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Authors' Choice Awards?

Okay, I think maybe the best thing to do at this point would be to try this, and see if and where it goes wrong

here's a TENTATIVE list of Crtics for the panel. Thus list is based entirely on those who expressed an interest in doing this on this thread. The names are in signed-up order:

Dr_mabeuse (chair)
KillerMuffin
Medjay
Wildsweetsone
PaulX35
TheEarl
Kristydoll
English Lady
Natural Born Eros
Wicked N Erotic
Master Vassago
Deliciously Naughty
Madame Manga
Svenska Flicka
Just John1

If I count correctly, this gives us 15 critics, but in order to have someone with a semblance of objective disinterest, I won't nominate or vote and will serve only as arbiter.
Of course I've excluded some important people, but I needed some way to pare down the list, so this is what we'll start with. If anyone really feels they've been slighted, or knows of someone who feels they were, let me know. This is just an experiment.

NOMINATING:
Only people on the list may nominate.
All you critics can nominate one story, either your own or anyone else's. This in itself might be a problem, since those who nominate their own stories will seem selfish and self-interested if a lot of people nominate others' stories, but what can you do?

I think it would be good if we could establish a time-frame in which the stories had been published, but I don't know how to do this. Without a time limit, we'll be selecting from all the stories on the site, which will make it seem like the story we finally choose will be the all-time best on the site, which is absurd

I'd like to have a separate board for posting story nominations, but for now just list them here. All you have to do is post a link to your submission on this thread, and give us a brief explanation of what you found especially good about the story.

Let's give a week for nominations. Nominations close Xmas night.

You don't have to nominate anything. You won't be kicked off the commitee and will still get to vote if you don't nominate. Don't hold your nose and nominate. In other words, don't say "well, this is the best of all the crap I've seen." It should be an outstanding story in your opinion.

VOTING:
Not sure how we'll do this, if we want to do it openly, or in secret, or using a poll.
I'm not even sure of what voting system we'll use, either a single vote per person, or a weighted multi-vote: 3 points for best, two points for second, etc.
We won't bother with different categories here either. Not yet. Let's just see how this works first.

AWARD:
It's important to remember that this is not really an award, it's an endorsement. We're saying that, in our opinion, the story we select is especially good. It doesn't mean it's the best.


Any other comments or suggestions, we'll deal with as they arise or let me know.

---dr.M.
 
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The Critics' Choice Awards

The Critics' Choice Awards sounds like the best title to me, especially with the suggested little gold Oscar icon beside the story on the main index. (Winners could feel free, ala James Cameron, to take out full page ads and/or bonk anonymous detractors over the head with the coveted statue.)

But what about those of us without the taste, education, or flowing prose required to judge or participate in such an august contest? (That is to say: What about me?) Could there not be a Special Olympics, perhaps? Most Unerotic True Story, Longest Run On Sentence, Most Incestuous, and of course, Least Punctuation are some of the categories that leap to my mind. Maybe these stories could earn an "S" (for special)

Any thoughts?
 
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Only problem with your list of 15 is what if they all read the same sort of story? I would think you would want someone for each category so as not to leave stories out.

I would also think you would perhaps get Laurel to put an advertisement for critics on the front of the webpage to see if any non-author types are interested.
 
I think "Critics' Recommendation" is a better title than "Critics' Award", because, really, that's all that this is. We can't possibly pick the best stories on the site. All we can do is pick a few stories from the ones we've read and say "We agree that these are good and probably worth your notice."

I just don't see any other way to make this "fair" in terms of including all authors and all entries.

As I understand it, Laurel and Manu currently mark stories that they think are exceptionally well done with a little "E". The E doesn't mean that these stories are the best in show or anything like that, just that they feel that these are good stories. The "award" we're talking about is just that.

There is nothing at all to stop other people from evaluating stories and giving out their own "awards" as well. People could even form their own critics' circles, or they could do this solo. I for one would love to see a list of Worsts. I love Worsts lists.

I don't know if Laurel would be crazy about having to tag so many stories with little icons, but I'm not sure we want to tag the stories ourselves. I think we could just keep a list on the board, that way people could comment on our choices and Laurel wouldn't have to do anything. She's got enough to do.

I also think we should have turnover of critics. Either maked all of them pick their own replacements or half of them, or something. But I'm already wishing someone would take over my spot.

As for exclusing certain categories: let's see how this trial "award" thing works out before we worry unduly about that.

---dr.M.
 
I think that you, as chair, should create a secondary ID like the poets at the forum occasionally do. Call it the Critics or something. This ID will post the results of the critics/author recommendations. When you give up the chair, you can pass it and the ID on to whomever takes the job.

