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We sort of talked about this one but didn't come up with anything
specific:

Category limits: Up to 8 X 2 for stories? 20 makes a category if
appropriate?

In other words there are two suggestions here.

1) change what makes a story category viable by requiring 8 stories
by 2 authors. Or even three authors.

2) An upper limit of 20 stories, meaning that if an appropriate
subcategory reaches 21 stories, we seek to make it its own category.
If it can't be its own category, we might seek to subdivide it more.

Is 20 too low? 25? 30? ASC is 50, but I don't think we've ever
gotten that high here.

--Ainaechoiriel

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, "ainaechoiriel" <mefaadmin@e...> wrote:

>
> We sort of talked about this one but didn't come up with anything
> specific:
>
> Category limits: Up to 8 X 2 for stories? 20 makes a category if
> appropriate?
>
> In other words there are two suggestions here.
>
> 1) change what makes a story category viable by requiring 8 stories
> by 2 authors. Or even three authors.

Hm. 8x2 sounds workable, since I'd guess there will be more entries
next year as word spreads.

> 2) An upper limit of 20 stories, meaning that if an appropriate
> subcategory reaches 21 stories, we seek to make it its own category.
> If it can't be its own category, we might seek to subdivide it more.
>
> Is 20 too low? 25? 30? ASC is 50, but I don't think we've ever
> gotten that high here.

I don't know, honestly. I'm terrible with this sort of thing, and I'm
also unsure what the response will be next year. Part of me wants to
say just leave that number open until we see what happens next year,
and then make an administrative announcement around the middle or even
the end of nominations season (when all we procratinating type people
go into overdrive with the last-minute nominations) based on the
average number of entries subcategories actually have. But I can
appreciate that it would be nice to have that settled and finalized
ahead of time.

Dwim

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, "ainaechoiriel" <mefaadmin@e...>
wrote:

>
> We sort of talked about this one but didn't come up with anything
> specific:
>
> Category limits: Up to 8 X 2 for stories? 20 makes a category if
> appropriate?
>
> In other words there are two suggestions here.
>
> 1) change what makes a story category viable by requiring 8 stories
> by 2 authors. Or even three authors.
>
> 2) An upper limit of 20 stories, meaning that if an appropriate
> subcategory reaches 21 stories, we seek to make it its own

category. > If it can't be its own category, we might seek to
subdivide it more.

>

I think that a minimum of eight with three authors, and a maximum of
25 per category would be reasonable.

> We sort of talked about this one but didn't come up with anything
> specific:
>
> Category limits: Up to 8 X 2 for stories? 20 makes a category if
> appropriate?
>
> In other words there are two suggestions here.
>
> 1) change what makes a story category viable by requiring 8 stories
> by 2 authors. Or even three authors.

I would go for 5 stories by 3 authors.
As this is not offered: 8 stories by 3 authors.
Because there are three awards per category I would like to see 3 authors.
As some categories are very sparsely populated I go for the smallest
number offered.

>
> 2) An upper limit of 20 stories, meaning that if an appropriate
> subcategory reaches 21 stories, we seek to make it its own category.
> If it can't be its own category, we might seek to subdivide it more.
>
> Is 20 too low? 25? 30? ASC is 50, but I don't think we've ever
> gotten that high here.

I would go for 20, the lowest number offered, as I would set the limit even
lower ;-)
because I prefer a more even distribution of story numbers per award getting
category.
IMO the awards should weigh as much the same as possible.
[That would normally require that I should prefer an higher lower limit (see
above),
but the sparsely population of many categories counters this wish.]

Best wishes for a happy New Year!
Elanor

-----Original Message-----
From: elanor of aquitania [mailto:elanor@codacode.net]
Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2004 8:52 PM
To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
Subject: AW: [MEFAwards] Another suggestion (upper and lower limit)

>
> 1) change what makes a story category viable by requiring 8 stories by
> 2 authors. Or even three authors.

>I would go for 5 stories by 3 authors.

As this is not offered: 8 stories by 3 authors.
Because there are three awards per category I would like to see 3 authors.
As some categories are very sparsely populated I go for the smallest number
offered.

True we did have some trouble even getting some categories viable at 5
stories, didn't we? Maybe we should keep it at 5 this year and see if the
nominations go up, making it more feasible that we go up to 8 the next year
after that.

So I think we'll leave this one alone this year. On to the other one....

> 2) An upper limit of 20 stories, meaning that if an appropriate
> subcategory reaches 21 stories, we seek to make it its own category.
> If it can't be its own category, we might seek to subdivide it more.
>
> Is 20 too low? 25? 30? ASC is 50, but I don't think we've ever
> gotten that high here.

>I would go for 20, the lowest number offered, as I would set the limit even

lower ;-) because I prefer a more even distribution of story numbers per
award getting category.
IMO the awards should weigh as much the same as possible.
[That would normally require that I should prefer an higher lower limit (see
above), but the sparsely population of many categories counters this wish.]

I know you would rather there be an even number of stories per category, but
that would put limits. Limits and bars. Minimums and maximums. It would
put requirements on our nominations. No, you can't nominate that story. We
already have enough of that kind. We need more of this kind of story. Or,
if we let that story in then we need one more story for each other
category....

See where that leads? This is a very nearly free nominations award program.
It's meant to be. We only exclude two things: NC-17 and Wips not updated in
a year. So every member is free to nominate any story they want to besides
that. Even their own. Even if no one else thinks that story is good. Even
if no one reads it during the awards. So, freedom begets chaos to a certain
extent. That's a big trade off one of my college professors pointed out.
Freedom vs order. Poli Sci prof. You trade off freedom to get more order.
You trade off order to get more freedom.
--Ainaechoiriel
MEFA Admin and Founder

"This evil cannot be concealed by the power of the Elves," Elrond said, "for
it is Windows-compatible, and freeware at that." --H.F.

http://gabrielle.sytes.net/mefa The Middle-Earth Fanfiction Awards
Blog: http://www.ainaechoiriel.blogspot.com

ainaechoiriel <mefaadmin@earthlink.net> wrote:

> 1) change what makes a story category viable by
> requiring 8 stories by 2 authors. Or even three
> authors.

I think that's fair... But I'd prefer to see 3 authors.

> 2) An upper limit of 20 stories, meaning that if an
> appropriate subcategory reaches 21 stories, we seek to > make it its own category.
> If it can't be its own category, we might seek to
> subdivide it more.

20 sounds like a good number to me. But I think maybe have a little flexibility here. If there are only a couple over 20 and we can't see a really good place to divide it, maybe leave it be. We can always up the limit the following year.

> Is 20 too low? 25? 30? ASC is 50, but I don't think > we've ever gotten that high here.

Me thinks leave it at 20 for now - we can always up it in following years as I said.


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