So many good questions/points being made here! I'm so glad we are discussing this publicly so we can get all this input!
I'm not sure I like bringing Nfic into the mix for 2 reasons - 1) They have their own committee (I couldn't even tell you who tbh) and 2) I feel like the Kerths should be family friendly, like the show (sure, things were implied, but nothing explicit).
Much like the show, nothing during the Kerths would be explicit. No one is required to read all the stories or vote in all the categories. Anyone who chooses not to read nfic can just skip reading/voting in that category, and everything during the ceremony will be family friendly. To clarify -- we are not considering adding explicit categories or explicit discussion about nfic stories. There is still room for the nKerth committee to hold their own awards at some point should they decide to do so. That ceremony would honor specific elements of nfic stories. This would simply be "Best Nfic" in the manner of "Best Relationship" or "Best Comedy". It's a popular genre in this fandom, and there has only been one ceremony to honor it in the last ten years, so it feels like a way to honor more members of the community.
Fan Art is interesting and would be nice to recognize. However, I don't think it's fair to put graphics against videos and I urge you to rethink lumping them together.
This is an excellent point. In a perfect world, they would definitely be two separate categories. My personal hope is that by including a general category like this, we will encourage more submissions in the future, hopefully enough to split it into multiple categories. As for eligibility, we will not be scouring the internet for anything. Everything on this website and the archive/the nfic archive are automatically eligible. Anyone who wants to submit something from AO3, FFNet, an online repository for fan art, or a personal website would need to opt in.
I don't really understand what best enabler/supporter would look like and how it could be verified. I would think that would be more of an email/pm thing and personal to a particular writer. What would the guidelines be? What constitutes being a supporter? Is it just "Hey, you can totally write this?" or "I will sit and bounce ideas around with you so you can write this?"
Personally, I agree with this completely. I don't like this option because I worry it would feel like a popularity contest, which is the last thing I think any of us wants. The committee was just trying to open up discussion about different types of categories with this post, and tried to include a broad spectrum of awards to encourage public discourse and discussion. To be clear, none of the categories listed in this post are set in stone and we are actively recruiting suggestions for additional categories as well as feedback both positive and negative on these sample categories!
Lifetime Achievement is interesting. What would the guidelines look like for this one? Oldest writer? Most fics written? (Would it matter if it was 100 short fics versus someone who wrote 50 epics?) Is it for someone who has always been around but never won a Kerth? (Kinda like when the Oscars recognize an actress for being nominated a boatload of times but never won anything?) Is it recognition for people who have won a boatload of Kerths?
These are great questions for everyone, not just the committee! This is exactly the kind of discussion we want to have! If we create this category, what should it look like? How should we frame it?
The idea of a best feedback giver makes me uneasy because of the potential for people feeling left out. For some people, they have a ton of time to leave thoughtful, detailed feedback. For others, they might only have time for a few nice words before heading off to work, before the kids draw on the walls, etc. It kind of feels biased against people who don't have a lot of time on their hands after reading to write several paragraphs worth of feedback. Also, would it matter if the feedback was on an eligible story versus left on a 15 year old story? What about feedback that is directly emailed or PMed to the writer? How would the rest of us be able to judge that?
Some people have tons of time to write stories, and others don't. Some people have college degrees in writing, and others speak English as a second language and are comfortable reading but not writing. Some people are professional graphic designers, others can barely crop and save screenshots. We all have different skills and abilities and talents and time commitments. Right now, the ONLY people in the fandom being honored by the Kerths are writers. Literally everyone else is being left out.
I think asking questions about what categories could comprise or how they would be judged is super valid. But I don't think we should shy away from including any new category because it only honors one type of contribution to the fandom. That is the whole point of having lots of different categories.
I would assume that for the purposes of voting in this category, it would be based on public feedback given on the board. The point of the award is to honor the members of this fandom who contribute by posting and encouraging writers and contributing to keeping the fandom alive and thriving. Those are all public activities. Private feedback is lovely and (speaking as a writer) always welcome. But for purposes of an award, I think the voters would be judging based on what they see.
I'm loving this whole conversation and glad to see people weighing in on this topic! Keep the posts coming!
