's an imperfect description. There's a lot more involved, other factors
we look at. I'll talk more about these issues in a few weeks. For now, I
just want you to note how the main category choices are used. You should
select as your first-choice category the kind of stories you *most* want to
compete against - even if it's not a perfect description of your story. And
on down the line; your second choice category should be where you'd want to
compete if your first choice isn't available, and so on.

For instance, if you have a story about Maglor bumming around Dol Amroth
well into the Fourth Age, you may *still* want to select First Age and Prior
as one of your category choices, since the "Post-Ring War and Beyond"
category is likely to include stories involving LOTR characters.

The category choices can also be used by readers to find all the stories
involving a certain time period or about a certain race or of a certain
genre. But their main purpose is to set up subcategories. You shouldn't
select a main category choice, unless you would be okay if your story ended
up competing there.

You'll also find questions about "Characters for Categorization," "Story
Setting," and "Subgenres." This information may be used when setting up
subcategories - if we have too many stories of the same type in the same
main category. For instance, last year we had six full-length finished
stories competing in the Horror main category, and about ten times that
number in the Drama main category. We have to break up larger categories to
make things fair, and we use these questions to do that. Stories involving
the same character might compete against each other in the same subcategory.
This gives us a good way of breaking down larger categories.

Some of these questions are used by readers as well. Readers can find all
the stories that selected a certain location or subgenre, when deciding what
to read. But its first purpose is to set up subcategories. So if you have a
story about Frodo in the weeks after the Quest, that's technically set in
Gondor; but you should only select Gondor as a location if you want your
story to compete against other stories set there - *all* of them, like
stories about Gondorian politics or Boromir's and Faramir's childhood.

**********************

The last section of the form is more purely for the people looking for
stories to read. Readers can pull up all the stories based around a certain
event, or using a certain source material, so this is a great way to
"advertise" your story. It also helps get your readers in the right frame of
mind. I read both movieverse and bookverse, gladly, but I like to know which
I'm reading. Otherwise, if I am expecting bookverse and there's a detail
from the movies, I may find it jarring. The sources question helps you avoid
these issues.

Readers can also filter the search list based on characters. The website
looks at the "characters for readers," not the "characters for
categorization," when a reader asks for a list of stories involving a
certain character. The characters for categorizers, from the previous
section, is just to help us set up subcategories. If you want readers to
know your story involves Boromir, or Finarfin, or whomever - you need to
pick him from this second list.

One last thing - at the very bottom of the form you will see a space called
"Nomination Notes." This is mainly for authors and different volunteers to
record things they want later volunteers to know about. The MEFAs is very
much a team effort, which means that different people may be working with a
nomination at different points of the award. But there's one thing you can
put in the Nomination Notes that's new this year.

If your story is posted more than one place, you may want to include an
alternate URL. Sometimes websites go down, either temporarily or
permanently, during the course of the awards. If this happens, and if you
give us a back-up URL, we'll change your URL for you. Providing a back-up
URL allows us to make this change quickly. (If people can't read your story,
they can't vote for you.) But this back-up URL is completely optional, so if
you only post one place, that's not a problem.

******************************

So, that's how we use the information you give us when we fill out your
form. Some of it is intended for categorizers, and helps us sort your story
into an appropriate subcategory and category. Other questions are geared
more toward readers, and helps the people reviewing stories find stories
they'd like to read. I hope knowing that helps authors use the form more
effectively, to show off their stories in the best way possible.

Authors, if you have specific questions, you can take them up with your
liaison. But if you (or anyone!) has general questions --if anything I've
said here is unclear-- go ahead and ask. :-)

********************************

For more information:

--- What should I list for romance partners?
http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2010/index.php?page=FAQratings#rat_4
--- How do use my category choices?
http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2010/index.php?page=FAQcategories#cat_2
--- How do I find a story to vote for?
http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2010/index.php?page=FAQvoting#vot_15

********************************

Marta
(MEFA Admin.)

Hi Olorime,

Thanks for letting me know. I've changed the post over at LJ, to say that
Liadan has been contacted. But anything you can do to help her along would
be great. You can also tell her to contact me if she needs help.

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of Olorimë
> Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2010 8:47 PM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [MEFAwards] Re: Hard-to-Reach Authors - Week 2
>
>
>
> I know that Liadan knows she has been nominated. She's been having some
> technical issues and security issues with her hardware and she told me
> she never received the email from her liaison. I'll keep you updated,
> and I'll try to reach JDav, she has retired from the fandom, but I
> believe she wouldn't mind knowing her story was nominated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Olorimë
>
>
>
>

I've noticed that there are not that many stories nominated, with ten days left to nominate. Or were there about this many nominated at this time last year?

Has everyone reading this message nominated five, or ten or twenty pieces of whatever type or length for MEFA this year?

Something to think about; or am I being paranoid.

Hiya Raksha,

I'm afraid this is a "Go not to the Elves" moment - because it's something
that I *am* a little concerned about, but not terribly so.

While nominations only have about ten days to go, it's also the case that
they've only been going for about 2.5 weeks. So, if you look at things from
one perspective, we might seem right on target whereas from another
perspective we may be lagging behind previous years. Based purely on my
memory (I don't have any hard statistics, offhand, just my impressions), it
seems like we had a little less than this number at ten days from the end of
2009's nominations. But it also seems like we have more nominations now than
we did 2-3 weeks into the 2009 awards.

As I said, Go not to the elves.... :-P

Even if nominations are down, I'm not sure that's the end of the world. Of
course, having more nominations would help in the next stage of the awards,
settling things into their categories and subcategories. And having more
nominations means more stories to read over the next several months. But it
also means there's less pressure to choose which stories you are going to
read, which I think might help some people. Frankly, I'm more concerned that
people nominate the stories they really enjoyed from the past year, than
that they nominate a lot of stories. If the fandom is slowing down, and
there are less nominations because less people are writing Tolkien-based
fanfic, that's a bit sad but not really a *problem* in my book.

On the other hand, if people just haven't gotten around to getting those
nominations in - by all means, get started!

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of raksha022002
> Sent: Sunday, June 06, 2010 1:13 AM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [MEFAwards] Should we be concerned?
>
>
>
> I've noticed that there are not that many stories nominated, with ten
> days left to nominate. Or were there about this many nominated at this
> time last year?
>
> Has everyone reading this message nominated five, or ten or twenty
> pieces of whatever type or length for MEFA this year?
>
> Something to think about; or am I being paranoid.
>
>

I've used up my total complement of nominations. I've tried to offer our
constituency a good variety of fics by a number of highly talented writers.
Bonnie L. Sherrell
Teacher at Large

"Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends." LOTR

"Don't go where I can't follow."

I haven't yet used up *all* my nominations, though I most certainly will
before the end of the nomination season.

And yet part of that reason has been-- three-fourths of the stories I wished
to nominate were taken already and nominated by someone else before I got to
them! Frustrating for me, though it also makes me glad that others
appreciate the same stories I do, but I think it may show that there are
fewer eligible stories now than there used to be.

Thousands of older stories have already been through the MEFAs and are no
longer eligible, and the fandom has cooled down from the heady days when the
movies were new and we had a lot of new writers in the fandom. I think
those still remaining are in for the long haul and wll probably never leave
the fandom, but some of those may no longer be writing fanfic, due to RL
concerns, or they may be writing, but not as much.

It's not necessarily something to worry about; sadly, it's the normal course
of events.

Dreamflower

On Sun, Jun 6, 2010 at 12:12 AM, raksha022002 <PGail99@aol.com> wrote:

>
>
> I've noticed that there are not that many stories nominated, with ten days
> left to nominate. Or were there about this many nominated at this time last
> year?
>
> Has everyone reading this message nominated five, or ten or twenty pieces
> of whatever type or length for MEFA this year?
>
> Something to think about; or am I being paranoid.
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I haven't done my nominations yet, so that will be a handful more, though
I'm sure that many of those on my list have already been nominated. A
combination of changing jobs and being a natural procrastinator has kept me
from doing them yet. Hopefully, there are a few other procrastinators out
there who will give us some excellent new stories to read for MEFA season.
:)

Dawn

On Sun, Jun 6, 2010 at 1:12 AM, raksha022002 <PGail99@aol.com> wrote:

>
>
> I've noticed that there are not that many stories nominated, with ten days
> left to nominate. Or were there about this many nominated at this time last
> year?
>
> Has everyone reading this message nominated five, or ten or twenty pieces
> of whatever type or length for MEFA this year?
>
> Something to think about; or am I being paranoid.
>

--
~oOo~
Dawn Felagund
http://themidhavens.net/heretic_loremaster/
http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hello all,

It seems to me that last year I had the very same thoughts. Marta, calm and
collected as always, cooled down my fears.

And she was right. We had a boatload of nominations last year.

So I'm hoping the same will be true this year. I still have some noms to
make, but I'm also trying to finish something in time to compete... That's
taking a lot of work..... *stupid stories that hide their endings*

Blessings,
Agape


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I've wondered about that myself. Some of my authors for whom I am responsible as their liaison have not even had a story nominated this year, though they did have stories last year. On the other hand, I've got two new authors who are not only new to MEFA but also new to LOTR fanfic, and that's an encouraging sign.

At the same time, I have to confess that I have not seen too many stories since the last MEFA that I considered worthy of nomination. People are just not writing as much I think and it was hard for me to find stories to nominate and some that I wanted to nominate were already nominated by others.

On the other hand, based on my experience from last year as a liaison, I suspect that people will wake up to the fact that the nomination period is nearly done with and will start nominating like mad. It seemed to me that last year I had a whole slew of nominations to deal with just before the deadline. This may be the case this year as well. We'll just have to see and keep our fingers crossed. *grin*

Fiondil

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, "raksha022002" <PGail99@...> wrote:
>
> I've noticed that there are not that many stories nominated, with ten days left to nominate. Or were there about this many nominated at this time last year?
>
> Has everyone reading this message nominated five, or ten or twenty pieces of whatever type or length for MEFA this year?
>
> Something to think about; or am I being paranoid.
>

I have only used up a tiny portion of my nomination lot. Partly it is due to the difficulty of getting an E-mail address from authors whose names have not had an account on the site (FanFiction.Net requires one to ferify codes for the E-mail address to show, and I am craps with that (both the visual and audio ones)), and partly because there seem not to be many good fics I have read which are elligible for MEFA and have not been nominated either this year or the years before.
 
Well, and my procrastination does have a share in this, coupled with real life activities which seem to be determined to drag me away from the Internet (or the computer altogether). Hopefully I will manage to add at least several nomination before the deadline. (I am a "deadliner" sometimes - Or at least it is what we call people with that tendency here in Indonesia. *grin*) I do hope that I am able to use up all 20 nominations this year, in my first time at MEFA, and that nominations will flock in before the 15th. If you said that it happened last year, then it might happen again this year. :)
 
Rey

--- On Sun, 6/6/10, raksha022002 <PGail99@aol.com> wrote:


From: raksha022002 <PGail99@aol.com>
Subject: [MEFAwards] Should we be concerned?
To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sunday, June 6, 2010, 1:12 AM


 



I've noticed that there are not that many stories nominated, with ten days left to nominate. Or were there about this many nominated at this time last year?

Has everyone reading this message nominated five, or ten or twenty pieces of whatever type or length for MEFA this year?

Something to think about; or am I being paranoid.











[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I've used up all my noms, and a fic was posted today I find totally awesome!
And I keep finding more of Marta and Dwim's stories I wish I could nominate,
too! Gaack!

I keep a file in which I write information for nominating stories I come across
that I want to nominate in the next MEFAs, and even though I started nominating
on May 15 I found many had already been nominated by the time I started putting
up my own noms. And I keep forgetting to check WIPs to make certain they didn't
compete in previous years--durn!
Bonnie L. Sherrell
Teacher at Large

"Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends." LOTR

"Don't go where I can't follow."

I might be making this up, but it seems to me that the drabble count is down this year. Last year, a large subsection of the competing stories were true drabbles or true drabble series. There don't seem to be as many this year, but that might be indicative of low totals all around. ::shrugs:: Just my impression.

Thundera

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, "raksha022002" <PGail99@...> wrote:
>
> I've noticed that there are not that many stories nominated, with ten days left to nominate. Or were there about this many nominated at this time last year?
>
> Has everyone reading this message nominated five, or ten or twenty pieces of whatever type or length for MEFA this year?
>
> Something to think about; or am I being paranoid.
>

Tanaqui, who writes some of the most exquisite drabbles around, is starting a
new series on LiveJournal that I recommend. http://tanaquilotr.livejournal.com/
Bonnie L. Sherrell
Teacher at Large

"Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends." LOTR

"Don't go where I can't follow."

Perhaps recommendations like this are better done through a private means of communication such as e-mail or IM if the need for it must be done.

Remember there are others who write drabbles and this could be viewed as "stacking the deck" in favor of this author.

Elvish Writer

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, "Bonnie L. Sherrell" <blslarner@...> wrote:
>
> Tanaqui, who writes some of the most exquisite drabbles around, is starting a
> new series on LiveJournal that I recommend. http://tanaquilotr.livejournal.com/
> Bonnie L. Sherrell
> Teacher at Large
>
> "Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends." LOTR
>
> "Don't go where I can't follow."
>

Sorry--it's just that since the particular correspondent mentioned drabbles I
noted an author who is known for her drabbles and who is just now writing
another series. I know a few others who also have series of drabbles and other
drabble multiples, including Marta, Jay of Lasgalen, Lindelea, Dwimordene,
Dreamflower, Grey Wonderer, and several others, including myself. I'd even
tried to nominate a drabble by AnnMarwalk, who has chosen to sit out this year's
competition. So, we know there are drabbles and drabble series out there--just
not many have been nominated as yet.
Bonnie L. Sherrell
Teacher at Large

"Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends." LOTR

"Don't go where I can't follow."

Hi Elvish Writer and everyone,

I'm glad you brought this up. While I don't think Larner meant any harm by
all this --and it's all too easy to want to recommend authors you liked in
discussions like this!-- I do see how it could make some authors
uncomfortable.

Everyone, I'd really appreciate it if you wouldn't discuss how much you like
specific stories or authors here or at the mefas LJ. And I don't blame
Larner here! This isn't the first time this has happened, and it probably
won't be the last. But *because* it's so easy to talk up a certain author or
story, I think it's something we need to be careful to stay away from.

There *is* a good way to get people excited about the MEFAs, and I want
everyone to do that. In fact, I'll make my next educational post (every
Wednesday) about just this kind of issue. It's a very important topic.

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of Elvish Writer
> Sent: Monday, June 07, 2010 12:10 PM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [MEFAwards] Re: Should we be concerned?
>
>
>
> Perhaps recommendations like this are better done through a private
> means of communication such as e-mail or IM if the need for it must be
> done.
>
> Remember there are others who write drabbles and this could be viewed
> as "stacking the deck" in favor of this author.
>
> Elvish Writer
>
> --- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <mailto:MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com> ,
> "Bonnie L. Sherrell" <blslarner@...> wrote:
> >
> > Tanaqui, who writes some of the most exquisite drabbles around, is
> starting a
> > new series on LiveJournal that I recommend.
> http://tanaquilotr.livejournal.com/
> > Bonnie L. Sherrell
> > Teacher at Large
> >
> > "Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even
> the very wise cannot see all ends." LOTR
> >
> > "Don't go where I can't follow."
> >
>
>
>
>

Hi, everyone,

I wanted to let everyone know that the archive for the Silmarillion Writers'
Guild will be offline for a few hours tomorrow while we install a software
update. We are planning to take the archive offline at about 6:30 AM GMT. A
trial run of the update on our test site took about two hours, so we're
hoping we will be back online by 9:30 AM GMT. During this time,
MEFA-nominated stories being hosted on SWG will be unavailable.

We apologize for any inconvenience but look forward to our spiffy new
software! :)

As always, if there are any questions, please feel free to contact me
off-list at DawnFelagund AT gmail DOT com.

Thank you and best regards,

Dawn

--
~oOo~
Dawn Felagund
http://themidhavens.net/heretic_loremaster/
http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hey guys,

Here is this week's list of hard-to-reach authors:

First, these authors have all been nominated at least a week, and (according
to my records) haven't given any indication they know they've been
nominated.

--- Margaret Watkins (Liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- Raniel42 (liaison: Elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- the_arc5 (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- Viv (liaison: Dreamflower, aelfwinaATgmailDOTcom)

Additionally, these authors have all been nominated at least two weeks and,
while they have replied to say they know they've been nominated, they
haven't begun work on their forms:

--- Branwyn (Lady Branwyn) (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- Elvenson (liaison: Marta, martaDOTfandomATgmailDOTcom)
--- j_dav (JDE) (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- Liadan (liaison: Cathleen, Virginia_lee_redcatATyahooDOTcom)
--- Lindelea (liaison: Elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- Marigold (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- Mortizya (liaison: Ithilwen, dlnevinsATearthlinkDOTnet)
--- Perelleth (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- rosethorn59 (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- Tehta (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)

Now, there are several reasons for seeing your name above. For instance, the
author could be out of touch temporarily, or one volunteer may not have
gotten the word to another volunteer yet. These authors haven't done
anything wrong, and there's no need for alarm yet; we still have a bit of
time.

--- All nominations must be 100% completed by June 21. That includes fixing
any mistakes found on the form, so it's good to try to finish the form a few
days before that deadline.

--- All nominated authors must give some indication they know they were
nominated, within two weeks of being nominated. This can mean starting the
form or emailing the liaison. If they don't, the nomination *may* be
withdrawn, at our discretion. (You don't have to be done within two weeks,
you just have to get started.)

If you see your name listed in the first list, get in touch with your
liaison, or with me (mefasupportATmefawardsDOTnet) so we can get you started
working. If you're on the second list and *know* you still have work to do,
there's no cause for alarm. But if you think you're all done, get in touch
with your liaison so you can figure out what still needs to be done.

Thanks,

Marta (MEFA Admin.)

Thank you, Marta. The mentioning of specific authors made me uncomfortable.

I hope I'm not out of line for mentioning this, but it's been eating at me for a couple days. Another comment that made me very uncomfortable was someone stating that there are few good stories 'worthy of nomination'. I think we need to be sensitive to the fact that there are a lot of people on this list who write and whose stories have NOT been nominated, so to say there aren't many stories 'worthy of nomination' is rather like a slap in the face to those authors. I really think comments like that are hurtful and drive people away rather than encouraging participation. :(

NiRi

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, "telperion1" <marta.fandom@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Elvish Writer and everyone,
>
> I'm glad you brought this up. While I don't think Larner meant any harm by
> all this --and it's all too easy to want to recommend authors you liked in
> discussions like this!-- I do see how it could make some authors
> uncomfortable.
>
> Everyone, I'd really appreciate it if you wouldn't discuss how much you like
> specific stories or authors here or at the mefas LJ. And I don't blame
> Larner here! This isn't the first time this has happened, and it probably
> won't be the last. But *because* it's so easy to talk up a certain author or
> story, I think it's something we need to be careful to stay away from.
>
> There *is* a good way to get people excited about the MEFAs, and I want
> everyone to do that. In fact, I'll make my next educational post (every
> Wednesday) about just this kind of issue. It's a very important topic.
>
> Marta

Hi Marta!

I just heard from viv. She's filling out her form now!

Dreamflower

On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 2:13 PM, telperion1 <marta.fandom@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> Hey guys,
>
> Here is this week's list of hard-to-reach authors:
>
> First, these authors have all been nominated at least a week, and
> (according
> to my records) haven't given any indication they know they've been
> nominated.
>
> --- Margaret Watkins (Liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
> --- Raniel42 (liaison: Elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
> --- the_arc5 (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
> --- Viv (liaison: Dreamflower, aelfwinaATgmailDOTcom)
>
> Additionally, these authors have all been nominated at least two weeks and,
> while they have replied to say they know they've been nominated, they
> haven't begun work on their forms:
>
> --- Branwyn (Lady Branwyn) (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
> --- Elvenson (liaison: Marta, martaDOTfandomATgmailDOTcom)
> --- j_dav (JDE) (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
> --- Liadan (liaison: Cathleen, Virginia_lee_redcatATyahooDOTcom)
> --- Lindelea (liaison: Elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
> --- Marigold (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
> --- Mortizya (liaison: Ithilwen, dlnevinsATearthlinkDOTnet)
> --- Perelleth (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
> --- rosethorn59 (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
> --- Tehta (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)
>
> Now, there are several reasons for seeing your name above. For instance,
> the
> author could be out of touch temporarily, or one volunteer may not have
> gotten the word to another volunteer yet. These authors haven't done
> anything wrong, and there's no need for alarm yet; we still have a bit of
> time.
>
> --- All nominations must be 100% completed by June 21. That includes fixing
> any mistakes found on the form, so it's good to try to finish the form a
> few
> days before that deadline.
>
> --- All nominated authors must give some indication they know they were
> nominated, within two weeks of being nominated. This can mean starting the
> form or emailing the liaison. If they don't, the nomination *may* be
> withdrawn, at our discretion. (You don't have to be done within two weeks,
> you just have to get started.)
>
> If you see your name listed in the first list, get in touch with your
> liaison, or with me (mefasupportATmefawardsDOTnet) so we can get you
> started
> working. If you're on the second list and *know* you still have work to do,
> there's no cause for alarm. But if you think you're all done, get in touch
> with your liaison so you can figure out what still needs to be done.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Marta (MEFA Admin.)
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I only nominated a few this year, as I went through my list, most of
the ones I enjoyed so much were already nom'd or had been in previous
years. I know I've been much less active in the fandom over about the
last two years, even down from being less active over the last couple
of years before that. Real Life has had me by a strangle-hold, but
thankfully hasn't kept me out of the fandom completely. I didn't know
if there were less stories being published or if I just wasn't active
enough to be hitting the good ones.

