Yahoo Forum Archive

We got a lot more banners this weekend! So here's the updated list of those
that only have one.

And we have a new one to throw at you. I'm going to set up a poll for ideas
for an Honorable Mention banner. One banner for all categories. So, we
need some ideas. One is a One Ring pic, one is a map of M-e, another is a
picture of the full Fellowship.... Any other ideas to put on that poll? Of
course, once we have a poll winner, we'll need at least two banners for it.

1 Banner
Gap: Crack of Doom
Gap: Black Chasm
The Hobbit: The Shire
The Hobbit: Mirkwood
The Hobbit: Lonely Mountain
The Silm: Ainulindale - coming soon
The Silm: Valaquenta - coming soon
The Silm: Akallabeth - coming soon
Movie-verse: Scouring
Crossover: Troy
Mystery: Barrow-wight
Mystery: Pukelmen
Horror: Paths of the Dead
Horror: Shelob's Lair
Men: Faithful of Numenor
Men: Kings of Gondor and Arnor
Men: Ruling Stewards
Post Ring-War: Legolas, Lord of Ithilien

--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> 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]

On 19 Sep 2005, at 01:10, Ainaechoiriel wrote:

> And we have a new one to throw at you.  I'm going to set up a poll
> for ideas
> for an Honorable Mention banner.  One banner for all categories.  So,
> we
> need some ideas.  One is a One Ring pic, one is a map of M-e, another
> is a
> picture of the full Fellowship....  Any other ideas to put on that
> poll?  Of
> course, once we have a poll winner, we'll need at least two banners
> for it.
>

Hi Ainae,

Why not let people make a banner on any of those ideas they like? Or
something similar. The idea is to pick something that represents all of
Middle-earth, or at least is so iconic that it seems to extend beyond
just one character or people.

Maybe the shards of Narsil would also work well, or a pic of Aragorn,
Legolas, and Gimli (the three hunters representing the three free
peoples). This banner has to work for all categories, so we don't want
something as specific as with the category banners.

But I think it would be best to let the artists choose what appeals to
them. Does that make sense?

Marta


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

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, Marta Layton <melayton@g...> wrote:

>
> On 19 Sep 2005, at 01:10, Ainaechoiriel wrote:
>
> But I think it would be best to let the artists choose what appeals to
> them. Does that make sense?

I am not sure if the world is ready for a overload of Noldo banners,
Maglor specifically ;)

I just gonna sit back and await what will be decided, a banner will be
made accordingly.

Rhapsody

-- "rhapsody_the_bard" <rhapsody74@gmail.com> wrote:

>> --- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, Marta Layton <melayton@g...>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> > On 19 Sep 2005, at 01:10, Ainaechoiriel wrote:
>> >
>> > But I think it would be best to let the artists choose what
>> appeals to
>> > them. Does that make sense?
>>
>> I am not sure if the world is ready for a overload of Noldo banners,
>> Maglor specifically ;)

*snort*

Possibly not, but I'm somewhat torn on this issue. I agree with Marta: I think there should several possibilities for honorable mention, and I think it should be something iconic. Something that captures the spirit of what Tolkien wrote.

Would it be possible to have multiple banner choices for honorable mention? I don't mean a separate banner for each category, but something more along the lines of the MEFA nomination banners. Have four or five different banners to choose from. The problem with trying to fit all of Tolkien into one banner idea is that you can't. The Three Hunters representing the Free Peoples is a nice idea, except that it's left out Ents and Hobbits. The One Ring is good for LotR but not necessarily applicable to Silmarillion fics. So maybe there could be guidelines (iconic, landscapes, multiple characters, etc.) and then of the banners submitted, pick the top 5 as options for the honorable mention banner.

