Yahoo Forum Archive

Hey guys,

We're going to start what's known as check ballots in a few days. I want
to use this week's educational post to discuss how that works. That way
you can ask any questions you might have about check ballots or
categorization before we get started.

Also, Yahoo group members may want to consider changing their email
delivery options. As I'll describe below, check ballots involve more
group emails than is usual for this group. I encourage everyone to keep
up to date, but if you would prefer to read check ballots at the group
website, you might consider switching to digest or "special notice only"
mode.

***************************

HOW STORIES ARE CATEGORIZED

Nominations for this year's MEFAs closed on June 15. Authors had until
June 22 to finalize their nomination by completing a form on the
nominated piece and notifying their liaison. You may be wondering what's
been happening since then. Elliska, Inkling, Radbooks and myself have
been sorting pieces into a main category, and then dividing each main
category into appropriate subcategories of 5-13 pieces.

To begin with, each story is placed in its first-choice category. We
divide each main category four ways, based on the story type:

--- fixed-length ficlets
--- incompletes (work-in-progress)
--- poetry
--- finished stories (story type: story)

So for each main category there will be four groupings of stories. For
instance:

--- Genres: Drama: Fixed-Length Ficlets
--- Genres: Drama: Incomplete
--- Genres: Drama: Poetry
--- Genres: Drama: General

Some of those groupings will have five nominations or more, no problem;
others won't, in which case we look at moving stories into their second-
or third-choice categories. For instance, let's say there are only two
fixed-length ficlets in Genres: Mystery. That's not enough to make a
fixed-length ficlet subcategory in mystery, and it's not even close - so
we would try to move those two pieces into the fixed-length ficlet
grouping in their second-choice main category.

If, on the other hand, one of those groupings is close to having the
five stories, we would look for other stories that could be moved into
that same category, to maybe make the grouping into a viable
subcategory. Say there are four stories with Dwarves chosen as the
first-choice category. We would look for stories with Dwarves as a
second-choice category. If there are some such stories, they would be
moved out of their first-choice category into the Races: Dwarves:
General grouping.

Now every story is in a group in one of its three category choices, with
other pieces of its same type. Each of these groups has at least five
pieces by at least three authors - but often quite a lot more. If there
are thirteen or less pieces in the group, it can become a subcategory -
but if there are more, then we need to further divide each group into
more than one subcategory. To do this we look at the other questions on
the form filled out by the author, mostly the setting, characters for
categorization, and subgenres. Basically we want to find a way to divide
the nominations in each grouping down to a size that would work as a
subcategory.

When a grouping is divided into more than one subcategory, there will
always be one "miscellaneous" subcategory and one (or more than one)
more specialized one. I'll take an actual example from last year to show
you how this works: the Adventure category. This category was divided into

--- Genres: Adventure: General
--- Genres: Adventure: Fixed-Length Ficlet
--- Genres: Adventure: Incomplete
--- Genres: Adventure: Minas Tirith
--- Genres: Adventure: Pre-Ring War

Of these, General, Incomplete, and Pre-Ring War were subcategories for
nominations with the type "Story" - as I described things above, they
would have been placed in Genres: Adventure: General to begin with, and
the categorizer would have broken General into three subcategories based
on the stories' content. The point I'm trying to make is that, even
though "general" has been divided into three subcategories, one of those
is still called "general." It's a sort of miscellaneous subcategory for
the Adventure stories that don't fit in either Minas Tirith or Pre-Ring War.

Bottom line: eventually every nomination will be sorted into a
sub-category within one of its main category choices. And that's what
will be on the checkballot.

**********************

THE CHECK-BALLOTS - HOW IT WORKS

In a few days, I will post the first check-ballot. I will send one email
per main category to the MEFAwards Yahoo group. (People reading at LJ:
you will see one post with a link to all the MEFAwards messages.) Each
email will have a subject like "Adventure Check Ballot." It will begin
with a heading like

"Check Ballots for Main Category: Genres: Adventure

SubCategory Genres: Adventure: General"

Under the SubCategory header, you'll see the pieces that have been
placed in that subcategory. Each listing will give you some basic
information about the nomination. These listings will be of the form:

[title] ([story id #]): [author's name]
URL: [nomination's url]
[rating], Reason for Rating: [warnings]
Romance Partners: [romance partners]
[summary]

The stuff within [square brackets] will obviously vary from story to
story. It gives you a good overview of the kind of stories in each
subcategory, so if you're trying to decide what you'll read, it's great
to pay attention to these. But most importantly, it tells authors where
their story will be competing. Authors are highly encouraged to check
out the ballots to make sure their stories are placed in an appropriate
sub-category.

