Hi Firniswin,
Greetings, and well met.
> Sorry! *smiles sheepishly*
>
> I uh, I didn't realize that the email went directly here. Um! Anyway!
>
No worries. :-)
> My name is Firniswin and I love to write and read and I VERY much
> enjoy entering writing competitions!
>
Welcome! I hope you find the MEFAs to your liking. Out of curiosity,
how did you hear about us?
> I am very excited to be a part of this group and hope to be able to
> nominate plenty of brilliant writers!
>
Well, the nominations for this year are over. Here's a schedule of the
different "periods" of the award:
1. Nomination Season (April 1st-May 15) ***Closed***
This is when we nominate the stories we want to compete in that year's
awards. There will be a similar season next year.
2. Check Ballot Season (May 16-May 31) *** Closed ***
This is mainly an administrative season - the admins organise the
nominated stories into categories and sub-categories. Then we post
lists of stories in each category/sub-category to the group, and you
guys look over them and help us catch any mistakes.
3. Reading Season (July 1-August 15)
You read all the stories that have been nominated that you want to
read, and begin entering votes into the voting website. You should
receive a log-in to this site shortly; if you don't in a day or so,
please speak up.
4. Voting Season (August 16-September 30)
This is a time to finalise your votes. You can still vote on stories
you didn't get a chance to vote on during reading season. You need to
finish all your votes by this time. (And if you have any draft votes
that you want to count, change their status to Tentative or Final.)
So you can still read and vote on the stories that have been nominated
for this year, and you're certain welcome to stick around and nominate
stories next year.
How do the awards work? Basically you write up comments on stories you
want to vote on. The longer the comments the more points the story
gets, capping off at 10 votes for 1100 characters. (For the full points
scale, see V.E of
http://home.earthlink.net/~ainae/mefa/rules.html .
The top three scorers in each category or subcategory get an award (see
http://home.earthlink.net/~ainae/mefa/2005catsA.html for all the
categories and awards), and those stories within three points of third
place get an "honourable mention".
If you have any questions post them here and someone will answer them
for you.
Marta
*****
Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis
of Assisi
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