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I just went back and checked my welcome message, which was sent to
you when you joined and I realized, I hadn't edited since May! That
was when Nomination Season was open, right?

Well, anyway, Nomination Season has been closed for some time now.
After that was Check Ballot Season (where we sent out pre-ballots for
checking for accuracy) and now we are in Reading Season. In other
words, we're reading. ;-) Which is why we're so quiet around here
now.

Because this awards program, unlike it's inspiration (the
Alt.StarTrek.Creative Awards), doesn't have a built-in pool of
stories that members could have been reading all year long, we've set
aside 2 1/2 months for reading nominated stories. And it ends in
just over 2 weeks.

So, if you're new (and even if you're not!), you might want to jump
in with both feet. Check out the Final 2004 Nominations on the web
site (http://home.earthlink.net/~ainae/mefa/final2004noms.html) to
see which stories are nominated for which categories. And start
reading!

Tips for reader/voters:

1) I've said it often: Vote early. There is a spreadsheet you can
download (in the Files section) to record your comments early. Or
you can just save them anywhere on your hard drive. Just don't send
them to the group until Voting Season. But write your comments while
the stories are still fresh in your mind. (For example: I've got 40
comments already written.)

2) Start with the stories you've already read. If you've already
reviewed them, check out your review. Don't just copy and paste it
for your comment though. At least change it a little bit so the
author will get at least a little new feedback. Peruse the story
again if you have to, scanning through it until it jogs your memory.

3) Prioritize. Since Reading Season is quickly coming to a close,
decide which stories you REALLY want to read and read them now. Save
the others you'd like to read for later so that you can at least get
the ones you REALLY want to read read before Voting Season starts.
You can still read during Voting Season, though there will be
deadlines on the comments (and they may stagger by category, so that
we're not voting on all categories at the same time. I don't think
I've nailed that down 100% yet). Remember, you don't have to read
all the stories. Read the ones that interest you first, might
possibly interest you second, etc. See #5 below for why you
shouldn't read something you know you won't like.

*My advice, read the longest stories now. You can squeeze in the
shorter stories during Voting Season. The last two I read were 48
and 30 chapters long. My next is 24, I think.

4) READ! :-) You can't vote if you don't have something to say!

5) And remember that negative or even constructive criticism gets the
author/story just as many points as positive. So it's really not
worth it to put a negative comment down. A constructive one is
slightly more doable. If I feel the need, I just drop in two or
three words before the positive stuff. You don't want the points
total to go up for a not-so-good thing about the story. If you have
only not-so-good stuff to say, write it up, but DON'T post it to the
group with your votes. Save it for a time after the awards and send
it to the author personally (or put it in an ff.net review, etc.).
And try to be tactful even then. Don't flame anyone.

Well, that's about it. I've updated the Welcome message and I'll try
to be better about keeping it up-to-date now. So, to sum up: the
group is quiet now. We're all reading. It will be plenty busy once
Voting Season opens.

If you have any questions before Voting Season, go ahead and post
them to the list. Check out the FAQ and the Q and A (both on the
website and in the Files section) and try and familiarize yourselves
with how this is going to work.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled reading!

--Ainaechoiriel
MEFA Admin and Founder