FROGS Category Suggestions

[abhorsen.]

Hello, all! We'd like to give you the opportunity to suggest categories for our upcoming FROGS awards.

Past categories have included:

• Member-specific
  • Best Reviewer (2017, 2018, 2019)
  • Most Versatile Author (2017, 2018, 2019)
• Fandom-specific
  • Best Harry Potter Marauder (2017)
  • Best Harry Potter Next-Gen (2017)
  • Best Harry Potter Rebuilding (2017)
  • Best Non-Harry Potter Fandom (2017, 2018, 2019)
  • Best Original Fiction (2017, 2018, 2019)
• Genre-specific
  • Best Angst (2017, 2018)
  • Best Angst/Drama (2019)
  • Best Dark/Horror (2018)
  • Best Humor (2018, 2019)
  • Best Romance (2017, 2018)
  • Best Short-Form Romance (2019)
  • Best Long-Form Romance (2019)
• Theme-specific
  • Best Description (2017)
  • Best Dialogue (2017, 2019)
  • Best Family/Friendship (2018)
  • Best Family (2019)
  • Best Friendship (2019)
  • Best LGBTQIA+ (2017)
  • Best Depiction of a Mental Illness/Disability (2017, 2018)
  • Most Original Story (2019)
• Length-specific
  • Best Novel (2017)
  • Best One-Shot (2017)
  • Best Poem/Drabble (2019)
• Character-specific
  • Best LGBTQIA+ (2018)
  • Best Major Harry Potter Character (2017, 2018)
  • Best Minor Harry Potter Character (2017, 2018, 2019)
  • Best Original Character (2017, 2018, 2019)
• Pairing-specific
  • Best Rare Pair (2018)

 

Please post your suggestions by January 1 at 11:59pm PST. Thank you!

[magemadi]

I’d love to see something along the lines of Best OC Character or something similar to that! Give some love to characters outside the canon ones for HP, but also to Minor HP canon characters  

[Archer Rose]

all categories got lots of nominations which was great! here are some of my thoughts: 

I would really like to see lgbtqia+ and/or mental illness back. I've always liked that we have a lot diversity on our archives and I thought it was a shame to see less representation in these areas during the last frogs. 

I think i would put friend/family and romance back together as one category each then have best major character and best description back. Having two romance categories makes it feel a little romance heavy I think.

I would like the umbrella tag of  'angst/drama'  instead of just angst so would be happy to see that back. 

I like the idea about something like best supporter/beta like maybe the frogs isn't the place for it but I think it would be cool to recognise people who have helped and inspired our writing.

Maybe consider not having non-hp category but letting non-hp stories to be eligible in all categories. I dont know if that maybe a bit confusing or whatever.

[poppunkpadfoot]

I agree with Abbi about re-merging family/friendship and romance, and I would really like to see best major character return. I also would love to see best LGBTQIA back and best mental illness/disability - but then, maybe I’m biased  I’d also like to see best description, best one-shot and best novel come back.

[tgfoy]

I would like to see any HP specific category,  that it is viable to do so, have a other fandom equivalent. For example the Character specific awards could also have awards in each category for non hp ones. Broaden the chances of recognition for them too.  

[abhorsen.]

Just to clarify (and we’ll make sure it’s clear going forward, since it seems like it hasn’t been!), the only categories that we’ve had in the last couple years that are specific to HP are major/minor character and rare pair - all others are open to every fandom.  

[sibilant]

I would love to see a category focused on depictions of characters of color (like Best LGBTQA+). For the Nargles, we had “Most Inclusive” or something to that effect—maybe “Best Diversity”? or “Most Diverse”? I know the issue that we had with naming for the Nargles was not wanting it to seem like it was just about numbers (ie, getting the most characters of color in your fic). Also I feel like this category should celebrate intersectionality as well (i.e. characters that are both POC and queer).

I’d also love to see Most Original Story come back, maybe as Most Creative instead? Most Original is a little bit misleading/ambiguous in my opinion, and Most Creative seems to capture the essence of the category better.

[Archer Rose]

49 minutes ago, abhorsen. said:

Just to clarify (and we’ll make sure it’s clear going forward, since it seems like it hasn’t been!), the only categories that we’ve had in the last couple years that are specific to HP are major/minor character and rare pair - all others are open to every fandom.  

thanks for the clarification because I had no idea! 

[Guest pookha]

Romance should be collated into just best romance and not be length-specific.

Best Diversity or Most Inclusive maybe?

Keep:

Reviewer

Versatile Author

Best Original

Best Non-HP

genres from 2019

Major and minor characters--maybe collate this so it's both HP and non-HP? I don't feel strongly about this though.

 

[Bat Stitch Crazy]

I would like to see rare pair come back along with a best popular pair or canon pair. 

[Darling_take_off_the_mask]

I like the HP-specific awards for different eras, as well as major char, minor char, and rare pair.

I agree about romance being one award. But I think there's some value to having separate awards for friendship and family.

Also agree with awards for LGBTQIA+ and mental illness/disability. Perhaps there could be an award as well for overall inclusivity/diversity?

I like combining angst/drama. I'd also like to suggest best mystery, or perhaps mystery/suspense/thriller to make it a broader category?

Also...has there ever been discussion of an award for best podfic? I was listening to a few recently, and it's really awesome how much time and effort some members here spend on recording other people's fics, and they do an incredible job in the presentation. If that kind of thing is a possibility, perhaps the award could be awarded to both the podfic narrator and the author who wrote the fic.

[Archer Rose]

I can't help thinking that maybe 'best inclusivity/diversity' as one category lacks a bit of direction and too general?? I don't know how to define that to pick a nomination to put forward. If chosen as a category then I would like to see some strong guidelines in place for that category.

I think it works better for house awards as there are less stories that fall into that category that keeping it a bit more general/broad is less of an issue.

[Bat Stitch Crazy]

What if we had one for Best Completed fic to celebrate those amazing stories that the authors were able to hit the complete button on? or best new story WIP for the best story started in the last year? 

 

[sibilant]

I think we could view the “Best Inclusivity” or whatever we want to call it category in a couple ways. It could be a way to celebrate fics that represent marginalized voices well, which does make it more broad than being purely race/ethnicity, and could lead to overlap with the Best LGBTQIA+ category. Alternatively, we could restrict it to purely representations of characters of color. Then the award might be named more appropriately “Best Representation of POC”?

idk, it just feels wrong to me that there isn’t a category celebrating representation of people of color, especially when we have categories for the other types of inclusivity we feature on the archive. Might be a personal bias

edit: +1 to separating awards for friendship and family. I feel like they’re very different dynamics and I can think of four or five different stories I’d want to nominate for each category.

edit #2: I would also not put drabbles and poetry together in one category on the basis of length. They’re super different forms.

[Guest Noelle Zingarella]

17 minutes ago, sibilant said:

I think we could view the “Best Inclusivity” or whatever we want to call it category in a couple ways. It could be a way to celebrate fics that represent marginalized voices well, which does make it more broad than being purely race/ethnicity, and could lead to overlap with the Best LGBTQIA+ category. Alternatively, we could restrict it to purely representations of characters of color. Then the award might be named more appropriately “Best Representation of POC”?

idk, it just feels wrong to me that there isn’t a category celebrating representation of people of color, especially when we have categories for the other types of inclusivity we feature on the archive. Might be a personal bias

edit: +1 to separating awards for friendship and family. I feel like they’re very different dynamics and I can think of four or five different stories I’d want to nominate for each category.

Hear hear!