Hey everyone!

Voting is over, and that means it's time for the Kerth Ceremony!

For easy reference, here are the categories. I'll update this thread as categories are claimed.

BEST SUPER SHORT
BEST SHORT
BEST MID-LENGTH
BEST WAFFY
BEST COMEDY
BEST REVELATION
BEST EPISODE ADAPTATION
BEST DRAMA
BEST RELATIONSHIP
BEST ALTERNATE UNIVERSE/ELSEWORLDS/NEXT GENERATION
BEST ORIGINAL/SUPPORTING CHARACTER
BEST NEW AUTHOR
BEST OVERALL

Thank you in advance for volunteering! It's no fun without you!

Amber

Yep - I would love to present BNA. Thanks!

So far, we have one category spoken for - Best New Author.

We need more volunteers to make this happen!

Thanks!
Amber

If no one has offered privately, I'm willing to do the SUPER SHORT. Anyone who can write a good story in so few words deserves a Kerth.

Corrina.

Could you post a brief description of what a presenter does?

Sold, Female Hawk! You've got Best New Author and Best Super Short. That just leaves...everything else.

IolantheAlias (and anyone else interested), here's a brief description of a presenter's job. (It's painless, I promise! It might even be fun!)

1. Explain what the category you're presenting is all about. This is where you can be creative if you want, or you can just set it out straight. "The Best Short Story category covers any story from 11-50k in length." If you need help with the category descriptions, just let me know!

2. List the nominees. "This year's nominees for Best Short Story are *** by ***, *** by ***," etc.

3. Name the winner! The IRC gurus (i.e., Karen) will let you know who the winner is, you announce it. "And the winner is..."

4. That's it!

Any other questions? It's coming down to the wire now!

Does anyone have a link to previous ceremonies? I don't, otherwise I'd put it up for an example.

Thanks!
Amber

In the past year, my hard drive died, so I no longer have links to the IRC on my computer.

For anyone else needing help getting onto the IRC, here's the link

Instructions for IRC

I haven't used it yet this year, but my memory is that I used these instructions last year and they worked fine.

If they are out of date, could someone more knowledgable post updated instructions? Thanks.

Corrina.

It's on the Kerth Award site. Past Kerth Awards . The ceremony transcript links seem to be working for years 2007 - 2010.

Amber, I sent you a PM, but I can present a category or two. I'll take Best Relationship and Best AU/Elseworld, unless anyone else wants them. If that's case, I guess we can flip for it, alternate categories, or share. It's a big ceremony, after all.

B

Hope I'm not too late to participate... RL has been busy lately! I wouldn't mind presenting, but would like to do an early category since I'm in Germany and the awards will start at midnight my time. Any idea about how long they usually run? I'm assuming the IRC instructions posted by Female Hawk (thanks!) are still the relevant ones? Is there any way to do a test run beforehand?

Thank you BJ and mozartmaid! BJ, your quote adaptation made me laugh. And thank you for posting the link to previous ceremonies.

Mozartmaid, could you do Best Short Story? It will be the 2nd category presented. Also, if you'd like to test IRC, come visit the #loisclark channel on undernet. There will probably be someone there to talk to you.

That leaves the following categories unclaimed:
BEST MID-LENGTH
BEST WAFFY
BEST COMEDY
BEST REVELATION
BEST EPISODE ADAPTATION
BEST DRAMA
BEST ORIGINAL/SUPPORTING CHARACTER
BEST OVERALL

Thanks!
Amber

I could do Best Mid-Length and Best Comedy if no one else wants to!

Also, I wanted to be sure about the mIRC stuff because I haven't used it since last year's Kerths!

I got mIRC, got it set up, etc.

I use a "Random US Server" for the Undernet.

The channels are #KerthAwards and #KerthChat.

Is all this right?

The awards tend to run 2-3 hours, depending on netsplits, lag and such.

IolantheAlias, that's all correct. And if anyone would like to test out their IRC settings before the awards, as Amber mentioned, you can visit us in #loisclark any time. Just don't mind if we're idle. :-)

I'll open up the channels on Saturday well before the awards as well, if anyone wants to test there, as well.

IolantheAlias, thank you for picking up those two categories! Only 6 left, who wants one?

Thanks!
Amber

Ok, I think I got the IRC thing working... which server in Undernet do we need to connect to? NY? Also, please PM me about presenting! Not sure how this all works, but I'm game to participate!!

MM - it shouldn't matter which Undernet server - if one doesn't work for whatever reason it'll flip to another.

Karen and I are usually in #loisclark - say something if you come in and if one of us is around but quiet we'll pop over . Lisa's there fairly often too. [If you join but don't say anything, we don't know that you're there unless we're in the IRC window - mine flashes at me when you say something but not when you join/leave].

Carol

Don't know if I got the IRC working or not. Or maybe there really isn't anyone there. I used /join #loisclark. Is that still correct? (I know that's not for the kerths.) We quit using a password, didn't we?

