2004 GO-FAQ for alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated
Golden Orgasms Supplement
January 5, 2005
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. ASC* FAQs can be found at:
http://www.trekiverse.org/FAQs/
Please send any questions or comments to datalaur at yahoo.com .
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Updates: -Staff corrections, add reference to SOS Maintainer
Categorization Primer
-Add "Single Story Subcategorization by size" section
-Add splitting when a category reaches 25 stories
-Add ability to subcategorize within Drabbles
-Clarify Ruth Gifford Award voting process
-Add voting start/end dates
-Add voting start/end times
------------------------------------
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)
Story subcategorization by size
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 JM itsjustjm at yahoo.com
Responsible for overall GO 2004 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, ballot stuffing, etc.
SOS Maintainer AcidQueen a.q at gmx.de
Compiles a list of all eligible stories posted during
the award year and sorts them into draft Ballot categories, using the
Categorization Primer and rules below. Issues
official CheckBallots for comment/correction and then issues final
Ballots for voting.
Awards Tech Support Stephen Ratliff stephen at trekiverse.org
Using Ballots as a basis, creates web-based Voting pages.
Vote Counters TBD
**Do not send votes to these individuals. Email votes go to
(goldenosvote@trekiverse.us) . **
Vote counters will count only categories where they are not involved.
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
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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 grouping of stories by
size 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, 2004 and
December 31, 2004 is eligible for inclusion in the appropriate
categories.
A story is not eligible if the 2004 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 (i.e., 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 story 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 2005, 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 http://www.trekiverse.us/awards/GoldenOs/ .
Checkballots will be posted for final review on ASCEM:
Period 1: TOS To be determined
Period 2: TNG / DS9 To be determined
Period 3: ENT/ VOY To be determined
Period 4: Misc / Overall To be determined
Checkballots are crucial in catching coding and/or categorization
errors. All authors and readers are urged to participate! Submit
corrections to the address listed in the Checkballot.
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. This means that while
syntax changes can be made, items cannot be added to or subtracted
from ballots.
The Ruth Gifford Award for Contribution to the Newsgroup does not
need a Checkballot.
- Voting basics
Ballots are posted for voting. Voting is done over the course of seven
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 9 PM Eastern on the appropriate Friday (Fri 9 PM Eastern Time
means Sat 2 AM GMT, Fri 6 PM Pacific Time, Sat 10 AM Perth time,
Sat noon Sydney time, Sat 3 AM in most of Europe). A last-chance
reminder will normally be posted at least 24 hours before voting
closes for each cycle.
GO'04 voting schedule:
Period 1: TOS Feb 04 - Feb 18
Period 2: TNG / DS9 Feb 11 - Feb 25
Period 3: ENT/ VOY Feb 18 - Mar 04
Period 4: Misc / Overall Feb 25 - Mar 11
Please note that ASCEM and ASC Awards will not compete the
same series during the same voting period to avoid voter
overload. The ASC voting schedule is:
ASC TOS / TNG Mar 01 - Mar 15
ASC ENT / Misc Mar 11 - Mar 25
ASC VOY / DS9 Mar 21 - Apr 01
ASC Overall Mar 31 - Apr 14
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.
For the Ruth Gifford Award, votes will be counted only if a reason is
given in the field provided. Unlike other awards, you can vote
for as many people as you want.
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.
The Awards team makes every effort to avoid this situation. The GO
Coordinator has final decision authority.
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.us/awards/GoldenOs/voting/ .
Votes may also be submitted to the Votecounter by email at
(goldenosvote@trekiverse.us), 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.
------------------------------------
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.
See the Categorization Primer for basic procedural guidance.
- 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:
A. 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)
B. 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.
C. 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 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))
- Subcategorization of single Stories by siize.
Vignette under 12K
Short 12-28K
Short Story 28-50K
Novelette 50-100K
Novella 100-210K
Novel 200K-1MB
Epic Over 1MB
Where there are approximately 25 stories, they will be split
into subcategories for better competition.
Where there are not enough stories to fill a category, groups
shall be combined in a catch-all category as follows:
Vignette + Short = Short
Vignette + Short + Short Story = Short Story
Short Story + Novelette = Short Story
Novelette + Novella = Novella
Novelette + Novella + Novel = Novel
Novella + Novel = Novel
If there aren't 5x2 stories of Epic length, the stories will
be placed in the next largest-sized story group without
effecting the category name.
It should be noted that while splits of categories do occur
based on size, it's possible due to subcategories dropping out
at each level for some stories to win awards with different
names. For instance, a 7K K/S Challenge Story may end up in:
Challenge Short Story
K/S Short
TOS Vignette
- 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.
While Drabbles shall not compete against Stories, if there is a large
number of Drabbles in a series, those drabbles may be segmented into
smaller groups that compete against each other (e.g. Best TNG Drabble,
Best TNG Slash Drabble, Best TNG Het Drabble).
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 depending if "5x2" is met for each category.
Otherwise the story could compete in Misc f/f.
- Categories for 2004:
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 2004 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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