annual site awards category suggestions

[grumpy cat]

this is the place where you can suggest categories for our upcoming annual site awards (super cool shiny new name tbd). you can tell us which of the previous categories you loved and you'd like to see them again, which ones worked or didn't work, whether some should be combined or not combined, which new ones you'd like to see...

past categories:

• member-specific
  • best reviewer (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020)
  • most versatile author (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020)
  • best niche author (2020)
• 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, 2020)
  • best original fiction (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020)
• genre-specific
  • best angst (2017, 2018, 2020)
  • best angst/drama (2019)
  • best dark/horror (2018)
  • best humor (2018, 2019, 2020)
  • best romance (2017, 2018, 2020)
  • best short-form romance (2019)
  • best long-form romance (2019)
• theme-specific
  • best description (2017, 2020)
  • best dialogue (2017, 2019, 2020)
  • best family/friendship (2018)
  • best family (2019, 2020)
  • best friendship (2019, 2020)
  • best lgbtqia+ (2017)
  • best depiction of a mental illness/disability (2017, 2018)
  • most original story (2019)
  • most creative story (2020)
• story type/length-specific
  • best novel (2017)
  • best one-shot (2017, 2020)
  • best poem/drabble (2019)
  • best drabble (2020)
  • best podfic (2020)
  • best poem (2020)
• character-specific
  • best lgbtqia+ character (2018)
  • best major harry potter character (2017, 2018)
  • best minor harry potter character (2017, 2018, 2019)
  • best original character (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020)
• pairing-specific
  • best rare pair (2018)

please post your suggestions/comments by january 5, 11:59 gmt.

[Ineke]

I want best smut. I want best chatfic.

 

and also to get rid of fandom specific categories (besides maybe original fic? bc like its original? idk)

 

ill be back later probably

[Archer Rose]

My thoughts about smut which I can imagine being a popular suggestion this year but I feel that this genre is still something that some members feel uncomfortable reading (therefore may feel excluded from the reviewing event) and I think this category would favour a handful of authors in particular too. I think if staff are thinking they want to expand the number of awards then it could be considered but I don't think any of the more well rounded categories should be bumped in favour of it. Maybe call it 'best chemistry' which is a bit more general and leaves the nomintors more space for interpretation as chemistry doesn't have to be overly sexual. Members could also have the option to put forward smut authors in best niche author or best description (if they were to return).

[Lost_Robin]

I think it'd be more fair to the smaller fandoms if we separated out hp as a category so stories from other fandoms had more of a chance to win awards instead of lumping all of the fic together in one category. I think keeping original work as its own category is good so, again, they get a fair chance. I definitely agree that we should have a best chatfic category because we have a bunch of those now!

[Hawksquill]

I've not been here for FROGS voting before so take this all with a grain of salt.  But when it comes to making it more fair for non-HP fandoms, maybe having a few categories where there's one prize for HP and one prize for other fandoms (and OF, maybe) - so like best HP angst and best non-HP angst.  It seems like that might be a happy medium so we can still recognize all the amazing HP stuff without pigeonholing everything else into a single "other" category, or making the small fandoms compete with HP for general awards, which wouldn't be fair.

Also, maybe one for best challenge (in terms of fun/innovative ideas and running the challenge) and best challenge entry!

Edited December 30, 2020 by Hawksquill

[Darling_take_off_the_mask]

Considering the site is now officially multi-fandom it doesn’t make sense to have HP-specific awards any more (“best HP character,” “best HP [era],” etc). Understandably, most fics are still HP because that’s how we started out and what a lot of us still write, and that could still lead to HP fics dominating the competition, but I think creating an HP and a non-HP subcategory for a whole bunch of categories would be way too cumbersome (e.g. dividing ALL the genre, theme, and story type/length categories into HP vs non-HP — there would be way too many).