Either way, I'll read and vote as much as I can without stressing.

Sulriel

On Sun, Jun 6, 2010 at 2:04 AM, telperion1 <marta.fandom@gmail.com> wrote:
> And having more
> nominations means more stories to read over the next several months. But it
> also means there's less pressure to choose which stories you are going to
> read, which I think might help some people. Frankly, I'm more concerned that
> people nominate the stories they really enjoyed from the past year, than
> that they nominate a lot of stories. If the fandom is slowing down, and
> there are less nominations because less people are writing Tolkien-based
> fanfic, that's a bit sad but not really a *problem* in my book.

I haven't nominated any stories yet. I usually keep a file during the year where I store stories I want to nominate for the next Mefas. Unfortunately, the last year was not very kind to me. Due to an increased workload and trying to read for the Mefas as much as I could, I didn't read anything outside of the competition. I'm still working through my email reminders of updates to the stories I'm following and discovered that most of them are already nominated. So, I guess my nomination slots will be lost.

Chris


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

A long time ago I found a story on the net called 'Elienne-Heart's Song'. Has anyone have any ideas on the author or where I can find it?

Thanks Lady of DEElights

I have to admit, that that comment NiRi mentioned made me uncomfortable too, and I think that things like that discourage participation in general any time they are made in any open forum. It is possible to be positive about what you like, without being negative about the work of others.

Cactuskim





________________________________
From: nierielraina <equineinclined@yahoo.com>
To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tue, June 8, 2010 12:43:14 PM
Subject: [MEFAwards] Re: Should we be concerned?


Thank you, Marta. The mentioning of specific authors made me uncomfortable.

I hope I'm not out of line for mentioning this, but it's been eating at me for a couple days. Another comment that made me very uncomfortable was someone stating that there are few good stories 'worthy of nomination'. I think we need to be sensitive to the fact that there are a lot of people on this list who write and whose stories have NOT been nominated, so to say there aren't many stories 'worthy of nomination' is rather like a slap in the face to those authors. I really think comments like that are hurtful and drive people away rather than encouraging participation. :(

NiRi

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, "telperion1" <marta.fandom@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Elvish Writer and everyone,
>
> I'm glad you brought this up. While I don't think Larner meant any harm by
> all this --and it's all too easy to want to recommend authors you liked in
> discussions like this!-- I do see how it could make some authors
> uncomfortable.
>
> Everyone, I'd really appreciate it if you wouldn't discuss how much you like
> specific stories or authors here or at the mefas LJ. And I don't blame
> Larner here! This isn't the first time this has happened, and it probably
> won't be the last. But *because* it's so easy to talk up a certain author or
> story, I think it's something we need to be careful to stay away from.
>
> There *is* a good way to get people excited about the MEFAs, and I want
> everyone to do that. In fact, I'll make my next educational post (every
> Wednesday) about just this kind of issue. It's a very important topic.
>
> Marta




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hey guys,

2010 is I think the MEFAs' sixth year running. That's really an impressive
feat, I think, and something I'm very proud of. But whatever else it means,
it also means that many stories have already competed. There are still some
great older stories out there, and many newer stories as well, but they
*can* be a little harder to find.

This naturally leads people to want to recommend some author or other that
they think may be underappreciated or under-recognized. Authors who have
been nominated, too, may want to brag about this fact. However, the MEFAs
are a competition and we don't want to give anyone an unfair advantage (or
make those people whose work isn't being recommended feel left out. There's
a right and a wrong way to make people aware of the good stories out there,
and to *squee* over your own nominated fic. This week, I want to talk about
some of these issues.

First, the business. There is one rule that you should keep in mind when
talking up the MEFAs:

"Members may not solicit votes from other MEFA members, or encourage friends
to join the MEFAs to vote on particular stories. They are permitted and
encouraged to recruit new voters, but this must not be for the purpose of
obtaining more votes for specific stories."

This means that, once a story is in the competition, you can't post to a
list like this and ask people to go vote for it specifically, and you can't
ask your friends to join up specifically to vote for a particular story.
It's just not fair. Everyone gets ten points that they can give an author by
reviewing it, and when you ask someone else to vote for it, you're really
trying to give that story more than your twenty votes. (Or at least, that
can be the practical impact, even if it isn't your intention.)

The same philosophy applies to nominations. You are limited to twenty
nominations, and part of the reason is so no one person's favorite stories
dominate the awards. Now, there's nothing wrong with me telling my friend
and fellow MEFA-member about a good story I read, perhaps even hoping that
my friend will nominate the story (when I've already used up my twenty
nominations). In that case I'm trying to introduce my friend to a story they
may not have known about, and am hoping that friend will like the story
enough to want to nominate it on her own.

You can even make these kind of recommendations publicly. Some groups allow
you to write up recommendations for old stories, and even run recommendation
challenges. Certainly if you have a blog you could post there pointing out a
story you particularly enjoyed. And if you see a recommendation for a story
you like, by all means see if it's eligible, and if it is consider
nominating it. But posting those recommendations here is going a step too
far. The one thing everyone reading this has in common is that we're
interested in the MEFAs. It's more appropriate to post that recommendation
to your personal webspace (where people follow because they want to hear
your thoughts), or to a website or listserv dedicated to that character or
genre.

[As a sidenote: there have been a few nominations withdrawn, because they
were already nominated this year: when you nominate a story, please check
both www.mefawards.net/mefa-archive/ and www.mefawards.net/MEFA2010/ , to
make sure no one has nominated it yet.]

For many people, the problem isn't so much being aware of stories to
nominate, as it is remembering what you've read. Everyone has their own
strategies for dealing with this, but here are two I've found particularly
helpful.

First, many archives give you a way to see the stories you have reviewed
there. If you review a story when you find it, this is a good way to see a
review of your reading habits. Similarly, if you recommend your favorite
stories somewhere, often you can find the posts you have made in the past
wherever you make the recommendations. (At blogs like LJ, you can even "tag"
certain posts, making it even easier to find your old reviews.) This way,
you can review those stories you found particularly interesting, see which
ones are eligible, and nominate them if you'd like to.

On the authors' side, I know some authors put together a list of the stories
they wrote that they will accept nominations for. These lists often include
links to a preferred version as well as brief summaries and other basic
information. Doing this can serve many useful purposes, not all of them
MEFA-related. It lets people see what you've written lately, whether they
are involved in the MEFAs or not. It also lets people know what link you
prefer. This is not nomination-soliciting, so long as you *make it clear*
that you're not grubbing for nominations. I know when I have done this, I've
encouraged people to nominate whatever eligible authors they most like, and
have said I only put the list together for the convenience of other people.

These approaches may not be everyone's style, and that's okay. These are
just suggestions that I have found useful. If you have your own suggestions,
that's fine, too. The important thing is that these suggestions all try to
introduce people to new interesting fic, or try to remind people of what
they've read in the past. The goal isn't to get people to nominate what I
like, but to help them find things that *they* like. And that's fine re: the
MEFA rules.

****************************

So much for finding stories to nominate, without running afoul of the MEFA
rules. :-) Say you've been nominated, and want to tell all your friends.
It's good news, and it's quite natural to want to share it. You just have to
be careful not to ask people to vote for your story in particular. By all
means, thank the people that nominated you. It's even okay to explain what
the MEFAs are and tell people how to sign up to vote. But if you do that,
you need to be careful that you tell your friends to vote for *all* the
participants, not just your stories.

Don't do that to this list. That's getting a bit too close to soliciting
votes, for the same reason you shouldn't recommend specific stories to this
list. So far, that's not been a problem, but it bears mentioning so it
doesn't *become* one.

Another way to advertise that you've been nominated is through banners. We
have some very talented and industrious fanartists working with our banner
coordinator, Neume Indil, making banners and buttons for the nominated
authors. You can view the 2010 nominee banners at

http://picasaweb.google.com/MEFABanners/NomineeGraphics

and are free to use any you like with your nominated stories. Some are
character-specific while others are more generic, to be used with any story
you like. If you are artistically inclined, we also encourage you to let us
share any banners you create, so other members can enjoy them.

*********************************

It's always a bit tricky discussing specific stories when it comes to
awards. It's a fine line to walk, between having a good time and taking it a
step too far, and thereby making others feel excluded. We also don't want to
influence the awards unfairly. I hope these suggestions will help you see
how to enjoy the awards, without stepping over that line.

Marta
(Mefa Admin.)

Hi NiRi (and Cactuskim),

It's funny, I read that comment in a somewhat different way. I read it as
saying that this particular member hadn't read very many stories he liked -
not that good stories weren't out there. If you'll permit me the philosophy
terms, it's kind of the difference between a subjective vs. an objective
statement. Subjective refers to my (or anyone's) experience, the other to
how things actually *are*, how anyone could experience them. So, I read this
statement as describing Fiondil's particular experience, not making a
blanket statement about the nature of things.

But I *can* see how other people would read this differently, and I see that
point. I'm not interested in assessing blame (I don't think Fiondil meant
any harm, but that's not important to me); if it is making people feel
uncomfortable, then let's not do that kind of thing again. Statements about
the quality of recent fanfic are a little off-topic anyway. We're here first
and foremost to discuss the MEFAs.

Thanks, everyone for your concerns. I'd appreciate it if we could drop this
thread from here on out.

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of nierielraina
> Sent: Tuesday, June 08, 2010 3:43 PM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [MEFAwards] Re: Should we be concerned?
>
>
>
> Thank you, Marta. The mentioning of specific authors made me
> uncomfortable.
>
> I hope I'm not out of line for mentioning this, but it's been eating at
> me for a couple days. Another comment that made me very uncomfortable
> was someone stating that there are few good stories 'worthy of
> nomination'. I think we need to be sensitive to the fact that there are
> a lot of people on this list who write and whose stories have NOT been
> nominated, so to say there aren't many stories 'worthy of nomination'
> is rather like a slap in the face to those authors. I really think
> comments like that are hurtful and drive people away rather than
> encouraging participation. :(
>
> NiRi
>
> --- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <mailto:MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com> ,
> "telperion1" <marta.fandom@...> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Elvish Writer and everyone,
> >
> > I'm glad you brought this up. While I don't think Larner meant any
> harm by
> > all this --and it's all too easy to want to recommend authors you
> liked in
> > discussions like this!-- I do see how it could make some authors
> > uncomfortable.
> >
> > Everyone, I'd really appreciate it if you wouldn't discuss how much
> you like
> > specific stories or authors here or at the mefas LJ. And I don't
> blame
> > Larner here! This isn't the first time this has happened, and it
> probably
> > won't be the last. But *because* it's so easy to talk up a certain
> author or
> > story, I think it's something we need to be careful to stay away
> from.
> >
> > There *is* a good way to get people excited about the MEFAs, and I
> want
> > everyone to do that. In fact, I'll make my next educational post
> (every
> > Wednesday) about just this kind of issue. It's a very important
> topic.
> >
> > Marta
>
>
>
>

Hi Lady of DEE Lights,

I don't really want to encourage this kind of email for the whole list. I
just want to keep this listserv as focused on our awards as possible. But I
did some poking around, and will email you about that privately. :-)

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of Lady of DEE Lights
> Sent: Tuesday, June 08, 2010 10:27 PM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [MEFAwards] Looking for a Fic
>
>
>
> A long time ago I found a story on the net called 'Elienne-Heart's
> Song'. Has anyone have any ideas on the author or where I can find it?
>
> Thanks Lady of DEElights
>
>
>

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of Barbara Rich
> Sent: Tuesday, June 08, 2010 4:58 PM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [MEFAwards] hard-to-reach authors - week 3
>
> Hi Marta!
>
> I just heard from viv. She's filling out her form now!
>
> Dreamflower
>

Thanks, Dreamflower. I've edited the list over at LJ to make this clear, and
hopefully that will keep her from being contacted again.

Marta

While filling out the story form for one of my own fics, I spotted a small typo in the Events and Time Periods section of the form. "(1): Reunion of the Noldor; Fingon rescues Maedhros; Maedhros recognizes Fingon's kingship" should read "Maedhros recognized FINGOLFIN's kingship." Fingon doesn't become king until much, much later.

It's a small thing, but easy enough to fix, so I thought I'd mention it.

Ithilwen

Hi Ithilwen,

*blush* Good catch!

I've made the change.

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of Diana Nevins
> Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2010 10:47 AM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [MEFAwards] Found a typo in the Story Form
>
>
>
> While filling out the story form for one of my own fics, I spotted a
> small typo in the Events and Time Periods section of the form. "(1):
> Reunion of the Noldor; Fingon rescues Maedhros; Maedhros recognizes
> Fingon's kingship" should read "Maedhros recognized FINGOLFIN's
> kingship." Fingon doesn't become king until much, much later.
>
> It's a small thing, but easy enough to fix, so I thought I'd mention
> it.
>
> Ithilwen
>
>
>

First I would like to say I'm most impressed at the quality and range of nomination banners on offer for this year's awards. there is truly something for everyone and I'm enjoying choosing some for my stories.

I am concerned,though at the amount of graphics on one page. I have a broadband connection of 7.5Mbps and my computer is struggling to load all the pictures and I keep getting error messages and missing pictures. If I'm having this problem,I dread to think how anyone with a slow connection must be faring.

Another thing that might be an idea to consider for the future, is to include graphics based on "Star Of Hope" as well as the Jackson films as lots of people write little Estel stories. That is just a thought.

A big thank you to all the banner creators,

Linda

First I would like to say I'm most impressed at the quality and range of nomination banners on offer for this year's awards. there is truly something for everyone and I'm enjoying choosing some for my stories.

I am concerned,though at the amount of graphics on one page. I have a broadband connection of 7.5Mbps and my computer is struggling to load all the pictures and I keep getting error messages and missing pictures. If I'm having this problem,I dread to think how anyone with a slow connection must be faring.

Another thing that might be an idea to consider for the future, is to include graphics based on "Star Of Hope" as well as the Jackson films as lots of people write little Estel stories. That is just a thought.

A big thank you to all the banner creators,

Linda

Hi Linda,

> First I would like to say I'm most impressed at the quality and range
> of nomination banners on offer for this year's awards. there is truly
> something for everyone and I'm enjoying choosing some for my stories.
>

Thanks - I'm sure the banner artists appreciate knowing you enjoyed them.

> I am concerned,though at the amount of graphics on one page. I have a
> broadband connection of 7.5Mbps and my computer is struggling to load
> all the pictures and I keep getting error messages and missing
> pictures. If I'm having this problem,I dread to think how anyone with a
> slow connection must be faring.
>

I've shared this concern with NeumeIndil, who handles the banner side of
things. I really don't know enough about Picasa to know how we can best
handle this. But I hope we can find a solution to this.

> Another thing that might be an idea to consider for the future, is to
> include graphics based on "Star Of Hope" as well as the Jackson films
> as lots of people write little Estel stories. That is just a thought.
>

That's a good suggestion, too, and I've passed it on to Neume. However, I
don't really want to encourage people to create specific graphics for
specific characters. Some of that happens, obviously, and it's 100% fine.
But we'll never be thorough there, just because Tolkien fandom is so
diverse. I think it's better to try to get as many banners that are
attractive and interesting but aren't necessarily character-specific.

But I *have* passed this suggestion on, and maybe someone will do something
with it. If you have the time and want to create some Star of Hope banners,
we'd welcome them, too. :-)

Marta

As one of the banner-makers, I am glad to hear you like banners. :) I would just like to say that I have completed my first plan for nominee banners - for now. I have some more ideas, but they will have to wait a few weeks.
In the meantime, if any of you has a wish - a banner with some particular character or scene - don't hesitate to ask. Just send me an e-mail and tell me what you would like. ;)

Ellynn

--- On Wed, 6/9/10, Linda <gingerleo@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Linda <gingerleo@gmail.com>
Subject: [MEFAwards] Banners
To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, June 9, 2010, 6:51 PM







 









First I would like to say I'm most impressed at the quality and range of nomination banners on offer for this year's awards. there is truly something for everyone and I'm enjoying choosing some for my stories.



I am concerned,though at the amount of graphics on one page. I have a broadband connection of 7.5Mbps and my computer is struggling to load all the pictures and I keep getting error messages and missing pictures. If I'm having this problem,I dread to think how anyone with a slow connection must be faring.



Another thing that might be an idea to consider for the future, is to include graphics based on "Star Of Hope" as well as the Jackson films as lots of people write little Estel stories. That is just a thought.



A big thank you to all the banner creators,



Linda

























[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Thanks for looking into the problem, Marta,

Linda

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, "telperion1" <marta.fandom@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Linda,
>
> > First I would like to say I'm most impressed at the quality and range
> > of nomination banners on offer for this year's awards. there is truly
> > something for everyone and I'm enjoying choosing some for my stories.
> >
>
> Thanks - I'm sure the banner artists appreciate knowing you enjoyed them.
>
> > I am concerned,though at the amount of graphics on one page. I have a
> > broadband connection of 7.5Mbps and my computer is struggling to load
> > all the pictures and I keep getting error messages and missing
> > pictures. If I'm having this problem,I dread to think how anyone with a
> > slow connection must be faring.
> >
>
> I've shared this concern with NeumeIndil, who handles the banner side of
> things. I really don't know enough about Picasa to know how we can best
> handle this. But I hope we can find a solution to this.
>
> > Another thing that might be an idea to consider for the future, is to
> > include graphics based on "Star Of Hope" as well as the Jackson films
> > as lots of people write little Estel stories. That is just a thought.
> >
>
> That's a good suggestion, too, and I've passed it on to Neume. However, I
> don't really want to encourage people to create specific graphics for
> specific characters. Some of that happens, obviously, and it's 100% fine.
> But we'll never be thorough there, just because Tolkien fandom is so
> diverse. I think it's better to try to get as many banners that are
> attractive and interesting but aren't necessarily character-specific.
>
> But I *have* passed this suggestion on, and maybe someone will do something
> with it. If you have the time and want to create some Star of Hope banners,
> we'd welcome them, too. :-)
>
> Marta
>

Ellynn,I do have a request,for something with Gilraen and little Estel, but don't know your e mail to contact you privately,

Linda

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, Ellin Ithilwen <ellin_revenger@...> wrote:
>
> As one of the banner-makers, I am glad to hear you like banners. :) I would just like to say that I have completed my first plan for nominee banners - for now. I have some more ideas, but they will have to wait a few weeks.
> In the meantime, if any of you has a wish - a banner with some particular character or scene - don't hesitate to ask. Just send me an e-mail and tell me what you would like. ;)
>
> Ellynn
>
>
> --- On Wed, 6/9/10, Linda <gingerleo@...> wrote:
>
> From: Linda <gingerleo@...>
> Subject: [MEFAwards] Banners
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Wednesday, June 9, 2010, 6:51 PM
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>  
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> First I would like to say I'm most impressed at the quality and range of nomination banners on offer for this year's awards. there is truly something for everyone and I'm enjoying choosing some for my stories.
>
>
>
> I am concerned,though at the amount of graphics on one page. I have a broadband connection of 7.5Mbps and my computer is struggling to load all the pictures and I keep getting error messages and missing pictures. If I'm having this problem,I dread to think how anyone with a slow connection must be faring.
>
>
>
> Another thing that might be an idea to consider for the future, is to include graphics based on "Star Of Hope" as well as the Jackson films as lots of people write little Estel stories. That is just a thought.
>
>
>
> A big thank you to all the banner creators,
>
>
>
> Linda
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

Hey guys,

This one's for all the banner makers out there. I meant to do this earlier but only remembered the other day when all these banner posts came up. Not sure if anyone is aware of it already, but when I'm making banners I find this site extremely helpful for finding specific source images:

http://www.tk421.net/lotr/film/

Theres a small screenshot from pretty much every key scene of the film (extended editions included).

They're not huge pictures, but since banners are usually pretty small I find them really great to use.

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, "Linda" <gingerleo@...> wrote:
>
>
> Ellynn,I do have a request,for something with Gilraen and little Estel, but don't know your e mail to contact you privately,
>
> Linda
>
>
>
> --- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, Ellin Ithilwen <ellin_revenger@> wrote:
> >
> > As one of the banner-makers, I am glad to hear you like banners. :) I would just like to say that I have completed my first plan for nominee banners - for now. I have some more ideas, but they will have to wait a few weeks.
> > In the meantime, if any of you has a wish - a banner with some particular character or scene - don't hesitate to ask. Just send me an e-mail and tell me what you would like. ;)
> >
> > Ellynn
> >
> >
> > --- On Wed, 6/9/10, Linda <gingerleo@> wrote:
> >
> > From: Linda <gingerleo@>
> > Subject: [MEFAwards] Banners
> > To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> > Date: Wednesday, June 9, 2010, 6:51 PM
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >  
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > First I would like to say I'm most impressed at the quality and range of nomination banners on offer for this year's awards. there is truly something for everyone and I'm enjoying choosing some for my stories.
> >
> >
> >
> > I am concerned,though at the amount of graphics on one page. I have a broadband connection of 7.5Mbps and my computer is struggling to load all the pictures and I keep getting error messages and missing pictures. If I'm having this problem,I dread to think how anyone with a slow connection must be faring.
> >
> >
> >
> > Another thing that might be an idea to consider for the future, is to include graphics based on "Star Of Hope" as well as the Jackson films as lots of people write little Estel stories. That is just a thought.
> >
> >
> >
> > A big thank you to all the banner creators,
> >
> >
> >
> > Linda
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
>

Hi Linda and all,

I've been talking with Neume Indil, who manages the banners side of things.
Unfortunately, Picasa doesn't allow you to only display a certain number of
images per page. Neume did decrease the size of the thumbnails (the images
you see when looking at them all at once. Here are some other strategies you
can try:

1. Use the RSS feed. If you go to

http://picasaweb.google.com/MEFABanners/NomineeGraphics#

and click on the "RSS" link, you'll go to a page that lets you add the RSS
feed to any RSS reader you have. (E.G.: Google's "Google Reader," which is
web-based and uses your gmail account.) Adding this feed lets you view the
graphics through your RSS reader. The main advantage is, RSS treats each
image like its own webpage, so instead of opening one really long web page
you will be viewing several really short web pages, and then "tricking" your
browser into displaying them all at once. It should avoid the errors you are
getting, which I think come because the web page is taking too long to load.

