retired_bbcarr

Erm Simon, you can't enter this time, you're counting the votes :p </BLOCKQUOTE>

Oh, yeah, hadn't put the two together there I blame the fact that it's two in the morning.

retired_destiny1124

Voted

retired_bbcarr

Received, Faramir

retired_bbcarr

Eligible Voters List

Amaroq
attjen
<STRIKE>Ben Arsenal</STRIKE>
BobBev
chesterfan2
Chonner
Damien77
danny.harv
Donners
<STRIKE>Faramir</STRIKE>
flipsix3
HD
irishregan
Mambaman
<STRIKE>mark wilson27</STRIKE>
markyt
Nathan Pike
Panpardus
<STRIKE>Peacemaker7</STRIKE>
prince_capri
Raptor
Simply Perfect
Spav
<STRIKE>Terk</STRIKE>
Wegason
WLKRAS

retired_rkp278

Vote sent.

Though only three stories for Hall of Fame? Thought there might be a few more really.

BarryLFC

I'll vote later. Just a little surprised at a couple of things: firstly that people still don't seem to understand the "Spirit of FMS" category and have nominated established writers, and secondly, were d_s and King Jeff automatically nominated for the HoF as past FMSers of the Year and, given that they likely won't get in, how long do they stay on the ballot? Forever? 5 years? Just out of interest.

Otherwise, it's looking like the best awards in years. Except that I was snubbed for FMSer of the Year again!

retired_sachin_g006

Sent

retired_bbcarr

Yeah, given that part of the Spirit of FMS award is the old 'Most Underrated' and none of those nominated this year can really be classed as such, they have 33 nominations between them.

jeff and d_s were automatically nominated as former FMSer of the year, and I believe that they are only (automatically) on the ballot for this year, though if they don't get voted on, they can be nominated through the open process in future years.

Ben, the three stories nominated for Hall of Fame are all in automatically as previous Story of the Year winners. No story (nor indeed writer) came through the nomination process with enough votes.

Also, received the votes of both Ben and Mark

Raptor

Also noticed the Spirit of FMS award's nominees, and I think it's time to scrap it after this year. Re-branding it as we did a couple of years ago hasn't helped to cement its position as a unique unsung heroes award, and the criteria of scrapping anyone with a final round nomination in another category limited it too much, so there's little middle ground to operate in IMO.

Also not sure we need a writers' HoF, because when you're in there with a story, you're in there already, and without an HoF story, one could argue you don't belong there.

Plus what Iain said about how long you stay on the ballot paper.

shannon2007

Yeah but we decided that it would be a good idea to actually honour some writers and you're outvoted on this one by a long way.

I said to Simon on the awards forum that I did wonder if people were really understanding Spirit of FMS. I think for a start that name is wrong, but at the end of the day I've always found 'under rated' a contentious issue anyway and as for perserverance well actually why should you get an award just for blabbering on and on really. So me agrees, it's time for this meaningless award to be scrapped.

As for HoF we decided to put these ones forward automatically this year, it being the first time in about 100 years we've actually had a recognized HoF for a start and an actual openly known procedure to get there. Won't happen in future years and in some ways I'm quite pleased nothing got 20% of the first round ballot because it underlines how tough it's going to be to get in there.

Besides all that, we did mention all this in the various discussion threads both here and the other place and so all these things have been decided already and are not open for discussion anymore.

(You did allow me to take charge :p)