One approach might be to do the HP vs non-HP thing with story-type categories (novel, one-shot, etc) and leave the genre and theme categories open to whatever fandom or original fic. The non-Hp could apply to OF as well as other fandoms. If you split a few key categories as suggested, I think the generic lone “best non-HP” category becomes unnecessary. This would ensure more opportunity and exposure for fandoms still gaining steam without, hopefully, making it feel like everything non-HP is considered miscellaneous. If HP-centric stuff ends up dominating some other categories where no fandom distinction is made, I think that’s just a realistic and reasonable outcome for a site where most of the stories are, at least at the present time, still HP. But we can at least mitigate that issue with a few categories.

I do like the idea of keeping “best original fic” though because I like the idea of celebrating those who do write fantastic original fic in and of itself.

Also I really like @sugar plum quill‘s thoughts on the smut issue.

And +1 to @Hawksquill’s fun idea about challenges categories!

[GotNoJamsss]

My favorite part of writing and reading are the conflicts and relationships between characters so I would love to see some more 'Pairings' categories. Things like, Best rivalry, Best OTP, Best Breakup, Best Chemistry plays perfect into this! Best Slowburn? I don't know, throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. 

Maybe doing some superlatives could be fun too? These could be for the authors/reviewers or stories/characters. Things like: Most likely to get arrested, Biggest Flirt, Biggest life-of-the-party, Most likely to survive an apocalypse, Biggest gossip, Most likely to talk for four hours without taking a breath, Best shoulder to cry on, Most accident-prone, Most gullible, Most likely to be awake at 3am

[Guest pookha]

best reviewer
most versatile author 

best HP fiction (because it's still a big part of the site)
best original fiction 

best angst/drama
best dark/horror 
best humor 
best romance 


best description
best dialogue 

most creative story
best one-shot
best podfic 

staffer of the year

prefect of the year

On 12/30/2020 at 3:10 PM, RogueMidwinter said:

My favorite part of writing and reading are the conflicts and relationships between characters so I would love to see some more 'Pairings' categories. Things like, Best rivalry, Best OTP, Best Breakup, Best Chemistry plays perfect into this! Best Slowburn? I don't know, throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. 

Maybe doing some superlatives could be fun too? These could be for the authors/reviewers or stories/characters. Things like: Most likely to get arrested, Biggest Flirt, Biggest life-of-the-party, Most likely to survive an apocalypse, Biggest gossip, Most likely to talk for four hours without taking a breath, Best shoulder to cry on, Most accident-prone, Most gullible, Most likely to be awake at 3am

I like the rivalry, OTP, breakup, chemistry and slowburn idea lots.


 

[abhorsen.]

(these are just branwen-as-a-member thoughts, not branwen-as-a-staffer thoughts)

i'd like to see best podfic stick around, but i'd personally rather see best podfic-er than a specific podfic (so more along the lines of niche/versatile author and reviewer). i'd also like to see those three stick around, as well as poetry, drabble, and of. i also like the idea of a smut category. i don't think it's as niche as it used to be - i've noticed a lot more people writing smut in the past year - and i'm not sure that a smut category would actually meaningfully increase the number of nominees with explicit sexual content in them - a lot of those fics might have ended up nominated for something else, anyway, and if they're more concentrated in one category, i feel like that's probably better for people who don't necessarily like reading those sorts of stories. (that's been my experience with the categories for the story types/genres that aren't really to my taste, anyway.)

i'd personally shy away from a non-hp category fanfiction category. i feel like it reinforces the idea that we're a primarily harry potter site and can actually end up dissuading people from nominating those fics in other categories that are more thematically similar to them. if we want to make sure that non-hp fics have a place to win, i'd rather create categories that just aren't as well suited to hp than have a category that lumps everything in together.

