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Looking over my Review History at ff.net, just under this persona
(Ainaechoiriel. I started as the real me.), I have 11 pages of Reviews.
Given, not all of them are high praise, but most are, or I wouldn't have
taken much time to review.

But how many stories can we realistically expect 100+ members to read?

The more members we have, the more we can read. I know there are many other
worthy stories.

Fortunately, there are also more years to come. Removing the restriction
that next years stories had to be posted between May 1, 2004 and April 30,
2005 at least left the door open for many excellent stories that we may get
to this year. We can nominate them next year (so long as they weren't
nominated this year).

But what do you think? Given, some stories we will have already read. I've
read all the ones I nominated, for instance (with minor exceptions), and
even quite a few that someone else did. So it might be feasible that I
could still read several dozen more during reading season, or maybe even 50
or 100 depending on length. (Reading season is 2 1/2 months long.)

We presently have 195 nominations (by the web site). How many total would
be just one too many?

Not all categories are viable yet, so we should concentrate on them. Maybe
prioritize them. Maybe that's the track I'll take. And then, as I go
through my list, I'll try to get only the most excellent stories, and save
some of the other ones that are really good for next year.

--Ainaechoiriel

"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://www.stormpages.com/gabrielle/lotr Land of Myth and Memory
Blog: http://www.ainaechoiriel.blogspot.com




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

What exactly do you want to know, Ainae?

I know that looking at 300 plus titles is looking daunting to me. Are
you asking if we should allow things to be renominated if they don't
win this year?

Lindorien

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, "Ainaechoiriel" <mefaadmin@e...> wrote:
> Looking over my Review History at ff.net, just under this persona
> (Ainaechoiriel. I started as the real me.), I have 11 pages of Reviews.
> Given, not all of them are high praise, but most are, or I wouldn't have
> taken much time to review.
>
> But how many stories can we realistically expect 100+ members to read?
>
> The more members we have, the more we can read. I know there are
many other
> worthy stories.
>
> Fortunately, there are also more years to come. Removing the restriction
> that next years stories had to be posted between May 1, 2004 and
April 30,
> 2005 at least left the door open for many excellent stories that we
may get
> to this year. We can nominate them next year (so long as they weren't
> nominated this year).
>
> But what do you think? Given, some stories we will have already
read. I've
> read all the ones I nominated, for instance (with minor exceptions), and
> even quite a few that someone else did. So it might be feasible that I
> could still read several dozen more during reading season, or maybe
even 50
> or 100 depending on length. (Reading season is 2 1/2 months long.)
>
> We presently have 195 nominations (by the web site). How many total
would
> be just one too many?
>
> Not all categories are viable yet, so we should concentrate on them.
Maybe
> prioritize them. Maybe that's the track I'll take. And then, as I go
> through my list, I'll try to get only the most excellent stories,
and save
> some of the other ones that are really good for next year.
>
> --Ainaechoiriel
>
> "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://www.stormpages.com/gabrielle/lotr Land of Myth and Memory
> Blog: http://www.ainaechoiriel.blogspot.com
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: lindorien2000 [mailto:lindorien@cox.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 7:17 PM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [MEFAwards] Re: So many stories, so little time?
>
> What exactly do you want to know, Ainae?

I don't know. ;-)

>
> I know that looking at 300 plus titles is looking daunting to
> me. Are you asking if we should allow things to be
> renominated if they don't win this year?

I think we should stick with the rule that once nominated this year they
can't be nominated again next year. We may have to reevaluate that after
this awards season is done, but it would take a big problem to get me to
change that rule.

--Ainaechoiriel

"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://www.stormpages.com/gabrielle/lotr Land of Myth and Memory
Blog: http://www.ainaechoiriel.blogspot.com

Ainaechoiriel wrote 11. May 2004:

> Fortunately, there are also more years to come. Removing the
> restriction
> that next years stories had to be posted between May 1, 2004
> and April 30,
> 2005 at least left the door open for many excellent stories
> that we may get
> to this year. We can nominate them next year (so long as they weren't
> nominated this year).

Hi Ainaechoiriel,
do I understand this correctly when I say:
any story nominated this year and not being WIP
cannot be nominated again next year ?

Wouldn't that deprive us of many good stories ?
I would think this year there will be many stories nominated,
which yields a large pool of probably very good stories.
Why couldn't those stories not gaining an award this year
be nominated again next year ?
Or just let them in the pool for next year and add new ones.
I'm sure you have good arguments against this.
Can you elucidate me ?