RSS also will tell you when new graphics are added, and display only those
graphics.

2. Download the Picasa program. (http://picasa.google.com/) Picasa lets you
edit pictures, but it also lets you download other peoples' pictures. Once
you've installed it, go to the page of nominee banners, and click Download

>> Download to Picasa. This will let you view all the graphics through your

Picasa program. It may take a few minutes to download but, again, since each
picture is being treated as its own download, I don't think you'll have the
error messages you do now.

3. Look at each picture individually. As soon as the webpage starts loading,
click on any one of the banners. Then click the left arrow or right arrow to
view the previous/next banners. This may be time-consuming, but it does keep
you from downloading so much data all at once.

I don't know which approach, if any, will work for you. This is an issue
that Aranel is working on for next year's site. Unfortunately, there's not a
silver bullet to this particular problem, with the way things are set up
now.

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of Linda
> Sent: Friday, June 11, 2010 1:39 AM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [MEFAwards] Re: Banners
>
>
>
> Thanks for looking into the problem, Marta,
>
> Linda
>
> --- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <mailto:MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com> ,
> "telperion1" <marta.fandom@...> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Linda,
> >
> > > First I would like to say I'm most impressed at the quality and
> range
> > > of nomination banners on offer for this year's awards. there is
> truly
> > > something for everyone and I'm enjoying choosing some for my
> stories.
> > >
> >
> > Thanks - I'm sure the banner artists appreciate knowing you enjoyed
> them.
> >
> > > I am concerned,though at the amount of graphics on one page. I have
> a
> > > broadband connection of 7.5Mbps and my computer is struggling to
> load
> > > all the pictures and I keep getting error messages and missing
> > > pictures. If I'm having this problem,I dread to think how anyone
> with a
> > > slow connection must be faring.
> > >
> >
> > I've shared this concern with NeumeIndil, who handles the banner side
> of
> > things. I really don't know enough about Picasa to know how we can
> best
> > handle this. But I hope we can find a solution to this.
> >

Hello everyone!

Thanks to Marta for the invite! :D I am so happy to be here! I can't get enough of LOTR (canon or fanfiction)! LOL But then I am preaching to the choir here right? ;P

Looking forward to seeing who's here all, and seeing what stories are out there.

Hugs,
Vanime

Welcome, Vanime! Glad to see you here.

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of vanime18431
> Sent: Friday, June 11, 2010 9:15 PM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [MEFAwards] Newbie here!
>
>
>
> Hello everyone!
>
> Thanks to Marta for the invite! :D I am so happy to be here! I can't
> get enough of LOTR (canon or fanfiction)! LOL But then I am preaching
> to the choir here right? ;P
>
> Looking forward to seeing who's here all, and seeing what stories are
> out there.
>
> Hugs,
> Vanime
>
>

Hey guys,

Just a reminder: nominations for the 2010 MEFAs are only open through June
15. I highly encourage everyone not to leave these until the last minute.
It's the weekend now; go ahead and enter any nominations you have.

The MEFA "day" is based on GMT. That means you have until 11:59 PM, GMT, on
June 15 to *enter* your nominations - you actually have to click "submit" on
the form by that time. The current "official" time is posted on the bottom
of each page, in the bottom right corner besides "Page served at:". (This is
the official time when you loaded the page you're currently looking at.) You
do *not* have until midnight in your local time; you have until 11:59 PM GMT
on June 15.

Do you need help logging in to the site? If so, please get it *now*. MEFA
volunteers are humans with offline lives, and it can often take a few hours
or even a few days to get you a response. (Though we do our best to reply
quickly!) Use the "Forgotten Password?" link at our webpage, or email me at
mefasupportATgmailDOTcom if you need help. Don't leave this until the last
minute, or the deadline might pass you by.

Also, I want to remind authors - your nominations must be finalized by June
21. That's one week after the end of nominations. I highly encourage you to
fill out your forms by next Saturday (June 19), so you have time to correct
any errors your liaisons might find.

Happy nominating!

Marta (MEFA Admin.)

Wait 'til the last minute? Who? Me?

nautika *rabbits back to her story list*

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, "telperion1" <marta.fandom@...> wrote:
>
> Hey guys,
>
> Just a reminder: nominations for the 2010 MEFAs are only open through June
> 15. I highly encourage everyone not to leave these until the last minute.
> It's the weekend now; go ahead and enter any nominations you have.
>
> The MEFA "day" is based on GMT. That means you have until 11:59 PM, GMT, on
> June 15 to *enter* your nominations - you actually have to click "submit" on
> the form by that time. The current "official" time is posted on the bottom
> of each page, in the bottom right corner besides "Page served at:". (This is
> the official time when you loaded the page you're currently looking at.) You
> do *not* have until midnight in your local time; you have until 11:59 PM GMT
> on June 15.
>

> Happy nominating!
>
> Marta (MEFA Admin.)
>

I'm a graduate student, and my officemate has this sign up over his door:
"Never put off until tomorrow what can be delayed until next week." A bit
cliché, but seems to fit my approach to fandom all too well. I suspect we
both have good company.

This isn't last minute. 11:30 PM (GMT!) next Tuesday, that's last minute.
But do get on it before then... :-)

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of nau_tika
> Sent: Saturday, June 12, 2010 11:55 PM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [MEFAwards] Re: Reminder - Close of Nominations Approaching
>
>
>
>
>
> Wait 'til the last minute? Who? Me?
>
> nautika *rabbits back to her story list*
>
> --- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <mailto:MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com> ,
> "telperion1" <marta.fandom@...> wrote:
> >
> > Hey guys,
> >
> > Just a reminder: nominations for the 2010 MEFAs are only open through
> June
> > 15. I highly encourage everyone not to leave these until the last
> minute.
> > It's the weekend now; go ahead and enter any nominations you have.
> >
> > The MEFA "day" is based on GMT. That means you have until 11:59 PM,
> GMT, on
> > June 15 to *enter* your nominations - you actually have to click
> "submit" on
> > the form by that time. The current "official" time is posted on the
> bottom
> > of each page, in the bottom right corner besides "Page served at:".
> (This is
> > the official time when you loaded the page you're currently looking
> at.) You
> > do *not* have until midnight in your local time; you have until 11:59
> PM GMT
> > on June 15.
> >
>
> > Happy nominating!
> >
> > Marta (MEFA Admin.)
> >
>
>
>
>

Dear All,

I'm having trouble contacting two of my assigned authors, and wonder if any of you may know how to get in touch with them.

The first author is Gandalf 3213, whose story "Moments" has been nominated. Gandalf has filled out the story form, but there are errors in the form which need to be corrected, and I've had no response from after Gandalf emailing the author twice. Does anyone know if Gandalf 3213 has a LJ or a second email address, or some other way to be reached? The story cannot compete with the story form in its current state!

The second author is Eonwe, whose story "Unrest: What Evil Fears" has been nominated. The notification email was sent out on June 9th, but I have received no reply, and the author has not begin work on the story form. Right now I have no idea if Eonwe even knows the story has been nominated. I've sent out a second email today, but if any of you know another way to reach Eonwe, please let me know. We're getting close to the deadline, and I'd hate for an author to miss out on the competition just because of a spam filter or an email glitch.

Ithilwen

Gandalf3213 is actually siblings who post on FanFiction.net. That's where I
contacted them.
Bonnie L. Sherrell
Teacher at Large

"Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends." LOTR

"Don't go where I can't follow."

Thanks, Bonnie. I'll try leaving Gandalf 3213 a PM over at ff.net, and hope that reaches them.

Ithilwen


-----Original Message-----

From: "Bonnie L. Sherrell"

Sent: Jun 13, 2010 3:43 PM

To: "MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com"

Subject: Re: [MEFAwards] Need Help Contacting Two Authors!


Gandalf3213 is actually siblings who post on FanFiction.net. That's where I

contacted them.

Bonnie L. Sherrell

Teacher at Large



"Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends." LOTR



"Don't go where I can't follow."

Hi Ithilwen,

I nominated Eonwe, and I do know he is still active on the Valar Guild Messageboard, as in, online within the last 14 hours.

http://valarguild.proboards.com/index.cgi?

I just joined actually, to send Eonwe a private message via the board, in case he/she was unaware of the nomination. If I do get a reply I will let you know.

Take care,

Siân

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, Diana Nevins <dlnevins@...> wrote:
>
> Dear All,
>
> I'm having trouble contacting two of my assigned authors, and wonder if any of you may know how to get in touch with them.
>
> The first author is Gandalf 3213, whose story "Moments" has been nominated. Gandalf has filled out the story form, but there are errors in the form which need to be corrected, and I've had no response from after Gandalf emailing the author twice. Does anyone know if Gandalf 3213 has a LJ or a second email address, or some other way to be reached? The story cannot compete with the story form in its current state!
>
> The second author is Eonwe, whose story "Unrest: What Evil Fears" has been nominated. The notification email was sent out on June 9th, but I have received no reply, and the author has not begin work on the story form. Right now I have no idea if Eonwe even knows the story has been nominated. I've sent out a second email today, but if any of you know another way to reach Eonwe, please let me know. We're getting close to the deadline, and I'd hate for an author to miss out on the competition just because of a spam filter or an email glitch.
>
> Ithilwen
>

Thanks, Siân. I really appreciate it. Here's hoping eonwe responds in time!

Ithilwen

-----Original Message-----

From: vanimore_gorthaurion

Sent: Jun 14, 2010 5:04 AM

To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com

Subject: [MEFAwards] Re: Need Help Contacting Two Authors!



Hi Ithilwen,

I nominated Eonwe, and I do know he is still active on the Valar Guild Messageboard, as in, online within the last 14 hours.

http://valarguild.proboards.com/index.cgi?

I just joined actually, to send Eonwe a private message via the board, in case he/she was unaware of the nomination. If I do get a reply I will let you know.

Take care,

Siân

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, Diana Nevins <dlnevins@...> wrote:

>

> Dear All,

>

> I'm having trouble contacting two of my assigned authors, and wonder if any of you may know how to get in touch with them.

>

> The first author is Gandalf 3213, whose story "Moments" has been nominated. Gandalf has filled out the story form, but there are errors in the form which need to be corrected, and I've had no response from after Gandalf emailing the author twice. Does anyone know if Gandalf 3213 has a LJ or a second email address, or some other way to be reached? The story cannot compete with the story form in its current state!

>

> The second author is Eonwe, whose story "Unrest: What Evil Fears" has been nominated. The notification email was sent out on June 9th, but I have received no reply, and the author has not begin work on the story form. Right now I have no idea if Eonwe even knows the story has been nominated. I've sent out a second email today, but if any of you know another way to reach Eonwe, please let me know. We're getting close to the deadline, and I'd hate for an author to miss out on the competition just because of a spam filter or an email glitch.

>

> Ithilwen

>

There is one more thing that crossed my mind, concerning the total number of banners and possible problems in opening the album. My suggestion is not for this year (for I can't think of anything), but for the next: if we'll use Picasa again next year, and if Picasa remains the same - that is, not being able to show only a certain number of pictures per page - perhaps we can do it "manually". I mean, we can open album called Nominee banners 1. When there are 100 banners, we open album Nominee banners 2, and again we don't put more than 100 banners in it, and so on. What do you think? *unsure*
 
Ellynn
 
 
P.s. If you doubt we'll have enough banners for several albums, then I'll tell you that for all those banners I've made - I also kept layered versions, so all I have to do for next year is change 2010 to 2011. :D And I can always make more. :D




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I run a manipulation group that uses Picasa for storing our resources, and we routinely put up to 500 very large high resolution images into each gallery without any of the problems that the one user here was describing (and I have a slow internet connection [230kbs per sec max] and until this week had an 8 year old slow computer). Picasa has been very reliable and easy to use for us, and we have over 25,000 images stored there so far. Occasionally I have had it finish loading and had a handful of images that did not load a thumbnail on the main gallery page, but all I have to do when that happens, is to refresh the page and the images that were already loaded reload almost instantly and then the missing ones load at the normal rate.

Breaking things up into different galleries is no big deal with Picasa if you want to try that though, since you can create as many galleries as you want inside one account. It also might help people find things faster too. One way to consider breaking them up/dividing them beyond just 'Nominee' etc, would be by size. Example; Icon's in one gallery larger banners in another etc, since most people people are looking for a size to fit what their forum allows.

BTW, you can easily add notes to each thumbnail if you want to identify who made things etc, AND people can comment at the Picasa galleries on individual images... a feature that might come in handy at the end of the contest when people are requesting customization of their final banners.

Cactuskim







________________________________
From: Ellin Ithilwen <ellin_revenger@yahoo.com>
To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Mon, June 14, 2010 2:15:25 PM
Subject: RE: [MEFAwards] Re: Banners


There is one more thing that crossed my mind, concerning the total number of banners and possible problems in opening the album. My suggestion is not for this year (for I can't think of anything), but for the next: if we'll use Picasa again next year, and if Picasa remains the same - that is, not being able to show only a certain number of pictures per page - perhaps we can do it "manually". I mean, we can open album called Nominee banners 1. When there are 100 banners, we open album Nominee banners 2, and again we don't put more than 100 banners in it, and so on. What do you think? *unsure*

Ellynn


P.s. If you doubt we'll have enough banners for several albums, then I'll tell you that for all those banners I've made - I also kept layered versions, so all I have to do for next year is change 2010 to 2011. :D And I can always make more. :D

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Thanks for that Cactuskim. :) I'm Becky/Neu, banner coordinator for this
year.

I'm pretty familiar with how Picasa works, but I'd like to explain the
organization decision I made re: 3 sections by type of banner. Last year
while loading into Photobucket, there were several places banner makers had
to post images, I think, as you suggested nominee icons in one, small
nominee banners in one, etc. At least one person found this difficult in
Photobucket's system, and there were many difficulties with load time for
both the banner makers and the users trying to pick a graphic. Since the
wider variety of sections was part of the problem with last year's set up, I
decided for this first run with Picasa to keep things as basic and 'right in
front of you' as possible. Changing the platform is confusing enough for
some people and I didn't want to overcomplicate things unless it was
necessary.

If it turns out that large albums in Picasa are a problem as well, I'll
definitely try breaking it down by type and size next year. :) (Assuming I'm
still doing it, which as of now I haven't found reason I wouldn't volunteer
again.)

If I do run into any snags I can't work around as the albums fill up, may I
contact you to pick your brain?

Thanks again,
Neu

On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 5:52 PM, kimberli leal <kim@flash.net> wrote:

>
>
> I run a manipulation group that uses Picasa for storing our resources, and
> we routinely put up to 500 very large high resolution images into each
> gallery without any of the problems that the one user here was describing
> (and I have a slow internet connection [230kbs per sec max] and until this
> week had an 8 year old slow computer). Picasa has been very reliable and
> easy to use for us, and we have over 25,000 images stored there so far.
> Occasionally I have had it finish loading and had a handful of images that
> did not load a thumbnail on the main gallery page, but all I have to do when
> that happens, is to refresh the page and the images that were already loaded
> reload almost instantly and then the missing ones load at the normal rate.
>
> Breaking things up into different galleries is no big deal with Picasa if
> you want to try that though, since you can create as many galleries as you
> want inside one account. It also might help people find things faster too.
> One way to consider breaking them up/dividing them beyond just 'Nominee'
> etc, would be by size. Example; Icon's in one gallery larger banners in
> another etc, since most people people are looking for a size to fit what
> their forum allows.
>
> BTW, you can easily add notes to each thumbnail if you want to identify who
> made things etc, AND people can comment at the Picasa galleries on
> individual images... a feature that might come in handy at the end of the
> contest when people are requesting customization of their final banners.
>
> Cactuskim
>
> ________________________________
> From: Ellin Ithilwen <ellin_revenger@yahoo.com<ellin_revenger%40yahoo.com>
> >
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Mon, June 14, 2010 2:15:25 PM
> Subject: RE: [MEFAwards] Re: Banners
>
>
> There is one more thing that crossed my mind, concerning the total number
> of banners and possible problems in opening the album. My suggestion is not
> for this year (for I can't think of anything), but for the next: if we'll
> use Picasa again next year, and if Picasa remains the same - that is, not
> being able to show only a certain number of pictures per page - perhaps we
> can do it "manually". I mean, we can open album called Nominee banners 1.
> When there are 100 banners, we open album Nominee banners 2, and again we
> don't put more than 100 banners in it, and so on. What do you think?
> *unsure*
>
> Ellynn
>
>
> P.s. If you doubt we'll have enough banners for several albums, then I'll
> tell you that for all those banners I've made - I also kept layered
> versions, so all I have to do for next year is change 2010 to 2011. :D And I
> can always make more. :D
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I don't think it's possible to generalize as to how easy it is or isn't to view the banners on Picasa. I have a six year old PC and an internet connection not all that much faster than dialup. I also live in a country with considerably slower connectivity nationally than is found for example in the US. Loading the page took me just over 20 minutes, after which I had to reload it - another 5 minutes - as around 90 images didn't show up initially. Each time I clicked on an image to see the full size and maker's name it took time to load, after which I had to return to the album and wait for the graphics to refresh.

Not complaining, just detailing the experience. This is not the end of the world (it's way better than Photobucket, which my computer loathes) and I'm patient, but I thought it fair to point out there was more than one person having a few problems with this.

Kei.

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, Neume Indil <neumeindil@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks for that Cactuskim. :) I'm Becky/Neu, banner coordinator for this
> year.
>
> I'm pretty familiar with how Picasa works, but I'd like to explain the
> organization decision I made re: 3 sections by type of banner. Last year
> while loading into Photobucket, there were several places banner makers had
> to post images, I think, as you suggested nominee icons in one, small
> nominee banners in one, etc. At least one person found this difficult in
> Photobucket's system, and there were many difficulties with load time for
> both the banner makers and the users trying to pick a graphic. Since the
> wider variety of sections was part of the problem with last year's set up, I
> decided for this first run with Picasa to keep things as basic and 'right in
> front of you' as possible. Changing the platform is confusing enough for
> some people and I didn't want to overcomplicate things unless it was
> necessary.
>
> If it turns out that large albums in Picasa are a problem as well, I'll
> definitely try breaking it down by type and size next year. :) (Assuming I'm
> still doing it, which as of now I haven't found reason I wouldn't volunteer
> again.)
>
> If I do run into any snags I can't work around as the albums fill up, may I
> contact you to pick your brain?
>
> Thanks again,
> Neu
>
> On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 5:52 PM, kimberli leal <kim@...> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > I run a manipulation group that uses Picasa for storing our resources, and
> > we routinely put up to 500 very large high resolution images into each
> > gallery without any of the problems that the one user here was describing
> > (and I have a slow internet connection [230kbs per sec max] and until this
> > week had an 8 year old slow computer). Picasa has been very reliable and
> > easy to use for us, and we have over 25,000 images stored there so far.
> > Occasionally I have had it finish loading and had a handful of images that
> > did not load a thumbnail on the main gallery page, but all I have to do when
> > that happens, is to refresh the page and the images that were already loaded
> > reload almost instantly and then the missing ones load at the normal rate.
> >
> > Breaking things up into different galleries is no big deal with Picasa if
> > you want to try that though, since you can create as many galleries as you
> > want inside one account. It also might help people find things faster too.
> > One way to consider breaking them up/dividing them beyond just 'Nominee'
> > etc, would be by size. Example; Icon's in one gallery larger banners in
> > another etc, since most people people are looking for a size to fit what
> > their forum allows.
> >
> > BTW, you can easily add notes to each thumbnail if you want to identify who
> > made things etc, AND people can comment at the Picasa galleries on
> > individual images... a feature that might come in handy at the end of the
> > contest when people are requesting customization of their final banners.
> >
> > Cactuskim
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: Ellin Ithilwen <ellin_revenger@...<ellin_revenger%40yahoo.com>
> > >
> > To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com>
> > Sent: Mon, June 14, 2010 2:15:25 PM
> > Subject: RE: [MEFAwards] Re: Banners
> >
> >
> > There is one more thing that crossed my mind, concerning the total number
> > of banners and possible problems in opening the album. My suggestion is not
> > for this year (for I can't think of anything), but for the next: if we'll
> > use Picasa again next year, and if Picasa remains the same - that is, not
> > being able to show only a certain number of pictures per page - perhaps we
> > can do it "manually". I mean, we can open album called Nominee banners 1.
> > When there are 100 banners, we open album Nominee banners 2, and again we
> > don't put more than 100 banners in it, and so on. What do you think?
> > *unsure*
> >
> > Ellynn
> >
> >
> > P.s. If you doubt we'll have enough banners for several albums, then I'll
> > tell you that for all those banners I've made - I also kept layered
> > versions, so all I have to do for next year is change 2010 to 2011. :D And I
> > can always make more. :D
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

Hi Becky,

I have no problem with having them all in one folder and was not suggesting a change. I only mentioned one way of breaking them down in the future since some people seemed to think that that would be easier. Any way you do it is fine with me... personally I rather like them all together, and the adjustable thumbnail size feature lets a person get a good look at things without having to do anything but scroll once the page has loaded ;p.