[magemadi]

25 minutes ago, ice fairy abhorsen. said:

i'd like to see best podfic stick around, but i'd personally rather see best podfic-er than a specific podfic (so more along the lines of niche/versatile author and reviewer).

tbh I like this better too -- bc like, best podfic was great last year, but there's a lot of people in general who do podfics for a range of fics/authors, so I think it'd be a better fit as Best Podficcer to be more in line with the other sort of person-based awards rather than fic-based awards.

a lot of good categories have been suggested that I like too but I won't bother with quoting all of the ones i liked, as I like most of them, lol.

some other thoughts i had based on past categories:

since we're trying to move away from HP-centric categories, I'd say we drop all HP-themed categories all together or maybe just have a max 1-2 HP-specific categories as we are still a site with a majority of HP fic because that's our root fandom, so it's difficult *not* to have some category or two that will be mostly HP-based nominees.

Still love having the best reviewer, most versatile author, best niche author categories, best original fiction, most creative/original story, best description, best dialogue, best one-shot.

I think it'd also be neat to have some sort of award for our wonderful graphic artists on the site to acknowledge all of the hard work they do to create beautiful banners, awards, headers, and all sorts of things for members of the site & archives!

I'd love to see some new genre categories based on options for such genres on the archives like Best Sci-Fi, Best Fantasy, Best Crime/Mystery. I like the ones we tend to have, but it's also fun to change it up, ya know?

[grumpy cat]

tbh i have trouble with categories like best niche author and most versatile author because it's really difficult for me to judge them, if that makes sense? like the niches are so different, idk what i'm supposed to judge on? same with versatility, and i think i would have the same problem with best challenge entry or best challenge - because the ones that get nominated could be nominated for wildly different things. whereas in this context the change from best podfic to best podficcer makes a lot of sense for me in that regard because it's all about how the person doing the podfic reads it, creates mood etc. but this might just be me

i'm also not a fan of too much focus on romantic pairings because i feel like those stories are already the majority of stories on the archives and they're for sure getting nominated in different categories, not just best romance.

re: best hp and best non-hp. i really don't like these because it keeps on the divide of hp and not-hp that we're trying to steer away from. if you've read a great atla fic with superb descriptions, why not nominate it in best description? i feel like having a not-hp category would make other fandom fics more likely to only get nominated in that category.

i'd love it if we could figure out a way to celebrate poc authors and characters in a way that doesn't end up being tokenism (same with other best rep categories we might have like best lgbtqia+ etc). but i feel it's impossible (and a little reductive) for anyone to judge what's best poc or best lgbtqia (i'm aware this feels like a catch-22 and like there's no good answer...i'm definitely open to any and all ideas on how to proceed with this), and making it a specific category miight feel like tokenism - i know it might feel like that for me if it was a category related to best depiction of mental illness (which tbh sounds really really wrong to me for some reason) or best bisexual rep (or lgbtqia+). i think, in order to celebrate those stories, same with fics featuring other fandoms, we should aim to nominate them in categories they would fit in anyhow, like best family or best dialogue or description or friendship or romance or angst...you get my drift.

edit: i just wanted to clarify that with this last note about inclusivity/diversity, these are just my personal feelings about the topic and i obviously can't speak for everyone else who is part of a group or groups that would fall under this umbrella and if they feel differently that's perfectly valid and i don't mean to invalidate those feelings - i'm sorry if it comes across like that.

Edited January 2, 2021 by pirate grumpy cat

[lostinthelightss]

i agree with kris re: niche/versatile author

also i am strongly against "best staffer/best community coordinator" because i don't think that's something the site should be voting on. different positions require different amounts of work, within that different positions require different amounts of member-facing work, people come and go based on their capacity and not their ability, there would not be able to be a clear criteria for voting, and overall having that as a category in the staff-run awards wouldn't be my choice.

GENRE AWARDS!!! i like data so i went through and found the numbers for stories that are eligible for frogs 2021 in each genre, and here are all the ones with a significant amount (aka more than 20):

• Action/Adventure - 93
• Angst - 235
• AU - 117
• Crime/Mystery - 55
• Dark - 77
• Drama - 231
• Fluff - 200
• Humor - 159
• Hurt/Comfort - 91
• Romance - 285
• Smut - 72

I'd be down for an Action/Adventure award, a Crime/Mystery award (fellow murderinos plz share my excitement), maybe like a Fluff award although that's in the romance territory so wouldn't push for it, and then Hurt/Comfort (that's also kind under angst tho so as with fluff i wouldn't push for it)?

