Yahoo Forum Archive

Hey gang,

Several reminders related to the approaching end of the 2007 MEFAs.

*******

GENERAL END-OF-AWARD NOTICES

Voting ends at 11:59:59 PM on December 30. Obviously you need to enter
any reviews you plan to enter by the end of voting. Every year there
is some confusion on this point – but barring site technical problems,
we won't let people enter reviews after the end of voting. (If you do
have technical problems, please email techsupport@mefawards.net BEFORE
THE END OF VOTING.)

Also, don't forget to make sure you've given all of your reviews the
status you want to give them. You won't be able to edit your reviews
after voting ends, so make sure the status is correct.

To change a review's draft you will need to edit the vote. See
www.mefawards.net/MEFA2007/index.php?page=FAQvoting#vot_7

*******

REMEMBER: December has 31 days. December 30 is the day *before* New
Year's Eve.

REMEMBER: All MEFA times are GMT. To find out the current site time,
go to any page at www.mefawards.net/MEFA2007/, or reload a page if
you're already there. Look in the lower left corner for "Page served at."

REMEMBER: hidden reviews will be displayed to all site visitors at the
end of voting. Change a hidden review to draft if you don't want it to
be shown.

REMEMBER: draft reviews won't be counted. Change a draft review to
hidden if you want it to be counted.

*******

PASSWORD AND ACCOUNT ISSUES

If you do not yet have an account at the voting site and want one,
please join the MEFAwards Yahoo group at
groups.yahoo.com/group/MEFAward/. You will be sent a password to log
in to our voting website within a day or two, but these things are set
up by hand. So it's crucial that you do NOT wait until the last second
to request an account if you'd like to vote. You will not be able to
enter late votes just because we weren't able to set you up an account
in time. I suggest requesting an account by December 26 at the latest
if you plan on voting.

If you forgot your password, or otherwise are having difficulties
accessing the site, please email mefasupport@gmail.com. Do this sooner
rather than later. I will answer as quickly as I can, but as I am a
volunteer it sometimes takes me a day or two to respond to questions.

******

REMEMBER: If you need help, then ASK. We want to help you. :-) But ask
sooner rather than later if you know you have a problem.

*******

BANNERS

Banners are different this year than they were last year. Last year
people created banners and buttons to meet certain themes, so that all
the users who won first place in drama (for instance) used the same
banner.

This year, we have created a pool of banners and buttons. Authors may
choose one for each story that wins a place or honorable mention, and
it will be customized to show subcategory and place won. This will be
done by MEFA volunteers.

If you are artistically inclined, you are welcome to create a banner
or button that the winning authors may choose from. Look at the
already-created banners at

www.mefawards.net/fanart/categories.php?cat_id=798

Do you see a category, race, time period, etc. that you think authors
might like a banner or button of? If so, feel free to create one.
Email all completed banners to banners@mefawards.net. Please leave
space for subcategories and award information to be added. By
submitting a graphic, you give us permission to edit your banner to
add in the category and award information, and you give the author
permission to display it wherever they post their story.

If you would like to help customize banners, please email
mefasupport@gmail.com. We can always use more volunteers.

******

REMEMBER: If you want to submit a banner, email banners@mefawards.net

REMEMBER: If you'd like to help customize banners for award winners,
email mefasupport@gmail.com

*******

VACATIONS

I will be visiting family for Christmas Dec. 23-27. I'll have my
laptop with me but am not sure about internet, and in any event I'll
be spending significantly less time glued to my keyboard than is usual
for me. I'll try to still do awards stuff as needed, but my response
time will probably be slower.

I mention this in advance so, if you do have any problems or concerns,
we can handle it before I go. Please, if you need help with something,
let's try to fix the problem sooner rather than later. I'd hate for
you not to get to participate in the awards like you want to because I
couldn't reply quickly enough.

*******

REMEMBER: I will have less computer time December 23-27. So it may
take me longer to reply.

*******

QUOTES

It seems that some people are still a little confused about how to
handle quotes in their reviews. If you would like to quote a passage,
you need to include square brackets around it: [ before the beginning
of your quote and ] at the end of it.

You need to do this for quotes from the story being reviewed, quotes
from the movies or Tolkien's books, or quotes from any other sources.

You do *not* need to put square brackets around things inside quotes
marks, that aren't actually quotes. For instance if you use square
quotes to suggest you're using a term loosely, or if you give the
title of a short story or chapter, you'd put quotes-marks around those
things but you aren't quoting passages from someone else. So, you
don't *need* to put square brackets around them. (Some people prefer
to do this if the title is long, but this is their personal choice.)