I was a banner maker last year and the year before, and pretty much dropped out of the process last year after making nomination banners because Photobucket was so incredibly unfriendly to the users uploading to it (took me over 2 hours just to upload about 40 tiny banners one of the times I tried it (and that doesn't count the additional time it took to try and force PB's worthless tagging system to work, and adding credits notes which took even longer). With files that small it would have taken me about 3 clicks and only five minuets with Picasa to load a whole folder, plus Picasa keeps the original file names, so banner makers could have just added their initials to their PSD files and it would have been on the banner file name automatically, so no work there. I finally gave up in frustration and just sent what I had left to NiRi to struggle with loading, which really wasn't very fair to her, but she was a sweety and did it anyways.

If you have any questions about Picasa, no problem at all asking me; If I don't know the answer, I can run it by the co-moderator of my manip group, who knows all the tricks ;p.

Cactuskim







________________________________
From: Neume Indil <neumeindil@gmail.com>
To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Mon, June 14, 2010 3:17:54 PM
Subject: Re: [MEFAwards] Re: Banners

Thanks for that Cactuskim. :) I'm Becky/Neu, banner coordinator for this
year.

I'm pretty familiar with how Picasa works, but I'd like to explain the
organization decision I made re: 3 sections by type of banner. Last year
while loading into Photobucket, there were several places banner makers had
to post images, I think, as you suggested nominee icons in one, small
nominee banners in one, etc. At least one person found this difficult in
Photobucket's system, and there were many difficulties with load time for
both the banner makers and the users trying to pick a graphic. Since the
wider variety of sections was part of the problem with last year's set up, I
decided for this first run with Picasa to keep things as basic and 'right in
front of you' as possible. Changing the platform is confusing enough for
some people and I didn't want to overcomplicate things unless it was
necessary.

If it turns out that large albums in Picasa are a problem as well, I'll
definitely try breaking it down by type and size next year. :) (Assuming I'm
still doing it, which as of now I haven't found reason I wouldn't volunteer
again.)

If I do run into any snags I can't work around as the albums fill up, may I
contact you to pick your brain?

Thanks again,
Neu

On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 5:52 PM, kimberli leal <kim@flash.net> wrote:

>
>
> I run a manipulation group that uses Picasa for storing our resources, and
> we routinely put up to 500 very large high resolution images into each
> gallery without any of the problems that the one user here was describing
> (and I have a slow internet connection [230kbs per sec max] and until this
> week had an 8 year old slow computer). Picasa has been very reliable and
> easy to use for us, and we have over 25,000 images stored there so far.
> Occasionally I have had it finish loading and had a handful of images that
> did not load a thumbnail on the main gallery page, but all I have to do when
> that happens, is to refresh the page and the images that were already loaded
> reload almost instantly and then the missing ones load at the normal rate.
>
> Breaking things up into different galleries is no big deal with Picasa if
> you want to try that though, since you can create as many galleries as you
> want inside one account. It also might help people find things faster too.
> One way to consider breaking them up/dividing them beyond just 'Nominee'
> etc, would be by size. Example; Icon's in one gallery larger banners in
> another etc, since most people people are looking for a size to fit what
> their forum allows.
>
> BTW, you can easily add notes to each thumbnail if you want to identify who
> made things etc, AND people can comment at the Picasa galleries on
> individual images... a feature that might come in handy at the end of the
> contest when people are requesting customization of their final banners.
>
> Cactuskim
>
> ________________________________
> From: Ellin Ithilwen <ellin_revenger@yahoo.com<ellin_revenger%40yahoo.com>
> >
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Mon, June 14, 2010 2:15:25 PM
> Subject: RE: [MEFAwards] Re: Banners
>
>
> There is one more thing that crossed my mind, concerning the total number
> of banners and possible problems in opening the album. My suggestion is not
> for this year (for I can't think of anything), but for the next: if we'll
> use Picasa again next year, and if Picasa remains the same - that is, not
> being able to show only a certain number of pictures per page - perhaps we
> can do it "manually". I mean, we can open album called Nominee banners 1.
> When there are 100 banners, we open album Nominee banners 2, and again we
> don't put more than 100 banners in it, and so on. What do you think?
> *unsure*
>
> Ellynn
>
>
> P.s. If you doubt we'll have enough banners for several albums, then I'll
> tell you that for all those banners I've made - I also kept layered
> versions, so all I have to do for next year is change 2010 to 2011. :D And I
> can always make more. :D
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



------------------------------------

Visit our website: http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2009/
Yahoo! Groups Links



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi Kei,

I moderate a manipulation group, so I know just how big a pain in the back side dealing with the slowdown caused by lots of graphics can be. I also used to be a dial-up user until about 4 years ago... click on one picture and go make a cup of tea time it is so slow ;p. My group is at Live Journal, which is a site that makes places like Photobucket look fast and friendly, so I can sympathize with your slow and dodgy connection problems. It is so bad at LJ that I now pay them their $25 a year for the community, even though LJ doesn't give paid communities anything worth while over what free communities get except one thing; No Ads, and I was feeling so bad for our dial-up members being hit with Video adds, that I figured it was worth it just to get rid of the ads (felt like I was paying blackmail though ;p).

What our Dial-up members do is just open Picasa up in a separate tab so that they can do something else while the page loads and if necessary needs refreshed. Unfortunately if a connection is slow enough and prone to interruptions, anything with graphics is going to try your patience... which seems to be something you understand fairly well.

Cactuskim







________________________________
From: keiliss <scrapcat21@gmail.com>
To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Mon, June 14, 2010 4:35:02 PM
Subject: [MEFAwards] Re: Banners


I don't think it's possible to generalize as to how easy it is or isn't to view the banners on Picasa. I have a six year old PC and an internet connection not all that much faster than dialup. I also live in a country with considerably slower connectivity nationally than is found for example in the US. Loading the page took me just over 20 minutes, after which I had to reload it - another 5 minutes - as around 90 images didn't show up initially. Each time I clicked on an image to see the full size and maker's name it took time to load, after which I had to return to the album and wait for the graphics to refresh.

Not complaining, just detailing the experience. This is not the end of the world (it's way better than Photobucket, which my computer loathes) and I'm patient, but I thought it fair to point out there was more than one person having a few problems with this.

Kei.

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, Neume Indil <neumeindil@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks for that Cactuskim. :) I'm Becky/Neu, banner coordinator for this
> year.
>
> I'm pretty familiar with how Picasa works, but I'd like to explain the
> organization decision I made re: 3 sections by type of banner. Last year
> while loading into Photobucket, there were several places banner makers had
> to post images, I think, as you suggested nominee icons in one, small
> nominee banners in one, etc. At least one person found this difficult in
> Photobucket's system, and there were many difficulties with load time for
> both the banner makers and the users trying to pick a graphic. Since the
> wider variety of sections was part of the problem with last year's set up, I
> decided for this first run with Picasa to keep things as basic and 'right in
> front of you' as possible. Changing the platform is confusing enough for
> some people and I didn't want to overcomplicate things unless it was
> necessary.
>
> If it turns out that large albums in Picasa are a problem as well, I'll
> definitely try breaking it down by type and size next year. :) (Assuming I'm
> still doing it, which as of now I haven't found reason I wouldn't volunteer
> again.)
>
> If I do run into any snags I can't work around as the albums fill up, may I
> contact you to pick your brain?
>
> Thanks again,
> Neu
>
> On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 5:52 PM, kimberli leal <kim@...> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > I run a manipulation group that uses Picasa for storing our resources, and
> > we routinely put up to 500 very large high resolution images into each
> > gallery without any of the problems that the one user here was describing
> > (and I have a slow internet connection [230kbs per sec max] and until this
> > week had an 8 year old slow computer). Picasa has been very reliable and
> > easy to use for us, and we have over 25,000 images stored there so far.
> > Occasionally I have had it finish loading and had a handful of images that
> > did not load a thumbnail on the main gallery page, but all I have to do when
> > that happens, is to refresh the page and the images that were already loaded
> > reload almost instantly and then the missing ones load at the normal rate.
> >
> > Breaking things up into different galleries is no big deal with Picasa if
> > you want to try that though, since you can create as many galleries as you
> > want inside one account. It also might help people find things faster too.
> > One way to consider breaking them up/dividing them beyond just 'Nominee'
> > etc, would be by size. Example; Icon's in one gallery larger banners in
> > another etc, since most people people are looking for a size to fit what
> > their forum allows.
> >
> > BTW, you can easily add notes to each thumbnail if you want to identify who
> > made things etc, AND people can comment at the Picasa galleries on
> > individual images... a feature that might come in handy at the end of the
> > contest when people are requesting customization of their final banners.
> >
> > Cactuskim
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: Ellin Ithilwen <ellin_revenger@...<ellin_revenger%40yahoo.com>
> > >
> > To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com>
> > Sent: Mon, June 14, 2010 2:15:25 PM
> > Subject: RE: [MEFAwards] Re: Banners
> >
> >
> > There is one more thing that crossed my mind, concerning the total number
> > of banners and possible problems in opening the album. My suggestion is not
> > for this year (for I can't think of anything), but for the next: if we'll
> > use Picasa again next year, and if Picasa remains the same - that is, not
> > being able to show only a certain number of pictures per page - perhaps we
> > can do it "manually". I mean, we can open album called Nominee banners 1.
> > When there are 100 banners, we open album Nominee banners 2, and again we
> > don't put more than 100 banners in it, and so on. What do you think?
> > *unsure*
> >
> > Ellynn
> >
> >
> > P.s. If you doubt we'll have enough banners for several albums, then I'll
> > tell you that for all those banners I've made - I also kept layered
> > versions, so all I have to do for next year is change 2010 to 2011. :D And I
> > can always make more. :D
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi Cactuskim,

Heh, yes. I have a paid LJ account and use Adblock on Firefox, which has made all the difference on some sites. Unlike Photobucket, Picasa's main fault is that it's time consuming, and it seemed worth making the point that this affects some members more than others. And yes, I have memories of 'make a cup of tea while the picture loads' nights, lol. Now it's more 'write an email while the page loads.' Progress of a kind :P

Kei.

----- Original Message -----
From: kimberli leal
To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2010 3:12 AM
Subject: Re: [MEFAwards] Re: Banners



Hi Kei,

I moderate a manipulation group, so I know just how big a pain in the back side dealing with the slowdown caused by lots of graphics can be. I also used to be a dial-up user until about 4 years ago... click on one picture and go make a cup of tea time it is so slow ;p. My group is at Live Journal, which is a site that makes places like Photobucket look fast and friendly, so I can sympathize with your slow and dodgy connection problems. It is so bad at LJ that I now pay them their $25 a year for the community, even though LJ doesn't give paid communities anything worth while over what free communities get except one thing; No Ads, and I was feeling so bad for our dial-up members being hit with Video adds, that I figured it was worth it just to get rid of the ads (felt like I was paying blackmail though ;p).

What our Dial-up members do is just open Picasa up in a separate tab so that they can do something else while the page loads and if necessary needs refreshed. Unfortunately if a connection is slow enough and prone to interruptions, anything with graphics is going to try your patience... which seems to be something you understand fairly well.

Cactuskim

________________________________
From: keiliss <scrapcat21@gmail.com>
To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Mon, June 14, 2010 4:35:02 PM
Subject: [MEFAwards] Re: Banners

I don't think it's possible to generalize as to how easy it is or isn't to view the banners on Picasa. I have a six year old PC and an internet connection not all that much faster than dialup. I also live in a country with considerably slower connectivity nationally than is found for example in the US. Loading the page took me just over 20 minutes, after which I had to reload it - another 5 minutes - as around 90 images didn't show up initially. Each time I clicked on an image to see the full size and maker's name it took time to load, after which I had to return to the album and wait for the graphics to refresh.

Not complaining, just detailing the experience. This is not the end of the world (it's way better than Photobucket, which my computer loathes) and I'm patient, but I thought it fair to point out there was more than one person having a few problems with this.

Kei.

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, Neume Indil <neumeindil@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks for that Cactuskim. :) I'm Becky/Neu, banner coordinator for this
> year.
>
> I'm pretty familiar with how Picasa works, but I'd like to explain the
> organization decision I made re: 3 sections by type of banner. Last year
> while loading into Photobucket, there were several places banner makers had
> to post images, I think, as you suggested nominee icons in one, small
> nominee banners in one, etc. At least one person found this difficult in
> Photobucket's system, and there were many difficulties with load time for
> both the banner makers and the users trying to pick a graphic. Since the
> wider variety of sections was part of the problem with last year's set up, I
> decided for this first run with Picasa to keep things as basic and 'right in
> front of you' as possible. Changing the platform is confusing enough for
> some people and I didn't want to overcomplicate things unless it was
> necessary.
>
> If it turns out that large albums in Picasa are a problem as well, I'll
> definitely try breaking it down by type and size next year. :) (Assuming I'm
> still doing it, which as of now I haven't found reason I wouldn't volunteer
> again.)
>
> If I do run into any snags I can't work around as the albums fill up, may I
> contact you to pick your brain?
>
> Thanks again,
> Neu
>
> On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 5:52 PM, kimberli leal <kim@...> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > I run a manipulation group that uses Picasa for storing our resources, and
> > we routinely put up to 500 very large high resolution images into each
> > gallery without any of the problems that the one user here was describing
> > (and I have a slow internet connection [230kbs per sec max] and until this
> > week had an 8 year old slow computer). Picasa has been very reliable and
> > easy to use for us, and we have over 25,000 images stored there so far.
> > Occasionally I have had it finish loading and had a handful of images that
> > did not load a thumbnail on the main gallery page, but all I have to do when
> > that happens, is to refresh the page and the images that were already loaded
> > reload almost instantly and then the missing ones load at the normal rate.
> >
> > Breaking things up into different galleries is no big deal with Picasa if
> > you want to try that though, since you can create as many galleries as you
> > want inside one account. It also might help people find things faster too.
> > One way to consider breaking them up/dividing them beyond just 'Nominee'
> > etc, would be by size. Example; Icon's in one gallery larger banners in
> > another etc, since most people people are looking for a size to fit what
> > their forum allows.
> >
> > BTW, you can easily add notes to each thumbnail if you want to identify who
> > made things etc, AND people can comment at the Picasa galleries on
> > individual images... a feature that might come in handy at the end of the
> > contest when people are requesting customization of their final banners.
> >
> > Cactuskim
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: Ellin Ithilwen <ellin_revenger@...<ellin_revenger%40yahoo.com>
> > >
> > To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com>
> > Sent: Mon, June 14, 2010 2:15:25 PM
> > Subject: RE: [MEFAwards] Re: Banners
> >
> >
> > There is one more thing that crossed my mind, concerning the total number
> > of banners and possible problems in opening the album. My suggestion is not
> > for this year (for I can't think of anything), but for the next: if we'll
> > use Picasa again next year, and if Picasa remains the same - that is, not
> > being able to show only a certain number of pictures per page - perhaps we
> > can do it "manually". I mean, we can open album called Nominee banners 1.
> > When there are 100 banners, we open album Nominee banners 2, and again we
> > don't put more than 100 banners in it, and so on. What do you think?
> > *unsure*
> >
> > Ellynn
> >
> >
> > P.s. If you doubt we'll have enough banners for several albums, then I'll
> > tell you that for all those banners I've made - I also kept layered
> > versions, so all I have to do for next year is change 2010 to 2011. :D And I
> > can always make more. :D
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]






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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hello Kei (and anybody else interested in this discussion.),

Another suggestion for slow load times has just occurred to me. I asked this
year's banner makers to tag their images as they uploaded them with the size
of the image, their name, and a line about the content (hobbits, sunset,
etc.). If you know what specific size you want, say a 110x70, stop the
MEFABanner page after the first row of thumbnails has loaded. In that first
row, find an example of the size you want (whether the topic is appropriate
for your story or not) and click it to load it full size. From there, a list
of tags will appear in the right hand column, which will include the size of
the banner. Clicking that tag will load all the banners of that size in that
section of the album, but not the other two sizes, essentially cutting the
load to 1/3 of the full capacity.

If you could try that for me and let me know how it works, I would
appreciate it. If it seems to work well, I can ask for a line to be added to
the FAQ explaining the process for those on slow connections/systems that
might run into the same problem later.

If there's anyone else reading that would be willing to test the load time
by clicking the tag, I'd appreciate your time and input. If we can find a
way to make this easier, it seems like the right thing to do.

Thanks in advance,
Neu/Becky

On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 7:35 PM, keiliss <scrapcat21@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> I don't think it's possible to generalize as to how easy it is or isn't to
> view the banners on Picasa. I have a six year old PC and an internet
> connection not all that much faster than dialup. I also live in a country
> with considerably slower connectivity nationally than is found for example
> in the US. Loading the page took me just over 20 minutes, after which I had
> to reload it - another 5 minutes - as around 90 images didn't show up
> initially. Each time I clicked on an image to see the full size and maker's
> name it took time to load, after which I had to return to the album and wait
> for the graphics to refresh.
>
> Not complaining, just detailing the experience. This is not the end of the
> world (it's way better than Photobucket, which my computer loathes) and I'm
> patient, but I thought it fair to point out there was more than one person
> having a few problems with this.
>
> Kei.
>
> --- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com>, Neume
> Indil <neumeindil@...> wrote:
> >
> > Thanks for that Cactuskim. :) I'm Becky/Neu, banner coordinator for this
> > year.
> >
> > I'm pretty familiar with how Picasa works, but I'd like to explain the
> > organization decision I made re: 3 sections by type of banner. Last year
> > while loading into Photobucket, there were several places banner makers
> had
> > to post images, I think, as you suggested nominee icons in one, small
> > nominee banners in one, etc. At least one person found this difficult in
> > Photobucket's system, and there were many difficulties with load time for
> > both the banner makers and the users trying to pick a graphic. Since the
> > wider variety of sections was part of the problem with last year's set
> up, I
> > decided for this first run with Picasa to keep things as basic and 'right
> in
> > front of you' as possible. Changing the platform is confusing enough for
> > some people and I didn't want to overcomplicate things unless it was
> > necessary.
> >
> > If it turns out that large albums in Picasa are a problem as well, I'll
> > definitely try breaking it down by type and size next year. :) (Assuming
> I'm
> > still doing it, which as of now I haven't found reason I wouldn't
> volunteer
> > again.)
> >
> > If I do run into any snags I can't work around as the albums fill up, may
> I
> > contact you to pick your brain?
> >
> > Thanks again,
> > Neu
> >
> > On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 5:52 PM, kimberli leal <kim@...> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > I run a manipulation group that uses Picasa for storing our resources,
> and
> > > we routinely put up to 500 very large high resolution images into each
> > > gallery without any of the problems that the one user here was
> describing
> > > (and I have a slow internet connection [230kbs per sec max] and until
> this
> > > week had an 8 year old slow computer). Picasa has been very reliable
> and
> > > easy to use for us, and we have over 25,000 images stored there so far.
> > > Occasionally I have had it finish loading and had a handful of images
> that
> > > did not load a thumbnail on the main gallery page, but all I have to do
> when
> > > that happens, is to refresh the page and the images that were already
> loaded
> > > reload almost instantly and then the missing ones load at the normal
> rate.
> > >
> > > Breaking things up into different galleries is no big deal with Picasa
> if
> > > you want to try that though, since you can create as many galleries as
> you
> > > want inside one account. It also might help people find things faster
> too.
> > > One way to consider breaking them up/dividing them beyond just
> 'Nominee'
> > > etc, would be by size. Example; Icon's in one gallery larger banners in
> > > another etc, since most people people are looking for a size to fit
> what
> > > their forum allows.
> > >
> > > BTW, you can easily add notes to each thumbnail if you want to identify
> who
> > > made things etc, AND people can comment at the Picasa galleries on
> > > individual images... a feature that might come in handy at the end of
> the
> > > contest when people are requesting customization of their final
> banners.
> > >
> > > Cactuskim
> > >
> > > ________________________________
> > > From: Ellin Ithilwen <ellin_revenger@...<ellin_revenger%40yahoo.com>
> > > >
> > > To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com><MEFAwards%
> 40yahoogroups.com>
> > > Sent: Mon, June 14, 2010 2:15:25 PM
> > > Subject: RE: [MEFAwards] Re: Banners
> > >
> > >
> > > There is one more thing that crossed my mind, concerning the total
> number
> > > of banners and possible problems in opening the album. My suggestion is
> not
> > > for this year (for I can't think of anything), but for the next: if
> we'll
> > > use Picasa again next year, and if Picasa remains the same - that is,
> not
> > > being able to show only a certain number of pictures per page - perhaps
> we
> > > can do it "manually". I mean, we can open album called Nominee banners
> 1.
> > > When there are 100 banners, we open album Nominee banners 2, and again
> we
> > > don't put more than 100 banners in it, and so on. What do you think?
> > > *unsure*
> > >
> > > Ellynn
> > >
> > >
> > > P.s. If you doubt we'll have enough banners for several albums, then
> I'll
> > > tell you that for all those banners I've made - I also kept layered
> > > versions, so all I have to do for next year is change 2010 to 2011. :D
> And I
> > > can always make more. :D
> > >
> > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> > >
> > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hey CactusKim

:) Thanks for the help in advance. Here's hoping I won't need it.

You're also welcome to jump in on the bannermaking again this year if you'd
like. ;) It's never too late to get creative. If you decide to do it, let me
know and I can email the guidelines and album password.

