I agree with DC, we need to include Mouserocks in the new author list even though she was 'too lazy' (I believe those were her words) and didn't send over any of her stories to the Archive in 2011.
I think there's some misunderstanding of the way the listing process works here and the importance of the Archive in it all.
So...quick clarification:
As a courtesy and as EIC of the Archive and on the understanding that K-Comm has enough to do in organising this event and doesn't need to spend time trawling through the net and the mbs trying to work out which stories and authors were new this year...
at the start of the year I send them a list of every story uploaded to the Archive in the previous year.
That list forms the backbone of the eligible list. It just makes things easier for K-Comm and gives them a headstart. But it's by no means the whole list or the end of the process.
Over the days following its posting, the list will be tweaked considerably. Stories will be deleted as they are discovered to have been eligible in previous years for various reasons and authors may not want a particular story in competition for various reasons and can ask for them to be removed.
Likewise, stories will be added as authors who have posted a complete story somewhere online other than the Archive in the previous year and whose stories are therefore also eligible contact K-Comm and let them know that they want their stories included.
The Archive is by no means the only criteria for eligibility. If you've written and posted a story last year complete
somewhere online, between January 1st and December 31st - be that the Archive, the mbs, a personal website or wherever - then it is eligible.
If you didn't send it to the Archive, the only difference between your story and the ones on the initial eligibles list posted above is that your story isn't automatically on the list and you'll be asked to inform K-Comm you'd like it to be. For exactly the same reasons as I send them the list - it's much easier to have authors notify K-Comm than it is for them to spend their time trying to track every story down.
And, of course, the same applies to the New Author award. If an author hasn't submitted any stories to the Archive in the previous year, it's more difficult for K-Comm to spot them. But all they need do is inform K-Comm they'd like to be included. Or - and this is the only award where it's possible to do this, in all others the author alone is the only one who can put their story in competition - others can inform K-Comm they are eligible on their behalf.
So, there's no need at all to have submitted stories to the Archive to be eligible. Nor should anyone left off the initial list assume it's because they didn't and that they are therefore out of competition!
Which isn't to say we wouldn't love to have your stories, Mouse, soon as you can send them to my mailbox....
LabRat
