I'd like to see the categories from previous years included - things like short, medium, epic, best supporting character, best villain, best revelation, etc. AU and Elseworlds are fewer and further between so it makes sense to keep them together. Best challenge response is great because it recognizes that someone ran with a simple idea and makes it more appealing for people to answer challenges. Best Introspective is also fun because it's nice to peek into a character's head. Holiday stories are awesome if we have enough! Maybe something like "Best Before," "Best During," and "Best After" for stories that take place before the pilot, during the show run, and after the finale (possibly different than Next Gen stories.) Also, they would need better names but my brain is toast from work training all week.
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).
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. I speak from experience when I say that the two are VASTLY different in the skillsets required. I used to make wallpapers on LivePix (dating myself here) for Lost (really dating myself now) when I was in college. I also took a video production class that required us to shoot and then edit (on analog machines...yeesh!) videos (including music videos and movie trailers). Video editing is MUCH more difficult than putting together a banner/wallpaper/college/icon. And MUCH more time consuming. It doesn't seem right to lump them together. Also, would they only be taken from this website or would the internet be scoured for more fanart? (The way stories on Ao3 or fanfic.net would be eligible for awards?)
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?"
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?
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?