[Darling_take_off_the_mask]

3 hours ago, marauderfrozenintime said:

also i am strongly against "best staffer/best community coordinator" because i don't think that's something the site should be voting on. different positions require different amounts of work, within that different positions require different amounts of member-facing work, people come and go based on their capacity and not their ability, there would not be able to be a clear criteria for voting, and overall having that as a category in the staff-run awards wouldn't be my choice.

I feel similarly. We have TOADs, we have OOM, CC's occasionally get recognized as Head Students or in House monthly awards... I like the focus of the site awards being the membership as a whole uplifting one another for writing/reviewing/podficcing.

Also I am very much in favor of keeping Most Versatile author and Best Niche author, even though what Kris said does make sense as far as, sometimes within those categories it feels like comparing apples and oranges. (But that can happen within genre categories, too -- like one romance contender isn't necessarily better than another, they're just different? And one might be fluff and one might be angst but they're both competing for best romance.)

I like Most Versatile and Best Niche because it at least gives us some sort of metric that we're voting on, not just "Best Author," which, what does that even mean with so many different styles, you know?

I'm absolutely in favor of Best Podficcer instead of Best Podfic. Also love the idea for a member-specific award for graphics.

And just throwing out there, in the event any of the member-specific awards do change or you want more: Best New Author? To recognize someone new to the site in the past year.

Edited January 2, 2021 by RonsFairyGodmother

[Ineke]

I also want to say that I am personally against a best staffer/cc'er. Like - a lot of things that are done are behind the scenes and arem't nearly as obvious to members. Like, for instance, back in the day where I was a member, I never noticed people modding, yet you obviously see the validators and whoever runs an event go full for it. Yet, stuff like modding truly takes up a lot of time - it just isn't seen (as much).  It is unfair to judge staffers on who is the best, not only because opinions vary, but also because you just don't see a lot of things that are happening and just aren't that visible to members. I would feel highly uncomfortable with a category like that.

 

As for the diversity - I absolutely second Kris on here, and I have no clue how to make it work. Like - I def want to celebrate it, but I think we should try and find a way to do so that is not directly related to a 'best poc' or fill in whatever fits, because, for instance, I could never properly judge a 'best poc' because I am not poc and what I think might be good, might be something that just isn't realistic to what's happening at all. (Same for lgtbia+ or, idk, mental illness?) Like, if someone has an idea that would work for this, I'm all ears, but I'm not sure if this is the best way to go at it.

 

I'm also seconding niche.

 

I am also agreeing with the best podfic-er, and not just the best podfic, because that's just judging on a story and not quite how the podficcer does it, tbh.

 

Loving the genre based categories.

[sibilant]

On 1/2/2021 at 6:20 AM, pirate grumpy cat said:

tbh i have trouble with categories like best niche author and most versatile author because it's really difficult for me to judge them, if that makes sense? like the niches are so different, idk what i'm supposed to judge on? same with versatility, and i think i would have the same problem with best challenge entry or best challenge - because the ones that get nominated could be nominated for wildly different things. whereas in this context the change from best podfic to best podficcer makes a lot of sense for me in that regard because it's all about how the person doing the podfic reads it, creates mood etc. but this might just be me

i'm also not a fan of too much focus on romantic pairings because i feel like those stories are already the majority of stories on the archives and they're for sure getting nominated in different categories, not just best romance.

re: best hp and best non-hp. i really don't like these because it keeps on the divide of hp and not-hp that we're trying to steer away from. if you've read a great atla fic with superb descriptions, why not nominate it in best description? i feel like having a not-hp category would make other fandom fics more likely to only get nominated in that category.