In most cases we sort categories based on the information you give us -
both your category choices and the questions about your story setting,
characters involved, and so on. Of course, it's possible that we made a
technical mistake entering information into the website. A stray
keystroke and your story may end up in a wildly inappropriate category.
:-) Obviously, we want to fix that.

Occasionally we have had to categorize stories based on their summary
rather than their selection of setting, character, etc. This usually
happens when an author does not provide answers to every question on the
form. (This isn't necessarily a criticism - the form is complicated, and
sometimes there's not an appropriate option - but more a statement of
the situation categorizers sometimes face.) Remember, subcategories can
have at most thirteen stories - so if enough authors weren't able to
answer those questions, then there would be too many stories in the
General subcategory. In situations like this, the categorizers have to
look at the summary, maybe even skim the story if it's short enough, and
make the best decision they can.

Check ballots is the time authors get to say they'd like their pieces
moved to a new category or subcategory. That's their main point - to
give everyone a chance to make sure the subcategory selected is correct.
However, we can't honor every request made. A lot of times these
subcategories are very carefully constructed so that they have a good
size and a good mix of authors, and if too many stories are moved in or
out of the same subcategory, it can create problems.

This doesn't mean you can't ask to have your story moved. This is
especially the case if your story was assigned to a subcategory you
didn't select. If you just see a subcategory that you think would be a
better match than the one you're currently placed in, we may not be able
to move it. But if your subcategory is inappropriate, please do mention
it when the check ballots are posted.

If you do see a story that you think has been placed incorrectly, you
should reply to the ballot with the story you aren't sure about. (LJ
members: you can comment at the LJ entry; please mention what category
you're replying to.) The other categorizers and I will discuss it and
get back to you within a day or two.

Before I end this post, I want to mention two "special cases" that
affect check ballots.

*****************************

SPECIAL CONCERNS - FIXED-LENGTH FICLETS

Above, I've talked about fixed-length ficlets as being categorized
together. It's true that FLFs are only categorized with other FLFs. But
more specifically, we usually place drabbles with drabbles and other
types of FLFs (drabble series, double drabbles, etc.) together.
Subcategories containing just drabbles will have the word "drabble" in it.

Subcategories containing the other types of fixed-length ficlets will
have the phrase "Fixed-Length Ficlet," but something else as well -
either "Other Fixed Length-Ficlet" or "General Fixed-Length Ficlet," or
if we have more than one such subcategory in the same main category it
may be something like "Gondor Fixed-Length Ficlet" or "Noldor
Fixed-Length Ficlet."

In a few cases we have had to combine drabbles with longer FLFs. In this
case the subcategory is just called "Fixed-Length Ficlets," with no
other words.

*****************************

SPECIAL CONCERNS - WORKS-IN-PROGRESS

This year we had a few works-in-progress that we had a hard time placing
because we couldn't offer Incomplete subcategories in any of their
category choices. I contacted these authors and discussed the situation,
offering them the choice to select a new category where a WIP
subcategory *could* be offered or to let their story compete against
finished stories in one of their category choices. Four authors chose to
compete with the finished stories. Namely:

The Dwarves Treasure by eiranae
Moon of the Sea by pandemonium_213
Solid Frodo: Hobbit Espionage Action by Princess Artemis
Wars of the Valar by Fiondil

If you see any other WIPs placed with completed stories, let us know.
These four stories, though, are *supposed* to be competing against
completed stories. Their authors chose this rather than to have them
compete with WIPs in a category that didn't fit them as well.

********************************

I think that's enough on categorization and how the check ballots will
work. We'll start posting actual ballots in a few days. In the mean
time, if you have any questions or want to discuss any of this, now is a
good time.

Marta
(MEFA Admin.)

