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FMS Awards 2006 (No, you're neither drunk nor a tad late in waking up from hibernation ;) )
Basically just pushing through something discussed as far back as 2003. A bit one-sided by usual standards, but when computer problems come on top of an overly busy schedule, you quickly find yourself running out of alternatives.
As you all know, the FMS Awards used to be a month(ish)-long "celebration" of the FMS community's year, stretched out over two rounds of voting. Inevitably, people would be inclined to vote for more recent stuff, and HD would miss out on his long overdue award Oh, and people would refuse to get their lazy arse into gear and prefer to sit out the nomination round, only voting when the final four (or so) in a category were up.
Time to change all that. This year, there'll be two interim rounds, where you can nominate (i.e. vote) for a story or person in most of the ± 20 categories well before the end of the community year. Originally, I wanted to make it three interim rounds, one of each quarter, but we might as well take the opportunity to change another thing: have the awards year run parallel with the FM version year. If nothing else, it saves the frustration of having to cut out the massive overload of stillborn/demo stories that always surface when the new version is out, which just so happens to coincide with the start of the awards process. So unless there's a major revolt against this, this year's ceremony will be around October.
Back to the interim rounds: they're now (early April) and early July. The relevant caterogies will go up tomorrow (when I *should* have my own computer back and be able to tell you if the Index has survived), and you can vote once in any category you fancy. For your vote to be taken seriously (that's a nice way of saying it will be ignored otherwise :p ) you'll need to vote in a minimum of 5 categories. Doing so, however, guarantees you your ballot paper for the final round come Autumn.
Any story that gains a third-plus-one (or a third rounded upwards to a full number, whichever prevents a three-way tie the most effective) of the total number of votes in a category, but with the added condition that this number is at least four (4) will automatically go on the final round shortlist for the end-of-season awards. Under normal circumstances, this would mean most categories would see one story qualify for the finals every interim round, though in theory it could be two, or none at all. Either way, the nominations won't be forgotten for a next round I'd imagine.
Then, around September (or one month before the scheduled release of FM2007 to be precise), we'll have a last nomination round, not dissimilar to what we've had until this year. This is an open round in which the final shortlist in each category will be completed. Unlike last year, it's not *certain* there'll be four places up for grabs in the final though, some will have been taken by the interim round winners. In principle, the top-2 in this last nomination round will qualify for the final, though the plan is to have 4 in every category, so it will depend on how many stories were elected until that stage.
I'm sure I've been vague enough for now, but those who managed to log in to this forum should also be capable of decoding the above. Fingers crossed the Index and Archives aren't FUBAR.
Oh, and PM/HD, start promoting the use of multiplayer stories :p no opposition = no award :p
(which reminds me to mention that all categories listed tomorrow will remain subject to amalgamation if during the course of the year interest is virtually non-existent)
03-31-2006, 07:12 AM
FMS Awards 2006 (No, you're neither drunk nor a tad late in waking up from hibernation ;) ) Post #2
Yeah, was going to, but there's this complication...
The good news is: my harddisk appears secured. The bad news is: it's not operating as a boot disk, and I've been temporarily given an additional disk to boot from. Now, I've just completed a full backup of 40-odd GB of data, and would assume that the full re-installation which I will do first thing in the morning means I can restore all relevant data as well. But I am a wee bit sceptical (what with no fewer than 8 computers crashing around me since the turn of the year), so I really want to see it before I believe it.
In short: I don't have the full category list and voting instructions, but they'll almost certainly be identical to the most recent FMS awards, so feel free to start thinking about nominees along those sort of lines.
03-31-2006, 10:55 PM
FMS Awards 2006 (No, you're neither drunk nor a tad late in waking up from hibernation ;) ) Post #8
You Europeans like complicated voting systems don't y'all? Why not just make the top two in each interim catagory elgible for the finals, plus one from the September go-round. That gives you a nice neat five stories for the final shortlist.
Still, a good system to replace the old.
04-01-2006, 05:59 PM
FMS Awards 2006 (No, you're neither drunk nor a tad late in waking up from hibernation ;) ) Post #9
FMS Awards 2006 (No, you're neither drunk nor a tad late in waking up from hibernation ;) ) 
Oh, and people would refuse to get their lazy arse into gear and prefer to sit out the nomination round, only voting when the final four (or so) in a category were up.
Why not just make the top two in each interim catagory elgible for the finals, plus one from the September go-round. That gives you a nice neat five stories for the final shortlist. 
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