2005 ASC Awards FAQ The 2005 ASC Awards will occur this coming March through April. This FAQ details the rules that the Awards will follow. This FAQ is version 5.01 Version History: --------------------------- Version 4.91 Began editing for 2006 with history updates and year changes Noted the end of the Seema era Added Rocky to Coordinator Role TBAed the Assistant slot Altered Stephen's title Version 4.92 Altered schedule per discussion with Rocky to 7 day offset Revised the start time from 10pm to 9am Version 5.00 Added Rocky's e-mail Added Assistant Coordinator Version 5.01 Corrected start date due to problems Introduction and History ------------------------ The ASC Awards are a feedback based awards. Points are scored based on the replies to the Awards Commenting List and how much feedback is given. While winners are announced, the key to the ASC Awards is not the winners but the feedback to the authors that it generates. The ASC Awards are entering their eighth year running, having started with stories posted February 1, 1995 to January 31,1996. It has been run under four coordinators. Stephen ran the Awards for 1995 to 1997, and then again in 2001. Charlie took over in 1998. Kattz ran the 1999 and 2000 Awards. Seema ran the awards from 2002 to 2004. Rocky has assumed the coordinator's slot for 2005. Key Personnel ------------- The ASC Awards are beginning to recruit personnel for the 2004 Awards Season. If you think you have time during the periods listed for each post, please contact Rocky ASC Awards Coordinator: Rocky ... roq at iname com Rocky is where the buck stops this year. She'll be the final word on disqualifications, categorizations and classifications. ASC Awards Assistant Coordinator Alex Voy ... TBA Backs up the Coordinator and learns the ropes of how the Awards are run. If Rocky runs out screaming ... ASC Awards Technical Support Stephen ... stephen at trekiverse org Runs the commenting site and programs the counting programs. He also writes the FAQs. Since he started it, he serves as a resource for precedents. Comment Counters: Recruited in February (Includes Coordinators) They will count the comments and tally the results. Barring dealing with disqualifications, this job takes about two hours a voting period. ASC's SoS (Status of Stories) FAQ Maintainers: TOS: Rocky TNG: Ke Roth DS9: Gabrielle VOY: Seema ENT: Meghan Elizabeth MIS: Sara These intrepid souls work year round to collect each story's header and make either weekly or monthly posts of the lists. Then, come awards time help make the commenting lists, with initial categorization. The job generally takes a couple hours a week, if you can avoid getting drawn in to reading each story. Rules ----- These are the rules as they currently stand. Anything with a * by it indicates a change since last year. Anything with a + indicates a change since the last version of this FAQ. Categorization -------------- 1. Categorization shall be based on the headers that the Author provides. The Awards Coordinator may also choose to categorize works by other criteria. 2. The lower bound on the categories this year shall require that all categories contain at least 8 works by at least 2 different authors. A. The Coordinator will combine categories that are too small to qualify under the "8x2" rule, with the goal of fostering meaningful competition between similar types of works. B. Any category with 25 or more stories in it will prompt the coordinator or their designates to look for a division C. Each work shall be in just one category. D. A person may challenge the placement of a story once. The Coordinator's decision is final. E. All Categories are locked 48 hours before commenting begins 3. Certain types of stories have been defined, and will run in different periods. A. Traditional Crossovers, and MiSTings will run in Miscellaneous. B. Stories that focus on Original Captains and Crews compete for the George D. Morgan Award in Miscellaneous. C. Stories featuring the interaction between multiple series are classed as "Combined" and runs with Miscellaneous, unless 3.D applies. D. If a category crosses series and shares the same comment period, it will be in that period. E. An Honorable Mention will be given to the highest comment getting story. F. Incomplete stories will be listed with the category that they fit in. However they will not be eligible to win that category. They will be denoted with an '*' They do not count towards 8x2. 4. We also have categories for authors that run at different times. A. The Alara Rogers Award for Best Author: Run during the overall period, every author who isn't new is eligible, but you can only win it once. Previous winners listed in appendix. B. The Wolf and Otter Award for Best New Author: Also during the overall period. The Author's first story posted on ASC must have been posted between February 1, 2005 and January 31, 2006. C. Individual Series Best Author Awards For those that wrote ENT, TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, and MIS. Occurs along with each series' voting. D. Aliases will not be considered new authors. 5. To be eligible a story must have been posted between February 1, 2005 and January 31, 2006. A. Stories that are incomplete are listed in every year they're posted up until the year they are finished, if a new part is posted. B. Posting status on alt.startrek.creative is the only criteria judging eligibility. C. Reposts are not eligible. D. Revisions will be eligible for comments only, unless the author contacts the Awards Staff with evidence that the story is actually a new one based on it being substantially revised in terms of plot, character Development, point of view, additional story lines, plot twists, or other variations. Additional or subtraction of material will not be the sole consideration in determining that a story is actually a new one. E. The Coordinator has final authority on all eligibility issues. F. An eligible story may be removed from either counting or participation by e-mailing the Coordinator privately. Commenting: 6. Commenting shall be conducted in 14 day long periods, beginning at 9am Eastern Time and ending at that time 14 days later. 7. All comments shall be posted to the Trekiverse as received. 8. Comments may come in via several methods: A. Submission via the web form B. Submission to the newsgroup in response to ballot posting. (posts will be set to forward to coordinator account) C. Submission to the ASC_Awards Yahoo group. D. Direct Submission to the Awards Coordinator. 9. All comments will be entered into the web form. A. Use of the webform requires registration and the use of Cookies. 10. A valid comment shall: A. Be about the entry in question. B. Not be by the author of the entry C. Not be a copy of a previous comment. D. Not come from the same IP Address/Web Browser Type/Cookie as any previous comment on that entry. E. Have a valid verifiable e-mail address attached Counting: 11. Counting shall be done by a group of volunteers using a counting program. 12. Points shall be awarded to a story based on the character count of the comment. A. Counts shall not include white space or the '|' character. B. In the event of e-mail, newsgroup, or yahoogroup submission, count shall begin on the next line following the name of the story. C. The proposed scale for 2005 is: points characters 1 1-20 2 21-80 3 81-250 5 251-500 7 501-750 9 751-1100 10 1100+ 13. Tiebreakers will be in order: A. The number of comments B. The absolute character count C. All remaining ties will remain ties, but listing will be by coin toss. D. Should there be a tie for first or second, the remaining places will still be given out. 14. In the regrettable event of comment disqualification, the following process will be followed. A. An attempt will be made to contact the commentator. Should there be no valid e-mail address attached to the comment, the comment will be disqualified. B. The Awards Staff will review response from the commentator to judge whether it explains the situation or is a case of dishonesty. C. The Awards Staff will make a decision and inform the commentator and the ASC-VSO. D. The Awards Staff will inform the group within 48 hours of informing the VSO. E. No step shall take longer than 72 hours. 15. The following actions can be taken in the case of dishonesty. A. Disqualification of the comment. B. Disqualification of the commentator. C. Disqualification of the story (in case of author dishonesty.) D. Disqualification of the author (only in extreme cases) E. The Awards Staff will endeavor to avoid the use of the higher punishments, and note that C & D have never been done. Schedule: 16. Checkballots will go out to on a schedule before the awards. These are our goals: Series First Second Final TOS 2/7 2/10 2/17 TNG ENT 2/10 2/13 2/20 MIS DS9 2/13 2/17 2/23 VOY OVR 2/17 2/23 2/27 17. Voting will be handled in 4 periods: March 2-16: TOS & TNG March 7-22: ENT & MIS March 15-29: DS9 & VOY March 22-April 2: Overall