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Hey guys,

I hope you all are enjoying this years reviews, and perhaps finding
some stories you'd like to review yourself. It's not too late to get
started with reading stories you'd like to read, though as every veteran
MEFA reviewer will tell you, the secret to getting the most out of the
MEFAs is to start early.

On that note, I'd like to talk a bit about how to find stories to
review. There are over 700 nominations this year of all types, and that
may sound like an overwhelming task. But you really aren't expected to
read every story; the MEFA website shows stories in different orders to
different users, so if a story is at the top of your list it's probably
not at the top of someone else's. If a story interests you, then read
it, and if you likeit write a review. The more people involved - even if
they don't consider reading every story - that makes for a better awards
in my experience.

If you're still feeling a bit daunted by finding stories to read, the
website offers a pretty powerful search tool that will help you find
ones you like. I'd like to go over how to use that this week.

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HOW TO FIND THE STORY LIST

Before you can start searching for stories. you first have to get to the
"Stories" page, which lists every nomination in the awards with some
basic information about the story. Getting to that is really very easy.

1. Log in to www.mefawards.net/MEFA2009/

2. Click the "Stories" link at the top of the page.

And that's it! You will see a list including all of the nominations
except for those stories you have told the website to "Skip" (more on
that in a minute), in an order that is specific to you. No other member
will see them in quite the same order. The information displayed
includes its rating and romance partners, its length, whether it's a
WIP, a summary for it, and the subcategory it is competing in.

For more extensive information you can click the "Story Details" link,
or you can read the story by clicking on the title. You can also add it
to your skip or wish list or enter a new review, using the links on the
far right side of the screen.

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USING THE FILTERS

When you first show the story list you will probably see a link called
"Show Filter." Click this and the website will reload, showing a series
of drop-down menus. (These menus may already be showing if you have used
them before.) Each of these give you a way to narrow down the list.
There is a description beside each drop-down list telling you what it
does, but I'll go through them in more detail in a minute.

These lists are probably the most useful way to whittle down the list of
nominations to a manageable size. You can use the Main Category and
SubCategory filters to find stories that are competing against each
other, or you can find all the stories involving a certain character or
setting or many other options like that, that will help you find stories
you are more likely to enjoy. Of course I really encourage you to branch
out - but do feel free to start with what you like. If you love Maglor
stories, use the character filter to see if any of the Maglor stories
interest you.

But one warning: the menus are cumulative, meaning that if you pick from
two menus at the same time it will only show pieces that match *both*
selections. And the menus remember what you chose until you click the
"Clear All Filters" button. What this means is, if you are done looking
at the current list of stories and want to use the filter again, click
that Clear All Filters button. Otherwise you might get a very short list
of stories - those that were on your old list but that would also be on
your new list.

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SKIPPED STORIES

Skipped stories don't show up on the story list or when you use any of
the filters, unless you tell the website to show them specifically. You
can do this using the "Review Status" filter. Select the "Skip" option
(second from the bottom) and then click the "Display selected
nominations" button.

This will show all the stories you've told the website to skip. You can
narrow it down by using the other filters - for instance, selecting Skip
from the Review Status filter and Gondor from the Setting filter will
show you stories set in Gondor, that you have told the website to skip.

If you want to see a skipped story along with non-skipped stories, you
need to remove it from your skip list. To do this just bring up your
skipped stories and click the "Remove from Skip/Wish List" link to the
right of the story. Otherwise it will not show up when you just use the
filters described below, unless you've also told the website to display
your skipped stories.

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THE FILTERS - WHAT THEY DO

Now that you know how to use the filters you probably would like to know
what they will actually show you. Let's run through them one by one.

*** Story Type ***

At the MEFAs pieces are sorted into subcategories together by their
story type - Drabble, WIP, Poetry, Non-Fiction, or full-length Story. If
you would like to read just one of these types, the Story Type filter
will let you pull that story up.

*** Authors ***

Just what it sounds like. If you have a favorite author, you can find
all the stories by that author using the author menu.

*** Main Category ***

*** SubCategory ***

At the MEFAs pieces compete against about 5-13 other pieces. They're
sorted first into a main category (based on the three category choices
authors use to describe their story), and then we split it up further
using story type as well as characters, subgenres, that kind of thing.
You can find all the stories competing in a certain main category using
the main category filter. Once youve selected a main category, you will
then be able to select a sub-category from that menu, which will show
you all the pieces competing together.

*** Review Status ***

You can show your skip or wish list using these filters. You can also
use it to show the stories where you have already entered a certain type
of review, or the ones you haven't reviewed at all.

*** Length ***

Do you only have time to read a ficlet today? Or do you really want to
find a nice juicy novel to sink your teeth into? MEFA authors describe
their story as being of a certain length. Choose the one you like best
to find stories you are most likely to enjoy.

*** Rating ***

All MEFA entries are rated either General, Teen, or Mature, based on a
ratings guideline in our FAQs. You can see what rating a story is by
looking at the description of it, on the first line below the title. But
you can also tell the website to just display stories of a certain
rating, using the Rating filter.

*** Genre, Race, Time ***

The Main Category filter shows you all the stories that ended up in a
certain main category. But as I said this is based on the *three*
category choices each author gives us. That means that the author
selectd two genre, races, or time periods that it wasn't placed in. Want
to see all the stories that selected Ring War as a category, whether or
not they were placed in it? The Genre, Race, Time filter will let you do
just that.

*** Character ***

*** SubGenre ***

*** Setting ***

*** Canonical Event or Time Period ***

When describing their story, authors are given the option to choose from
a wide variety of characters, settings, sub-genres, and events from
canon around which the story is set. If you like to read friendship fic,
or Bilbo-centric fic, or stories set around the fall of Gondolin, well,
here's your chance. Use these filters separately or together to tailor
the list to your reading preferences.

*** Sources ***

The MEFAs accepts stories based on all of Tolkien's writings, as well as
crossovers with other fictional worlds and our own historical earth. But
you may only want to read stories based on those works with which you're
most familiar. Authors are encouraged to describe what sources their
stories draw from, and the Sources filter will let you find those pieces.

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OTHER SEARCH METHODS

You can also do a text search. This looks for certain words in the
title, author's name, and summary. Just start typing in the Search bar
below the filters.

Additionally, you can look up a story by its ID #, if you know it. Just
do a search for that number, followed by the # sign.

Please keep in mind, the website looks at the text search kind of like
another filter. That means if you've selected something from the filter
and then do a text search it will only pull up stories that meet *both*
the filter *and* the text search. It's best to click the "Clear All
Filters" button before doing any text searches, and to click the same
button after a text search before using the filter again.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION

--- How do I vote?

www.mefawards.net/MEFA2009/index.php?page=FAQvoting#vot_1

--- How do I find a story to vote for?

www.mefawards.net/MEFA2009/index.php?page=FAQvoting#vot_15

--- What are main categories?

www.mefawards.net/MEFA2009/index.php?page=FAQcategories#cat_8

--- Ratings Guidelines

www.mefawards.net/MEFA2009/index.php?page=FAQratingsguide

Yours,

Marta

(MEFA Admin.)