2002 GO-FAQ for alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated
Golden Orgasms Supplement
October 6, 2002
This document is a detailed guide to the Golden Orgasms, the annual
fanfic awards of ASCEM. It draws heavily upon the main ASCEM FAQ's
appendices for basic information like character codes and story
descriptors. The full list of ASC* FAQs, soon to include the ASCEM
main FAQ, can be found at:
http://www.trekiverse.org/FAQs/faqlist.html
Please send any questions or comments to datalaur at yahoo.com .
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Updates
03/09/02 Revisions and clarifications throughout.
Read in entirety.
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Table of contents
1 Introduction
Overview & History
Personnel
2 Rules
General
Eligibility
CheckBallots and Ballots
Voting Basics & Schedule
How to Vote (web or email)
3 Categories
Categorization Process
Possible Categories (including definitions)
More Categorization caveats
This year's Categories
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1 Introduction
- Overview & History
The Golden Orgasms were first awarded in 1997. The intention of
the awards is to recognize those writers and stories that have had
the most impact on readers each year. Voting is done anonymously.
Watch the newsgroup for information and updates on the awards
process. Also, Trekiverse ( http://www.trekiverse.org ) will provide
essential links and information during the phases of awards
preparation (ie, Checkballoting), voting and announcement.
- Key Personnel
Awards Coordinator Mary Ellen mecurtin at alumni.Princeton.EDU
Responsible for overall GO 2002 implementation. Includes oversight
and making necessary alterations to the process. Works with
Trekiverse staff. Keeps ASCEM Volunteer Staff Organization (VSO) and
the newsgroup informed. Makes announcements as necessary. Has final
authority on all issues related to the GO's, such as story placement,
categories, recompetition, etc.
SOS Maintainer JJuls jjuls at tbc.net
Compiles a list of all eligible stories posted during
the award year and sorts them into draft Ballot categories. Issues
official CheckBallots for comment/correction and then issues final
Ballots for voting.
Voting Website Stephen Ratliff stephen at trekiverse.org
Using Ballots as a basis, creates web-based Voting pages.
Vote Counter EmGee mgtrek at juno.com
**Do NOT use above address for voting! Use ascemgovote@ juno.com **
Collects and counts votes and publishes results to the newsgroup.
GO Graphics Stephen Ratliff stephen at trekiverse.org
Comes up with all the nifty GO graphics.
GO FAQ Maintainer datalaur datalaur at yahoo.com
Maintains the GO FAQ in accordance with direction from the GO
Coordinator. Posts FAQ and author/voter training materials on
critical awards topics like coding and categorization definitions.
ASCEMGO Archive datalaur datalaur at yahoo.com
Maintains ASCEMGO website with links to the Checkballot
and Voting pages, as well as links to award-winning stories from
previous years.
Trekiverse Staff:
Constable Katie ConstableKT at trekiverse.org
Stephen stephen at trekiverse.org
Other volunteers
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2 Rules
- General
Votes are cast anonymously. Voters are also encouraged to make
constructive comments (anonymously or non-anonymously) about stories
or authors. First, Second and Third Place are awarded in each
category.
A voting category is established when at least 5 eligible stories by
at least 2 authors ("5x2 rule") were posted. Categories with more
than 50 eligible stories will be split into "Single Part" stories and
"Multi Part" stories to make voting simpler. Note: on occasion, in
the interest of having meaningful competition and to help keep the
number of categories manageable for voters, the GO-staff will
consolidate several small groupings.
Authors can vote for their own stories; however, this is discouraged.
Authors may not vote for themselves in the Best Author and Best
New Author categories.
- Eligibility
Any new story posted to ASCEM between January 1, 2002 and
December 31, 2002 is eligible for inclusion in the appropriate
categories.
A story is not eligible if the 2002 posting is merely a repost or
revision of a previous year's posting. If a REV story is so
significantly altered that the author feels it is essentially a new
story, the author may request that the story be included in the
awards process.
If a story was inadvertently left out of the awards process
during a prior year, it is eligible in the year the error is
discovered. If a story was improperly competed (ie, accidentally
placed in categories that are contrary to author coding), it is
eligible to recompete the next year. If the story was competed
according to author coding, but such coding was later discovered
to be wrong, the story is not eligible for recompetition.
All authors are automatically eligible for Best Author honors.