Hoping desperately that she made at least a little sense,
Thundera

----------------------------------
Insanity is just a state of mind.
HawkeyeýM*A*S*H
----------------------------------

On 19 Sep 2005, at 20:11, Laura wrote:

> -- "rhapsody_the_bard" <rhapsody74@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> --- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, Marta Layton <melayton@g...>
>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On 19 Sep 2005, at 01:10, Ainaechoiriel wrote:
>>>>
>>>> But I think it would be best to let the artists choose what
>>> appeals to
>>>> them. Does that make sense?
>>>
>>> I am not sure if the world is ready for a overload of Noldo banners,
>>> Maglor specifically ;)
>
> *snort*
>

*snort* indeed. I didn't really mean that sense of "appeals"... ;-)

> Possibly not, but I'm somewhat torn on this issue. I agree with Marta:
> I think there should several possibilities for honorable mention, and
> I think it should be something iconic. Something that captures the
> spirit of what Tolkien wrote.
>
> Would it be possible to have multiple banner choices for honorable
> mention? I don't mean a separate banner for each category, but
> something more along the lines of the MEFA nomination banners. Have
> four or five different banners to choose from. The problem with trying
> to fit all of Tolkien into one banner idea is that you can't. The
> Three Hunters representing the Free Peoples is a nice idea, except
> that it's left out Ents and Hobbits. The One Ring is good for LotR but
> not necessarily applicable to Silmarillion fics. So maybe there could
> be guidelines (iconic, landscapes, multiple characters, etc.) and then
> of the banners submitted, pick the top 5 as options for the honorable
> mention banner.
>

I see what you're saying. This is why I have so many suggestions: no
one is really perfect. (The original ones also came from me, through
private email to Ainae.)

My concern is that we end up with three shots of the One Ring, and two
of everything else. So what I'd suggest is that we have five polls on
five themes. Something like.

1. "Group Shots"
- All of Fellowship
- Gimli, Legolas, Aragorn as "Three Hunters"
- shots of four hobbits together
- etc.
2. Maps and Landscapes
3. Silmarillion-centric
4. "Icons"
- One Ring
- Narsil
- etc.
5. Photos of Tolkien

(I just thought of that last one just now but think it would be a nice
idea, if anyone's interested. Otherwise someone could suggest a fifth
group, or we could just have four banners or something like that.)

Would this work, Thundera?

Oh, and just as a reminder the banners need:

- "MEFA" or "Middle-earth Fanfiction Awards"
- the award ("Honorable Mention" or "Honourable Mention")
- the year (2005)

Marta

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Marta Layton
> Sent: Monday, September 19, 2005 7:47 PM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [MEFAwards] Re: Banner Update 9/18/2005
>
>
> On 19 Sep 2005, at 20:11, Laura wrote:
>
> > -- "rhapsody_the_bard" <rhapsody74@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> --- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, Marta Layton <melayton@g...>
> >>> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> On 19 Sep 2005, at 01:10, Ainaechoiriel wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> But I think it would be best to let the artists choose what
> >>> appeals to
> >>>> them. Does that make sense?
> >>>
> >>> I am not sure if the world is ready for a overload of
> Noldo banners,
> >>> Maglor specifically ;)
> >
> > *snort*
> >
>
> *snort* indeed. I didn't really mean that sense of "appeals"... ;-)
>
> > Possibly not, but I'm somewhat torn on this issue. I agree
> with Marta:
> > I think there should several possibilities for honorable
> mention, and
> > I think it should be something iconic. Something that captures the
> > spirit of what Tolkien wrote.
> >
> > Would it be possible to have multiple banner choices for honorable
> > mention? I don't mean a separate banner for each category, but
> > something more along the lines of the MEFA nomination banners. Have
> > four or five different banners to choose from. The problem
> with trying
> > to fit all of Tolkien into one banner idea is that you can't. The
> > Three Hunters representing the Free Peoples is a nice idea, except
> > that it's left out Ents and Hobbits. The One Ring is good
> for LotR but
> > not necessarily applicable to Silmarillion fics. So maybe
> there could
> > be guidelines (iconic, landscapes, multiple characters,
> etc.) and then
> > of the banners submitted, pick the top 5 as options for the
> honorable
> > mention banner.
> >
>
> I see what you're saying. This is why I have so many
> suggestions: no one is really perfect. (The original ones
> also came from me, through private email to Ainae.)
>
> My concern is that we end up with three shots of the One
> Ring, and two of everything else. So what I'd suggest is that
> we have five polls on five themes. Something like.
>
> 1. "Group Shots"
> - All of Fellowship
> - Gimli, Legolas, Aragorn as "Three Hunters"
> - shots of four hobbits together
> - etc.
> 2. Maps and Landscapes
> 3. Silmarillion-centric
> 4. "Icons"
> - One Ring
> - Narsil
> - etc.
> 5. Photos of Tolkien
>
> (I just thought of that last one just now but think it would
> be a nice idea, if anyone's interested. Otherwise someone
> could suggest a fifth group, or we could just have four
> banners or something like that.)
>
> Would this work, Thundera?
>
> Oh, and just as a reminder the banners need:
>
> - "MEFA" or "Middle-earth Fanfiction Awards"
> - the award ("Honorable Mention" or "Honourable Mention")
> - the year (2005)

