Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Kerth Awards 2009

Hey FoLCs!

Time to get the ball rolling on the 2009 Kerth Awards. As you know, Kaethel and Yvonne Connell “retired” last year after doing a fantastic job for the Kerth Awards. We’re all extremely grateful to all the hard work they put into making this event so much fun, and I think they deserve another round of applause just as we’re getting into the 2009 events.

The new committee will keep things pretty much as they were, so you won’t be confused by drastic changes.

The Kerth committee is composed of five people: Annette Ciotola, Elena, Tricia Walpole, Terry Leatherwood and Karen, but we couldn’t do it without all the FoLCs who dedicate their time and energy to making this ceremony even more fun: the new quiz team composed of Jenn (EditorJax), Lisa (MrsMosley), Lara (Laramoon) and Tricia Walpole. A big thank you to Julie Stars who retired from the quiz team this year! Kathy MacFarlane, our external auditor, continues to help us tally the votes. And most of all, we’ve got all the writers and readers, without whom the awards wouldn’t exist at all!

Here’s some information about the new staff and about the 2009 ceremony. Please take a moment to read this.


Staff organisation

Tricia is our Kerth Coordinator. Her job is pretty much the same as Kaethel’s in previous years. Decisions are taken collectively after being discussed among all K-Com members, but as coordinator she gets the last word if there's a disagreement. We usually tend to agree, though. *g* Tricia will also handle the PR side of things. She will make the official posts.

Annette and Elena are our techie geniuses. They maintain the website and they’re our official security guards, i.e. they check for fraud in nominations and votes. They know everything there is to know about IP numbers and such.

Terry and Tricia are in charge of the nominations. They receive each nomination form, count all the noms separately, compare the numbers to make sure there’s no error, then they tally them so the official ballot can be released within two weeks at most.

Karen is our official vote-tallier, with Kathy MacFarlane acting as our committee-independent vote-counter. Both Karen and Kathy get your forms and count them. Tricia gets the forms as well to make sure there’s no error.

Karen is also our IRC tech person for the ceremony.


2009 schedule

Nominations will run from Saturday, February 14 to Sunday, March 1, midnight EST. The official ballot will be released two weeks at most after all the nominations are in.

Voting will run from Saturday, March 21 to Sunday, March 29, midnight EST. That will give us a week to tally the votes and prepare the list of winners.

The ceremony will take place on IRC on Saturday, April 4, time to be decided.

2009 categories

Best Super Short (1-10k): Very short stories.

Best Short Story (11-50k): Short stories of any subject or tone.

Best Mid-Length Story (51-200k): Mid-length stories of any subject or tone.

Best Waffy Story (1-50k): Short, mainly light stories intended to give the reader a Warm and Fuzzy Feeling. No A-plots.

Best Comedy: Generally short stories where the main purpose is to amuse.

Best Revelation Story: Stories which contain a revelation about Clark being Superman. The person finding out can be Lois or any other character.

Best Episode Adaptation: Stories which alter the events of, or start from some point in, a particular episode. Includes adaptations, continuations, and rewrites.

Best Drama: (Includes Tearjerker) Stories which focus on a series of exciting or suspenseful events. Stories can be similar in tone and balance to the show's episodes, or tackle a more serious subject matter, and will generally, though not always, contain a significant A-plot. No size restrictions.

Best Relationship Story (over 50k): B-plot driven stories which focus mainly on Lois & Clark's relationship. No tone or timeline restrictions. Might include "getting together" scenarios, or focus on their developing relationship, either before or after marriage.

Best Alternate Universe / Elseworlds Story: Stories which feature parallel universes (including the Alt World that was introduced on the show), or stories in which the author has made major changes (such as time, place and/or nature of the characters) before where the series started in the Pilot. Cross-overs would also fit in this category. No size restrictions.

Best Original / Supporting Character: Rewards a special character from stories which strongly highlight a supporting character from the series or creates a new, interesting character that plays an important role in the story. No size restrictions. (Sorry, but versions - no matter how altered - of Clark or Lois do not qualify as Original or Supporting Characters)

Best New Author: Limited to authors who first published their Lois & Clark stories in the past year.

Best Overall Story: A story of any type that is outstanding overall. No size restrictions.

More information is available at the official Kerth website which will be updated with all the relevant information in the next few days. There, you will find the FAQ, the list of eligible stories and new authors, the list of categories and so much more. And if there’s still a question we haven’t answered, feel free to email us at kcom07@kerthawards.com. We’ll be happy to help you!


The Kerth Committee
(Tricia, Elena, Annette, Terry and Karen)

Yay, Kerth time!

Kudos to the 'old' gang and to the 'new' committee.

Michael

Yay, Kerths!

You guys have a big task ahead of you but I'm certain you'll all do a fantastic job. We sure appreciate you going to all the trouble. Kae & Y, thanks for all your efforts, and welcome to retirement!

So, when will you be posting the official eligible stories list?

PJ

Don't we have to finish 2008 first? :p

I'm very excited about this as I only recently discovered this site and the archive site. What a great find! Tons of well-written, well-edited stories - I spent months just reading!

Now I've been lurking on the boards for several months, slowly getting up the courage to post feedback. I'm going to love reading the stories I haven't come across, and re-reading the ones I've seen before.