Yes, that's correct. If you want to do it command-line, like I do, it's...


/server us.undernet.org (or /server eu.undernet.org, or pick a server from their website, undernet.org)

/join #loisclark


For the Kerths, it's

/join #kerthawards
/join #kerthchat

And, of course, /nick yourfavnamehere to change your name.

#lanekent is open every night with someone usually present from 6pm PST for anyone who would like to chat.

Nancy - I don't see where you logged in, but I had hiccups in the internet. You do need to make sure you're on an undernet server though. That could be it or if you happened to hit a netsplit karen and i weren't in or something...

Okay, I just got IRC to work. (Last year, it wasn't going to connect, but I've had a computer crash since then... At least something it was good for. :p )

Anyway, I'm volunteering for two categories unless you have found someone by now:
Best revelation
Best original/supporting character

Just, uh, could you give me the Kerth links again so I can skim the stories again beforehand?

All of the stories are linked at http://www.kerthawards.com/2011nominees.html

LJK, you're hired! Thank you!

Amber

If you're presenting and you're going to use a different name on IRC than you use on the boards (like I go by BriGal on IRC, though I'll change my nick tonight), let me know so I can make sure to voice the right person when it comes time.

The kerthawards channel is moderated, and only the people with "voice" can actually talk in that channel.

Well, I'll make an exception and use my forum nick this time.

Hey, Amber, I sent you an email but I'll post here, too, since there are still awards without presenters.

And, yes, Carol, I wasn't using undernet, but I didn't realize that's what it was until you told me. Now, if I can just figure out how to get it to use undernet.... Edit: Got it! Thanks, Carol, for pointing that out to me.

Great ceremony everyone! Many talented authors here.

Artemis

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees.

Thanks to the Kerth committee and the presenters for all of your hard work which resulted in such a fun evening!

I'm still stunned at tieing for BNA...I had thought MozartMaid's works so far superior to my own that I had figured I would never have had a chance. My thanks to all who voted for me! And thanks to my BRs. I know that without your suggestions, my stories would have been much the poorer.

Joy,
Lynn

A huge thank you to everyone who volunteered to present! Everyone did great!

If you missed the ceremony, you'll have to check it out when it gets added to the Kerth Awards site. It was lots of fun!

Amber

Well, it was fun

Congratulations to all the winners!

Something I realized after signing off at 2AM last night.

Would it be possible to tighten the Kerth season a little bit and move the ceremony to the week after the US DST starts? Over here in the GMT+1 area of the world, DST starts two weeks later than in the US (after the recent switch in the US), temporarily reducing the time difference by one hour. And this means a 6pm start on the East Coast will be an 11pm start over here in Central Europe. Instead of midnight.

Michael

Yes, please...
And maybe we could even start an hour earlier? Or wouldn't that work for the people on the West coast?

Fine by me. That would be 2 p.m. California time. The people more adversely affected are in Australia. It would be 7 a.m. Sunday morning. I think a Saturday ceremony is a good idea.
Congratulations to all the winners!
regards
Artemis

Actually, and I hope I didn't add/subtract the wrong hour , our Down Under FoLCs will get an additional hour of sleep, too, if we hold the Ceremony a few weeks earlier, since it would still be summer time for them.

Michael

PS: I'm starting to understand why Tempus keeps popping up. The feeling of power you get when messing with time is just awesome

LOL re Tempus, Mike. You're right. Sounds like a plan.

Artemis

I, too, am a time nut and went on the magic software. For March 31, 2012 the times are:
2 p.m. Los Angeles, Daylight Savings Time
7 a.m. Sydney,April 1, Standard Time
GMT+1 10 p.m., Standard Time
Berlin,11 p.m., DST
Athens, 12 p.m., DST
So Sydney would be an hour earlier too.

Artemis

Yeah, April 1st 2012 is after the time shift. Would you mind checking again for March 18th?

US: March 11th 2012
Europe: March 25th 2012
Australia: April 1st

So, March 18th would be the sweet spot.

Thanks, Michael

PS: Yeah, I am worried that it might be too early in the year for the awards. Then again, our awesome Kerth Committee did manage to get the nominations up just a few short days after the deadline instead of taking the two whole weeks.

Hi Mike:
Remember Australia is going into fall. So it is going out of DST.
April 1, 2012 in LA 2 p.m. is DST.
April 2, 2012 in Sydney is 7 a.m. Standard Time
From the time conversion website:
If you pick a Sunday, it is Monday in Sydney, so I think a Saturday would be better.
For 2 p.m. in LA March 18:
Athens, 11 p.m. Standard
Berlin, 10 p.m. Standard
Helsinki, 11 p.m. Standard
London, 9 p.m. Standard


The other factor to consider is that after the stories are nominated, they have to be read by board members and that takes time, especially for the longer stories. Even if K-Comm is fast on its feet, there is still time required to read.

While I enjoyed all the stories who won yesterday, I think we also have to evaluate the comparison of the stories in the categories. That takes time too.

Artemis