To be eligible for Best New Author, authors must have posted their
first story to ASCEM during the awards year. The first post to ASCEM
is the key; previously-posted authors who have written in a different
series do not become a New Author in that series.
Anonymous authors or those posting under the pseudo-anonymous "Ascem
Noone" pen-name are not eligible for Best Author awards. Works by
anonymous authors compete without restriction.
- CheckBallots and Ballots
In early 2003, lists of eligible stories within each category will
be developed. The lists, or Checkballots, are made available for
comment as soon as possible, but no less than 2 weeks prior to
beginning of the associated voting period. Preliminary Checkballots
are available at ) .
Checkballots will be posted for final review on ASCEM on
approximately:
TOS
TNG
DS9
VOY
ENT
Misc
Overall
Checkballots are crucial in catching coding and/or categorization
errors. All authors and readers are urged to participate! Submit
corrections to the SOS Maintainer (jjuls at tbc.net) .
Authors should verify that their stories are correctly categorized.
They should also review the New Author and Author Checkballots to
ensure they are properly slotted.
Checkballots become Ballots at the end of the comment period.
Once voting has begun, Ballots are locked and cannot be changed.
- Voting basics
Ballots are posted for voting. Voting is done over the course of six
weeks. Detailed procedures will be promulgated later.
Each voting period lasts two weeks, with an overlap of one
week. Voting is run on Greenwich Mean Time: that is, voting will
start at 3 AM GMT on the appropriate Thursday (3 AM GMT means
Wed 10 PM Eastern Time, Wed 7 PM Pacific Time, Thur 11 AM Perth time,
Thur 1 PM Sydney time, Thur 4 AM in most of Europe). A last-chance
reminder will normally be posted at least 24 hours before voting
closes for each cycle.
Week 1 TOS
Week 2 TNG
Week 3 DS9
Week 4 VOY
Week 5 ENT
Week 6 Miscellaneous (OCC, TSU, etc)
Week 7 Overall
Each voter may place up to three votes in each category: one for
First Place (3 points), one for Second (2 points) and one for Third
(1 point). These must be cast for *different* stories. If the same
story is voted upon multiple times in the same category, only the
highest place's points will be counted. If the voter votes for
only one or two stories, unused votes/points are ignored.
Votes are collated privately since voting is anonymous. Comments are
kept anonymous unless a voter specifically indicates that they
want their comments to be attributed.
If a person submits more than one set of votes (often done to correct
an error in an earlier vote), only the last set will be counted.
Attempts to use several identities to cast multiple votes is
considered "ballot stuffing" and all such votes will be discarded.
Points are totaled at the end of the voting period for each
Category. The top three stories are subsequently announced. If
there is a tie, the total number of placeholders will be adjusted to
account for the tie. Example: Two stories tying for second place
will result in 2 awards of "2nd place - tie" and no award of third
place (resulting in a total of 3 awards).
Should a work be found to have competed and/or won in a
category in which it was not eligible, the GO Coordinator has the
right to disqualify any votes for that work. The newsgroup
will be informed.
The winners' podium and a tally of all results goes out to the
newsgroup once all voting in a series is complete.
- How to Vote
Votes and comments may be submitted during each voting period via the
web at http://www.trekiverse.org/awards/GoldenOs/voting/ .
Votes may also be submitted to the Votecounter by email at
(address to be determined), using cut and paste from the newsgroup
Ballots. Email votes will be transcribed into the web-based voting
system for record keeping purposes.
WARNING: Votes posted directly to ASCEM or ASCEML will be ignored.
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3 Categories
- Categorization Process
Normally, a work will be slotted into appropriate categories based
on the coding provided by the author(s). Official slotting can be
found in CheckBallots / Ballots. Anyone may question a work's
categorization at any time prior to issuance of final Ballots.
If coding is missing, or is believed to be inconsistent with
definitions (coding and/or category), GO staff will attempt to
contact the author(s) for clarification. If that is not possible, GO
staff will review the work for proper coding/categorization. In grey
areas, GO staff will uphold the author's original coding and slot
accordingly. In cases where there is a clear error in coding, the
GO Coordinator has final decision on story placement.
- Possible Categories
** NOTE: The indented structure of the below table is critical to
understanding slotting of works. The three main categories are
Poems/Filks, Drabbles and Stories. Works must fall in one and only
one of these three areas. Within the Story category, a work may
compete in as many of the subcategories as it qualifies for.
