Fic of the Month: August '11 Nominations

Oh snap, it's already been a month?

Welcome to the nominations post for Fic of the Month: August '11 Edition! Last month went pretty awesomely, but we're still hammering out the kinks. Hopefully, this month will run smoother, especially if you see anything that needs to be fixed up. Don't be afraid! Speak up!

Here's How It Works
At the end of this post, you'll see a massive list of fics. Pick one to three fics and post their titles here. (Obviously, none of your nominations can be one of your own fics.) If you'd like, you can also explain why you're nominating the fic, but that step is completely optional. The important part is that we get the name of a fic down on our list.

Yes, you can nominate something that someone else has already nominated, although to be most effective, you'll generally want to avoid seconding/thirding/whatevering. As in, while we don't really care at this point if you do nominate something someone's covered, we'd prefer it if you didn't, really.

Nominations will generally last for up to two weeks. In the remaining time that month, we'll gather all the fics that you chose and create a new thread for voting. You'll get one vote, but all of the votes will be anonymous (so don't be shy about your decision). Once that time is up, we'll take a peek at which fic got the most votes. Whoever does will be crowned the Fic of the Month, and the rest of you get pats on the back. If there's a tie, it'll be up to the mods of this section (bobandbill and Astinus) to cast the deciding vote.

Simple and straightforward on your part, right?


Eligibility
To clear things up, not everything that gets posted within a month is eligible for being nominated. Here's the requirements to get on the list:

1. Because this is Fic of the Month, only fics updated within a one-month period are eligible. As in, they need to have posted a chapter (or the entire fic needs to have been posted, in the case of one-shots) on the forums any time between the first of the month to the last day of the month in order to qualify on the most basic level. Announcements, reviews, and review responses do not qualify a thread for nomination if the last chapter was not posted within the same month.

In this case, because we're nominating fics for the month of August, only fics with chapters posted between August 1 and August 31 qualify.

2. SWC fics (i.e., fics written for a writing contest hosted by PC) are not eligible. This is because they already receive attention from said contest, so it's rather missing the point of the Fic of the Month competition.

3. Because this is Fic of the Month, poetry is not eligible.

4. The thread must not have been closed for any reason. Yes, kids, breaking forum rules automatically gets your fic booted from the running. Sorry.

5. Fics that have already won Fic of the Month are also not eligible unless this is a completely new version. For example, let's say IanDonyer's Volkner's Tale had won Fic of the Month in its original version. The new version is still eligible because it's technically a different story. However, if Dagzar's Mentor wins Fic of the Month this time around, it's not eligible for further nominations, even if Dagzar adds new material to it. This is just to be fair and allow multiple fics to have the chance at getting on the rec list.

6. You must post your fic on PC to qualify. Sorry, but I'm pretty sure not that many people would like to download and open a PDF or DOC in order to decide whether or not they'd like to nominate you.


What's In It For Me?: Perks of Being Fic of the Month
If nominated, winners for Fic of the Month will receive the honor of having their fic listed on a stickied archive thread for posterity. (Note: This thread will not be up until after we get something to put in it.) That means more attention can be directed towards your fic, and you get to walk away with bragging rights.

There may be other perks in development as well.


Eligible Fics
Just in case you need a refresher (and because I'm crazy), here's August's batch of fics.

Also, from here on out, instead of attempting to sort everything by update date, all stories are now in alphabetical order. Because I really can't be arsed to sort things by the first update they had each month. Sorry.

Note the first: Before anyone asks, no, articles don't count when it comes to sorting titles alphabetically. Just because you start with "the" does not mean you'll be sorted with the T's.

Note the second: All non-Pokémon fics and crossovers will have their fandoms listed in italics. Fics that have had at least one nomination will also be in bold.




Final Notes!:
The system is still in development, so if you can think of any ways to improve this, feel free to shout it out.

In the meantime, nominations for August's Fic of the Month will run from now until September 14, and voting will be held until October 1.

The Darkened Series - The Trick House

Quick Note, I ain't nominating it, but: Okamiden Kai is actually based off of the Okami series of video games. Therefore, it's fan fiction, not original. =P

The Thinking Man's Guide to Destroying the World by Cutlerine

I definitely think this deserves a spot, if not more attention.

We're up to the one-week mark, and we currently have only two nominations. Make this month's run more interesting, folks! There's a lot of great fics that were updated in August, and you have a week left to pick at the very least just one of them. You can even just nominate the ones you've already read if you'd like. Just nominate something so the August FotM doesn't turn out to be a rather boring two-story poll.

Because of its beautiful portrayal of women, I'd like to nominate Colli-

I kid, I kid. xP

I'd actually like to nominate Champion Game by Misheard Whisper. MW knows how to write a decent story, and deserves some more attention. Plus I'd hate it if only two stories were nominated. xP

Oh, and hey JX Valentine. XD

x3 I'm going to nominate 'Within My Own Nightmares' by Dawn Hero for now - I quite like her first person. :3 I do need to take a look at the other entrants, though, so expect another post later. x3 <3

Draco Malfoy said:

Because of its beautiful portrayal of women, I'd like to nominate Colli-

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I'm almost tempted to be a terrible person and take this seriously.

Oh, and hey JX Valentine. XD

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Hi!

katiekitten said:

I do need to take a look at the other entrants, though, so expect another post later. x3 <3

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Sure! It is perfectly A-OK to come back and submit another nomination. We'd just like a maximum of three per person for now.

Last call for nominees! The poll is going up sometime tomorrow, so get in those last-minute choices N-O-W or forever hold your peace, folks!

Remember: If you've already nominated one fic, you can nominate up to two more.

The poll is now up, folks, so get to voting!

Also, one of the things I noticed this time around is the sad lack of nominees. :( Only four? Last month, we had more than this, and we got an extra week to decide this time around. This makes me a sad panda.

So, I was wondering: would it be more appealing to you if you had the option of submitting nominees "anonymously" (by sending a PM to whoever happens to be running the nominations thread)? I get the feeling that might make things more comfortable if you didn't tell the world which fic you liked the most. That and it's an option we can do. Unfortunately, there's not much I can do for those of you who are too lazy to interact on these forums busy in real life. (Oh, Jax, you lovely hypocrite you.)

Asides aside, what say you to this?

It might work better to have the option of anon nominations. Maybe then more people will nominate if they know that their vote won't be seen by others, so there's no pressure on them to vote for a particular fic just because someone that they know wrote it.

I suppose. I wonder though if anyone was actually unsure or something about it, but then idk if they would want to say that here if that was the case. >_<

Would we just stick to anon ones or just use the thread as usual and leave it as an option if peopl don't want to post publically?

Then again forums/chatrooms have just been less active in general bcause suddenly everyone has school/uni again in the northern hemisphere, or so is my understanding.

bobandbill said:

Would we just stick to anon ones or just use the thread as usual and leave it as an option if peopl don't want to post publically?

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I'm thinking we could do both. Like offer people the chance to post it publicly if they really want people to read the fic they're nominating but offer PMing as an option as well. That way, the nominations thread won't be completely nothing but clutter, if that even makes sense.

Then again forums/chatrooms have just been less active in general bcause suddenly everyone has school/uni again in the northern hemisphere, or so is my understanding.

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That's also true, and it's sad to say there's not much we can do about that. I'm just hoping that this'll make it one step easier for when people settle down and get a few spare minutes to look at fic.