If you are having a hard time with this – please don't feel bad! It
really is quite confusing, and I'm happy to work with you to get the
problem sorted out.

If you see a review with quotes improperly marked, please email
mefasupport@gmail.com Include the story ID, title and author,
reviewer, and what needs correcting.

*******

REMEMBER: When using a quote in your review, do it like this:

["In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit."]

REMEMBER: If you see a review that needs to have quotes fixed, email
mefasupport@gmail.com

*******

POST MORTEM

Beginning after the results are announced, we will be having a
post-mortem at the mefa-discussion group. All are invited to join
there and participate. I will be posting to this group when a new
topic is posted, and again at the end of the post-mortem I'll post our
decisions about things that will change to this group. But the actual
discussion should happen at mefa-discussion. Join at
groups.yahoo.com/group/mefa-discussion/

Don't start discussing until I give the go-ahead, but do start
thinking about what you'd like to discuss.

*******

I think that's it! Happy end-of-the-awards to everyone. I will most
likely post here once more, a few days before the end of voting, but
otherwise I'll stay out of your hair and let you spend your MEFA time
actually voting.

Marta

Question: not related directly to voting per se, but to WIPs and the end of voting. I am trying to finish a WIP before the 30th. Doesn't look hopeful now, but just in case, when is it too late to change a WIP to a finished work?


-----Original Message-----
From: aure_enteluva <melayton@gmail.com>
To: mefawards@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 4:13 pm
Subject: [MEFAwards] Various Topics Related to End of Awards






Hey gang,

Several reminders related to the approaching end of the 2007 MEFAs.

*******

GENERAL END-OF-AWARD NOTICES

Voting ends at 11:59:59 PM on December 30. Obviously you need to enter
any reviews you plan to enter by the end of voting. Every year there
is some confusion on this point  but barring site technical problems,
we won't let people enter reviews after the end of voting. (If you do
have technical problems, please email techsupport@mefawards.net BEFORE
THE END OF VOTING.)

Also, don't forget to make sure you've given all of your reviews the
status you want to give them. You won't be able to edit your reviews
after voting ends, so make sure the status is correct.

To change a review's draft you will need to edit the vote. See
www.mefawards.net/MEFA2007/index.php?page=FAQvoting#vot_7

*******

REMEMBER: December has 31 days. December 30 is the day *before* New
Year's Eve.

REMEMBER: All MEFA times are GMT. To find out the current site time,
go to any page at www.mefawards.net/MEFA2007/, or reload a page if
you're already there. Look in the lower left corner for "Page served at."

REMEMBER: hidden reviews will be displayed to all site visitors at the
end of voting. Change a hidden review to draft if you don't want it to
be shown.

REMEMBER: draft reviews won't be counted. Change a draft review to
hidden if you want it to be counted.

*******

PASSWORD AND ACCOUNT ISSUES

If you do not yet have an account at the voting site and want one,
please join the MEFAwards Yahoo group at
groups.yahoo.com/group/MEFAward/. You will be sent a password to log
in to our voting website within a day or two, but these things are set
up by hand. So it's crucial that you do NOT wait until the last second
to request an account if you'd like to vote. You will not be able to
enter late votes just because we weren't able to set you up an account
in time. I suggest requesting an account by December 26 at the latest
if you plan on voting.

If you forgot your password, or otherwise are having difficulties
accessing the site, please email mefasupport@gmail.com. Do this sooner
rather than later. I will answer as quickly as I can, but as I am a
volunteer it sometimes takes me a day or two to respond to questions.

******

REMEMBER: If you need help, then ASK. We want to help you. :-) But ask
sooner rather than later if you know you have a problem.

*******

BANNERS

Banners are different this year than they were last year. Last year
people created banners and buttons to meet certain themes, so that all
the users who won first place in drama (for instance) used the same
banner.

This year, we have created a pool of banners and buttons. Authors may
choose one for each story that wins a place or honorable mention, and
it will be customized to show subcategory and place won. This will be
done by MEFA volunteers.

If you are artistically inclined, you are welcome to create a banner
or button that the winning authors may choose from. Look at the
already-created banners at

www.mefawards.net/fanart/categories.php?cat_id=798

Do you see a category, race, time period, etc. that you think authors
might like a banner or button of? If so, feel free to create one.
Email all completed banners to banners@mefawards.net. Please leave
space for subcategories and award information to be added. By
submitting a graphic, you give us permission to edit your banner to
add in the category and award information, and you give the author
permission to display it wherever they post their story.

If you would like to help customize banners, please email
mefasupport@gmail.com. We can always use more volunteers.