Example: a (VOY P/K, J/C, EMH/7, challenge) would compete in 7
Places (assuming each of the pairings met 5x2): Story, Challenge,
Slash, P/K, Het, J/C, EMH/7.
The following list shows potential categories. Many categories don't
meet the 5x2 criteria, so Ballots are actually far less complicated:
1. Overall Categories (compiles contenders from the Trek series and
Miscellaneous categories)
Author (Captain Jinx award)
New Author
Story
Contributor ("Ruth Gifford award" for contribution
to discussions and writing)
2. Miscellaneous Categories
Original Crew/Characters (works set in a Trek universe
that focus on original ships, crews or characters)
OCC Author
OCC New Author
OCC Story
Other categories that are combined due to not meeting 5x2
within their series.
3. Categories per Trek Series (TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT)
Author
New Author
Poem/filk (song rewritten to be Trek-related, often humorous)
Drabble (fanfic that is exactly 100 words long)
Story
Challenge (story that answers a Challenge posted on ASCEM)
Humor/parody
Series (a group of 2 or more related but stand-alone stories
that establish a consistent and unique "universe". Each
story may also compete in other Story subcategories.)
**See more information below (Categorization Caveats).**
Suite (One story, composed of 2 or more highly interdependent
works intended to be read as a set. Think of chapters
in a book, or of a trilogy like Tolkien's Lord
of The Rings.)
**See more information below (Categorization Caveats).**
Single-Person (focus on character(s) *as individuals*,
rather than focusing on relationships)
Friendship (focus on platonic relationship between characters)
Slash (focus on relationship between same-sex characters)
Slash with 2 specific characters (ie, Data/LaForge)
Slash with 1 specific character and generic same-sex
partner (ie, Data/m or Troi/f)
Misc Slash (ie, any slash not meeting "5x2" rule)
**May be subdivided into Misc m/m Slash and Misc f/f
Slash**
Hetsmut (focus on relationship between opposite-sex characters)
Hetsmut with 2 specific characters (ie, Janeway/Chakotay)
Hetsmut with 1 specific character and generic opposite-sex
partner (ie, Paris/f or Torres/m)
Misc Hetsmut (ie, any hetsmut not meeting "5x2" rule)
Multiple-Partner (focus on sex involving 3 or more people)
(ie, (Riker/f/f/m) but *not* (Riker/f, Riker/m))
- More categorization caveats
Special categories for specific types of stories (like Fuh-Q Fests)
may be introduced/removed as needed, in accordance with the "5x2" rule.
ASCEM will continue its tradition of placing Crossovers (stories
featuring Trek and another show, like VOY/X-Files) and Combined
(stories featuring 2 Trek series, like TOS/TNG) with the appropriate
Trek series.
Suites and Series are normally classified as such by their author(s).
Since a Suite by definition tells *one* story, whereas a Series
contains multiple related stories, a body of works can be a Suite or
a Series, but not both. A Suite can only compete as one story in the
Story categories, although it can also be part of a larger Series
(think "The Hobbit" and its follow-on suite, "The Lord of the Rings").
If a large Suite or Series' posts begin in one calendar year and
continue into the next year(s), it is eligible in each of the years in which
substantive parts were posted. Authors should contact GO staff.
In previous years, starring characters (who have their own code) were
not allowed to be the "m" or "f" in a pairing. Due to popular demand,
this has been changed. So, for example, a Janeway/Kes story might now
compete in J/f and/or Kes/f if "5x2" is met. Otherwise the story
could compete in Misc f/f.
- Categories for 2002:
It is impossible to determine what categories will exist until all
stories are in for the year. However, typically many categories will
drop out due to not meeting "5 x 2" requirements.
Notes on 2002 Categorization:
1. Fuh-Q Fests -- a type of Challenge -- are eligible for all Story
categories for which they qualify (pairings, humor, etc.), just like
any other Challenge. However, to maximize grouping of similar
stories, 'fests will compete within their own "Best (name)Fuhqfest"
category rather than in Best Challenge.
2. Various factors have to be balanced in coming up with the
categories. The "5x2" rule is naturally very important. However,
various similar categories may be combined in an effort to keep the
total number of voting categories manageable, to create meaningful
competition among similar works and to try to maintain fairness in
the number of chances to compete for each story type. The GO
Coordinator has final decision authority.
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