While I don't mind just having people submit banners and then we vote on one
to be the Honorable Mention banner, we can't put them out there like the
Nomination buttons. Why not? Because of the little bar we have to put on
the bottom of all the awards like someone did so generously last year. That
little bar that says which place the award is for and which
category/subcategory.

We will potentially have Honorable Mention winners in say, LOTR/Author
general or LOTR/Poetry. We'd have a heck of a time trying to make a bar for
each of those and then putting them on each submitted banner. Better to
just have them for one winning banner. A little less work for whoever is so
insufficiently reluctant and sufficiently knowledgable to make said bars.

Just in case I'm not clear, say we end up with 20 Honorable Mentions. And
we have 20 banners submitted. We'd have to put up 20 copies of each banner
(one with each bar for each Honorable Mention) for a total of 400 banners
for just Honorable Mention.

Yikes

I'd rather just host 20 copies of 1 winning banner.

--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

<snip>

> While I don't mind just having people submit banners and then we vote
> on one
> to be the Honorable Mention banner, we can't put them out there like
> the
> Nomination buttons.  Why not?  Because of the little bar we have to
> put on
> the bottom of all the awards like someone did so generously last
> year.  That
> little bar that says which place the award is for and which
> category/subcategory.
>

I see the problem you're talking about, Ainae; I certainly didn't
before.

To be honest it never occurred to m that you would want to add a bar.
For me the honourable mention is not recognising the particular work
that ranked in a certain position; because of the way we award it, it's
more a general level than a specific place.

[For those who don't know, honourable mentions go to any work (or
author, with author votes) that scores within three points of third
place. If third place gets twenty points, then all the pieces with
seventeen or more points that didn't win an actual award get honourable
mention. Therefore the number of HM's in a particular subcategory is
extremely variable, depending on the point spread.]

Anyway, for this reason I never thought we'd put bars on them. Just a
few general banners that people could use as they like. If you do want
to put bars on them I agree that one banner works best. If not, then
I'd encourage allowing multiple banners like we have for the nominees.

And for the record I'd encourage no bars. I'm not going to be the one
doing this, but it just seems like a lot of work for something that's
not entirely necessary.

Marta


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

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, Marta Layton <melayton@g...> wrote:

> <snip>
>> While I don't mind just having people submit banners and then we
>> vote on one to be the Honorable Mention banner, we can't put them
>> out there like the Nomination buttons. Why not? Because of the
>> little bar we have to put on the bottom of all the awards like
>> someone did so generously last year. That little bar that says which
>> place the award is for and which category/subcategory.

<snip>

> And for the record I'd encourage no bars. I'm not going to be the
> one doing this, but it just seems like a lot of work for something
> that's not entirely necessary.

It is doable. The way I understand it now is that for every main
category, there will be a main honorable banner. Just look at the
award titles and you can find some inspiration there. But I am
counting 23 main categories..