A notorious hint dropper,
Neu/Becky

On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 8:51 PM, kimberli leal <kim@flash.net> wrote:

>
>
> Hi Becky,
>
> I have no problem with having them all in one folder and was not suggesting
> a change. I only mentioned one way of breaking them down in the future since
> some people seemed to think that that would be easier. Any way you do it is
> fine with me... personally I rather like them all together, and the
> adjustable thumbnail size feature lets a person get a good look at things
> without having to do anything but scroll once the page has loaded ;p.
>
> I was a banner maker last year and the year before, and pretty much dropped
> out of the process last year after making nomination banners because
> Photobucket was so incredibly unfriendly to the users uploading to it (took
> me over 2 hours just to upload about 40 tiny banners one of the times I
> tried it (and that doesn't count the additional time it took to try and
> force PB's worthless tagging system to work, and adding credits notes which
> took even longer). With files that small it would have taken me about 3
> clicks and only five minuets with Picasa to load a whole folder, plus Picasa
> keeps the original file names, so banner makers could have just added their
> initials to their PSD files and it would have been on the banner file name
> automatically, so no work there. I finally gave up in frustration and just
> sent what I had left to NiRi to struggle with loading, which really wasn't
> very fair to her, but she was a sweety and did it anyways.
>
> If you have any questions about Picasa, no problem at all asking me; If I
> don't know the answer, I can run it by the co-moderator of my manip group,
> who knows all the tricks ;p.
>
> Cactuskim
>
> ________________________________
> From: Neume Indil <neumeindil@gmail.com <neumeindil%40gmail.com>>
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Mon, June 14, 2010 3:17:54 PM
> Subject: Re: [MEFAwards] Re: Banners
>
>
> Thanks for that Cactuskim. :) I'm Becky/Neu, banner coordinator for this
> year.
>
> I'm pretty familiar with how Picasa works, but I'd like to explain the
> organization decision I made re: 3 sections by type of banner. Last year
> while loading into Photobucket, there were several places banner makers had
> to post images, I think, as you suggested nominee icons in one, small
> nominee banners in one, etc. At least one person found this difficult in
> Photobucket's system, and there were many difficulties with load time for
> both the banner makers and the users trying to pick a graphic. Since the
> wider variety of sections was part of the problem with last year's set up,
> I
> decided for this first run with Picasa to keep things as basic and 'right
> in
> front of you' as possible. Changing the platform is confusing enough for
> some people and I didn't want to overcomplicate things unless it was
> necessary.
>
> If it turns out that large albums in Picasa are a problem as well, I'll
> definitely try breaking it down by type and size next year. :) (Assuming
> I'm
> still doing it, which as of now I haven't found reason I wouldn't volunteer
> again.)
>
> If I do run into any snags I can't work around as the albums fill up, may I
> contact you to pick your brain?
>
> Thanks again,
> Neu
>
> On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 5:52 PM, kimberli leal <kim@flash.net<kim%40flash.net>>
> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > I run a manipulation group that uses Picasa for storing our resources,
> and
> > we routinely put up to 500 very large high resolution images into each
> > gallery without any of the problems that the one user here was describing
> > (and I have a slow internet connection [230kbs per sec max] and until
> this
> > week had an 8 year old slow computer). Picasa has been very reliable and
> > easy to use for us, and we have over 25,000 images stored there so far.
> > Occasionally I have had it finish loading and had a handful of images
> that
> > did not load a thumbnail on the main gallery page, but all I have to do
> when
> > that happens, is to refresh the page and the images that were already
> loaded
> > reload almost instantly and then the missing ones load at the normal
> rate.
> >
> > Breaking things up into different galleries is no big deal with Picasa if
> > you want to try that though, since you can create as many galleries as
> you
> > want inside one account. It also might help people find things faster
> too.
> > One way to consider breaking them up/dividing them beyond just 'Nominee'
> > etc, would be by size. Example; Icon's in one gallery larger banners in
> > another etc, since most people people are looking for a size to fit what
> > their forum allows.
> >
> > BTW, you can easily add notes to each thumbnail if you want to identify
> who
> > made things etc, AND people can comment at the Picasa galleries on
> > individual images... a feature that might come in handy at the end of the
> > contest when people are requesting customization of their final banners.
> >
> > Cactuskim
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: Ellin Ithilwen <ellin_revenger@yahoo.com<ellin_revenger%40yahoo.com>
> <ellin_revenger%40yahoo.com>
>
> > >
> > To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com> <MEFAwards%
> 40yahoogroups.com>
> > Sent: Mon, June 14, 2010 2:15:25 PM
> > Subject: RE: [MEFAwards] Re: Banners
> >
> >
> > There is one more thing that crossed my mind, concerning the total number
> > of banners and possible problems in opening the album. My suggestion is
> not
> > for this year (for I can't think of anything), but for the next: if we'll
> > use Picasa again next year, and if Picasa remains the same - that is, not
> > being able to show only a certain number of pictures per page - perhaps
> we
> > can do it "manually". I mean, we can open album called Nominee banners 1.
> > When there are 100 banners, we open album Nominee banners 2, and again we
> > don't put more than 100 banners in it, and so on. What do you think?
> > *unsure*
> >
> > Ellynn
> >
> >
> > P.s. If you doubt we'll have enough banners for several albums, then I'll
> > tell you that for all those banners I've made - I also kept layered
> > versions, so all I have to do for next year is change 2010 to 2011. :D
> And I
> > can always make more. :D
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> >
> >
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
> ------------------------------------
>
>
> Visit our website: http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2009/
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

>
> P.s. If you doubt we'll have enough banners for several albums, then I'll
> tell you that for all those banners I've made - I also kept layered
> versions, so all I have to do for next year is change 2010 to 2011. :D And I
> can always make more. :D
>

Oh, thank you, Ellynn! I'm so relieved that I'm not the only, erm,
foresighted (obsessive?) one here.... though I have layers for all the years
between when I first made the banner and 2014 *whistles innocently*.

Have been too overwhelmed by Real Life to make banners so far, but I hope to
contribute some later. Sorry for missing the Nom season!

If anyone knows of a banner that I've made in any prior year that they'd
like to see for this year, email me and I'll work on it first.... I'm hoping
to convert all of them to 2010 eventually, but didn't manage to finish last
year.....

- Barbara


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

> If there's anyone else reading that would be willing to test the load time by clicking the tag, I'd appreciate your time and input. If we can find away to make this easier, it seems like the right thing to do.

I can try that, but I am quite lucky and I have a good and fast connection, so I guess my results should not be taken into account. But at least I can try to compare the time needed to show all banners and the time needed to show one particular size.

Ellynn





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi Kei,

*Rolls eyes* LJ really knows how to make us pay don't they .... my personal account is paid too ;p... that place is Nasty for free users and people with dial-up or slow connections ;p.

Your right; basically any place high in graphics is going to demand more resources like Picasa does, but it is a lot better than other places... not skanky with hidden porn ads either like many other image hosting places (Some places are really Gross).

Cactuskim









________________________________
From: scrapcat <scrapcat21@gmail.com>
To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Mon, June 14, 2010 6:34:04 PM
Subject: Re: [MEFAwards] Re: Banners


Hi Cactuskim,

Heh, yes. I have a paid LJ account and use Adblock on Firefox, which has made all the difference on some sites. Unlike Photobucket, Picasa's main fault is that it's time consuming, and it seemed worth making the point that this affects some members more than others. And yes, I have memories of 'make a cup of tea while the picture loads' nights, lol. Now it's more 'write an email while the page loads.' Progress of a kind :P

Kei.

----- Original Message -----
From: kimberli leal
To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2010 3:12 AM
Subject: Re: [MEFAwards] Re: Banners

Hi Kei,

I moderate a manipulation group, so I know just how big a pain in the back side dealing with the slowdown caused by lots of graphics can be. I also used to be a dial-up user until about 4 years ago... click on one picture and go make a cup of tea time it is so slow ;p. My group is at Live Journal, which is a site that makes places like Photobucket look fast and friendly, so I can sympathize with your slow and dodgy connection problems. It is so bad at LJ that I now pay them their $25 a year for the community, even though LJ doesn't give paid communities anything worth while over what free communities get except one thing; No Ads, and I was feeling so bad for our dial-up members being hit with Video adds, that I figured it was worth it just to get rid of the ads (felt like I was paying blackmail though ;p).

What our Dial-up members do is just open Picasa up in a separate tab so that they can do something else while the page loads and if necessary needs refreshed. Unfortunately if a connection is slow enough and prone to interruptions, anything with graphics is going to try your patience... which seems to be something you understand fairly well.

Cactuskim

________________________________
From: keiliss <scrapcat21@gmail.com>
To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Mon, June 14, 2010 4:35:02 PM
Subject: [MEFAwards] Re: Banners

I don't think it's possible to generalize as to how easy it is or isn't to view the banners on Picasa. I have a six year old PC and an internet connection not all that much faster than dialup. I also live in a country with considerably slower connectivity nationally than is found for example in the US. Loading the page took me just over 20 minutes, after which I had to reload it - another 5 minutes - as around 90 images didn't show up initially. Each time I clicked on an image to see the full size and maker's name it took time to load, after which I had to return to the album and wait for the graphics to refresh.

Not complaining, just detailing the experience. This is not the end of the world (it's way better than Photobucket, which my computer loathes) and I'm patient, but I thought it fair to point out there was more than one person having a few problems with this.

Kei.

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, Neume Indil <neumeindil@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks for that Cactuskim. :) I'm Becky/Neu, banner coordinator for this
> year.
>
> I'm pretty familiar with how Picasa works, but I'd like to explain the
> organization decision I made re: 3 sections by type of banner. Last year
> while loading into Photobucket, there were several places banner makers had
> to post images, I think, as you suggested nominee icons in one, small
> nominee banners in one, etc. At least one person found this difficult in
> Photobucket's system, and there were many difficulties with load time for
> both the banner makers and the users trying to pick a graphic. Since the
> wider variety of sections was part of the problem with last year's set up, I
> decided for this first run with Picasa to keep things as basic and 'right in
> front of you' as possible. Changing the platform is confusing enough for
> some people and I didn't want to overcomplicate things unless it was
> necessary.
>
> If it turns out that large albums in Picasa are a problem as well, I'll
> definitely try breaking it down by type and size next year. :) (Assuming I'm
> still doing it, which as of now I haven't found reason I wouldn't volunteer
> again.)
>
> If I do run into any snags I can't work around as the albums fill up, may I
> contact you to pick your brain?
>
> Thanks again,
> Neu
>
> On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 5:52 PM, kimberli leal <kim@...> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > I run a manipulation group that uses Picasa for storing our resources, and
> > we routinely put up to 500 very large high resolution images into each
> > gallery without any of the problems that the one user here was describing
> > (and I have a slow internet connection [230kbs per sec max] and until this
> > week had an 8 year old slow computer). Picasa has been very reliable and
> > easy to use for us, and we have over 25,000 images stored there so far.
> > Occasionally I have had it finish loading and had a handful of images that
> > did not load a thumbnail on the main gallery page, but all I have to do when
> > that happens, is to refresh the page and the images that were already loaded
> > reload almost instantly and then the missing ones load at the normal rate.
> >
> > Breaking things up into different galleries is no big deal with Picasa if
> > you want to try that though, since you can create as many galleries as you
> > want inside one account. It also might help people find things faster too.
> > One way to consider breaking them up/dividing them beyond just 'Nominee'
> > etc, would be by size. Example; Icon's in one gallery larger banners in
> > another etc, since most people people are looking for a size to fit what
> > their forum allows.
> >
> > BTW, you can easily add notes to each thumbnail if you want to identify who
> > made things etc, AND people can comment at the Picasa galleries on
> > individual images... a feature that might come in handy at the end of the
> > contest when people are requesting customization of their final banners.
> >
> > Cactuskim
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: Ellin Ithilwen <ellin_revenger@...<ellin_revenger%40yahoo.com>
> > >
> > To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com>
> > Sent: Mon, June 14, 2010 2:15:25 PM
> > Subject: RE: [MEFAwards] Re: Banners
> >
> >
> > There is one more thing that crossed my mind, concerning the total number
> > of banners and possible problems in opening the album. My suggestion is not
> > for this year (for I can't think of anything), but for the next: if we'll
> > use Picasa again next year, and if Picasa remains the same - that is, not
> > being able to show only a certain number of pictures per page - perhaps we
> > can do it "manually". I mean, we can open album called Nominee banners 1.
> > When there are 100 banners, we open album Nominee banners 2, and again we
> > don't put more than 100 banners in it, and so on. What do you think?
> > *unsure*
> >
> > Ellynn
> >
> >
> > P.s. If you doubt we'll have enough banners for several albums, then I'll
> > tell you that for all those banners I've made - I also kept layered
> > versions, so all I have to do for next year is change 2010 to 2011. :D And I
> > can always make more. :D
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

----------------------------------------------------------

avast! Antivirus: Inbound message clean.

Virus Database (VPS): 100614-1, 2010/06/14
Tested on: 2010/06/15 03:17:28 AM
avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2010 ALWIL Software.


---
avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean.
Virus Database (VPS): 100614-1, 2010/06/14
Tested on: 2010/06/15 03:34:14 AM
avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2010 ALWIL Software.
http://www.avast.com

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi Becky,

In theory, you could do the same thing by subject too; let it load until you see the first one for a character you like, then click on that one to get to it's tags and get the sorted view only after that.

I have misplaced the link to the MEFA Picasa gallery, but if you can post that again, I can check out if it speeds things up for me

Cactuskim





________________________________
From: Neume Indil <neumeindil@gmail.com>
To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Mon, June 14, 2010 7:27:56 PM
Subject: Re: [MEFAwards] Re: Banners

Hello Kei (and anybody else interested in this discussion.),

Another suggestion for slow load times has just occurred to me. I asked this
year's banner makers to tag their images as they uploaded them with the size
of the image, their name, and a line about the content (hobbits, sunset,
etc.). If you know what specific size you want, say a 110x70, stop the
MEFABanner page after the first row of thumbnails has loaded. In that first
row, find an example of the size you want (whether the topic is appropriate
for your story or not) and click it to load it full size. From there, a list
of tags will appear in the right hand column, which will include the size of
the banner. Clicking that tag will load all the banners of that size in that
section of the album, but not the other two sizes, essentially cutting the
load to 1/3 of the full capacity.

If you could try that for me and let me know how it works, I would
appreciate it. If it seems to work well, I can ask for a line to be added to
the FAQ explaining the process for those on slow connections/systems that
might run into the same problem later.

If there's anyone else reading that would be willing to test the load time
by clicking the tag, I'd appreciate your time and input. If we can find a
way to make this easier, it seems like the right thing to do.

Thanks in advance,
Neu/Becky

On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 7:35 PM, keiliss <scrapcat21@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> I don't think it's possible to generalize as to how easy it is or isn't to
> view the banners on Picasa. I have a six year old PC and an internet
> connection not all that much faster than dialup. I also live in a country
> with considerably slower connectivity nationally than is found for example
> in the US. Loading the page took me just over 20 minutes, after which I had
> to reload it - another 5 minutes - as around 90 images didn't show up
> initially. Each time I clicked on an image to see the full size and maker's
> name it took time to load, after which I had to return to the album and wait
> for the graphics to refresh.
>
> Not complaining, just detailing the experience. This is not the end of the
> world (it's way better than Photobucket, which my computer loathes) and I'm
> patient, but I thought it fair to point out there was more than one person
> having a few problems with this.
>
> Kei.
>
> --- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com>, Neume
> Indil <neumeindil@...> wrote:
> >
> > Thanks for that Cactuskim. :) I'm Becky/Neu, banner coordinator for this
> > year.
> >
> > I'm pretty familiar with how Picasa works, but I'd like to explain the
> > organization decision I made re: 3 sections by type of banner. Last year
> > while loading into Photobucket, there were several places banner makers
> had
> > to post images, I think, as you suggested nominee icons in one, small
> > nominee banners in one, etc. At least one person found this difficult in
> > Photobucket's system, and there were many difficulties with load time for
> > both the banner makers and the users trying to pick a graphic. Since the
> > wider variety of sections was part of the problem with last year's set
> up, I
> > decided for this first run with Picasa to keep things as basic and 'right
> in
> > front of you' as possible. Changing the platform is confusing enough for
> > some people and I didn't want to overcomplicate things unless it was
> > necessary.
> >
> > If it turns out that large albums in Picasa are a problem as well, I'll
> > definitely try breaking it down by type and size next year. :) (Assuming
> I'm
> > still doing it, which as of now I haven't found reason I wouldn't
> volunteer
> > again.)
> >
> > If I do run into any snags I can't work around as the albums fill up, may
> I
> > contact you to pick your brain?
> >
> > Thanks again,
> > Neu
> >
> > On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 5:52 PM, kimberli leal <kim@...> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > I run a manipulation group that uses Picasa for storing our resources,
> and
> > > we routinely put up to 500 very large high resolution images into each
> > > gallery without any of the problems that the one user here was
> describing
> > > (and I have a slow internet connection [230kbs per sec max] and until
> this
> > > week had an 8 year old slow computer). Picasa has been very reliable
> and
> > > easy to use for us, and we have over 25,000 images stored there so far.
> > > Occasionally I have had it finish loading and had a handful of images
> that
> > > did not load a thumbnail on the main gallery page, but all I have to do
> when
> > > that happens, is to refresh the page and the images that were already
> loaded
> > > reload almost instantly and then the missing ones load at the normal
> rate.
> > >
> > > Breaking things up into different galleries is no big deal with Picasa
> if
> > > you want to try that though, since you can create as many galleries as
> you
> > > want inside one account. It also might help people find things faster
> too.
> > > One way to consider breaking them up/dividing them beyond just
> 'Nominee'
> > > etc, would be by size. Example; Icon's in one gallery larger banners in
> > > another etc, since most people people are looking for a size to fit
> what
> > > their forum allows.
> > >
> > > BTW, you can easily add notes to each thumbnail if you want to identify
> who
> > > made things etc, AND people can comment at the Picasa galleries on
> > > individual images... a feature that might come in handy at the end of
> the
> > > contest when people are requesting customization of their final
> banners.
> > >
> > > Cactuskim
> > >
> > > ________________________________
> > > From: Ellin Ithilwen <ellin_revenger@...<ellin_revenger%40yahoo.com>
> > > >
> > > To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com><MEFAwards%
> 40yahoogroups.com>
> > > Sent: Mon, June 14, 2010 2:15:25 PM
> > > Subject: RE: [MEFAwards] Re: Banners
> > >
> > >
> > > There is one more thing that crossed my mind, concerning the total
> number
> > > of banners and possible problems in opening the album. My suggestion is
> not
> > > for this year (for I can't think of anything), but for the next: if
> we'll
> > > use Picasa again next year, and if Picasa remains the same - that is,
> not
> > > being able to show only a certain number of pictures per page - perhaps
> we
> > > can do it "manually". I mean, we can open album called Nominee banners
> 1.
> > > When there are 100 banners, we open album Nominee banners 2, and again
> we
> > > don't put more than 100 banners in it, and so on. What do you think?
> > > *unsure*
> > >
> > > Ellynn
> > >
> > >
> > > P.s. If you doubt we'll have enough banners for several albums, then
> I'll
> > > tell you that for all those banners I've made - I also kept layered
> > > versions, so all I have to do for next year is change 2010 to 2011. :D
> And I
> > > can always make more. :D
> > >
> > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> > >
> > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



------------------------------------

Visit our website: http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2009/
Yahoo! Groups Links



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi Becky,

Not sure if I would be able to find the time; between setting up my new system, the usual RL stuff, my manipulation group, and a Teenager, my plate is pretty full right now. Your welcome to send me the guidelines if you want, and IF I have some unexpected free time, I might be able to make a few.

Cactuskim




________________________________
From: Neume Indil <neumeindil@gmail.com>
To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Mon, June 14, 2010 7:35:30 PM
Subject: Re: [MEFAwards] Re: Banners

Hey CactusKim

:) Thanks for the help in advance. Here's hoping I won't need it.

You're also welcome to jump in on the bannermaking again this year if you'd
like. ;) It's never too late to get creative. If you decide to do it, let me
know and I can email the guidelines and album password.

