Fannish stuff

[selenay]

First thing - happy birthday descended_sg1! May you have much cake, many fun pressies and a lovely day :-)

I've rambled in the comments to my previous post about my continued conflict over the interview-possible job, so I won't ramble further :-)

Instead...


I took a look at the redesigned website for the Stargate Fan Awards 2005. I am very pleased that they're expanding to include Atlantis fic - yay! This is a good thing and I hope that the sane members of the fandom will nominate and vote for the good stuff (already have a short-list in mind for a few fics) and overwhelm the probable reams of crap that will also get nommed.

However, I remain to be convinced about how well the new categories/nomination system will work. Hmm. On one hand, adding a darkfic category and finally moving non-con away from BDSM is very cool. An all inclusive Kink category will make some fans much happier, although I'm still not certain about their description of the Kink category. But at least non-con has been moved somewhere slightly more appropriate.

::Sel waits for the roars of disapproval from fellow fen::

The old system had many faults, I'll be the first to admit that. I'm not sure, though, whether the new system will be a huge improvement. It may reduce the yells about gen/ship/slash categorisation and mis-assigned fic, but I can still see potential problems. Will the final noms reflect the structure of the list that they released? Hell, that's gonna be an enormous page to work through. Will fans still complain about the categories? How will voting be handled? How many fics does a category need to be included - will some get dropped for no good reason? How easy will it be to find the femslash for those who only read it? Ditto for minor pairings?

Finding an up side, the nomination process looks to be easier, particularly the idea of nominating fics one by one rather than submitting a great big list of fics all at once. That will certainly encourage me to nominate stuff because I know that I can do it gradually over a few days rather than attempting to collate it all at once. This year I am definitely nominating some stuff so that there are fics on the list that I can vote for full-heartedly rather than choosing the lesser of several evils in many categories. Let's see a real reflection of what people are reading and enjoying rather than a poorly disguised popularity contest.

I want this particularly for Atlantis because this is a chance to highlight some of the good fic that's being produced and hidden among the dire crap that 85% of Atlantis fic represents *sigh* The nominations for the awards usually include some of the best fic out there and a lot of people use them as a guide for good fic (just judging from the number of people who still get to my pages from the 2003 and 2004 nomination pages). It's a chance to showcase the best of the fandom and give newbies an idea of what's out there. Note that I'm not limiting to the winners here - winning is an achievement, but I'd say that the nominations are a better summary of the fandom's good stuff. The winners are usually the big names who are incredibly popular and everyone recognises. This is cool. But some of the really good stuff (I still contend that Loki's Curse by Jonah in the Whale should have won something and how Pepe's Accomodating Daniel beat Anais' Ghost in the Machine for best angst is beyond me) doesn't win purely because it's up against a big name author's stuff.

The corollary to the above is certain (*ahem*Orry*ahem*) nominations that made me want to spork my eyes out. Eeep.

And I've rather lost where I was going with this...

Huh.

Anyway, I'll be supporting the awards, nominating a few things and seeing how it all pans out this year. It will be interesting, to say the least :-)



That was intended to be a short thought. God, I can ramble :-)

Comments

[yragg.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you can.

But it was all relevant!

:))

[destina.livejournal.com]

This is a good thing and I hope that the sane members of the fandom will nominate and vote for the good stuff (already have a short-list in mind for a few fics) and overwhelm the probable reams of crap that will also get nommed.

It's a lovely thought, but it didn't work last year, or the year before. By which I suppose I've just unsubtly inferred that some of the winning stories are crap, haven't I? However, some gems do often sneak through, as was proven the last couple of years when some lovely stories received nods.

I have posted essays about this each year I've been in the fandom, and I agree with you: nominations matter more than 'awards', which are more about 'favorites' and kinks, and not about 'best'. 'Best' is too subjective. Nominations mean that some individual liked your story, and remembered it, and wanted others to read it too. And that's very cool. :)

[selenay]

*g* Well, at least my ramble had a point :-)

Am I guessing that BSG has provided a new lust object? Just a wild guess...

[selenay]

It's a lovely thought, but it didn't work last year, or the year before.

*sigh* I know. But I live in hope.

By which I suppose I've just unsubtly inferred that some of the winning stories are crap, haven't I?

*g* There were a few wins that I agreed with, but there are always a few that leave me thinking "WTF? Did anyone actually read that one before voting for it?"

Nominations mean that some individual liked your story, and remembered it, and wanted others to read it too. And that's very cool. :)

*g* Absolutely. The winners aren't really about 'best' story - they're about 'most popular' or sometimes 'most well-known' story. The noms, for me, are more telling and give a better idea of what people liked and what stood out for them.

Old fics.

[alphekka-alpha.livejournal.com]

The nominations for the awards usually include some of the best fic out there and a lot of people use them as a guide for good fic (just judging from the number of people who still get to my pages from the 2003 and 2004 nomination pages).

I noticed that in the questionnaire results, someone had suggested that nominations should be confined to the current year. I was not happy about that as I, too, go back to earlier years in search of fic., partly in the hopes of finding something different that's worth reading and partly because the fics. are, necessarily, set in earlier seasons...

However, that said, last night I thought I'd try a gen. fic. for a change and the first one I hit on - gen. remember - said quite blatantly 'Pairing: Jack/Sam'. GAKK! So went and re-read 'Midnight Intoxication' instead.

Anyhoo, I commented to The Committee about this, pointing out that people new to the fandom and having a lot of catching up to do might wish to nominate an earlier fic. and feel left out if unable to do so.

Had a nice reply taking my comments on board and saying that it was unlikely that a time limit would be introduced. So that's good. 8-)
--

Re: Old fics.

[selenay]

I noticed that in the questionnaire results, someone had suggested that nominations should be confined to the current year.

I saw that too and had pretty much the same reaction. Glad that a time limit won't be introduced :-)

gen. remember - said quite blatantly 'Pairing: Jack/Sam'

That's the reason I rarely read gen in this fandom :-) It's the most hotly debated category description and sadly too many people think that "Jack/Sam is canon and therefore gen. So there." Bleh.

Nothing against Jack/Sam (paranoidangel42), but I choose not to read it and would prefer not to accidentally fall into it.