A little professional distance from peeved people.
 
Is there a minimum or limit to how many we can nominate?

(i'm away offline from tomorrow until the 13th, so need to hurry to get my nominations forward by the end of today... )
 
Couture said:
Only problem with your list of 15 is what if they all read the same sort of story? I would think you would want someone for each category so as not to leave stories out.
Click to expand...

Well, in case we arrange things this way, I'll post a list of some categories that I read. Possibly at least one person is reading stories in each category, but if we have gaps, maybe someone can volunteer to cover them. Obviously the most popular categories will have duplicated coverage, and that's probably as it should be.

I could volunteer for any of these:

Nonconsent
Anal
Gay Male
Novels and Novellas

Hmm...that does seem to add up to something, doesn't it? ;-)

MM
 
I actually hate asking for feedback from peers, it tends to seem needy, but I would be willing to submit a story among them for a round of perusing and grilling.

I think it could, GASP, make us all better author's even for the spank pieces. lol.
Click to expand...

Master V: Why not submit a story to the Story Discussion Circle (quick plug). Well worth the effort for the return you'll get.


DrM: I'm flattered that you take me seriously :D. I can judge pretty much anything apart from BDSM, Anal, Gay Male, Group Sex and Mature.

The Earl
 
I'd read and judge most categories, with less preference for gay male, animals and heavy non-consent & violence.

As to judging our own work: apart from critics --obviously-- not scoring their own work, we should take good care to never create impressions of critics favouring each other's work.

Any thoughts as to how to avoid this?

And: we might want to contact Laurel on this. Has anyone?

Paul
 
Made my day!

I really appreciate being nominated... I'm good for anything but Gay Male, anal, sci fi (too technical for me I can never understand what's going on) and cross dressing and transexuals (in the words of Jerry "not that there'e anything wrong with that"). I've already started thinking about the stories I'd nominate, but I do still need a definition on what time frame for the stories. A suggestion: perhaps there is no limit for the first "contest" but here after we limit it to stories posted within a month of the start of the eval period? or to be fair perhaps we go the first two "contests" with no limits and then make the limitation of one month from the beginning of the evaluation period. Just a suggestion

Thanks

JJ1
 
Am wondering about this time frame as well - from the stories we are to choose from.

As far as categories, I read many - except I don't read any incest stories - but my main focus is bdsm.

And I do have a selection in mind, but will wait until I hear about the "time" factor.

kristy
 
I thought about it and as far as submitting My own stories goes I will not submit one. I may change My mind at a later time but for now I think that would just be selfish and dangerous lol.

I think I have a story in mind but as for now I will wait and see what the time frame is. I will also be available to read any section other than gay male. That just turns My stomach. I did write one of those but simply at the request of a friend.
 
I have already nominated one story, but I could recommend more, if you want.

My favourite cateories are Interracial, Celebrities, Group Sex, Gay Male, and Humor & Satire.
 
What a bunch or perverted critics we are! <LOL>

Okay, we still need someone to handle lesbian voyeuristic space alien sex. Any takers?

I wonder how our own dislikes will influence our voting. Would we be able to recognize a really great bestiality story? I wouldn't. I can't even stand to read them. This will really take some critical objectivity on our part.

First of all on the time limits for the stories we nominate: let's do as Just_John and Kridtydoll suggest and open it to all times, so all stories on the site are eligible for nomination. (Do try and stay away from the ones that are generally recognized as great, though. Those have already received some recognition.)

Remember too that you don't have to nominate anything. Passing on the nomination will not disqualify you from voting.

Remember too that you don't have to vote, either. If all the stories end up being things you can't stomach, better to pass on the vote than to hold your nose and pick the least offensive.

I'm sorry to see that most of us will probably not nominate our own stories, but I guess it's inevitable. The original idea was that the critics would be rewarded for reading all these stories by having their own word critiqued as well, but I guess that already happens in the Story Discussion Circle.

What else?

Muffin, I don't know if creating a new ID at this point would save me from whatever retaliation or wrath this little effort engenders. It doesn't really seem wirth the effort, and I already have so many enemies, a few more couldn't hurt. Besides, I'm stil lwaiting for those bribes to start coming in.

---dr.M.
 
After a year at this site as an unregistered jerk-off, I could probably provide some insight on the lesbian front. Unfortunately, my fiance is very boring and as a result i find it hard to judge the realism ;)

I don't see why it is a problem to have some categories under/over represented by the group though. If what we recommend reflects what we read, that is better than leaving out good stories for stories that fit the right categories. Isn't it?

Also, I'd love to recommend my own stories. I don't see what all this modesty is about. :eek: And even though I know it isn't Dr M's thing, I'd like to start with A Perfect gift.