A notorious hint dropper,
Neu/Becky

On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 8:51 PM, kimberli leal <kim@flash.net> wrote:

>
>
> Hi Becky,
>
> I have no problem with having them all in one folder and was not suggesting
> a change. I only mentioned one way of breaking them down in the future since
> some people seemed to think that that would be easier. Any way you do it is
> fine with me... personally I rather like them all together, and the
> adjustable thumbnail size feature lets a person get a good look at things
> without having to do anything but scroll once the page has loaded ;p.
>
> I was a banner maker last year and the year before, and pretty much dropped
> out of the process last year after making nomination banners because
> Photobucket was so incredibly unfriendly to the users uploading to it (took
> me over 2 hours just to upload about 40 tiny banners one of the times I
> tried it (and that doesn't count the additional time it took to try and
> force PB's worthless tagging system to work, and adding credits notes which
> took even longer). With files that small it would have taken me about 3
> clicks and only five minuets with Picasa to load a whole folder, plus Picasa
> keeps the original file names, so banner makers could have just added their
> initials to their PSD files and it would have been on the banner file name
> automatically, so no work there. I finally gave up in frustration and just
> sent what I had left to NiRi to struggle with loading, which really wasn't
> very fair to her, but she was a sweety and did it anyways.
>
> If you have any questions about Picasa, no problem at all asking me; If I
> don't know the answer, I can run it by the co-moderator of my manip group,
> who knows all the tricks ;p.
>
> Cactuskim
>
> ________________________________
> From: Neume Indil <neumeindil@gmail.com <neumeindil%40gmail.com>>
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Mon, June 14, 2010 3:17:54 PM
> Subject: Re: [MEFAwards] Re: Banners
>
>
> Thanks for that Cactuskim. :) I'm Becky/Neu, banner coordinator for this
> year.
>
> I'm pretty familiar with how Picasa works, but I'd like to explain the
> organization decision I made re: 3 sections by type of banner. Last year
> while loading into Photobucket, there were several places banner makers had
> to post images, I think, as you suggested nominee icons in one, small
> nominee banners in one, etc. At least one person found this difficult in
> Photobucket's system, and there were many difficulties with load time for
> both the banner makers and the users trying to pick a graphic. Since the
> wider variety of sections was part of the problem with last year's set up,
> I
> decided for this first run with Picasa to keep things as basic and 'right
> in
> front of you' as possible. Changing the platform is confusing enough for
> some people and I didn't want to overcomplicate things unless it was
> necessary.
>
> If it turns out that large albums in Picasa are a problem as well, I'll
> definitely try breaking it down by type and size next year. :) (Assuming
> I'm
> still doing it, which as of now I haven't found reason I wouldn't volunteer
> again.)
>
> If I do run into any snags I can't work around as the albums fill up, may I
> contact you to pick your brain?
>
> Thanks again,
> Neu
>
> On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 5:52 PM, kimberli leal <kim@flash.net<kim%40flash.net>>
> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > I run a manipulation group that uses Picasa for storing our resources,
> and
> > we routinely put up to 500 very large high resolution images into each
> > gallery without any of the problems that the one user here was describing
> > (and I have a slow internet connection [230kbs per sec max] and until
> this
> > week had an 8 year old slow computer). Picasa has been very reliable and
> > easy to use for us, and we have over 25,000 images stored there so far.
> > Occasionally I have had it finish loading and had a handful of images
> that
> > did not load a thumbnail on the main gallery page, but all I have to do
> when
> > that happens, is to refresh the page and the images that were already
> loaded
> > reload almost instantly and then the missing ones load at the normal
> rate.
> >
> > Breaking things up into different galleries is no big deal with Picasa if
> > you want to try that though, since you can create as many galleries as
> you
> > want inside one account. It also might help people find things faster
> too.
> > One way to consider breaking them up/dividing them beyond just 'Nominee'
> > etc, would be by size. Example; Icon's in one gallery larger banners in
> > another etc, since most people people are looking for a size to fit what
> > their forum allows.
> >
> > BTW, you can easily add notes to each thumbnail if you want to identify
> who
> > made things etc, AND people can comment at the Picasa galleries on
> > individual images... a feature that might come in handy at the end of the
> > contest when people are requesting customization of their final banners.
> >
> > Cactuskim
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: Ellin Ithilwen <ellin_revenger@yahoo.com<ellin_revenger%40yahoo.com>
> <ellin_revenger%40yahoo.com>
>
> > >
> > To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com> <MEFAwards%
> 40yahoogroups.com>
> > Sent: Mon, June 14, 2010 2:15:25 PM
> > Subject: RE: [MEFAwards] Re: Banners
> >
> >
> > There is one more thing that crossed my mind, concerning the total number
> > of banners and possible problems in opening the album. My suggestion is
> not
> > for this year (for I can't think of anything), but for the next: if we'll
> > use Picasa again next year, and if Picasa remains the same - that is, not
> > being able to show only a certain number of pictures per page - perhaps
> we
> > can do it "manually". I mean, we can open album called Nominee banners 1.
> > When there are 100 banners, we open album Nominee banners 2, and again we
> > don't put more than 100 banners in it, and so on. What do you think?
> > *unsure*
> >
> > Ellynn
> >
> >
> > P.s. If you doubt we'll have enough banners for several albums, then I'll
> > tell you that for all those banners I've made - I also kept layered
> > versions, so all I have to do for next year is change 2010 to 2011. :D
> And I
> > can always make more. :D
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> >
> >
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
> ------------------------------------
>
>
> Visit our website: http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2009/
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



------------------------------------

Visit our website: http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2009/
Yahoo! Groups Links



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I am a little confused. Yesterdey morning, for a while, reviews for the stories were visible. And later in the afternoon/evening, and today also, they are again not visible. So, what's going on? *unsure* Did you just test something in that period? And when should reviews become visible?
 
Ellynn




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Just a short notice - for all of you who wrote Silmarillion-based stories, now there are several Silm-banners. :) I did not tag them by their contents, but they are all simply under one tag - Silmarillion.
 
And yes, I remind you - I am still waiting your orders. :) Lotr, or Silm, or Hobbit... :)
 
Ellynn




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi Ellynn,

*blush* That was a mistake on my part - We had a discussion several years
back about when reviews should be available, and people wanted them to be
shown earlier - as in, as soon as we've set the categories. (Back when we
had this discussion, there was about a month lag between announcing the
categories and displaying the reviews.) But in setting up things for this
year, I misinterpreted that discussion, and so I set the date too early -
for after nominations closed, not after the categories were set. Basically I
set the date earlier than anyone but me had intended.

After discussing it with several people, we decided to move back the date
when reviews would first be displayed. They are all still there, and will be
shown on July 16, the date after the categories are set. In the meantime, I
*do* encourage everyone to start reviewing if they haven't already. If you
see a story with the status "Nomination Finalized," you know it will be
competing - and in about a week, those will be the *only* stories listed on
our site.

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of Ellin Ithilwen
> Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2010 1:04 PM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [MEFAwards] Reviews?
>
>
>
> I am a little confused. Yesterdey morning, for a while, reviews for the
> stories were visible. And later in the afternoon/evening, and today
> also, they are again not visible. So, what's going on? *unsure* Did you
> just test something in that period? And when should reviews become
> visible?
>
> Ellynn
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>

Hey guys,

Nominations ended last night. We had 615 nominations, of which 451 are
completely ready to go. That's actually pretty normal, since there are a lot
of last-minute nominations. But I want to do a final author round-up, to
make sure all nominated authors *know* they are nominated.

Unlike with previous weeks, this includes *all* nominations, not just those
that are more than a week old. This is because I don't want to risk an
author missing out, since this week is their last chance to get ready to
compete. So use your discretion in deciding whether to contact the author or
not. If the nomination came in late and the author is an old hand at these
awards, maybe they already know and just haven't had a chance to tell us
they know. If on the other hand you think this author may not realize they
have more to do, you may want to drop them a line.

Just to be clear: all nominations must be finalized (100% ready to compete)
by 11:59 PM GMT on June 21. I highly recommend that authors --particularly
authors new to the MEFAs-- try to get done by this weekend, so they have a
few days to correct anything that needs correcting.

(Statuses are as of about 4 PM on 16 June.)

1. These stories have been nominated, but the author has not replied to let
us know they *know* they were nominated, or begun the form.

alex_quine (liaison: aranelgoldenflower, peregrin_ionadATyahooDOTcoDOTuk)
--- 670: "The Lady" nominated by: foxrafer (csevans8) on 15 Jun 2010
--- 672: "Dance" nominated by: foxrafer (csevans8) on 15 Jun 2010

Anna Wing (liaison: Inkling, inkling-tcbsATsbcglobalDOTnet)
--- 649: "Vignettes of the Blessed Realm - Celebrimbor in Mandos" nominated
by: Ithilwen on 15 Jun 2010
--- 650: "Seasons of Rivendell" nominated by: Ithilwen on 15 Jun 2010
--- 651: "Caranthir (2)" nominated by: Ithilwen on 15 Jun 2010
--- 652: "Ficlet #134" nominated by: Ithilwen on 15 Jun 2010
--- 653: "Vignettes of the Blessed Realm (1)" nominated by: Ithilwen on 15
Jun 2010
--- 654: "Untitled Caranthir Ficlet" nominated by: Ithilwen on 15 Jun 2010
--- 655: "In Which comes Sorrow Long Expected" nominated by: Ithilwen on 15
Jun 2010
--- 657: "Curufin and Celegorm Ficlet" nominated by: Ithilwen on 15 Jun 2010

Cara J. Loup (liaison: Fiondil, namondilATgmailDOTcom)
--- 514: "A Bit of Light" nominated by: Antane on 11 Jun 2010

Cuinwen (liaison: aranelgoldenflower, peregrin_ionadATyahooDOTcoDOTuk)
--- 605: "Patience Unexpected" nominated by: Elena Tiriel on 14 Jun 2010

Darth Fingon (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- 279: "Elvish Fanons and Canon Contradictions (Or, how to get those
canatics off your case for stuff you were right about in the first place)"
nominated by: pandemonium_213 on 22 May 2010
--- 280: "'Sindarin' is a Quenya Word: how the clan names make Elvish more
confusing" nominated by: pandemonium_213 on 22 May 2010

Faenel (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)
--- 427: "Brightness" nominated by: Phyncke on 05 Jun 2010

Feta (liaison: aranelgoldenflower, peregrin_ionadATyahooDOTcoDOTuk)
--- 559: "Flawed" nominated by: Russandol on 13 Jun 2010

Galadriel (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- 669: "Small Tokens" nominated by: foxrafer (csevans8) on 15 Jun 2010

Golden (liaison: Fiondil, namondilATgmailDOTcom)
--- 511: "Death and Life" nominated by: Cathleen on 10 Jun 2010

Himring (liaison: Fiondil, namondilATgmailDOTcom)
--- 628: "The Military Relevance of Sewage" nominated by: Dawn Felagund on
15 Jun 2010

Jay of Lasgalen (liaison: Cathleen, virginia_lee_redcatATyahooDOTcom)
--- 601: "The Love of Learning" nominated by: Elena Tiriel on 14 Jun 2010

jodancingtree (liaison: Cathleen, virginia_lee_redcatATyahooDOTcom)
--- 626: "The Queen's Orc" nominated by: The Lauderdale on 14 Jun 2010

j_dav (JDE) (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- 563: "Pity Us Not" nominated by: Encairion on 13 Jun 2010

KyMahalei (liaison: foxrafer (csevans8), foxraferATgmailDOTcom)
--- 675: "A Tale from the Wilderland" nominated by: Eärillë (AiedailWing) on
15 Jun 2010
--- 676: "The Song of a Friend" nominated by: Eärillë (AiedailWing) on 15
Jun 2010

laichiril (liaison: Marta, marta.fandom@gmail.com)
--- 504: "Alone at Yule" nominated by: Cathleen on 10 Jun 2010

Larner (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- 585: "A Choice of Life or Death" nominated by: Eärillë (AiedailWing) on
14 Jun 2010
--- 590: "Transformation" nominated by: Elena Tiriel on 14 Jun 2010
--- 595: "A Deck of Heroes" nominated by: Alassante on 14 Jun 2010
--- 600: "Or Perchance, When the Last Little Star" nominated by: Elena
Tiriel on 14 Jun 2010
--- 602: "The Research Project" nominated by: Elena Tiriel on 14 Jun 2010
--- 666: "A Pretence at Civility" nominated by: Celeritas on 15 Jun 2010

Lyra (liaison: Inkling, inkling-tcbsATsbcglobalDOTnet)
--- 616: "The Tempered Steel" nominated by: Dawn Felagund on 14 Jun 2010

Margaret Watkins (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- 348: "Sunlight" nominated by: Antane on 29 May 2010
--- 349: "An Essay on Frodo Baggins" nominated by: Antane on 29 May 2010

Marigold (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- 400: "A New Light" nominated by: grey_wonderer on 02 Jun 2010
--- 401: "Before Luck Runs Out " nominated by: grey_wonderer on 02 Jun 2010

Mirrordance (liaison: Fiondil, namondilATgmailDOTcom)
--- 456: "For Every Evil" nominated by: aranelgoldenflower on 07 Jun 2010

Mithadan (liaison: foxrafer (csevans8), foxraferATgmailDOTcom)
--- 663: "Tales from Tol Eressea" nominated by: Celeritas on 15 Jun 2010
--- 664: "Tales from Tol Eressea: Conversations in Avallone" nominated by:
Celeritas on 15 Jun 2010

MithLuin (liaison: Marta, marta.fandom@gmail.com)
--- 523: "Final Voyage" nominated by: Eärillë (AiedailWing) on 12 Jun 2010
--- 524: "Rebuffed" nominated by: Eärillë (AiedailWing) on 12 Jun 2010

Noliel (liaison: Dreamflower, aelfwinaATgmailDOTcom)
--- 614: "A Mighty Bridge Invisible" nominated by: Dawn Felagund on 14 Jun
2010

Rabidsamfan (liaison: Fiondil, namondilATgmailDOTcom)
--- 510: "Fourteen Days" nominated by: Kara's Aunty on 10 Jun 2010

Raniel42 (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- 149: "Boken Horses" nominated by: Mysterious Jedi on 16 May 2010

Red Lasbelin (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- 436: "Fifteen Years" nominated by: Keiliss on 06 Jun 2010

Rowan (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- 528: "From Where I Am" nominated by: Inkling on 13 Jun 2010
--- 529: "Impression" nominated by: Inkling on 13 Jun 2010
--- 532: "Sundered" nominated by: Inkling on 13 Jun 2010

the_arc5 (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- 318: "The Fabled Courtship of Elanor the Fair" nominated by: Rhapsody on
26 May 2010

tuxedo_elf (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- 474: "Once Around the Sun" nominated by: Phyncke on 09 Jun 2010

White Wolf (liaison: Dreamflower, aelfwinaATgmailDOTcom)
--- 639: "Enduring Moria" nominated by: nau_tika on 15 Jun 2010

*****************

2. For these stories, the authors have contacted their liaison but not yet
begun their forms.

Ainu Laire (liaison: Linaewen, marggrenawaltATsbcglobalDOTnet)
--- 502: "Heirs of Gondor" nominated by: aranelgoldenflower on 10 Jun 2010
--- 606: "Surprises of Yule" nominated by: Cairistiona on 14 Jun 2010

Avon (liaison: foxrafer (csevans8), foxraferATgmailDOTcom)
--- 488: "Beneath Golden Leaves" nominated by: curiouswombat on 09 Jun 2010

Azalais (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)
--- 576: "For This Relief Much Thanks" nominated by: Marta on 13 Jun 2010

Ellie (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- 86: "Memory of Faery" nominated by: Fiondil on 15 May 2010

Elvenson (liaison: Marta, marta.fandom@gmail.com)
--- 195: "The House of Uial and the Tale of The Last son" nominated by:
Elfique on 17 May 2010

Eonwe (liaison: Ithilwen, dlnevinsATearthlinkDOTnet)
--- 477: "Unrest: What Evil Fears" nominated by: Spiced Wine on 09 Jun 2010

Gloromeien (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)
--- 405: "A Slaying in Scarlet" nominated by: Scarlet10 on 02 Jun 2010

j_dav (JDE) (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- 228: "I Shall Not Call the Sunbeam Bright" nominated by: Olorime on 18
May 2010

Lanyon (liaison: Dreamflower, aelfwinaATgmailDOTcom)
--- 558: "Grace" nominated by: Oshun on 13 Jun 2010
--- 560: "Oh, Mercy!" nominated by: Oshun on 13 Jun 2010

Levade (liaison: Inkling, inkling-tcbsATsbcglobalDOTnet)
--- 494: "Only the Owl Saw it All" nominated by: Cathleen on 10 Jun 2010
--- 495: "The Tinker's Tale" nominated by: Cathleen on 10 Jun 2010

Lyra (liaison: Inkling, inkling-tcbsATsbcglobalDOTnet)
--- 172: "Pillow Talk" nominated by: Elleth on 16 May 2010

Marigold (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- 298: "Worthy of the Name" nominated by: Cathleen on 23 May 2010

Nath (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)
--- 607: "Not a Scholar" nominated by: Elena Tiriel on 14 Jun 2010

pippinfan88 (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)
--- 307: "A Very Warm Yule" nominated by: grey_wonderer on 24 May 2010

rosethorn59 (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- 288: "Legolas the Bane of My Existence" nominated by: Sivan Shemesh on
22 May 2010

splix (liaison: aranelgoldenflower, peregrin_ionadATyahooDOTcoDOTuk)
--- 673: "King's Ransom" nominated by: foxrafer (csevans8) on 15 Jun 2010

Tehta (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)
--- 205: "Mallorn Torment" nominated by: Hallbera on 17 May 2010

*****************

3. For most of these stories, the author has begun the form, but not
finished it. In some cases the liaison may have spotted an error that needs
correcting.

Calenlass Greenleaf (liaison: Cathleen, virginia_lee_redcatATyahooDOTcom)
--- 340: "Addiction" nominated by: Antane on 28 May 2010

Chisscientist (liaison: Linaewen, marggrenawaltATsbcglobalDOTnet)
--- 624: "The OTHER Lays of Beleriand" nominated by: Dawn Felagund on 14 Jun
2010

Dreamflower (liaison: Dreamflower, aelfwinaATgmailDOTcom)
--- 636: "To Lead His People" nominated by: Dreamflower on 15 Jun 2010

Eärillë (AiedailWing) (liaison: Dreamflower, aelfwinaATgmailDOTcom)
--- 582: "The Imperishable Flame" nominated by: Raksha the Demon on 14 Jun
2010

Ellie (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- 82: "Half-Brother" nominated by: Ellynn on 15 May 2010
--- 85: "Burden to Bear" nominated by: Fiondil on 15 May 2010
--- 516: "Kin No More" nominated by: Raksha the Demon on 11 Jun 2010
--- 525: "Wicked Thieving Elf!" nominated by: Eärillë (AiedailWing) on 12
Jun 2010
--- 526: "Lover's Leap" nominated by: Hallbera on 12 Jun 2010
--- 527: "Of Wine and Song" nominated by: Hallbera on 12 Jun 2010
--- 578: "Blessed by Fortune" nominated by: Fiondil on 14 Jun 2010

elliska (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- 247: "Interrupted Journeys: Journeys Out of Grief " nominated by: Jay of
Lasgalen on 20 May 2010

Erfan Starled (liaison: Fiondil, namondilATgmailDOTcom)
--- 503: "The Moon Has Waned" nominated by: Ignoble Bard on 10 Jun 2010

Fiondil (liaison: Fiondil, namondilATgmailDOTcom)
--- 630: "Once Upon a Blizzard" nominated by: Fiondil on 15 Jun 2010
--- 562: "Tales from Vairë's Loom: Sun-in-Eclipse" nominated by: rhyselle on
13 Jun 2010
--- 566: "Tales from Vairë's Loom: The Exilic Noldo’s Guide to Coping with
Post-Helcaraxë Stress Syndrome (or PHSS)" nominated by: Eärillë
(AiedailWing) on 13 Jun 2010

Golden (liaison: Fiondil, namondilATgmailDOTcom)
--- 407: "Winters of Yesterday" nominated by: Pearl Took on 02 Jun 2010

Haleth (liaison: Fiondil, namondilATgmailDOTcom)
--- 164: "'Til Death Do Us Part" nominated by: Fiondil on 16 May 2010

Himring (liaison: Fiondil, namondilATgmailDOTcom)
--- 248: "A Bit of a Bore" nominated by: Lyra on 20 May 2010
--- 249: "A Long Time Falling" nominated by: Lyra on 20 May 2010
--- 251: "A Copper Band" nominated by: Hallbera on 20 May 2010
--- 252: "Eminently Unsuitable" nominated by: Hallbera on 20 May 2010
--- 283: "Looking at the Stars and Counting the Hours" nominated by:
Angelica on 22 May 2010
--- 284: "Uldor" nominated by: Angelica on 22 May 2010

Jay of Lasgalen (liaison: Cathleen, virginia_lee_redcatATyahooDOTcom)
--- 212: "An Autumn Journey" nominated by: elliska on 17 May 2010
--- 213: "On The Eve Of Battle" nominated by: elliska on 17 May 2010

Jedi Sapphire (liaison: foxrafer (csevans8), foxraferATgmailDOTcom)
--- 611: "Murder in the White City" nominated by: Silivren Tinu on 14 Jun
2010
--- 613: "Perfect Happiness" nominated by: Silivren Tinu on 14 Jun 2010
--- 637: "A King in Winter" nominated by: nau_tika on 15 Jun 2010

Keiliss (liaison: Cathleen, virginia_lee_redcatATyahooDOTcom)
--- 343: "Flying Free" nominated by: Red Lasbelin on 28 May 2010
--- 344: "Turn Down an Empty Glass" nominated by: Red Lasbelin on 28 May
2010
--- 184: "The Day of the Dragon" nominated by: elfscribe on 16 May 2010

Liadan (liaison: Cathleen, virginia_lee_redcatATyahooDOTcom)
--- 289: "Morning Yearning" nominated by: Olorime on 23 May 2010

Linda Hoyland (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- 597: "Only Sleeping" nominated by: Virtuella on 14 Jun 2010
--- 335: "A Sting in the Tale" nominated by: Raksha the Demon on 28 May 2010
--- 342: "The Gift of Foresight" nominated by: Ellynn on 28 May 2010
--- 451: "Evergreen" nominated by: Inzilbeth on 07 Jun 2010
--- 500: "Harvest Dreams" nominated by: Raksha the Demon on 10 Jun 2010
--- 541: "A Mother's Hope" nominated by: Virtuella on 13 Jun 2010
--- 580: "White Tree - Harbinger" nominated by: Raksha the Demon on 14 Jun
2010
--- 583: "The Silver Tree " nominated by: juliaaurelia on 14 Jun 2010
--- 584: "Following the Star" nominated by: juliaaurelia on 14 Jun 2010

Lyra (liaison: Inkling, inkling-tcbsATsbcglobalDOTnet)
--- 156: "The Embalmer's Apprentice" nominated by: Elleth on 16 May 2010
--- 170: "Different Terms" nominated by: Elleth on 16 May 2010

Marta (liaison: Marta, marta.fandom@gmail.com)
--- 299: "For All Things, A Time" nominated by: elliska on 23 May 2010

