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You'll find these in the Categories Post Mortem. You can add some, too.

1) Gondor

Why? Because there were 27 stories in Men/Gondor in 2004. Of course, if we
say that all places are graduated categories (a term for categories that
have to graduate up from subcategories), this becomes moot.

2) Villains

This could replace Orcs because Orcs was a little hard to make viable and
there are other baddies out there without a category at the moment, like
wraiths, Uruks, Trolls, Saruman, Sauron, spiders....

Discuss if you would like. Or if you don't. ;-)


--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/>
http://www.ainaechoiriel.blogspot.com



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

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

> You'll find these in the Categories Post Mortem. You can add some,

too.

>
> 1) Gondor
>
> Why? Because there were 27 stories in Men/Gondor in 2004. Of

course, if we

> say that all places are graduated categories (a term for categories

that

> have to graduate up from subcategories), this becomes moot.
>

I don't understand the advantage of making it its own category. Yes,
there were a lot for a subcategory, but would there be less if it was
its own category? Even as their own category, it would still be the
same number competing against each other.

I think many people were confused by the categorization scheme (I
know I was at points). The simpler, the better, at least IMHO. I
think if we make Gondor its own category you'll have some stories
nominated for Gondor and some for Men, where they maybe should be
competing against each other.

In short, I oppose this move. Pretty strongly, actually.

> 2) Villains
>
> This could replace Orcs because Orcs was a little hard to make

viable and

> there are other baddies out there without a category at the moment,

like

> wraiths, Uruks, Trolls, Saruman, Sauron, spiders....
>
> Discuss if you would like. Or if you don't. ;-)
>

This I definitely like. I haven't heard any people opposed to this
move, actually.

A suggestion of my own (and whap me over the head if this is too late
to bring this up) - could we have a Dwarves category? I think it
could be viable, and if it's not, there's really nothing lost; we
just have to move the pieces to other categories.

Remember what Aragorn said: "We shall make such a Chase as shall be
accounted a marvel among the Three Kindreds - Elves, *Dwarves*, and
Men." Give Gimli his day!

Marta
(a book!Gimli fangurl)

> 2) Villains
>
> This could replace Orcs because Orcs was a little hard to make
> viable and there are other baddies out there without a category at > the moment, like wraiths, Uruks, Trolls, Saruman, Sauron,
> spiders....

Definately a fan of this one!!! Much more encompassing. Still not 100% sure about the Gondor one - but the other main realms have their own section, it seems mean to leave Gondor out, esp if there are enough to make it viable. But Marta did make some valuable points about it all!

Resha


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

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

> You'll find these in the Categories Post Mortem. You can add some, too.
>
> 1) Gondor
>
> Why? Because there were 27 stories in Men/Gondor in 2004. Of

course, if we

> say that all places are graduated categories (a term for categories that
> have to graduate up from subcategories), this becomes moot.

I would go with the "graduated categories". Start all places as
subcategories for their respective races (so presumably "Mirkwood"
could be a subcategory as well, and so could "Erebor"). Then if a
category goes beyond the 20 story limit, graduate it to a category
proper.

In revising the FAQs, I assume this will be explained, and perhaps on
the main page where nominations are listed publicly, a link could be
made: "Explanation of categorization". That would cut down on a lot of
confusion, I think, or at least make it simpler to point to the
explanation.

The only trouble might be that some stories might not fit the Race
(category): place (subcategory) schema well. Turin, for example, could
be "Men: Doriath"; Tuor could be "Men: Gondolin". But since
classification is the author's responsibility, the author would have
to sugges that. If enough authors make that suggestion, one might then
create a new Race/place subcategory. However, the downside is that
those sets of stories would *likely* be extremely "specialized"--only
Turin stories, or only Tuor stories or what not--and so that might be
too narrow to be desireable.

But I assume we're not going to get that many cases where the author
feels absolutely compelled to suggest an entirely different
subcategory. Most people, presented with a pre-defined list, will find
a way to fit within the list's options. Only in a total free for all
or in a situation where the list's options are a very poor fit for its
intended...er... "listees"... does one tend to get suggestions, or
such is my experience.

> 2) Villains
>
> This could replace Orcs because Orcs was a little hard to make

viable and

> there are other baddies out there without a category at the moment, like
> wraiths, Uruks, Trolls, Saruman, Sauron, spiders....
>
> Discuss if you would like. Or if you don't. ;-)

I agree: Villains makes more sense than Orcs, and should make for a
more varied and interesting selection of stories. Not to imply that
the Orcs stories weren't a lot of gruesome fun this year, of course,
but variation=spice of life.

Dwim

-----Original Message-----
From: Marta [mailto:MartaL0712@netscape.net]
Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2005 12:45 AM
To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [MEFAwards] Re: Two category suggestions



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

> You'll find these in the Categories Post Mortem. You can add some,

too.

>
> 1) Gondor
>

>I don't understand the advantage of making it its own category. Yes, there

were a lot for a subcategory, but would there be less if it was its own
category? Even as their own category, it would still be the same number
competing against each other.