Please, get the list up so I can start reviewing and making an informed vote!

(After all, it is 2009 now.)

In an effort to avoid the confusion I had last year...

Does voting end on at midnight Sunday *night* or midnight Sunday *morning*?

Technically midnight Sunday night is Monday and midnight Sunday morning is Sunday but I know there were several people who were confused by that last year [me included]. I think I ended up PMing my ballot to someone [KathyM?] and think KCom said mine and others were counted but don't remember for sure.

I used to do assignments like that and finally made them due at 11:59pm to avoid the confusion . Never failed - no matter how many times I tried to clarify, half the students didn't get it...

Carol

I never heard of that before. There is only one midnight in a 24 hour day. So midnight Sunday is 12 p.m. Sunday EST or 9 p.m. PST on the west coast.
Midnight Sunday is *not* Monday. Sunday ends at 12 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds and Monday begins at 0 hours, 0 minutes and one nanosecond. A 24 hour clock will actually turn from 24:00:00 to 0:00:01.
Clocks differ greatly and unless you have an atomic clock or are tuned in to the National Bureau of Standards, most people will be off by a few minutes.

Of more concern is the time zone, where those of us on the West Coast have to hit the mark at 9 p.m. sharp. Or if you are in Hawaii, 7 p.m. sharp "not 7:01 or 7:02..." Here's a handy site for time zones: http://www.worldtimezone.com/

Artemis the time & clock geek who has seen many clocks go from 24 to 0.

That's odd... I'd always been told the other way 'round. That midnight is very first thing in the morning.

11:59:59 -> 00:00:00

Last year, the voting website became unavailable at midnight on Sunday morning. That's also how my class websites work. If you want something available until midnight on Sunday night, you set it for 12AM on Monday morning [b/c 12PM is noon...]. And that's how Blackboard works, not anything I can set...


Carol

Hi Carol:
The military and the airlines and the government have midnight as the last of the day, not the beginning of a new day. Maybe the IT types that created the boards you speak of didn't know that. I usually get my votes in sometime during the day on Sunday, since my deadline is 9 p.m. anyway. One second after 9 p.m. cooks it for me.
You're in Missouri, and CST, so it is 11 p.m. for you. If you did it just before your midnight, you were an hour too late.

Artemis

You're right.

But last year the ballot was unavailable at least part of the day Monday [which was the last day of voting last year]. I went to vote midday sometime. It wasn't 11pm by any means.

Here\'s the thread from last year. It was 3pm my time when I tried to vote.

I just wanted to make sure so there's no confusion...

From SheilaH last year:
Carol

Hmm. I see the confusion. If I remember last year correctly (which may be a problem) I had to post my ballot on Sunday anyway because I didn't have computer access on Monday or was doing something else. So I was never aware of the problem. That's why the time map is helpful. Just think of poor Tricia W, she's in Sydney Australia which is 10 hours ahead of the USA and it is Daylight Savings Time because it is their summer!
I past years we've done a whole thread on just the time to clarify time for various regions. I'll start one this year before Nominations close. Or maybe sooner so people can be aware.

Artemis
P.S. I found a very nice post from Kaethel for 2006 that points out the differences for the various areas of folcdom:
http://www.lcficmbs.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=5;t=001344#000000

Well, I hope I've helped the Time Zone question. Go to this thread:
http://www.lcficmbs.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=5&t=002499#000001

See ya

Artemis

Thanks Artemis!

I'm still hoping for official clarification from KCom as to whether THEY mean midnight morning or midnight evening just to be sure!



Carol

I just looked at my calendar - DUH!
March 29 is a Sunday, not a Monday. Maybe that's how the confusion started last year.
Artemis

No, last year they said Monday, March 31 at midnight ET [see the thread I posted earlier - as I understand it however, it's odd for voting to end on a Monday].

But the ballot WAS NOT available on Monday March 31, leading to the question:

Did KCom mean midnight Monday morning or midnight Monday night?

This year the first post of this thread says voting is through Sunday March 29 at midnight ET.

All I want is for someone from KCom to let me know, since I'm in CT, if I need to vote by 11pm CT on Saturday or 11pm CT on Sunday.

Maybe I'll just PM Kathy or Tricia or another KCom member and ask them.

Carol

Edit: I PM'd Kathy...

The Kerth site says Monday, March 29 which is wrong. The first post on this thread says Sunday March 29, which is right.

Artemis

I've alerted K-Comm to the discussion in this thread, so hopefully official word can come soon as to exactly WHEN the deadline is.

Kathy

This actually caused me to not be able to vote last year.


I think this would be preferable.


Are you sure midnight isn’t 12 [i]AM[i]? Going by military time doesn’t help either. I found sites where midnight was listed as 0000 making it 12 am. I also found sites where midnight was listed as 2400 making it 12 pm.


But as I noted.... Is midnight 0000 or 2400? There are differences of opinion.


Yep, as I said there are differences in opinion.


So I’m in the eastern time zone and am still confused.


Yes, I want to know this, too. I’m still confused, even after looking at the chart Artemis posted in another thread. How about dropping the midnight thing all together and making it 11:59 pm? And if you don’t want to do that, then how about making it 11 pm Eastern time? That would probably cut down confusion.


Well, I’ve said my 2 cents worth.