Just give us an idea for the size of those banners and I think it can
be done..

Rhapsody

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Marta Layton
> Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2005 9:14 AM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [MEFAwards] Re: Banner Update 9/18/2005
>


> I see the problem you're talking about, Ainae; I certainly
> didn't before.

I almost didn't either.

> To be honest it never occurred to m that you would want to add a bar.
> For me the honourable mention is not recognising the
> particular work that ranked in a certain position; because of
> the way we award it, it's more a general level than a specific place.

Yes, but though it may be an Honorable Mention and therefor not a particular
award, it would still be an Honorable Mention in a particular category.

>
> [For those who don't know, honourable mentions go to any work
> (or author, with author votes) that scores within three
> points of third place. If third place gets twenty points,
> then all the pieces with seventeen or more points that didn't
> win an actual award get honourable mention. Therefore the
> number of HM's in a particular subcategory is extremely
> variable, depending on the point spread.]

Yes, and in that way, there could be a lot of them. But an Honorable
Mention (for 3 points below 3rd) in Men is not the same as an Honorable
Mention in Drama. Kind of like the Olympics giving Honorable Mentions to
those who would have come in 4th. But coming in 4th in figure skating would
be different than 4th in ski jumping. While technically either is the same
rank (4th), the athlete in question might want it known that she is a figure
skater and not a ski jumper.

So someone who got an HM in Elves may want it known that it was in Elves. I
mean, they went through the trouble of saying which category their story was
going to compete in.

> Anyway, for this reason I never thought we'd put bars on
> them. Just a few general banners that people could use as
> they like. If you do want to put bars on them I agree that
> one banner works best. If not, then I'd encourage allowing
> multiple banners like we have for the nominees.
>
> And for the record I'd encourage no bars. I'm not going to be
> the one doing this, but it just seems like a lot of work for
> something that's not entirely necessary.

Well, there have to be bars, if for no other reason that many found it
confusing last year that someone not familiar with the MEFAs wouldn't know
that the Frodo Baggins Award is for 2nd place Drama\Author Poetry from just
looking at the banner itself.

So we either have to make banners that have all that information (and thus
multiply the number of banners exponentially again) or add little bars on
the bottom that spell it out.

Technically, I know *how* to do the little bars with the software I have and
am comfortable with. It will just be very time consuming (which you all know
I don't really have all that time for) and tedious because I'm not a
graphics whiz. I'd actually add the bars in PowerPoint then save the slide
as a .jpg and then crop the new banners in Photo Editor. It's possible. If
no one else volunteers and has a better way, I will do this. It just may
take a little longer until they are available to the winners.

--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: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of rhapsody_the_bard
> Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2005 12:39 PM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [MEFAwards] Re: Banner Update 9/18/2005
>

> > And for the record I'd encourage no bars. I'm not going to
> be the one
> > doing this, but it just seems like a lot of work for
> something that's
> > not entirely necessary.
>
> It is doable. The way I understand it now is that for every
> main category, there will be a main honorable banner. Just
> look at the award titles and you can find some inspiration
> there. But I am counting 23 main categories..
>
> Just give us an idea for the size of those banners and I
> think it can be done..

Same size as what we have already but it's a lot simpler to just have one
generic MEFA banner for every HM, but still have that bar with the info on
it to show which category.

We *could* have an Elf HM and a Man HM and Hobbit HM, etc. banner. But that
really should have been said at the start if we were to do it that way and
to be honest until someone brought this up a few days ago, I'd forgotten
about HM's entirely. So instead of asking you wonderfully talented MEFA
members for 23 more banners each, even just 2 would be enough to vote on a
generic one.

Either way we go (maybe there are enough insufficiently reluctant and yet
very talented MEFA members who want to make 23 more banners) there won't be
a Valinor Award for Elf HM, or a Near Harad Award for Men HM. Just an
Honorable Mention award. The words required on the banners thus being:

MEFA
2005
Honorable Mention

--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