Hey guys,
The finalized categories and subcategories are now available at
http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2006/ , and you can now cast both author
and story reviews. And casting reviews is definitely a good thing!
It's a big part of why we all work so hard to put these awards on.
But when you're writing your reviews, please do remember that the more
you write, the more points your review earns for that story. The exact
point break-downs are available at
http://www.mefawards.net/faq/viewtopic.php?t=88
Basically, when you enter a review our website counts up how many
countable characters it has. It then assigns your review a point
value. All of the point values of the reviews for a certain story are
added up, and the story in each sub-category with the highest total
number of points wins the sub-category. So the longer your review, the
more points you are giving that story.
Also, please remember that your comments will be public, and the
author has no formal way to post a publicly viewable reply. And many
of these stories have been finished for months if not years. For all
of these reasons it makes sense to try to include at least some
positive feedback about the stories you're reviewing: in other words,
what you liked.
This doesn't mean that you can't offer constructive criticism. Just
follow the same rules you would when posting feedback in any public
place. If you do want to include something critical that probably
should not be the *only* thing you include in your review.
Please do not mistake this as me telling you how to review. That is
ultimately up to you. Just remember that criticising a story gives
that story the same number of points as praising it, so think before
you submit your comment.
Also, as I said above, you can now cast author reviews as well as
story reviews. Over at the FAQs someone has asked just what the
difference is between author reviews and story reviews. This is
something that confuses a lot of people, so I thought I'd answer it here.
In a story review you are talking about a certain story. This can
either take the form of a review like you would write at an archive,
or like a note directed to the author about that particular story.
An author review is more general. In these you should be commenting
about how the author displays the skills necessary to write the time
period, genre, or race the category is about. You can use examples
from that author's works that aren't nominated if you like. When I
write an author review I usually think of it as an email to a friend
recommending a certain author. Let's say someone has asked me if I can
recommend anyone who writes really good stories focusing on dwarves -
you get the idea. If I were to recommend an author I would probably
talk about just how she captures the characteristics of that race, or
weaves events from their past into her stories -- whatever is
noteworthy. But an author review is just a more general review of an
author. The idea is that you should be reviewing the author in more
general terms than just the one story.
Does all of that make sense? If you have questions about any of this,
please post them here and I'll answer them to the best of mya bilities.
Marta
PS- My apologies for sending out two special notices in one day.
Things will calm down soon and you'll hear less of me.