i'd love it if we could figure out a way to celebrate poc authors and characters in a way that doesn't end up being tokenism (same with other best rep categories we might have like best lgbtqia+ etc). but i feel it's impossible (and a little reductive) for anyone to judge what's best poc or best lgbtqia (i'm aware this feels like a catch-22 and like there's no good answer...i'm definitely open to any and all ideas on how to proceed with this), and making it a specific category miight feel like tokenism - i know it might feel like that for me if it was a category related to best depiction of mental illness (which tbh sounds really really wrong to me for some reason) or best bisexual rep (or lgbtqia+). i think, in order to celebrate those stories, same with fics featuring other fandoms, we should aim to nominate them in categories they would fit in anyhow, like best family or best dialogue or description or friendship or romance or angst...you get my drift.

edit: i just wanted to clarify that with this last note about inclusivity/diversity, these are just my personal feelings about the topic and i obviously can't speak for everyone else who is part of a group or groups that would fall under this umbrella and if they feel differently that's perfectly valid and i don't mean to invalidate those feelings - i'm sorry if it comes across like that.

I agree with Kris entirely here, but especially on the last count about inclusion. I’m strongly against a representation-based category. I personally would probably feel pretty uncomfortable if any of my stories were nominated for that category, which seems to defeat the point of the category...I also want to call out specifically that with regards to race, our majority-white community isn’t the right community to judge POC rep in any fic. And even though I am a POC, I wouldn’t feel comfortable judging East Asian rep, for example, since I am not East Asian.

I appreciate the thought behind the category and agree that we want to see fics that don’t just have all-white casts celebrated. I agree with Kris that this should be done through nomination in other categories. I was trying to think of a structure that would help ensure that those fics get equal treatment, but honestly, if there was anything that made me feel like people were just nominating my fic because they felt obligated to, I would feel pretty bad.

If we do decide to have representation-based categories, I would strongly argue for separate categories for each type of representation (Race, Sexuality/Gender, Neurodivergence).

[grumpy cat]

1 hour ago, kuusi palaa said:

The white people of FFT must examine our own preferences of nominating and voting for stories. To what extent do the stories we gravitate towards center our whiteness? How does that transfer to the stories we review in review events and then subsequently nominate for awards? Ultimately, the stories we nominate and vote for end up perpetuating the centering of whiteness of our own preferences, and this whiteness consequently pervades throughout the site.

i do feel like this is really good advice, to check ourselves and what we're enjoying. (and everything else you mentioned abby, it's a good advice to think about our reading even unrelated to awards, just in general if that makes sense)

possibly offtopic, but i also wanted to point out another thing that bothers me a lil bit about the best niche author category - out of 7 finalists in that category last year, 6 were explicitly nominated due to a very hp-specific niche whereas we are trying to push forward with being more open towards other fandoms. on the other hand, if, for example, an author writes really good angsty stories, it's very likely their stories will be nominated in that category as well (which is what did happen last year, just for reference).

Edited January 3, 2021 by pirate grumpy cat

[magemadi]

8 hours ago, pirate grumpy cat said:

possibly offtopic, but i also wanted to point out another thing that bothers me a lil bit about the best niche author category - out of 7 finalists in that category last year, 6 were explicitly nominated due to a very hp-specific niche whereas we are trying to push forward with being more open towards other fandoms. on the other hand, if, for example, an author writes really good angsty stories, it's very likely their stories will be nominated in that category as well (which is what did happen last year, just for reference).

You make a good point about this, Kris -- I'm wondering if it might not be a bad idea to possibly have some specifications for this category for this year's awards (should it be one that sticks around for this year) as we're trying to be more multi-fandom in general without shutting out possible nominees? If the following doesn't make sense, I apologize and can try to explain further for anyone who is confused.

So like, maybe require the "niches" step away from character-centric options? For example, while @down-in-flames is a fantastic Jily writer, I would instead nominate her as a very good romance author instead, as she's also excellent with her romance writing.

Another example would be nominating @pirate grumpy cat for her ridiculous talent of dark, angsty fics instead of for her Teddy/Victoire fics.

Basically just having the niches be a bit broader and more focused on writing styles/types/techniques rather that character or ship-centric areas.