Of course, if we aren't nominating our own stuff, I'd like to suggest Killer Muffin's amazing Safe with the enemy - even though she's already won far too many awards...

Cheers

Eros
 
i can see i'm not going to have a chance to read all the stories being put up for nomination before i go offline tomorrow.

i will pass on this set and catch up with the next month. it's only fair. dr. do you want nominations from me for this month?
 
Right, hang on slow down and WOAH!

Can we have a simple break down of the requrements we've got going here.

Ok so we nominate, we read, we decide if we like or not. heres some questions.

Time frame.

Are we nominating stories up till christmas or do we have to read and vote too?


Voting.

Ok this might be silly but how are we voting? Are we using the lit 1-5 scale or something else? So many people complain about 1-5 not being a wide enough scale maybe we should think about voting 1-10 instead?



Nominations and scores.

Where do we post our nominations,I assume here. Then where do we submit our votes? On this thread, on another similar public thread or by PM to you Mr Adjudicator?




Ok those are my questions for now. Better get looking for stories to nominate!*L*
 
More questions & proposals

I'm already seeing people nominating, adding comments while we are also still discussing ins and outs. I would like to propose to do the nominating not public, and also consider taking possible discussions off the public board. It would be good though to have other critics' comments available, although that can also lead to "band wagon" effects. Let me hear opinions on this please?
Would it be technically possible to have a non-public section here accessible to "members" of this bunch?

I would also like to propose to use a 5-point scale, and also use its full band-width. So an averagely good nominated story would then get a 3. That will allow a bit more room for nuance, we'd be soon in the 4,80-4,99 bandwidth otherwise.

Paul
 
well I was telling my husband about this idea and also about the voting and how it needed to be decided if it'd be public or private or whatever.Well he is a web designer and he said it'd be no problem for him to design a site where people would log in, be able to vote(and vote only once because of the log in process) and He could put it on my homepage.


I said i wasn't sure if people would want it, or if there were plans to keep the voting on the lit forums or what, but i throw this suggestion out as a possibility.
 
This round is the alpha model. It's really just an experiment to see how and if this whole concept of a Critics' Recommendation Award works, and to uncover those areas where we need to modify or change the protocols to get better and easier results.

For that reason, I don't think we should start fooling with it too much. Let's just see how it works, see where we want to make changes in it, and then make the changes in the next round.

WSO, if you won't be around for the nominating then you are certainly excused from nominating. No one has to participate either in nominating or voting. If you want to appoint someone to take your place, that's another option. Just let me know. (We'll miss your aggressive niceness though.)

Nominating: One story per critic. Let's keep it simple.
Deadline for nominations: Midnight, Xmas.
Confidentiality: This is probably a good idea, but I'm not sure it's worth the trouble of implementing at this point. Given the enormous number of stories you have to choose from, I can't believe someone's going to get angry with you for ignoring one of their stories, and I'd like to keep this process as open and transparent as possible. So your nominations will be a matter of record.
If you have a problem with that, PM me & we'll work something out.

Deadline for voting: To be determined by discussion. What's reasonable? Assume fifteen stories. Is a week enough time?
Nominate your own stories: Fine with me. That was the original idea, and otherwise we'll just get "you nominate me, I'll nominate you" nonsense going on.

Voting Method: I originally thought of a straight up or down, one vote per critic method as being the easiest. But that might be too simplistic.
Using the normal 1 to 5 rating might be better, but remember that this is actually *rating* the stories rather than simply *voting* on which is the best, and so requires more work.
Let's try the 1 to 10 scale. We're supposed to be critics, and our jusdgment should be more nuanced than you can accomplish with a 1 to 5 scale. So unless I hear some good arguments for or against, let's go with 1 to 10. We can reduce the final score to the 1 to 5 scale if we want for purposes of comparison or whatever.

Voting Technique: I think this should be private and done through PM or email to me. I can make a list of how everyone voted for distribution to the critics so you know I'm not fooling around with the results (where oh where are all those bribes anyhow?)

Final scores will just be the mathematical average of the ratings.

Which brings to mind another topic.
We've got to keep in mind that this is not really an "award". The cash prize is approximately zero, and Lord knows how much prestige this carries. What this is is only a recommendation, an endorsement. I can tell already that this is not the way people are going to view this. They're going to see it as a best-in-show award, and--I repeat--that's exactly what it is not.
With that in mind, is it even fair to talk about a "winner"? Isn't being nominated just as big a deal as having the highest rating?
Might we provide a more useful service by just posting lists of those stories that we as critics think are unusually good?

--dr.M.





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