Mortizya (liaison: Ithilwen, dlnevinsATearthlinkDOTnet)
--- 232: "Little Tolkien" nominated by: kitt_otter on 18 May 2010

MrKinch (liaison: elliska, elliska67ATyahooDOTcom)
--- 437: "BONES FOUND ON POSH ESTATE" nominated by: Elleth on 06 Jun 2010

Nieriel Raina (liaison: Ithilwen, dlnevinsATearthlinkDOTnet)
--- 449: "The Last Gift" nominated by: Nieriel Raina on 07 Jun 2010

Raksha the Demon (liaison: Inkling, inkling-tcbsATsbcglobalDOTnet)
--- 594: "Small Victories" nominated by: Alassante on 14 Jun 2010
--- 332: "Libation" nominated by: Linda Hoyland on 28 May 2010
--- 333: "Ranger's Dawn" nominated by: Linda Hoyland on 28 May 2010
--- 345: "After the Hour of Doom" nominated by: Gandalfs apprentice on 28
May 2010
--- 8: "Hearts in Stone" nominated by: Linda Hoyland on 15 May 2010
--- 360: "Expectations" nominated by: Gandalfs apprentice on 29 May 2010
--- 38: "Reach for the Stars" nominated by: Linda Hoyland on 15 May 2010
--- 659: "Fosterage" nominated by: Mysterious Jedi on 15 Jun 2010
--- 62: "Riding the Fire" nominated by: Virtuella on 15 May 2010
--- 96: "The Tower" nominated by: Ellynn on 15 May 2010
--- 499: "Filling the Breach" nominated by: Linda Hoyland on 10 Jun 2010
--- 102: "The Battle of the Kitchen" nominated by: Radbooks on 15 May 2010
--- 517: "Pilgrimage" nominated by: Linda Hoyland on 11 Jun 2010
--- 237: "Looking For Dragons" nominated by: Linda Hoyland on 19 May 2010
--- 581: "The Eye of the Beholder" nominated by: Linda Hoyland on 14 Jun
2010

Soledad (liaison: aranelgoldenflower, peregrin_ionadATyahooDOTcoDOTuk)
--- 378: "Felagund and the Noegyth Nibin" nominated by: Lissas Elves on 30
May 2010

The Lauderdale (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)
--- 618: "Treed" nominated by: ebbingnight on 14 Jun 2010

viv (liaison: Dreamflower, aelfwinaATgmailDOTcom)
--- 509: "Better Things to Do" nominated by: viv on 10 Jun 2010

Ygrain (liaison: Linaewen, marggrenawaltATsbcglobalDOTnet)
--- 608: "Crude Material" nominated by: Elena Tiriel on 14 Jun 2010

*****************

4. For these stories the author has done everything they need to - for the
moment. They still need to be checked by volunteers, and so authors should
be on the look-out for emails from us. If there is a problem, we will change
the status back to "Author has begun but not finished form," and the story
won't be able to compete unless you fix the problem by June 21.

agape4gondor (liaison: Marta, marta.fandom@gmail.com)
--- 631: "Ten Thousand Years Will Not Suffice" nominated by: Linaewen on 15
Jun 2010

Antigone Q (liaison: Linaewen, marggrenawaltATsbcglobalDOTnet)
--- 446: "A Light in May" nominated by: Thundera Tiger on 07 Jun 2010

Azalais (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)
--- 435: " What The Lightning Said: 20th June 3018, Minas Tirith" nominated
by: curiouswombat on 06 Jun 2010
--- 479: "Before the Black Gate, Second Age 3434" nominated by: Clodia on 09
Jun 2010

Calenlass Greenleaf (liaison: Cathleen, virginia_lee_redcatATyahooDOTcom)
--- 338: "Obsession" nominated by: Antane on 28 May 2010
--- 339: "Corruption" nominated by: Antane on 28 May 2010

Elleth (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)
--- 617: "The Vessel" nominated by: Dawn Felagund on 14 Jun 2010

Isabeau of Greenlea (liaison: Dreamflower, aelfwinaATgmailDOTcom)
--- 591: "Fifteen Hot Haradrim" nominated by: Elena Tiriel on 14 Jun 2010
--- 592: "To the Crossroads" nominated by: Elena Tiriel on 14 Jun 2010
--- 593: "Firebug" nominated by: Elena Tiriel on 14 Jun 2010

Maeglin (liaison: foxrafer (csevans8), foxraferATgmailDOTcom)
--- 440: "Not so like Luthien, After All" nominated by: Raksha the Demon on
07 Jun 2010

Marta (liaison: Marta, marta.fandom@gmail.com)
--- 610: "Behind Blue Eyes" nominated by: Marta on 14 Jun 2010
--- 612: "In Vino Veritas" nominated by: Marta on 14 Jun 2010

Mysterious Jedi (liaison: Inkling, inkling-tcbsATsbcglobalDOTnet)
--- 656: "Two Copper Pennies" nominated by: Mysterious Jedi on 15 Jun 2010
--- 658: "Caught Between" nominated by: Mysterious Jedi on 15 Jun 2010

Nerdanel (liaison: Linaewen, marggrenawaltATsbcglobalDOTnet)
--- 442: "The Pathway of Dreams II" nominated by: Dreamflower on 07 Jun 2010

Phyncke (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)
--- 638: "The Morning Fog" nominated by: tuxedo_elf on 15 Jun 2010

Raksha the Demon (liaison: Inkling, inkling-tcbsATsbcglobalDOTnet)
--- 60: "Seasons of Gladness" nominated by: Virtuella on 15 May 2010

Sivan Shemesh (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)
--- 619: "The End?" nominated by: Sivan Shemesh on 14 Jun 2010

Soledad (liaison: aranelgoldenflower, peregrin_ionadATyahooDOTcoDOTuk)
--- 366: "All alone in the Night" nominated by: Lissas Elves on 30 May 2010
--- 369: "Cold Comfort" nominated by: Makamu on 30 May 2010
--- 370: "The Joys of a Beard" nominated by: Makamu on 30 May 2010
--- 371: "Shieldbrothers" nominated by: Makamu on 30 May 2010
--- 377: "A Brotherly Gift" nominated by: Lissas Elves on 30 May 2010
--- 378: "Felagund and the Noegyth Nibin" nominated by: Lissas Elves on 30
May 2010
--- 379: "Little Bird" nominated by: Lissas Elves on 30 May 2010

The Lauderdale (liaison: Dwimordene, dwimmer_laikATyahooDOTcom)
--- 603: "A Question of Dialect" nominated by: Elena Tiriel on 14 Jun 2010

Marta

Umm. What about the reviews link (under the stories link, I think; at least when the screen reader read it) which appeared briefly about... two days ago? Was it for testing or something? I just remembered about it now, and my curiosity is back. :sheepish:
 
- Rey

--- On Wed, 6/16/10, telperion1 <marta.fandom@gmail.com> wrote:


From: telperion1 <marta.fandom@gmail.com>
Subject: RE: [MEFAwards] Reviews?
To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, June 16, 2010, 2:37 PM


 



Hi Ellynn,

*blush* That was a mistake on my part - We had a discussion several years
back about when reviews should be available, and people wanted them to be
shown earlier - as in, as soon as we've set the categories. (Back when we
had this discussion, there was about a month lag between announcing the
categories and displaying the reviews.) But in setting up things for this
year, I misinterpreted that discussion, and so I set the date too early -
for after nominations closed, not after the categories were set. Basically I
set the date earlier than anyone but me had intended.

After discussing it with several people, we decided to move back the date
when reviews would first be displayed. They are all still there, and will be
shown on July 16, the date after the categories are set. In the meantime, I
*do* encourage everyone to start reviewing if they haven't already. If you
see a story with the status "Nomination Finalized," you know it will be
competing - and in about a week, those will be the *only* stories listed on
our site.

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of Ellin Ithilwen
> Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2010 1:04 PM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [MEFAwards] Reviews?
>
>
>
> I am a little confused. Yesterdey morning, for a while, reviews for the
> stories were visible. And later in the afternoon/evening, and today
> also, they are again not visible. So, what's going on? *unsure* Did you
> just test something in that period? And when should reviews become
> visible?
>
> Ellynn
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>











[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Oh, I see. *laughing*
Just one more question. Replying to reviews is one of the few things I do on time (there are many things in life that I do in the last moment *blush*), so when I saw the reviews to my stories, I immediately replied. So, what interests me is the following: even though reviews are still not officially visible - which means there is no replying for now - I hope that my replies will be delivered to reviewers anyway? Even though it's too early?
Thanks,

Ellynn

--- On Wed, 6/16/10, telperion1 <marta.fandom@gmail.com> wrote:

From: telperion1 <marta.fandom@gmail.com>
Subject: RE: [MEFAwards] Reviews?
To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, June 16, 2010, 11:37 AM







 









Hi Ellynn,



*blush* That was a mistake on my part - We had a discussion several years

back about when reviews should be available, and people wanted them to be

shown earlier - as in, as soon as we've set the categories. (Back when we

had this discussion, there was about a month lag between announcing the

categories and displaying the reviews.) But in setting up things for this

year, I misinterpreted that discussion, and so I set the date too early -

for after nominations closed, not after the categories were set. Basically I

set the date earlier than anyone but me had intended.






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi, this is a little random, but Gríma Wormtongue is listed twice on the Character list (http://mefawards.net/MEFA2010/index.php?page=storiesBrowseQuickLinks&linktype=character):
Rohirrim - Gríma Wormtongue (3)
Villains - Wormtongue (2)

I'm assuming that this is an error as I don't see anyone else listed twice. For example, I don't see Sauron down twice:
Valar and Maiar - Sauron (Aulendil)
Villains - Sauron (Aulendil)

My apologies for mentioning this here if that is not what this group is for, or if this has already been mentioned (I searched briefly but did not see it anywhere.)

~Lauderdale

Hiya Lauderdale,

You're right, this is a mistake. There should only be one listing from each
character. Otherwise it will be harder for readers to find all the stories
about that character.

I'll leave things as they are for now, so people still filling out their
form don't get confused. But next week, I'll merge those two listings
together. Thanks for the heads-up.

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of mvoltfan
> Sent: Friday, June 18, 2010 2:21 PM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [MEFAwards] Character list - Wormtongue
>
>
>
> Hi, this is a little random, but Gríma Wormtongue is listed twice on
> the Character list
> (http://mefawards.net/MEFA2010/index.php?page=storiesBrowseQuickLinks&l
> inktype=character):
> Rohirrim - Gríma Wormtongue (3)
> Villains - Wormtongue (2)
>
> I'm assuming that this is an error as I don't see anyone else listed
> twice. For example, I don't see Sauron down twice:
> Valar and Maiar - Sauron (Aulendil)
> Villains - Sauron (Aulendil)
>
> My apologies for mentioning this here if that is not what this group is
> for, or if this has already been mentioned (I searched briefly but did
> not see it anywhere.)
>
> ~Lauderdale
>

I am starting to understand this list but I have a question please.

can I be on a list with just the poetry and stories?

Devona
djasister@windstream.net

--------------------------------------------------
From: "telperion1" <marta.fandom@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, June 18, 2010 2:02 PM
To: <MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: RE: [MEFAwards] Character list - Wormtongue

> Hiya Lauderdale,
>
> You're right, this is a mistake. There should only be one listing from
> each
> character. Otherwise it will be harder for readers to find all the stories
> about that character.
>
> I'll leave things as they are for now, so people still filling out their
> form don't get confused. But next week, I'll merge those two listings
> together. Thanks for the heads-up.
>
> Marta
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
>> Behalf Of mvoltfan
>> Sent: Friday, June 18, 2010 2:21 PM
>> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
>> Subject: [MEFAwards] Character list - Wormtongue
>>
>>
>>
>> Hi, this is a little random, but Gríma Wormtongue is listed twice on
>> the Character list
>> (http://mefawards.net/MEFA2010/index.php?page=storiesBrowseQuickLinks&l
>> inktype=character):
>> Rohirrim - Gríma Wormtongue (3)
>> Villains - Wormtongue (2)
>>
>> I'm assuming that this is an error as I don't see anyone else listed
>> twice. For example, I don't see Sauron down twice:
>> Valar and Maiar - Sauron (Aulendil)
>> Villains - Sauron (Aulendil)
>>
>> My apologies for mentioning this here if that is not what this group is
>> for, or if this has already been mentioned (I searched briefly but did
>> not see it anywhere.)
>>
>> ~Lauderdale
>>
>
>

Umm, Devona: I think you should just go to the site? The poems and stories (and drabbles, ficlets, and nonfiction) are there, not here in the mailing list... I think?
 
Hee. Sorry. I am a newbie too.
 
Rey

--- On Fri, 6/18/10, Devona <djasister@windstream.net> wrote:


From: Devona <djasister@windstream.net>
Subject: Re: [MEFAwards] Character list - Wormtongue
To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, June 18, 2010, 3:11 PM


 



I am starting to understand this list but I have a question please.

can I be on a list with just the poetry and stories?

Devona
djasister@windstream.net

--------------------------------------------------
From: "telperion1" <marta.fandom@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, June 18, 2010 2:02 PM
To: <MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: RE: [MEFAwards] Character list - Wormtongue

> Hiya Lauderdale,
>
> You're right, this is a mistake. There should only be one listing from
> each
> character. Otherwise it will be harder for readers to find all the stories
> about that character.
>
> I'll leave things as they are for now, so people still filling out their
> form don't get confused. But next week, I'll merge those two listings
> together. Thanks for the heads-up.
>
> Marta
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
>> Behalf Of mvoltfan
>> Sent: Friday, June 18, 2010 2:21 PM
>> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
>> Subject: [MEFAwards] Character list - Wormtongue
>>
>>
>>
>> Hi, this is a little random, but Gríma Wormtongue is listed twice on
>> the Character list
>> (http://mefawards.net/MEFA2010/index.php?page=storiesBrowseQuickLinks&l
>> inktype=character):
>> Rohirrim - Gríma Wormtongue (3)
>> Villains - Wormtongue (2)
>>
>> I'm assuming that this is an error as I don't see anyone else listed
>> twice. For example, I don't see Sauron down twice:
>> Valar and Maiar - Sauron (Aulendil)
>> Villains - Sauron (Aulendil)
>>
>> My apologies for mentioning this here if that is not what this group is
>> for, or if this has already been mentioned (I searched briefly but did
>> not see it anywhere.)
>>
>> ~Lauderdale
>>
>
>










[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hiya Rey,

That was actually part of my mistake. I misunderstood how to enter dates on the website. So the link appeared earlier than it should. It will be back on July 16.

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of melissa chandra
> Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2010 9:08 PM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: RE: [MEFAwards] Reviews?
>
>
>
> Umm. What about the reviews link (under the stories link, I think; at
> least when the screen reader read it) which appeared briefly about...
> two days ago? Was it for testing or something? I just remembered about
> it now, and my curiosity is back. :sheepish:
>
>
> - Rey
>

Hiya Ellynn,

I have gone on and forwarded those review responses. Thanks for reminding
me.

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of Ellin Ithilwen
> Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2010 5:43 AM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: RE: [MEFAwards] Reviews?
>
>
>
> Oh, I see. *laughing*
> Just one more question. Replying to reviews is one of the few things I
> do on time (there are many things in life that I do in the last moment
> *blush*), so when I saw the reviews to my stories, I immediately
> replied. So, what interests me is the following: even though reviews
> are still not officially visible - which means there is no replying for
> now - I hope that my replies will be delivered to reviewers anyway?
> Even though it's too early?
> Thanks,
>
> Ellynn
>
> --- On Wed, 6/16/10, telperion1 <marta.fandom@gmail.com
> <mailto:marta.fandom%40gmail.com> > wrote:
>
> From: telperion1 <marta.fandom@gmail.com
> <mailto:marta.fandom%40gmail.com> >
> Subject: RE: [MEFAwards] Reviews?
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <mailto:MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com>
> Date: Wednesday, June 16, 2010, 11:37 AM
>
>
>
> Hi Ellynn,
>
> *blush* That was a mistake on my part - We had a discussion several
> years
>
> back about when reviews should be available, and people wanted them to
> be
>
> shown earlier - as in, as soon as we've set the categories. (Back when
> we
>
> had this discussion, there was about a month lag between announcing the
>
> categories and displaying the reviews.) But in setting up things for
> this
>
> year, I misinterpreted that discussion, and so I set the date too early
> -
>
> for after nominations closed, not after the categories were set.
> Basically I
>
> set the date earlier than anyone but me had intended.
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>

Hi, there. This may be a totally inappropriate place to do this, but I don't know what else to try.

I'm sure it's a glitch on my end, but emails I send to my liaison just get kicked back to me, and I can't log on to begin my form. Can anyone help me with this?

Thanks, Marta. :)

--- On Fri, 6/18/10, telperion1 <marta.fandom@gmail.com> wrote:


From: telperion1 <marta.fandom@gmail.com>
Subject: RE: [MEFAwards] Reviews?
To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, June 18, 2010, 6:21 PM


 



Hiya Ellynn,

I have gone on and forwarded those review responses. Thanks for reminding
me.

Marta




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi,

I can't find your Yahoo email address in our database. Could you please email techsupport@mefawards.net with your MEFA web site username, the email address you are registered with at the MEFA site, the title of one of your nominated stories (if you have not yet logged in to the MEFA site), and your Liaison's name.

Thanks,
Aranel
MEFA Tech Support

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, "littlest_drama_queen" <littlest_drama_queen@...> wrote:
>
> Hi, there. This may be a totally inappropriate place to do this, but I don't know what else to try.
>
> I'm sure it's a glitch on my end, but emails I send to my liaison just get kicked back to me, and I can't log on to begin my form. Can anyone help me with this?
>

Hi Devona,

You can find this information using our website.

1. Go to www.mefawards.net/MEFA2010/
2. Log in or click the "Log in as guest" link (which will let you see the
stories but won't let you vote).
3. Click on the "Stories" link at the top of the page.
4. Click the "Show Filter" link.

This brings up a list of drop-down menus which you can use to display just
certain types of filters. One of those filters is the "Story Type" option.
Choosing "Story" will show you all the completed stories; Incomplete shows
you all the WIPs, and Drabbles shows you all the stories that are exactly
100 words, or series of the same. Poetry will show you all the poems.

For more information on the filters, see

http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2010/index.php?page=FAQvoting#vot_15

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of Devona
> Sent: Friday, June 18, 2010 3:11 PM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [MEFAwards] Character list - Wormtongue
>
>
>
> I am starting to understand this list but I have a question please.
>
> can I be on a list with just the poetry and stories?
>
> Devona
> djasister@windstream.net <mailto:djasister%40windstream.net>
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "telperion1" <marta.fandom@gmail.com
> <mailto:marta.fandom%40gmail.com> >
> Sent: Friday, June 18, 2010 2:02 PM
> To: <MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <mailto:MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com> >
> Subject: RE: [MEFAwards] Character list - Wormtongue
>
> > Hiya Lauderdale,
> >
> > You're right, this is a mistake. There should only be one listing
> from
> > each
> > character. Otherwise it will be harder for readers to find all the
> stories
> > about that character.
> >
> > I'll leave things as they are for now, so people still filling out
> their
> > form don't get confused. But next week, I'll merge those two listings
> > together. Thanks for the heads-up.
> >
> > Marta
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <mailto:MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com>
> [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <mailto:MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com>
> ] On
> >> Behalf Of mvoltfan
> >> Sent: Friday, June 18, 2010 2:21 PM
> >> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <mailto:MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com>
> >> Subject: [MEFAwards] Character list - Wormtongue
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Hi, this is a little random, but Gríma Wormtongue is listed twice on
> >> the Character list
> >>
> (http://mefawards.net/MEFA2010/index.php?page=storiesBrowseQuickLinks&l
> >> inktype=character):
> >> Rohirrim - Gríma Wormtongue (3)
> >> Villains - Wormtongue (2)
> >>
> >> I'm assuming that this is an error as I don't see anyone else listed
> >> twice. For example, I don't see Sauron down twice:
> >> Valar and Maiar - Sauron (Aulendil)
> >> Villains - Sauron (Aulendil)
> >>
> >> My apologies for mentioning this here if that is not what this group
> is
> >> for, or if this has already been mentioned (I searched briefly but
> did
> >> not see it anywhere.)
> >>
> >> ~Lauderdale
> >>
> >
> >
>
>
>

Hiya littlest_drama_queen,

This is a fine place to get help. But I can't find what user you are over at
our website. So, can you tell me what your name is over there? Or what story
was nominated? Or, if you might be registered under a different email
address, what that address is? If you can help me figure out who you are,
I'll help you get the forms filled out.

We only have another day or two to get this figured out, unfortunately, but
I'll make a special effort to apply to any emails from you as soon as I can.
(I have quite a few right now.)

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of littlest_drama_queen
> Sent: Saturday, June 19, 2010 1:03 AM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [MEFAwards] Re: ADMIN - last author round-up
>
>
>
> Hi, there. This may be a totally inappropriate place to do this, but I
> don't know what else to try.
>
> I'm sure it's a glitch on my end, but emails I send to my liaison just
> get kicked back to me, and I can't log on to begin my form. Can anyone
> help me with this?
>
>
>
>

Hey guys,

There's still a couple of days left for authors to get their nominations in
shape to compete in the 2010 MEFAs -- but I'd strongly urge everyone to get
their forms filled out and ready for checking by liaisons as soon as
possible. That way, you and your liaison have a little time to deal with any
corrections that need making.

