[Rhapsody]

Hi all,

On behalf of the MEFA admin Marta I am passing on this news:

Over at the discussion list we’ve been nailing down the schedule for this year’s awards. It will be:

May 1-31: Nominate stories
June 1-7: Nominations finalized
June 8-21: Volunteers create subcategories
June 22-30: Ballots posted to MEFAwards Yahoo group
July 1-August 15: Reading Season
August 16-November 4: Voting season
November 4-8: Polls to vote on awards banners
November 8: Results announced at midnight

One important change: all days will end at midnight GMT (British time) instead of midnight US Central time like we did in previous years.

If you are at all confused about this, I highly recommend

http://www.worldtimezone.com/

This site displays the current time in every time zone. Simply find your time zone and compare it to the time in London. However many hours difference there are, that is the number of hours you are ahead of or behind GMT. So for example, it is now 4:09 PM in England and 11:09 AM in New York. That means those of us in Eastern time (US East Coast) are 5 hours behind GMT. So nomination season will end at midnight between May 31 and June 1 in London, which translates to 7 PM May 31 for Eastern time.

Another example: It’s now 12:09 AM in Singapore and 4:09 PM in London. That means Moscow’s time zone is eight hours ahead of GMT, and nomination season there will end at 8 AM on June 1.

Hope that makes sense.

Important Change: Publication Dates

In previous years, stories had to be published before the start of nomination season. If nominations started on April 1, the stories had to be published by March 31 to be eligible.

This year we're changing that a bit. Stories just have to be published by the time they're nominated. That means that a story could be published during nomination season if someone nominates it after it's posted. Just make sure that when you nominate a story, the URL you give really does point to the story, that the archive doesn't require you to log in to read the story, etc.

[Rhapsody]

A new announcement on behalf of Marta:

It's almost that time again! The Middle-earth Fanfiction Awards will be accepting nominations throughout the month of May. You may nominate any story, drabble, poem, essay, or other style of fanfic provided it is accessible to the public without logging in and that it is rated G-R. Pieces are eligible once as an incomplete story and again once completed.

Anyone can nominate a story by joining the [MEFAwards] Yahoo group. If you do not have a Yahoo ID please email the awards administrators at mefasupport@gmail.com, and we will send you an invitation to join. Once we see that you are a member, we will also send you log-in information for the website where you may enter the nominations. Each person may nominate up to twenty pieces of any length. Self-nominations are absolutely allowed and encouraged, and count to the personal limit of twenty pieces just like any other nomination.

If you participated in last year's MEFAs your password from last year will still work. This year nominating and voting will be done at our new website:

http://www.mefawards.net/mefa2006/

If you do not remember your password or have trouble logging in please email us at mefasupport@gmail.com. We will do our best to resolve the situation.

If you are new to the awards, feel free to check out the awards rules and FAQs. They are both available at:

http://www.mefawards.net/faq/

One other important change: this year the award's calendar will be based on GMT. That means nomination season will open at 12:00:01 AM GMT on May 1 and close at 11:59:59 GMT on May 31. If you are in a different time zone you will need to adjust your times accordingly. For example, for the US East Coast (five hours behind GMT) nominations will open at 7:00:01 PM on April 30.

We're looking forward to a great year, and hope everyone else is, too! Please feel free to share this announcement with any other group who might find it of interest, and pass along any questions to mefasupport@gmail.com

Cheers,
Marta (Humble MEFA Admin)

[Alassante]

I have my list of stories ready to nominate, MEFA Cheerleader Captain!

[Rhapsody]

Good! I need to do the same. I am not that organised... yet

[DragonEyes]

since I will not take on any courses this summer...I can be recruited

[Rhapsody]

On behalf of Marta:

The Middle-earth Fanfiction Awards (MEFAs for short) are gearing up for the 2006 season. Many of us have been working very hard over the last few weeks to make sure that everything is in order. We had originally hoped to begin accepting nominations on May 1, but have decided to delay that a few days so we can make sure all of the guidelines and forms are as correct as they can be. We want to avoid confusion as much as possible. We expect to be able to start within the next day or two.