Best wishes from Elanor
who hesitates to nominate further stories
as there are already so many nominated

> -----Original Message-----
> From: elanor of aquitania [mailto:elanor@codacode.net]
> Sent: Friday, June 11, 2004 5:07 PM
> To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [MEFAwards] So many stories, so little time?
>
> Ainaechoiriel wrote 11. May 2004:
> > Fortunately, there are also more years to come. Removing the
> > restriction that next years stories had to be posted between May 1,
> > 2004 and April 30,
> > 2005 at least left the door open for many excellent stories that we
> > may get to this year. We can nominate them next year (so
> long as they
> > weren't nominated this year).
>
> Hi Ainaechoiriel,
> do I understand this correctly when I say:
> any story nominated this year and not being WIP cannot be
> nominated again next year ?

Yes

> Wouldn't that deprive us of many good stories ?

No. There's nothing keeping us from reading any stories at any time.

> I would think this year there will be many stories nominated,
> which yields a large pool of probably very good stories.

Yes, but few people will read more than half of those stories. Any
reader/voter only needs to read the stories that catch his/her interest.
And they will likely branch out, too, into stories they didn't think would
interest them, but turned out to be very good.
(Happened to me this year with the alt.startrek.creative awards. I read some
DS9 stories that weren't about Dr. Bashir. Or any of the main cast. Or
even any of the guest cast. And I read the best DS9 story I read this year
because I did that.)

> Why couldn't those stories not gaining an award this year be
> nominated again next year ?

Because there are 31000 other stories still that weren't even nominated this
year. Because they still get feedback (most likely) and recognition this
year. And because that might be seen as really unfair.

> Or just let them in the pool for next year and add new ones.

If you think there are too many stories this year, and we did that, everyone
would likely be afraid to even bother because of the size of the pool next
year. Or the next. It would grow exponentially. Or, say a reader sees a
story listed that they commented on last year. They may not bother to try
and write something again this year. The story gets even fewer "votes"
because all but the new people have already read it and commented the year
before.

> I'm sure you have good arguments against this.
> Can you elucidate me ?

I hope I have above. But also because I based these off of the
alt.startrek.creative Awards. The only time a story can run again is 1) it
was a WIP before or 2) there was significant revision from the time it ran
before. I don't see that as a bad rule.

Remember that in that model (ASC) they don't even have nominations. They
simply have every story that was posted to the group that year. We are
trying to simulate that as best we can, without having a group. Okay, so we
have a group. But not wanting to be an archive or replicate other writing
lists (because hey, I don't have time for the ones I already have, do you?),
we don't have a group to which one can post stories. [And if we did,
consider that the only stories posted would be stories from members. We
have over 200 authors represented presently. We have less than 140 members.]
So we need to build a pool each year. That is what the Nominations are
doing. It's just building that pool. It's as close a simulation of the
ASC's I can get without having an archive or newsgroup of my own.

We really don't want to see the same stories year after year here. There are
literally thousands more out there. And by this time next year, there could
be another 10,000 more. LOTR has a HUGE pool of stories written. Having
them run once is plenty. I don't think it would be fair to the reader, or
the writers, to have a story run more than once (unless it is a WIP--and
then only twice). It might cost the "new" stories some readers as well. By
only having stories not nominated this year, we guarantee a pool of "new"
stories for next year.

Sorry, but this is one rule not open for changing any further.

> Best wishes from Elanor
> who hesitates to nominate further stories as there are
> already so many nominated

Don't worry about that. Nominate the ones you think are great. I really
doubt that any one story will have a comment/vote from every member. The
more members we have, the more likely it will be that each story be
commented/voted for by at least one member (who did not nominate it).

You're just going to have to trust me on this one at least for this year. I
wasn't around the first year they did the alt.startrek.creative awards (I
came in on the second year, I think). I wonder if there wasn't a lot of
"trust me" going on then as well. I think once you see how it works this
year, and that it does work, you won't need so much faith again next year.
You'll know for yourself that it works. Anyone else familiar with the ASC
Awards want to chime in?

Just think, the one story you hesitate to nominate might be the one story
that would blow all the others away in its brilliance. Or not. It might
just be the one story that really really moves one particular reader. Or
surprises another.

--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://home.earthlink.net/~ainae/mefa The Middle-Earth Fanfiction Awards
Blog: http://www.ainaechoiriel.blogspot.com