Yahoo Forum Archive

Hey guys,

In a moment I will post the first of the check ballots. So I wanted to
devote this week's educational post to that, so I can explain how check
ballots work.

If you're new to the MEFAs, you may be unfamiliar with the term. Unlike
with many competitions, stories aren't nominated for a particular
category; they are simply nominated for the awards *generally*. Authors
then provide information about their stories, and volunteers sort the
nominated pieces into main categories and subcategories.

(Need a reminder about how stories are categorized? See the previous two
weeks' educational posts:


--- http://community.livejournal.com/mefas/196823.html
--- http://community.livejournal.com/mefas/196874.html )

The volunteers working with categorizing try to get everything right,
but with 600+ nominations, mistakes occasionally happen. Sometimes
authors accidentally select the wrong item when describing their
stories. And sometimes volunteers make a mistake entering information
onto the website - a stray mouse click can mean the difference between
Horror and Humor, or First Age and Fourth Age. So we ask authors and
everyone else to look over the check ballots. Think of these as "draft"
categories and subcategories, which we will make changes to if someone
catches an error; after this week, we will only move WIPs that are finished.

When I say "mistake," I mainly mean mistakes made by those volunteers
setting up the categories. We want you to check that we put things where
they need to be. These volunteers worked hard to set up equitable
subcategories and depended on the information authors provided. Now, if
you see that you made a mistake, we do want to know about it, but we may
not be able to move you around at this point. It all depends on the
sizes of the category you are moving out of and into. But you can ask.

The one change we *won't* make is if you described a story as having
certain characters, locations, etc., and you're in a subcat based on
that, but you see a subcategory you think is a better fit. Let me give
you an example. Say that you wrote a story about Merry, Pippin, and
Boromir, and you selected all three as characters for categorization.
The categorizer sets up a subcategory for stories involving Boromir, and
another for stories involving Hobbits. You end up in the Boromir
subcategory but would prefer to run against Hobbits. But in this
situation we wouldn't move you, because you're in a subcategory you
selected for. With each story moved, it becomes that much harder to move
other stories later on; and so I like to "save" the moving about for
stories where someone made a real error.

All of what I've just said is in general. In any particular case, it's
ultimately up to me and the other categorizing volunteers to decide
whether or not to move a story. We'll do our best, but we do sometimes
have to say no, in the interest of fairness to the other stories competing.

You can also ask that we change the name of a subcategory. We've done so
in the past. For instance, some people suggested we change "Eriador" to
"Eriador or Shire," to make it clearer that the subcategory included
hobbit stories as well as ones about the Rivendell Elves, Bree,
Dunedain, and so on. Those kind of changes are much easier to do than
moving stories around.

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

Most of the subcategory names are self-explanatory. In general:

--- Poems should be competing in the "Genres: Poetry" subcategory
--- Drabbles and Drabble Series should be competing in the subcategories
ending in the word "Drabbles", in all the main categories.
--- Non-Fiction should be competing in the "Genres: Non-Fiction" main
category.
--- WIPs should be competing in subcategories ending in the word
"Incompletes", in all the main categories.
--- Stories should be competing in all other subcategories.

There is one exception regarding "Incompletes": we didn't have enough
Incompletes subcategories to have one in very many main category, and
some authors were given the choice to run against finished fic rather
than go into a main category that didn't really fit. This affects 238. A
Singular Honour by Shemyaza1; it is a WIP but is competing in Genres:
Crossover: Incomplete. If you see a WIP other than this one running
against finished fic, we need to know that now.

Also, some of you may be confused by the phrase "Mixed Drabbles." I
tried to keep single Drabbles in separate subcategories from Drabble
Series, but that wasn't always possible. When I had to combine the two
types of Drabbles, the subcategory is called "Mixed Drabbles."
Otherwise, subcategories with "Drabble Series" in the name contain only
series of drabbles, while subcategories with just "Drabbles" in the name
contain individual drabbles.

I think those are the most confusing points, naming-wise. Of course if
you are confused, you are welcome to ask questions. Better now than down
the line.