It goes to the idea of graduated categories. Men/Gondor had 27 stories in
it this last year. More than Rohan and more than Numenor. If I'd had the
gift of foresight, it would have been a main category in 2004.
Unfortunately, I'm mainly gifted with hindsight. Thus the suggestion.

I'm really liking the idea of places being graduated categories though.
They may not be the only appropriate graduated categories but they are
perfect for the idea.

>I think many people were confused by the categorization scheme (I know I

was at points). The simpler, the better, at least IMHO. I think if we make
Gondor its own category you'll have some stories nominated for Gondor and
some for Men, where they maybe should be competing against each other.

That will be up to the authors now. So the author can decide if he/she'd
rather his/her story be represented in Men or Gondor. Simpler may be easier
to understand but I don't want to just have 5 categories. I want a balance
between all-out and too much.

>In short, I oppose this move. Pretty strongly, actually.

Well, there's a poll now for making all places (Rohan, Numenor, Gondor, any
other place that comes up) into graduated categories. Meaning they are
subcategories, but if 20 stories end up in one of those subcategories, it is
graduated to a main category.

> 2) Villains
>
> This could replace Orcs because Orcs was a little hard to make

viable and

> there are other baddies out there without a category at the moment,

like

> wraiths, Uruks, Trolls, Saruman, Sauron, spiders....
>
> Discuss if you would like. Or if you don't. ;-)
>

>This I definitely like. I haven't heard any people opposed to this move,

actually.

This one was mentioned throughout the seasons last year so I won't surprised
if this one is approved.

>A suggestion of my own (and whap me over the head if this is too late to

bring this up) - could we have a Dwarves category? I think it could be
viable, and if it's not, there's really nothing lost; we just have to move
the pieces to other categories.

I've added it to the database. I'm for it if it can be viable. If we
decide to say Yes to it though, we'll need three awards titles so be
thinking on it.

>Remember what Aragorn said: "We shall make such a Chase as shall be

accounted a marvel among the Three Kindreds - Elves, *Dwarves*, and Men."
Give Gimli his day!

Thanks for the quote. This is why I won't make Men into "Race of Men". Just
Men.
--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

-----Original Message-----
From: dwimmer_laik [mailto:dwimmer_laik@yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2005 11:55 AM
To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [MEFAwards] Re: Two category suggestions

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, "Ainaechoiriel" <mefaadmin@e...> wrote:
> You'll find these in the Categories Post Mortem. You can add some, too.
>
> 1) Gondor
>
> Why? Because there were 27 stories in Men/Gondor in 2004. Of
course, if we
> say that all places are graduated categories (a term for categories
> that have to graduate up from subcategories), this becomes moot.

>I would go with the "graduated categories". Start all places as
subcategories for their respective races (so presumably "Mirkwood"
could be a subcategory as well, and so could "Erebor"). Then if a category
goes beyond the 20 story limit, graduate it to a category proper.

Yes, exactly. Some wouldn't make any sense. Like romance as a subcategory
of Elves graduating to a main. There already is a Romance main category.
But some are very appropriate, like these places and separate ages of time.

>In revising the FAQs, I assume this will be explained, and perhaps on the
main page where nominations are listed publicly, a link could be
made: "Explanation of categorization". That would cut down on a lot of
confusion, I think, or at least make it simpler to point to the explanation.

Yes, there would be an explanation.

>The only trouble might be that some stories might not fit the Race
(category): place (subcategory) schema well. Turin, for example, could be
"Men: Doriath"; Tuor could be "Men: Gondolin". But since classification is
the author's responsibility, the author would have to sugges that. If enough
authors make that suggestion, one might then create a new Race/place
subcategory. However, the downside is that those sets of stories would
*likely* be extremely "specialized"--only Turin stories, or only Tuor
stories or what not--and so that might be too narrow to be desireable.

>But I assume we're not going to get that many cases where the author feels
absolutely compelled to suggest an entirely different subcategory. Most
people, presented with a pre-defined list, will find a way to fit within the
list's options. Only in a total free for all or in a situation where the
list's options are a very poor fit for its intended...er... "listees"...
does one tend to get suggestions, or such is my experience.

Exactly. I don't think we'll have a huge problem with this. I think we'll
make (and we'll need to come up with this) a list of suggested subcategories
but also let authors know they can add something of their own as suggested
subcategories.

> 2) Villains
>
> This could replace Orcs because Orcs was a little hard to make
viable and
> there are other baddies out there without a category at the moment,
> like wraiths, Uruks, Trolls, Saruman, Sauron, spiders....
>
> Discuss if you would like. Or if you don't. ;-)

>I agree: Villains makes more sense than Orcs, and should make for a more
varied and interesting selection of stories. Not to imply that the Orcs
stories weren't a lot of gruesome fun this year, of course, but
variation=spice of life.

Right but we did have some stories that didn't have a logical place, like
for the Witch-King. This will solve that.

--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