The 2011 Silver Pencil Awards ~ Suggestion Topic

[mr_pikachu]

The 2011 Silver Pencil Awards – Suggestion Topic

Hello, fellow Fanficcers! It's time, once again, for the Silver Pencil Awards!

For those of you who aren't familiar, the Silver Pencil Awards are an annual opportunity for us to celebrate the successes of the first half of the year, and also to have some fun with some random community-based awards!

Each Awards season, before we start nominating candidates, we as a community first take a careful look at the existing categories. If you think the list could be better, this is your opportunity to say so! You might think that certain categories have outlived their usefulness, for instance, or you might wonder how we got through so many years without a particular addition to the list. For that matter, maybe one of the existing categories was poorly named, and you think you have a way to improve it.

Whether you'd like to add, remove, or change some categories, this is the place to do it! Just post in this thread saying what you'd like changed and why. After two weeks, we'll take the best of those suggestions and then move to the nominations phase.

You decide what Silver Pencils are up for grabs, so tell us -- what do you want to see this season? Let us know!



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General Fic Awards (Whole Fanfics)

Best Fic of the Forum
Best Pokémon Fic
Best Alternate Fandom Fic
Best Writing Style
Best Plot
Best Poem
Best E-zine Article


Fic Moments (Parts of Fanfics)

Best Moment
Best Plot Twist
Best Chapter
Best Quote


Characters (People and Creatures in Fanfics)

Best Character in a Leading Role
Best Character in a Supporting Role
Best Villain
Best Relationship
Funniest Character
Character Most Deserving of an Ass Whooping
Give the Guy a Break Award (For the character most deserving of respite...)
“Hello, Beastie!” Award (For the character who has overcome seemingly insurmountable odds...)


Member Awards (Fanficcers)

Best Writer
Trooper Award (For the little Ficcer that could...)
Best Reader
Best Contributor


Community Awards (Fanficcers)

Most Likely to Become a Couple
Least Likely to Become a Couple
King of Fanfic
Queen of Fanfic
Jester of Fanfic
Nerdiest Fanficcer
Fanficcer Most Likely to Make You Gasp
Most Helpful Fanficcer
TPM Addict (For those of us who just can't live without it...)
Most Likely to Get Into a Fight Defending Their Fanfic
Most Likely to Cause The Universe to Explode

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The suggestions period will close at 11:59 p.m. Central Standard Time on Saturday, August 13, 2011. Be sure to post your suggestions before then!

[Becky]

Brian, can I vote even as a non-fic writer? Is it open to all?

[mr_pikachu]

Suggesting, nominating and voting are all open to any TPMer, whether you've been involved in writing or not. After all, anyone who'd be interested enough to contribute suggestions, nominations and votes for the Silver Pencils must have done some fic reading, so we'd love to have your contributions!

[Shadow Wolf]

Hey, umm... if possible, can someone provide a link to any golden pen awards thread? Is just that I may want to add some suggestions, but they might already be in there.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

So this is already on Facebook! Awesome!

I just hope we have enough people to fill the positions among the dying community.

Oh, and Shadow Wolf:

http://www.pokemasters.net/forums/se...earchid=148510

[Gavin Luper]

Hmm ... okay, all I can think of to start with is removing the 'Best E-zine Article' category, since the E-zine kind of died off back in 2010.

Other than that ... hmmm ... trying to think if there's anything we are missing.

EDIT: Mikachu, that link didn't work for me, but I found the 2009 Golden Pen Nominations Thread, so here they are for easy reference:

General Fic Awards (Whole Fanfics)

Best Fiction Overall
Best Fanfiction
Best Original Fiction
Best Short Story
Best Poem
Best E-zine Article
Best Plot
Best Dialogue
Best Narrative Voice
Best Description
Best Writing Style
Best Action
Best Setting
Most Original Fiction
Best New Fiction
Most Improved Fiction

Fic Moments (Parts of Fanfics)

Best Quote
Best Chapter
Best Plot Twist
Best Interpersonal Conflict
Best Fight
Most Suspenseful Moment
Best Moment

Characters (People and Creatures in Fanfics)

Best Character in a Leading Role
Best Character in a Supporting Role
Best Antagonist
Most Original Character
Least Likable Character
Best Romantic Relationship
Best Un-Romantic Relationship
Best Character Development
Best Cast

Member Awards (Fanficcers)
Best Writer
Most Dedicated Writer
Most Improved Writer
Best Reader
Most Dedicated Reader
Best Newcomer to the Boards

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Hm, the link doesn't work for me either anymore. Don't know how I did it yesterday...

