Raptor

Yeah, but you're a Yank, you're supposed to love drawn-out counting procedures :p

Educated Hick

I ain't your typical Yank. :p

Besides, I cast a prostest vote in that contest, so obviously I didn't really care for the main two candidates.

Raptor

To answer the question how long it takes to count these votes... :p

Been at it for 35 minutes, trying to de-code some of your votes. So far we've had: one unclaimed vote (discounted), two or three people voting for themselves (not against the rules but VFYIL :p ), votes in the wrong categories, votes for previous winners of categories (though tbf, I forgot to post that now traditional restriction), and one dissident voting against PM7 (take him out and shoot him ).

Results are forthcoming...

Raptor

Ok, there we go...

Out of the nine categories, three failed to come up with a finalist on the basis of this first interim vote.

Best Short Story only got three nominations, all different ones, so no finalist there. The same goes for Best Story Idea, where out of nine votes, only two went to the same candidate.

Most importantly, the overall Story of the Year category was robbed of an early finalist, not because the story pulling most votes failed to reach the "third-plus-one/rounded up" target, but because it's total share of the vote was restricted to 3, where 4 were required for any story to be assured of a place in October's final. Nevertheless, I need to PP ! PP-70 that is (chesterfan2) will probably be remembered by enough people come the next voting window.

On to the categories that did produce clear enough winners for an early FMS Awards 2006 Nomination then...

Starting off with the consolation prize: I need to PP ! PP-70 that is (chesterfan2) does go into the Best Rest of the World category final. 4 votes (36%) here did the trick.

Meanwhile, Terk must've given half of youse head during my less-active period of the past few months. Quite how else he won FOUR categories is comfortably beyond me :p

Everybody's favourite Jambo (sorry wee Euan) will feature in October's end-of-season finale in the following categories:

Best Story Character - Stephen Beckett - Whisky and Women (Terk) 4 votes/36%

Best Story Title - I've got ninety thousand pounds in my pyjamas... (Terk) 4 votes/36%

Best British Story - Whisky and Women (Terk) 5 votes/56%

... and last but not least: the first unanimous decision in FMS Awards history... 100% of the (valid) votes in the Best Fantasy/Super League Story category (4 votes). Of course, Spav's "Down Under..." story (3 votes!!!) was ineligible due to winning it in '05.

This just edges out the support Peacemaker7 got in Best International Management Story. Out of 10 votes, he won 9, 8 of which went to To Boldly Go As Faroe As We Can (Peacemaker7), that also ran chesterfan2 close in terms of overall SOTY votes.

So there you have it. Let the biatching commence :p

chesterfan2

Unacustomed as I am to making public speeches, I really would like to thank everyone who voted for me. To nearly get the Story of the Year nomination is truly humbling (though probably not as humbling as actually getting it.)

Peacemaker7

Right I'm confused.

So, whats the status of stories in this voting period that haven't won nominations, can they still be voted in during future nomination periods or is that their chance gone. And what constitutes a position when, if, a story becomes ineligble to be nominated - apart of course from the fact it already has a place in the final.

There may be some stories that perhaps you don't feel are worthy of nomination yet, but which may grow in the future and you suddenly realise that hey, this is quite good.

Raptor

Anything that didn't make it, can still be voted for again in the next nomination round(s), for the exact reason specified in your last paragraph.

The current process is just to pre-book the leading stories in the earlier part of the FM season their place in the final.

If anything, I would assume the ones that didn't make it yet, would have a head start in the next interim round, because people who backed it before, might do it again, and those who backed the story that already got into the final will need to find another one to nominate (if they choose to vote, of course).

And at the end of the FM season, there'll be a free-for-all round where the remaining slots in the final (in principle: 4 per category) will be allocated on the basis of the old system, whereby the highest number of votes counts (the old "First Round Vote" system).

Raptor

Only thing people need to keep in mind is that a story cannot win the same award twice, so anything that's won in a previous year (and we're obviously talking about ongoing stories here) can't win that category again, so as an extension of that, it can also not be nominated. Obviously, winning a geographical subcategory one year still makes a story eligible for SOTY in the next.