2003 ASC Awards FAQ

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 in 2002, and continues this year.

Seema Seema is where the buck stops this year. She'll be the final word on disqualifications, categorizations and classifications.

Sara Goose ... Sara backs up the Coordinator and learns the ropes of how the Awards runs. If Seema runs out screaming ...

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 This year our counters include KeRoth and Rocky

TOS: Rocky TNG: Ke Roth DS9: Gabrielle VOY: Seema ENT: Meghan Elizabeth MIS: Stephen 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.

1. Categorization shall be based on the headers that the Author provides. The Awards Coordinator may also chose to catagorize 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 50 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.

3. Certain types of stories have been defined, and will run in different periods.
A. Stories featuring the interaction between multiple series are classed as "Combined" and runs with Miscellaneous.
B. Traditional Crossovers, and MiSTings will run in Miscellaneous as well.
C. Stories that focus on Original Captains and Crews compete for the George D. Morgan Award in Miscellaneous.
D. An Honorable Mention will be given to the highest comment getting story.
E. An Award will be given to the commentator that gives the most comments by usual rules (As determined by exact name match)
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.
G. Should there be categories cross series that aren't during the same voting period, they will be commented on during the miscellaneous section.
+ H. There will be no Test Categories in 2003.

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. First story must have been posted between February 1, 2003 and January 31, 2004.
C. Individual Series Best Author Awards For those that wrote ENT, TOS, TNG, DS9, and VOY. Occurs along with each series' voting.

5. To be eligible a story must have been posted between February 1, 2003 and January 31, 2004.
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.

6. Commenting shall be conducted in 14 day long periods, beginning at 10pm Eastern Time and ending at that time 14 days later.

7. All comments shall be posted to the newsgroup as received.
A. Comments via the web form will have e-mails addresses removed if they are in the copies to field.

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.

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

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 '|' or '\' characters.
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 2003 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 notes that C & D have never been done.