I think Best Newcomer to the Boards would be a cool award again, it would encourage new people to come here. The only problem is that there hardly is any at the moment...

And may I add Community Awards rule! Racing for the TPM Addict Award again?

[Shadow Wolf]

Well, let's see... I'll just throw some ideas.

General Fanfic is pretty well so I don't think I have much to add. I thought of a "Best Original Fic" and a "Best Muse article" but the former is already established and the latter, well... I couldn't find any Muse.

I think Fic moments could use more categories, though I haven't come up with anything great yet. (Best Climax, but that can be the same as Best Moment; and Best battle, but that's similar to Best Fight)

As for the other categories, I believe they are also complete (of course, if I come up with something, I'll let you know)

Well, see you around!

[Gavin Luper]

I'd love to see the Best Newcomer award return, Mikachu, but I agree with you - I don't think, at least this time around, that we have enough genuine newcomers (ie. not returned people) to fill out an entire ballot. If everyone else feels differently I'm happy to add it into the nominations ballot, but currently I'm thinking it would be an empty ballot or an autowin, so there's not much point.

Louis, I think we should combine "Best Original" into "Best Alternate Fandom" and create a merged category. I think this awards ballot will be relatively quiet given the state the forums have been in for the last few months, so probably for the Golden Pens at the end of the year we could look at doing two separate categories, especially if activity picks up, which I think it will.

Any more thoughts, peoples?

[Gavin Luper]

Double posting but I want to make sure people see this post, because I have two suggestions:

1) What do we think about cutting down on the number of awards categories? There are a lot of categories but the last few months/year has been pretty quiet on the fic front. If we reduce the number of awards it might make for a more competitive and fun awards season. What do you guys reckon? And if we were to cut categories, what would you be okay to see disappear? (Note: this would just be for this year's SPs - the GPs could be more comprehensive.)

2) I motion that we trial abandoning the preferential voting system this season and just make it one vote per category to make it easier and quicker for us all to submit a full ballot.

Thoughts? Please discuss, I'd like to hear what everyone thinks on these points.

Cheers!

[mr_pikachu]

Okay, some suggestions from me!

I'd be fine dropping the "Character Most Deserving of an Ass Whooping" award, because that's pretty close to redundant with "Best Villain." (Sure, I could see even the hero of a fic winning it under some circumstance, but it's one of the weaker categories in my opinion, and if we're looking to trim the metaphorical hedges a bit....) I also wouldn't be too torn up to see "Most Likely to Get Into a Fight Defending Their Fanfic" off the ballot this year.

(For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Golden Pens and Silver Pencils, our awards traditionally are decided by preferential voting, where you can -- but aren't required to -- select up to three nominees for any one category. Your top nominee receives three points, your second nominee receives two points, and your third nominee gets one point. Whichever nominee gets the most points across all ballots wins the category.)

As for the voting system, I personally like the 3-2-1 setup. It's a little more nuanced, which I appreciate, since a nominee that is just slightly lesser in the minds of some voters but absolutely blows away others can win the category on the basis of that decisive feeling for that second set of voters. Of course, it certainly makes voting take considerably longer, so I can understand why there might be a movement to change the system. Despite my own preference, if other people would prefer that we try a "one vote per category per ballot" system, whether as a permanent change or a temporary experiment, I'm okay with that.

[Sike Saner]

I've always liked the 3-2-1 system as well; I've liked being able to support more than just my absolute favorites. But I am just a little curious as to what effects trying something else might have, so... I guess my vote is do whatever?

[Gavin Luper]

I also prefer the 3-2-1 preferential voting system. But given the long time between awards and the lack of recent activity, I thought it might be worth an experiment as a once-off and we can reassess from there. I think it will take much less time to submit a ballot which would ultimately, hopefully, result in more ballots submitted overall.

[Gavin Luper]

Three days to go, people! Any more suggestions before the nominations round begins?

[mr_pikachu]

So, with two days left for suggestions, it seems like there's not much support either way for the 3-2-1 or the one-vote-per-category systems. If no one has an opinion, we'll probably go with 3-2-1, and people who would prefer to just do one vote for each category can just give their top choice three points for each of them. But if we hear that some people would like a change, the experiment may just continue. So... yeah. Let us know!

Also, more category suggestions? ^^

[Becky]

I can't think of any additional categories...but then again, I'm new to this. I do think fewer categories makes for a more selective process.

...I also know I have several stories to write feedback on! Time to catch up.

[mr_pikachu]

The suggestions period is now over! Stay tuned; we'll have the nominations thread posted shortly.