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

One last thing: please, if you're asking to move reply to this list by
11:59 PM on July 14. And please trim your replies, and include only the
subcategories you are talking about! People on digest will thank you.

Marta
(MEFA Admin.)

Hi Marta,

I checked my stories and everything looks hunky-dory. I do find one thing confusing, though. You state:

'There is one exception regarding "Incompletes": we didn't have enough Incompletes subcategories to have one in very many main category, and some authors were given the choice to run against finished fic rather than go into a main category that didn't really fit. This affects 238. A Singular Honour by Shemyaza1; it is a WIP but is competing in Genres: Crossover: Incomplete.'

This makes no sense. There is no Genres: Crossover: Incomplete. And "A Singular Honour is not a WIP. You have the story listed under Genres: Crossover: General:

>
> To Represent the Wizzards (63): aotearoan
> Return of The Key. (422): curiouswombat
> Tempered Rain (311): Ilada'Jefiv
> Encore (268): Lady Roisin
> To Face the Wolf (465): Maglor's finch
> A Singular Honour (238): Shemyaza1
> The Devil Is In The Detail (609): Tanaqui
> Dwarf Fashions (411): Virtuella

Shemyaza's other story "Dark Power Arising" is the WIP and you have it listed correctly under Races: Cross-Cultural: Incomplete.

At any rate, I do recall that during the nomination period I pointed out to you that "A Singular Honour" was incorrectly labeled as a WIP and you said you would fix it. I also contacted Shemyaza about it as well and I believe she agreed that it wasn't a WIP. Apparently, the WIP tag was never removed? Just thought you should know. You might wish to contact Shemyaza and ask her. She's new to the MEFAs and may not be aware of these check ballots or their significance and so may not bother to look at them.

Kudos to the volunteers for a great job in getting all these stories into categories.

Fiondil

Hi Arthur,

I mis-spoke (mistyped?) when I refered to Crossover: Incomplete. Of
course there's no such subcategory. What I meant was Crossover: General.

As for the WIP issue, you are correct. I have looked up the email you
sent me, and I was sure I had fixed it. But perhaps I made a mistake
somehow? Luckily this will not affect categorization. Actually, it makes
things a bit simpler, because no WIPs are running against finished
stories. :-)

Marta

On 7/8/2010 11:55 AM, elhanan_austin wrote:
>
>
> Hi Marta,
>
> I checked my stories and everything looks hunky-dory. I do find one
> thing confusing, though. You state:
>
> 'There is one exception regarding "Incompletes": we didn't have enough
> Incompletes subcategories to have one in very many main category, and
> some authors were given the choice to run against finished fic rather
> than go into a main category that didn't really fit. This affects 238. A
> Singular Honour by Shemyaza1; it is a WIP but is competing in Genres:
> Crossover: Incomplete.'
>
> This makes no sense. There is no Genres: Crossover: Incomplete. And "A
> Singular Honour is not a WIP. You have the story listed under Genres:
> Crossover: General:
> >
> > To Represent the Wizzards (63): aotearoan
> > Return of The Key. (422): curiouswombat
> > Tempered Rain (311): Ilada'Jefiv
> > Encore (268): Lady Roisin
> > To Face the Wolf (465): Maglor's finch
> > A Singular Honour (238): Shemyaza1
> > The Devil Is In The Detail (609): Tanaqui
> > Dwarf Fashions (411): Virtuella
>
> Shemyaza's other story "Dark Power Arising" is the WIP and you have it
> listed correctly under Races: Cross-Cultural: Incomplete.
>
> At any rate, I do recall that during the nomination period I pointed out
> to you that "A Singular Honour" was incorrectly labeled as a WIP and you
> said you would fix it. I also contacted Shemyaza about it as well and I
> believe she agreed that it wasn't a WIP. Apparently, the WIP tag was
> never removed? Just thought you should know. You might wish to contact
> Shemyaza and ask her. She's new to the MEFAs and may not be aware of
> these check ballots or their significance and so may not bother to look
> at them.
>
> Kudos to the volunteers for a great job in getting all these stories
> into categories.
>
> Fiondil
>