Just to be clear: all nominations must be finalized (100% ready to compete)
by 11:59 PM GMT on June 21. After that time, any nominations which don't
have the status "Nomination Finalized" will be withdrawn from the awards and
won't be able to compete this year. (Those withdrawn stories will still be
eligible to compete in future years, but will need to be nominated again.)

Once all nominations have been finalized (or withdrawn), we'll begin
categorising stories into the award subcategories in which they will
compete. That's a tricky task that takes our categorisers a few weeks. We'll
then post details of which stories are competing in which subcategories, and
authors will have a couple of days to check the list and let us know if
we've accidentally put their piece about First Age Elves in a subcategory
with stories about Post-Ring War Men (or something else equally strange).
We'll aim to post those lists from 13th July to 15th July, with final
subcategories will be made available after 15th July.

But you don't have to wait until then to start reviewing -- or even wait
until all the nominations are finalized or withdrawn. The MEFA website tells
you how much progress an author has made toward accepting the nomination. Go
to www.mefawards.net/MEFA2010/ and click the "Stories" link at the top of
the page. Now look on the right side of your screen - you will see things
like "Nomination Finalized," "Email sent to Author," etc. Any story with the
status "Nomination Finalized" is 100% ready to go and will compete in this
year's awards.

Why don't you try to review one "Nomination Finalized" story this weekend?

Marta (MEFA Admin.)

Something weird happened the other day. I found two review replies for stories I had reviewed last year. One was dated 16 Jan. and the other 19 Jan. To the best of my knowledge I never received them previously, so I know that these weren't random glitches, especially when one of my authors contacted me with the following:

"I had a strange thing happen yesterday. Do you know any reason why a review reply dated Saturday 16th January 2010 came through to my email yesterday on 19th June? Can you ask about this, and find out? Are there other review replies held up in the system for me?

I got a low 'review/vote' response from authors last year out of the 52 reviews I submitted, and am now wondering if there was a system error happening. I also wonder if my own reviewers got my own 'review/vote replies' which I sent to all of them."

And I have to wonder as well. Both mine and the one mentioned by the author are dated in January. I wonder if that is significant? Anyway, if anyone in Admin has an explanation, I would appreciate hearing it so I can pass it on to my author.

Thanks,
Fiondil

Me too - I got one a couple of days ago dated January 15th.

The same thing happened to me (also on June 19th), with review responses
from January 15th and 17th, so with four people reporting, this probably
isn't an isolated incident. I find it interesting that all the mails were
from roughly mid-January, so perhaps the glitch was discovered and fixed at
some point soon after, only the emails were already in the system and set to
be sent on June 19th. But then I don't have a clue about the archive
software and am very much poking around in the dark here.

Elleth

On 20 June 2010 14:33, elhanan_austin <namondil@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> Something weird happened the other day. I found two review replies for
> stories I had reviewed last year. One was dated 16 Jan. and the other 19
> Jan. To the best of my knowledge I never received them previously, so I know
> that these weren't random glitches, especially when one of my authors
> contacted me with the following:
>
> "I had a strange thing happen yesterday. Do you know any reason why a
> review reply dated Saturday 16th January 2010 came through to my email
> yesterday on 19th June? Can you ask about this, and find out? Are there
> other review replies held up in the system for me?
>
> I got a low 'review/vote' response from authors last year out of the 52
> reviews I submitted, and am now wondering if there was a system error
> happening. I also wonder if my own reviewers got my own 'review/vote
> replies' which I sent to all of them."
>
> And I have to wonder as well. Both mine and the one mentioned by the author
> are dated in January. I wonder if that is significant? Anyway, if anyone in
> Admin has an explanation, I would appreciate hearing it so I can pass it on
> to my author.
>
> Thanks,
> Fiondil
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I, too, got a review yesterday, dated from January 17.

- Barbara


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I tried to review last year, but since I'd just fried my laptop and
was working my work and a loaner computer, the default emails ended up
being a terrible mess to try to manage to get it not to send (and
reply to) my work email and I ended up actually sending few if any.
:(

Becky/Sue L (Huffman) Burkheart [how did life get so complicated?!?]
~ A Hard Hero is Good to Find ~ www.WritingHorses.com





On Sun, Jun 20, 2010 at 7:52 AM, Elleth
<nerdanel.istarnie@googlemail.com> wrote:

> The same thing happened to me (also on June 19th), with review responses
> from January 15th and 17th, so with four people reporting, this probably
> isn't an isolated incident. I find it interesting that all the mails were
> from roughly mid-January, so perhaps the glitch was discovered and fixed at
> some point soon after, only the emails were already in the system and set to
> be sent on June 19th. But then I don't have a clue about the archive
> software and am very much poking around in the dark here.
>
> Elleth
>
> On 20 June 2010 14:33, elhanan_austin <namondil@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Something weird happened the other day. I found two review replies for
>> stories I had reviewed last year. One was dated 16 Jan. and the other 19
>> Jan. To the best of my knowledge I never received them previously, so I know
>> that these weren't random glitches, especially when one of my authors
>> contacted me with the following:
>>
>> "I had a strange thing happen yesterday. Do you know any reason why a
>> review reply dated Saturday 16th January 2010 came through to my email
>> yesterday on 19th June? Can you ask about this, and find out? Are there
>> other review replies held up in the system for me?
>>
>> I got a low 'review/vote' response from authors last year out of the 52
>> reviews I submitted, and am now wondering if there was a system error
>> happening. I also wonder if my own reviewers got my own 'review/vote
>> replies' which I sent to all of them."
>>
>> And I have to wonder as well. Both mine and the one mentioned by the author
>> are dated in January. I wonder if that is significant? Anyway, if anyone in
>> Admin has an explanation, I would appreciate hearing it so I can pass it on
>> to my author.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Fiondil
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Visit our website: http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2009/
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>

Hello Fiondil and all,

This is not something "weird," really, though maybe it takes a bit of
explaining. When you reply to a reviewer, you send an email to a certain
email address. A volunteer then forwards this email to your reviewer. Last
year, some responses to reviews came in after the volunteer stopped
forwarding emails, so I forwarded them this year, when I logged in to
forward Ellynn's replies.

If memory serves, *everyone* gets a pretty low response-to-review ratio. I
really don't think this is a site malfunction or anything, since all you're
doing is sending an email to some address. If there's a technical problem,
it has to do with whatever email program you use - if there was an error
with the site, then *no* replies would be happening. But really, I think
it's just that people don't often reply to reviews at sites like ours.

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of elhanan_austin
> Sent: Sunday, June 20, 2010 8:33 AM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [MEFAwards] Late review replies?
>
>
>
> Something weird happened the other day. I found two review replies for
> stories I had reviewed last year. One was dated 16 Jan. and the other
> 19 Jan. To the best of my knowledge I never received them previously,
> so I know that these weren't random glitches, especially when one of my
> authors contacted me with the following:
>
> "I had a strange thing happen yesterday. Do you know any reason why a
> review reply dated Saturday 16th January 2010 came through to my email
> yesterday on 19th June? Can you ask about this, and find out? Are there
> other review replies held up in the system for me?
>
> I got a low 'review/vote' response from authors last year out of the 52
> reviews I submitted, and am now wondering if there was a system error
> happening. I also wonder if my own reviewers got my own 'review/vote
> replies' which I sent to all of them."
>
> And I have to wonder as well. Both mine and the one mentioned by the
> author are dated in January. I wonder if that is significant? Anyway,
> if anyone in Admin has an explanation, I would appreciate hearing it so
> I can pass it on to my author.
>
> Thanks,
> Fiondil
>
>
>
>

Why, if the deadline for Finalizing Nomination Forms is June 21, did I get an official email last week (6/16) telling me that the deadline was June 27? And I've been going by the deadlines listed in the "Important Deadlines" link of the FAQs section at the 2010 Awards Site - where the deadline for finalizing nomination forms is listed as June 28. I had planned to finish finalizng my forms (I have 11 left) in the next three days or so, which would have had them all done with a few days to spare.

I am confused and upset by the contradictory information. I realize that it is my responsibility to know the deadlines and get my stuff done by those deadlines, but I thought that the information that I received in an official MEFA email and in the "Deadlines" section at the site itself was reliable.


Raksha



<<<<<--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, "telperion1" <marta.fandom@...> wrote:

>
> Hey guys,
>
> There's still a couple of days left for authors to get their nominations in
> shape to compete in the 2010 MEFAs -- but I'd strongly urge everyone to get
> their forms filled out and ready for checking by liaisons as soon as
> possible. That way, you and your liaison have a little time to deal with any
> corrections that need making.
>
> Just to be clear: all nominations must be finalized (100% ready to compete)
> by 11:59 PM GMT on June 21. After that time, any nominations which don't
> have the status "Nomination Finalized" will be withdrawn from the awards and
> won't be able to compete this year. (Those withdrawn stories will still be
> eligible to compete in future years, but will need to be nominated again.)
>>>>>>

Hey guys,

The deadline to have your nominations ready to compete is tonight - 11:59 PM
GMT, on June 21. I've mentioned this in several admin posts here, but there
was a snafu with the website. The wrong date was displayed in the FAQ. It
was also displayed in the email all authors were sent at the end of
nominations, though I did email everyone shortly after that correcting the
mistake.

I don't want to penalize authors unfairly because of this mistake. On the
other hand, though, I do want the awards to move forward, so we can keep to
later deadlines that have been publicized. We are working under a pretty
tight timeline right now, and volunteers need to start setting up categories
and subcategories within the next few days, or things will get more
confusing down the line. But I see at least one author expected to have more
time. And since there was a mistake on the website, I want to give any
confused authors the time they need.

So, here's what we're going to do. On June 22 I will withdraw those
nominations that aren't ready to compete.

HOWEVER! If you email me by June 28 with the information necessary to fill
out your form, I will fill out your form for you, and will restore your
nomination so it will still be able to compete.

The catch is, we will start work on categories on June 22. If you complete
your form after then (but before June 28), we will work you into one of the
categories and subcategories that are set up. You may not get as good a
placement as if you were done by the 21st, and the sooner you are done, the
better it will be. Of course we will do our best to put you in the main
category and subcategory you indicated on your story form.

********************************************

The story form requires the following information. If you need to complete
your form by email, please copy the below text into an email and fill out
any information that needs to be added or changed. You may leave items blank
if you already provided them when filling out your form via our website

1. Author Name -
2. Title -
3. Story URL -
*4. Story Type -
5. Did your story previously compete? If so, when? -
*6. Story Length -
7. Further description for drabble, WIP, or ficlet -
*8. Rating -
9. Reason for Rating -
10. Story summary (max 400 characters) -
*11. Main Category Choices -

--- FIRST CHOICE:
--- SECOND CHOICE:
--- THIRD CHOICE:

*12. Characters for Categorization (list up to three) -
*13. Story Setting (list up to two) -
*14. Subgenres (list up to three) -
*15. Characters for readers (list up to seven) -
*16. Event and Time Periods (list up to three) -
*17. Source Materials Used -
18. (Opt.) Alternate URL -

-0-0-0-0-0-

OPTIONS FOR ASTERISK'D ITEMS

4. Story Type - Choose one of...

--- Drabble: for pieces exactly 100 words, or series of the same
--- Incomplete
--- Non-Fiction
--- Poetry
--- Story: For all finished prose that isn't a drabble

6. Story Length - Choose one of...

--- True drabble: exactly one hundred words
--- Drabble series: series where each part is a true drabble
--- Ficlet: <1,000 words but not also a drabble
--- Ficlet series: series where each part is a ficlet
--- Short story: 1,001-10,000 words
--- Medium Length: 10,001-40,000 words
--- Novel: 40,001+ words

8. Rating - Choose one of...

--- General
--- Teen
--- Mature

11. Main Categories - Choose three of...

--- Genres: Adventure; Alternate Universe; Character Study; Crossover;
Drama; Ficlets; Horror; Humor; Longer Works; Mystery; Non-Fiction; Romance
--- Races: Dwarves; Elves; Hobbits; Men; Other Beings; Villains
--- Times: First Age and Prior; Second and Early Third Age; Pre-Ring War;
Ring War; Post-Ring War and Beyond; Modern Times; Multi-Age

12-16. The various lists of characters, events, etc. are available via the
story filter on our website. (Log in to the website and click "Stories" at
the top of the page.) Alternately, describe what you would like, and I will
tell you what available options are closest.

17. Choose as many of the following options as necessary:

--- The Lord of the Rings (novel)
--- The Hobbit (novel)
--- The Silmarillion
--- Other Tolkien Book
--- Peter Jackson's movie trilogy
--- Some other adaptation of any of Tolkien's books
--- Some other fictional universe (Harry Potter, Star Trek, etc.)
--- Real-life history

You may also specify specific Tolkien books used, if you like.

******************************

I hope this will allow those authors who want to compete, to do so, without
unfairly penalizing authors. Let me know if you have any questions.

Marta

Hi Raksha,

I'm sorry for the confusion. The website seems to be displaying the wrong
date for some reason. I'll try to get that fixed ASAP.

The deadline is June 21 (tonight), but I can see why you'd be confused. So:
while I'll be withdrawing incomplete nominations tomorrow, I'll *restore*
those nominations if you email me with the missing information through June
28. I explained all of this in Msg #10561.

Thanks for the heads-up on this! If you ever come across contradictory
information, please let us know.

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of raksha022002
> Sent: Monday, June 21, 2010 2:42 AM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [MEFAwards] Re: Admin - Remember to Finish Your Nominations
>
>
>
> Why, if the deadline for Finalizing Nomination Forms is June 21, did I
> get an official email last week (6/16) telling me that the deadline was
> June 27? And I've been going by the deadlines listed in the "Important
> Deadlines" link of the FAQs section at the 2010 Awards Site - where the
> deadline for finalizing nomination forms is listed as June 28. I had
> planned to finish finalizng my forms (I have 11 left) in the next three
> days or so, which would have had them all done with a few days to
> spare.
>
> I am confused and upset by the contradictory information. I realize
> that it is my responsibility to know the deadlines and get my stuff
> done by those deadlines, but I thought that the information that I
> received in an official MEFA email and in the "Deadlines" section at
> the site itself was reliable.
>
> Raksha
>
> <<<<<--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> <mailto:MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com> , "telperion1" <marta.fandom@...>
> wrote:
> >
> > Hey guys,
> >
> > There's still a couple of days left for authors to get their
> nominations in
> > shape to compete in the 2010 MEFAs -- but I'd strongly urge everyone
> to get
> > their forms filled out and ready for checking by liaisons as soon as
> > possible. That way, you and your liaison have a little time to deal
> with any
> > corrections that need making.
> >
> > Just to be clear: all nominations must be finalized (100% ready to
> compete)
> > by 11:59 PM GMT on June 21. After that time, any nominations which
> don't
> > have the status "Nomination Finalized" will be withdrawn from the
> awards and
> > won't be able to compete this year. (Those withdrawn stories will
> still be
> > eligible to compete in future years, but will need to be nominated
> again.)
> >>>>>>
>
>
>
>

This is actually the first I'm hearing that we are *able* to reply to the reviews we get. I didn't think it was possible and so simply never looked for a 'reply to review' button. I will be looking this year!

Is there such a button/link or is there something special we have to do?

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, "telperion1" <marta.fandom@...> wrote:

> If memory serves, *everyone* gets a pretty low response-to-review ratio. I
> really don't think this is a site malfunction or anything, since all you're
> doing is sending an email to some address. If there's a technical problem,
> it has to do with whatever email program you use - if there was an error
> with the site, then *no* replies would be happening. But really, I think
> it's just that people don't often reply to reviews at sites like ours.
>
> Marta
>

Hiya Linda,

When reviews are posted at the MEFA website, you will see a special link
beside your reviews. I forget exactly what it says, but it's something like
"Reply to Review." If you click on that, this brings up a pop-up window,
that gives you instructions for how to reply to that review. You will either
have the option to click on a link to open an email automatically for you,
or if that doesn't work, you will be given a subject line that you can copy
into an email.

For more on this see:

http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2010/index.php?page=FAQvoting#vot_20

You can always email your reviewer privately, if you know them. But since
the MEFA website wants people to be able to review without giving out their
email address, we don't share that information with authors. Instead we
offer to forward emails *to* the author on your behalf, when you don't know
how to reach them.

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of Linda
> Sent: Monday, June 21, 2010 10:39 AM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [MEFAwards] Re: Late review replies?
>
>
>
> This is actually the first I'm hearing that we are *able* to reply to
> the reviews we get. I didn't think it was possible and so simply never
> looked for a 'reply to review' button. I will be looking this year!
>
> Is there such a button/link or is there something special we have to
> do?
>
> --- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <mailto:MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com> ,
> "telperion1" <marta.fandom@...> wrote:
>
> > If memory serves, *everyone* gets a pretty low response-to-review
> ratio. I
> > really don't think this is a site malfunction or anything, since all
> you're
> > doing is sending an email to some address. If there's a technical
> problem,
> > it has to do with whatever email program you use - if there was an
> error
> > with the site, then *no* replies would be happening. But really, I
> think
> > it's just that people don't often reply to reviews at sites like
> ours.
> >
> > Marta
> >
>
>
>
>

Ah, that explains it! Thank you for the information, Marta.

- Barbara

On Sun, Jun 20, 2010 at 12:19 PM, telperion1 <marta.fandom@gmail.com> wrote:

> When you reply to a reviewer, you send an email to a certain
>
> email address. A volunteer then forwards this email to your reviewer. Last
> year, some responses to reviews came in after the volunteer stopped
> forwarding emails, so I forwarded them this year, when I logged in to
> forward Ellynn's replies.
>
> I
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi guys,

For the next few weeks in my ADMIN posts I will be talking about some
concepts related to categories. This is probably one of the least understood
aspects of the MEFAs. This week I want to explain the difference between
subcategories and main categories.

If you play individual sports, you're probably familiar with the concept of
"heats." Growing up I swam on a team that competed against teams from other
neighborhood pools. We each had certain races that we swam (mine was
fifty-meter backstroke), but as there were only so many lanes in the pools,
sometimes there were more competitors in a given race than could swim at
once. When that happened the races were broken down into "heats", so that
the first six people doing a particular race swam together, and then the
next six, and so on. If you won first place, that generally meant that you
won your *heat* - you weren't necessarily the best of all the people
swimming that stroke, but were rather the best of the people racing at once.

The MEFAs are set up on a fairly similar basis. It's probably no surprise to
you that some genres, races, and time periods are written more often than
others, so there are usually (e.g.) more stories about hobbits than dwarves.
At an archive this isn't such a big deal, but imagine in a competition, if
we let all the hobbit stories run against each other, and all the dwarves
stories run against each other. That wouldn't be fair - simply because there
are more hobbit stories than dwarf stories, there would be more competition
for the awards among hobbit stories. So instead we set up "heats," which in
MEFA-parlance are termed subcategories.

When a story is nominated, its author selects three main category choices.
We put the story in one of these choices. We then break the main category
down into subcategories, the groups the story is actually competing in.
Subcategories each have 6-12 entries, so there's no advantage or
disadvantage to being in an unpopular or popular category. If your main
category had sixty stories, we'd break it down to 5-10 *sub*categories; if
the main category had thirty stories, it would be broken down into 3-5
subcategories, and so on. And each of these subcategories is roughly the
same size. This lets us have a more fair competition.

Now, you may wonder how we sort stories into subcategories. The first step
is the main category selection. You can only compete against stories that
selected the same main category as you. We also look at story types
(drabbles, poetry, and so on), which I'll talk more about next week. But
even so, there may be more than twelve pieces in the same main category -
too much for a single subcategory. In that case, we look at how you
described your story. Authors can select:

--- two characters
--- two story locations
--- three subgenres

We look at those, and if there is a common item that appears in several
stories we may set up a subcategory around that. For instance, within the
Men main category, we might set up a subcategory for stories set in Rohan,
or involving Aragorn, or vignettes. What exactly we do varies based on the
types of stories nominated from year to year. We also occasionally look at
the source material, which is geared more toward readers but occasionally
lets us set up an interesting subcategory.

We do *not* try to look at story "quality" - pitting authors who have scored
high in the past together, or stories that the volunteers think will be
popular. It's up to the reviewers to determine what story they like best,
and if an author finds themselves in a "tough" subcategory, that's not by
design.

We also don't automatically separate out story lengths when setting up
subcategories. We do have two *main* categories that are based on length
(Ficlets and Longer Works), but we do not try to set up *sub*categories
based on length. For one thing, it's simply too complicated. It also doesn't
really work to the author's advantage. If past years are any indication,
longer and shorter stories get roughly the same amount of points on average.
(And longer stories get more readers when they're mixed in with shorter
stories, often.) So if an author only wants to compete against stories of a
similar length, they should select Ficlet or Longer Work as one of their
main category choices. That will ensure they are categorized based on
length.

Just as with my swimming example, the "winner" at the end of the awards will
have won a particular subcategory. There is no winner of "Hobbits" or
"Post-Ring War" etc. overall. In smaller categories, there may only be one
subcategory, but we will talk of someone winning that *sub*category, not the
whole category. So there may be a first-place winner of "Races: Dwarves:
General" (the "default" subcategory in each main category) but not of the
"Dwarves" main category. These "general" subcategories are no larger or
smaller than any other subcategory, and are governed by the same rules.

I hope this helps people understand the difference between subcategories and
main categories. For more information on this topic, please see:

--- What are main categories?
http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2010/index.php?page=FAQcategories#cat_8

--- How do you use my category choices to decide which category my story
will compete in?
http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2010/index.php?page=FAQcategories#cat_2

--- Do you categorize based on length?
http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2010/index.php?page=FAQcategories#cat_10

--- Do you give awards for the winner of a whole main category?
http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2010/index.php?page=FAQcategories#cat_7

Marta (MEFA Admin.)