On To Year Four

[foxrafer.livejournal.com]

In a few days the fourth annual Men of Middle-earth Awards will begin! I hope everyone's looking forward to another year. Nominations will be accepted between July 15 and August 31, so start sifting through your bookmarks, memories, and favorite comms and get your list of fics together. There will be a post available for pointing readers to your fic or recommendation lists; it should be up in about a week.

If you have any questions about the categories, the process, eligibility, etc., please leave a comment here or send me an e-mail.

Comments

[giselleslash.livejournal.com]

Hey hon!

When I'm nominating fics in the word count section can I just put what category they fall into...drabble, ficlet, short fic, etc. or do I have to have an actual word count?

[foxrafer.livejournal.com]

Hey there!

The actual count is best because unfortunately people often don't put the right fic size down. I've caught quite a lot through random checks and then wound up trying to check them all just to be safe. If you hit 8k and there are only a couple of chapters left it would be fine to say '8k+ (less than 50k),' and once you hit 50k it's fine to stop. In the past I've also suggested that for really long fics that nominators ask the author for the word count (since it's easier for them to get it). I haven't heard of any negative responses to those requests so I'm assuming people have been ok with it.

[giselleslash.livejournal.com]

Sounds good - thanks for the info :)

[prisca1960.livejournal.com]

I just wonder: is it really impossible to nominate a story written between 01.01.2009 and 30.06.2009? Because your Info FPS says: completed between July 1, 2009 and June 30, 2010 and the Info Classic Fic says: completed no later than December 31, 2008

[foxrafer.livejournal.com]

Hi! Thanks for the question.

That is correct, stories that were finished between January and June 2009 cannot be nominated but many may have been nominated last year, when the cutoff date was June 30, 2009 (the full list of nominated stories is here (http://community.livejournal.com/mome_awards/14316.html)).

The reason there is a gap in dates is because the Classics category is intended to honor older stories, not fics that were completed a year ago. After the first year I actually wanted to change the eligibility so that stories were at least three years old by the time the awards were given out (which would have meant freezing the eligibility date and leaving it as December 2005 for another year) but by then there were people who had waited a year to nominate stories that had been finished in 2006 and it didn't seem fair to make them wait another 12 months. As it is, by the end of the year the Classic nominees and winners will be at least two years old, a decent interval.

In 2011 stories that were eligible for the regular awards in 2009 (including fics completed between January and July 2009) will be able to be nominated as classic fics.

I hope that helps explain the eligibility dates. If you have any further questions, just let me know.

[prisca1960.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I guessed something like this. Well, it's not the end of the world - there are so much other stories which are worth to be nominated.

[legolas-is-mine.livejournal.com]

Uhm, I'm sure I'm just being dumb or something but I can't actually vote in the polls? There is no text box for me to write my votes in? Any idea why?

Thanks :)

[foxrafer.livejournal.com]

It looks like you're watching the comm; the polls are only usable if someone's a member. At the top right of the profile page there should be a link that either says 'join' or 'modify watch'. You should be able to become a member of the comm that way. If you'd prefer, I can also send you a ballot by e-mail. Let me know if you have trouble joining or if you'd like a ballot sent to you.

[legolas-is-mine.livejournal.com]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, thank you! I'll join lol :)

[lookingglassf1.livejournal.com]

Heya, I have a question regarding the listings in the voting polls.

Under all of the General sections, why is there nothing to say who the main pairing is in each of the fics? I don't necessarily want to click through all of the links, just to find that pairing is not for me. (I tend to use these award lists to find new fics to read.)

[foxrafer.livejournal.com]

Hey there! I definitely know and love that these lists (and the full nomination lists that get posted after) are wonderful sources for new stories and even new authors and it's always great to hear that people are using them like that. My primary goal in not including the pairings on the ballot is to quietly encourage people to try something new and read all the fics before making their selection. Of course, I have no real control over that, but I've had enough people who have always been pretty much exclusive to one pairing (or at least to fics with one specific person in them) tell me they were pleasantly surprised by a fic of a pairing they don't normally read that it makes me hopeful that others are giving them a shot as well. No proof either way, I know, and I know it means extra clicks, but my thought process has been that getting voters to open the page is at least a quarter of the battle.

It won't help right now during the voting stage, but the full nomination lists are divided by pairing so it is easier to find new fic of favorite pairings there. I just realized I have to update the tags because a couple of the ones above don't work anymore, but the link for nomination lists from previous years (except for 2008) is http://community.livejournal.com/mome_awards/tag/nomination%20lists; the full list from this year should hopefully be posted no later than early January.

[lookingglassf1.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks for gettin' back to me on this.

I must admit that I'm one of those people that get locked into a certain pairing, or a few exclusive pairings (although I am better than a few years back :-P ).

I can totally understand your thinking. It does make sense. I will be checkin' out those old nomination lists once this time of year becomes next year.