*rubs hands together*
Let me start out by saying that I'm very glad to see a real, judged writing contest finally being implemented in this fandom. It appears to answer the shortcomings of the Kerth awards in a way that's very logical and straightforward. I've been waiting a long time for something like this to come along, and I can't wait for the competition to begin. That being said, I'd like to offer my humble opinion to several points made in this thread.
Seems to me that in this instance Linda did know the credentials of the judges. She knew that the contest was supported by a reputable group ...and she knew that the judges were all published writers.
Is it enough that the Merriwether committee stated that all the judges were FoLCs, or Fans of Lois and Clark? That's what this group is all about, after all. A FoLC doesn't, by extension, necessarily have to be knowledgable about fic, but I personally don't think that an intimite knowledge of all stories written in the last x years or of the evolution of fanfic is a necessary credential to judge the quality of a story. I also don't personally care of the people doing the judging is a professional writer or not. As long as I can be reasonably assured that the person doing the judging is not a complete doofus, I'll be happy.
As for the winners of Kerth Awards, they are all very aware of the credentials of the voters. They know that the voters are those who read and enjoy LnC fanfic and, for the most part, are "experts" in this very specific genre.
I have to disagree with you there. There is no qualification that a Kerth voter be a person who is well versed in fic, or even that they've read the story they're voting for. It could be some anonymous person in cyberspace who stumbled upon the nomination form and voted for the stories with the longest titles, who knows. There's also no assurance or verification that the stories that are the "winners" actually received the most votes. The KComm is perfectly out in the open, but unfortunately the arrival at the results are not. I'd personally feel much better with the opposite situation. And given the amount of grief that people have received in ficdom in recent years for voicing unpopular or independent thought, I don't blame the committee for keeping themselves under wraps. If the don't want to reveal themselves, then more power to them.
It seems rather cynical and far-fetched to think that an anonymous judge reading an anonymous story, on their own time, somehow has an ulterior motive. I can understand the concerns that a story might be recognized, but IF the story has been read by one voter and IF they remember who wrote it and IF they, for whatever reason, wanted to put the screws to that person (that's a lot of ifs), the other judges would seem to be able to cancel out that scheme.
I congratulate the Merriweather Committee for putting up a website that obviously had a lot of thought put into it. I look forward to throwing my stories into the ring.
AnnN.