******

REMEMBER: If you want to submit a banner, email banners@mefawards.net

REMEMBER: If you'd like to help customize banners for award winners,
email mefasupport@gmail.com

*******

VACATIONS

I will be visiting family for Christmas Dec. 23-27. I'll have my
laptop with me but am not sure about internet, and in any event I'll
be spending significantly less time glued to my keyboard than is usual
for me. I'll try to still do awards stuff as needed, but my response
time will probably be slower.

I mention this in advance so, if you do have any problems or concerns,
we can handle it before I go. Please, if you need help with something,
let's try to fix the problem sooner rather than later. I'd hate for
you not to get to participate in the awards like you want to because I
couldn't reply quickly enough.

*******

REMEMBER: I will have less computer time December 23-27. So it may
take me longer to reply.

*******

QUOTES

It seems that some people are still a little confused about how to
handle quotes in their reviews. If you would like to quote a passage,
you need to include square brackets around it: [ before the beginning
of your quote and ] at the end of it.

You need to do this for quotes from the story being reviewed, quotes
from the movies or Tolkien's books, or quotes from any other sources.

You do *not* need to put square brackets around things inside quotes
marks, that aren't actually quotes. For instance if you use square
quotes to suggest you're using a term loosely, or if you give the
title of a short story or chapter, you'd put quotes-marks around those
things but you aren't quoting passages from someone else. So, you
don't *need* to put square brackets around them. (Some people prefer
to do this if the title is long, but this is their personal choice.)

If you are having a hard time with this  please don't feel bad! It
really is quite confusing, and I'm happy to work with you to get the
problem sorted out.

If you see a review with quotes improperly marked, please email
mefasupport@gmail.com Include the story ID, title and author,
reviewer, and what needs correcting.

*******

REMEMBER: When using a quote in your review, do it like this:

["In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit."]

REMEMBER: If you see a review that needs to have quotes fixed, email
mefasupport@gmail.com

*******

POST MORTEM

Beginning after the results are announced, we will be having a
post-mortem at the mefa-discussion group. All are invited to join
there and participate. I will be posting to this group when a new
topic is posted, and again at the end of the post-mortem I'll post our
decisions about things that will change to this group. But the actual
discussion should happen at mefa-discussion. Join at
groups.yahoo.com/group/mefa-discussion/

Don't start discussing until I give the go-ahead, but do start
thinking about what you'd like to discuss.

*******

I think that's it! Happy end-of-the-awards to everyone. I will most
likely post here once more, a few days before the end of voting, but
otherwise I'll stay out of your hair and let you spend your MEFA time
actually voting.

Marta





________________________________________________________________________
More new features than ever. Check out the new AOL Mail ! - http://webmail.aol.com


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

Hi Oshun,

Officially you can change it up until the end of voting (so December
30), though it's probably best to get it changed as early as possible.

HTH!

Marta

heartofoshun@aol.com wrote:

>
>
> Question: not related directly to voting per se, but to WIPs and the end
> of voting. I am trying to finish a WIP before the 30th. Doesn't look
> hopeful now, but just in case, when is it too late to change a WIP to a
> finished work?
>

Officially you can change it up until the end of voting (so December
30), though it's probably best to get it changed as early as possible.
Well, it's not finished yet. And then it has to be Betaed, but just wanted to know, just in case everything falls into place with absolute perfection....


-----Original Message-----
From: melayton@gmail.com <melayton@gmail.com>
To: MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 6:12 am
Subject: Re: [MEFAwards] Various Topics Related to End of Awards






Hi Oshun,

Officially you can change it up until the end of voting (so December
30), though it's probably best to get it changed as early as possible.

HTH!

Marta

heartofoshun@aol.com wrote:

>
>
> Question: not related directly to voting per se, but to WIPs and the end
> of voting. I am trying to finish a WIP before the 30th. Doesn't look
> hopeful now, but just in case, when is it too late to change a WIP to a
> finished work?
>

________________________________________________________________________
More new features than ever. Check out the new AOL Mail ! - http://webmail.aol.com


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

Hi Oshun,

> >Officially you can change it up until the end of voting (so December
> >30), though it's probably best to get it changed as early as possible.

> Well, it's not finished yet. And then it has to be Betaed, but just
> wanted to know, just in case everything falls into place with absolute
> perfection....
>

Understood. It's good to ask these questions.

If you don't finish it in time, it will always be eligible to compete as
a finished story in future years. Whenever you do finish it, it can be
nominated again. So it's not like it will never be able to run as a
finished story.

Congrats on getting so close to being done, btw.

Marta