[toomanycurls]

(me, posting thoughts 90% as just another person who loves fft) 

I'm really excited to have this convo with the entire site this year   

I had a thought on the discussion on whether to have a HP category or not --- what if we do a Best of Fandom award where people can nominate their suggestion for a story that's the best of whatever fandom it's in? idk, that might put a HP story against a The 100 story but  it also makes us all R&R things a bit more broadly. 

A best series or universe category could be cool. 

I like doing awards for the podficcers. The authors are often yeeting their stories out there for someone to read and while their stories are amazing the person reading it is what makes the podfic a audio experience with more going on than just words on the screen.  

Around recognizing our BIPOC representation in fic -- 

I heartily agree with @sibilant that if we were to introduce a race category (as well as sexuality, gender, and neurodivergence) it would feel like tokenism at its worst. Like "oh, there's a brown person in this story, let me nominate it."  That's hell for people of color and only furthers racism. 

I also like the thought journey @kuusi palaa challenged us to as a majority white centered site. We are likely too close to award time (and without a key role in place to) meaningfully have us effectively recognize BIPOC representation in fic. We, as a site and as authors/readers, are very new to this overall. I remember 5+ years ago many people thought having any gay person in a story meant it was obvi something celebrating. Now we (again, collective we) have so much fucking experience with LGBTQIA+ writing that it's second nature. That was a change we went through as a site. We're starting to have the same discussion around race. What might be meaningful this year is to just analyze how our stories that make it into nomination for our categories represent race. Then by next year (with the new staff role having been in place for several months) we'll be knowledgable enough as a site to recognize meaningful and quality representation and not just defacto BIPOC spotting. 

[Archer Rose]

just adding on that I've seen 'best series/universe' mentioned a couple of times and I really like this idea too!

[grumpy cat]

On 1/4/2021 at 3:24 AM, frostmagemadi said:

You make a good point about this, Kris -- I'm wondering if it might not be a bad idea to possibly have some specifications for this category for this year's awards (should it be one that sticks around for this year) as we're trying to be more multi-fandom in general without shutting out possible nominees? If the following doesn't make sense, I apologize and can try to explain further for anyone who is confused.

So like, maybe require the "niches" step away from character-centric options? For example, while @down-in-flames is a fantastic Jily writer, I would instead nominate her as a very good romance author instead, as she's also excellent with her romance writing.

Another example would be nominating @pirate grumpy cat for her ridiculous talent of dark, angsty fics instead of for her Teddy/Victoire fics.

Basically just having the niches be a bit broader and more focused on writing styles/types/techniques rather that character or ship-centric areas.

yeah though this is just what i mentioned earlier - it's very likely an angst writer will already get nominated with an angst story in a best angst category so it's kinda doubling up on a sameish award

edit: obviously this is just my opinion, if most people want to have it as an award that's fine

Edited January 5, 2021 by pirate grumpy cat

[sibilant]

6 hours ago, pirate grumpy cat said:

yeah though this is just what i mentioned earlier - it's very likely an angst writer will already get nominated with an angst story in a best angst category so it's kinda doubling up on a sameish award

edit: obviously this is just my opinion, if most people want to have it as an award that's fine

I’m with Kris here...I also feel conflicted about how I would vote in this category. It would be hard for me to compare a really good romance author with a really good angst author etc, because it would feel like I was comparing apples to oranges. It takes different skills to write good romance vs good angst vs write great description, etc. We could have a more high-level definition of what it means to fill a niche well (ie, writes lots of stories in this niche, consistently great stories, etc), but honestly, personally I’d probably end up voting based on how much I like the niche. I would much rather judge a bunch of great romance authors against one another. I don’t see this issue with Most Versatile because we can have a common definition of versatility, but niches are inherently so specialized that it would feel really hard for me to compare. And yeah, I totally agree that people would def be doubling up  

I feel like the point is to reward consistency, but that will already be rewarded in the nominations, and the effect might be creating a clear path for favoritism.