I just checked this week to see how many stories were in the same
category as my fic, but thought I was doing something wrong when I
couldnt figure it out. I guess it was just rushing things!

Thanks for the info!
nautika

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, "melayton@..." <melayton@...> wrote:
>
> Hey guys,
>
> We're going to start what's known as check ballots in a few days. I
want
> to use this week's educational post to discuss how that works. That
way
> you can ask any questions you might have about check ballots or
> categorization before we get started.
>
>

In a message dated 7/4/2008 11:03:25 AM Eastern Standard Time,
melayton@gmail.com writes:

But most importantly, it tells authors where
their story will be competing. Authors are highly encouraged to check
out the ballots to make sure their stories are placed in an appropriate
sub-category.



I didn't look at these last year. Thought they were posted for some arcane
purpose of the MEFA administrative staff. And they seemed to go on
forever--felt like months.

I am now wondering for next year if WIPs are a viable category. If a story
runs against finished stories as a WIP then they are still eligible as a
Finished story in the future?



**************Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for
fuel-efficient used cars. (http://autos.aol.com/used?ncid=aolaut00050000000007)


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

heartofoshun@aol.com wrote:

>
>
>
> In a message dated 7/4/2008 11:03:25 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> melayton@gmail.com <mailto:melayton%40gmail.com> writes:
>
> But most importantly, it tells authors where
> their story will be competing. Authors are highly encouraged to check
> out the ballots to make sure their stories are placed in an appropriate
> sub-category.
>
> I didn't look at these last year. Thought they were posted for some

arcane

> purpose of the MEFA administrative staff. And they seemed to go on
> forever--felt like months.
>

Hi Oshun,

We did post them last year, but I think just for a week or two. The
point is to give authors a chance to request changes, before the
subcategories are set in stone.

We did also post the reviews people wrote, because some people prefer to
see the reviews that are being written without needing to check the
website. I personally find it more convenient to check reviews at the
website, but infinite diversity in infinite combinations. :-) I have
heard from various members that they find it helpful, especially to be
reminded that reviews are being written. That may be what you're
thinking of? (Or I may very well be wrong.)

> I am now wondering for next year if WIPs are a viable category. If a story
> runs against finished stories as a WIP then they are still eligible as a
> Finished story in the future?
>

Yeah, those four WIPs will still be eligible in the future. And the
website will still list "Incomplete" as their story type. They'll be
treated just like if they had run in an Incomplete subcategory, as far
as future eligibility is concerned. The only difference is the
subcategory they'll be competing in.

Marta

Hi Nau_tika,

Yep - the categories aren't available on the website yet. They'll be
posted here next week, and should show up on the website a few weeks after.

Marta

nau_tika wrote:

>
>
> I just checked this week to see how many stories were in the same
> category as my fic, but thought I was doing something wrong when I
> couldnt figure it out. I guess it was just rushing things!
>
> Thanks for the info!
> nautika
>

Hi Imhiriel,

> Martha, thank you for laying it out so detailed; I was especially
> grateful to be reminded that you use the option to "fill out" just
> barely too small subcategories.
>
> > --- Genres: Adventure: General
> > --- Genres: Adventure: Fixed-Length Ficlet
> > --- Genres: Adventure: Incomplete
> > --- Genres: Adventure: Minas Tirith
> > --- Genres: Adventure: Pre-Ring War
> >
> > Of these, General, Incomplete, and Pre-Ring War were subcategories for
> > nominations with the type "Story" - as I described things above, they
> > would have been placed in Genres: Adventure: General to begin with, and
> > the categorizer would have broken General into three subcategories
> based
> > on the stories' content. The point I'm trying to make is that, even
> > though "general" has been divided into three subcategories, one of
> those
> > is still called "general." It's a sort of miscellaneous subcategory for
> > the Adventure stories that don't fit in either Minas Tirith or
> Pre-Ring War.
>
> I think you meant to say that General, Minas Tirith and Ring-War were
> subcategories for "Story", as "Incompletes" are in their own category,
> as you described above.
>

*blush* Yes, exactly! Thank you for catching that.

> I don't know if you can talk about this, but if so, I'd be very
> curious to know if the sorting is difficult. Part of my curiosity is
> surely that you had difficulties sorting two of my drabbles in either
> of the three categories I named - does this happen often? But I'd also
> be interested generally - how much hair-tearing is involved in trying
> to reach the best possible solutions and compromises?
>

It really depends on a lot of factors. The number of pieces nominated
(and the variety of said pieces) makes a huge difference. I can only
speak for myself, and this year I was assigned the fixed-length ficlets
in all the categories, plus a few medium-sized main categories. (Each of
the categorizing volunteers is assigned several story groupings and they
come up with a "first draft" of the categorization, which is then
discussed by the group.) FLF took me two days of pretty solid work to
get something I like, and subsequently required some modification as
well; my other groups were much easier and divided up quite naturally.

There were three factors that really helped this year. First, this is
the second year that Elliska, Inkling, Radbooks and I have worked
together which means we work pretty well as a team. Speaking for myself,
I think we're open with each other and also willing to take suggestions
from each other. And I think we work well together to shift stories so
they make the best categorization possible. I've been really pleased
with the flexibility I've seen this year, and that does make things easier.

Also, we've emailed authors a lot more than we have in the past, if we
were having trouble placing their stories. This eliminated some of the
most stressful aspects of categorizing: finding homes for those really
hard-to-place nominations, because we shifted the decision to the
authors in those cases. That decreased the stress a lot, not only
because it meant we made less hard decisions but also because we could
be sure that those stories had a good subcategory. (Or the best that was
available, in any event!) So the fact that authors replied quickly to
these emails helped a lot. A *whole* lot, actually.

And finally, the liaisons did a really good job getting good information
about the stories in the nomination season. That meant that we
categorizers had the information we needed to make the choices that need
to be made.

Even with all of that, there's been moments when I've had to throw my
little stress ball against the wall to let out frustration over a
category refusing to sort. It's better than it ever was, but this
process is always a bit difficult.

> > In situations like this, the categorizers have to
> > look at the summary, maybe even skim the story if it's short enough,
> and
> > make the best decision they can.
>
> A time-consuming endeavour, I can imagine, especially for the longer
> stories... OTOH, it gives you a sneak-peek at some of the stories you
> might want to be reviewing in your "private" capacity, later ;-).
>

*nods* My wish list has certainly grown longer!

> And again, my nosy question: Does it often happen, either the
> question, or the actual moving?
>

Thankfully we haven't had that many in the past - I'd say less than a
dozen requests last year. I'm hoping that we'll have even less, because
of all the emailing we've done with authors during the actual
categorizing. But with most things related to the MEFAs, it can be very
unpredictable from year to year. So we shall see!

Marta

That may be what you're
thinking of? (Or I may very well be wrong.)

Yes. It must have been the reviews I was thinking of... I read reviews a
lot, but at the site. They are so much prettier and easier to read there.



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

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, "melayton@..." <melayton@...> wrote:

>
> And finally, the liaisons did a really good job getting good
> information about the stories in the nomination season. That meant
> that we categorizers had the information we needed to make the
> choices that need to be made.

Something I found really helpful this year was all the changes and
additions in the subcategory fields...in particular, the streamlining
of characters for categorization and the new subgenre choices. The new
subgenres (including angst, tragedy, friendship, family, etc.) seemed
to be very popular with authors, judging by how many were selected, and
I found this made categorizing much easier, and allowed the creation of
many interesting subcats.

Kathy/Inkling

Hi Kathy,

I absolutely agree - the improvements to the websites definitely made
categorizing much easier. Thanks for pointing that out!

Marta

Kathy wrote:

>
>
> --- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com <mailto:MEFAwards%40yahoogroups.com>,
> "melayton@..." <melayton@...> wrote:
> >
> > And finally, the liaisons did a really good job getting good
> > information about the stories in the nomination season. That meant
> > that we categorizers had the information we needed to make the
> > choices that need to be made.
>
> Something I found really helpful this year was all the changes and
> additions in the subcategory fields...in particular, the streamlining
> of characters for categorization and the new subgenre choices. The new
> subgenres (including angst, tragedy, friendship, family, etc.) seemed
> to be very popular with authors, judging by how many were selected, and
> I found this made categorizing much easier, and allowed the creation of
> many interesting subcats.
>
> Kathy/Inkling
>