You will still be able to make nominations throughout the month of May. Hopefully having a few less days to do so will not inconvenience anyone too much, and we do not want to confuse people by changing more dates than we have to. Please make sure that you make any nominations you wish to by 11:59:59 PM GMT on May 31.

What can you do in the meantime? You can certainly start thinking about the pieces you would like to nominate. The MEFAs accept virtually any type of Tolkien fanfic, both fiction and nonfiction, and every member can nominate up to twenty pieces. We allow authors to nominate their own work, and such nominations count toward the twenty-piece limit. For more information on eligibility please see
http://www.mefawards.net/faq/viewforum.php?f=1

If you are not already a member and would like to nominate stories, you should join the Yahoo group [MEFAwards]. This lets us reach all of our members quickly and easily. If you do not have a Yahoo account just send an email to mefasupport@gmail.com, and I will send you an invitation that allows you to join by email. If you participated last year but have forgotten your password, you can email mefasupport@gmail.com . I will go ahead and resend your password so you will be ready to begin nominating when
we begin that in a few days.

Anyone interested can also review the FAQs and rules for 2006. You can find the FAQs at http://www.mefawards.net/faq/ , and the rules at http://www.mefawards.net/faq/viewforum.php?f=10 .

Thank you for your patience! Watch this thread for another announcements when we open up nominations.

Cheers,
Marta (humble MEFA admin)

[Rhapsody]

Finally! On behalf of Marta:

Hi guys,

I'm proud to announce that the 2006 Middle-earth Fanfiction Awards are open for nominations. To vote, please go to http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2006 .

Some important reminders:

1. Each member is limited to nominating twenty pieces.

2. Nominators this year provide the story URL, the story title, and the author's name. (If the author does not already have a story nominated, the nominator also needs to provide the author's email address). All other information is provided by the authors.

3. The rules and several FAQs about different aspects of the awards are available at http://www.mefawards.net/faq/ . If you have any questions you may find this site helpful.

3. The nomination form has changed substantially, hopefully for the better. Authors will now select a time period, genre, and race the story is about, and rank their preference as to which category they most want their story to take place in. This replaces the question last year where authors were asked to give their first-, second-, and third-choice categories.

4. Authors will be asked a series of questions about their stories and this information will be used to form sub-categories. This replaces the question last year where you were asked to list some potential sub-categories.

5. Nominators may now nominate stories posted after the start of nomination season. The only requirement is that the piece be posted at the time you nominate it.

6. Authors may vote on other authors' pieces without being required to join the MEFAwards group. To nominate other stories (by themselves or other authors) they must still join the MEFAwards group. If the author does not have a Yahoo account they can be added as an email only member if they would like.

7. Not a change, but a reminder: make sure the piece you nominated was not nominated before. Each piece can be nominated once as a WIP and once again as a completed piece. 2004's nominations are available at http://gabrielle.sytes.net/mefa/final2004noms.html; 2005's nominations at http://gabrielle.sytes.net/MEFA2005/ . Members of the MEFAwards Yahoo group can also find stories previously nominated in the databases "Ineligible Complete Works" and "Ineligible Incomplete Works" at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MEFAwards/database .

Those are the most significant changes. Please make sure you are familiar with the pertinent rules and FAQs, and if you have any question feel free to email mefasupport@gmail.com .

Marta (MEFA Admin)

[Rhapsody]

Several author liaisons and authors have reported that the emails telling them their stories have been nominated are getting caught in their spam filter. If you think it's possible that you will be nominated for the MEFAs please double-check your email's spam folder before you delete it. By default, all these emails will have the subject line "2006 Middle-earth Fanfiction Awards" (though some liaisons may personalize this.)

If you'd ever like to see whether your stories have been nominated you can do this by logging in to http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2006/ (if you aren't a member click "login as guest"). Then click on "Browse Nominated Stories", and then click the column header "Author". This will sort the list of
nominated stories alphabetically by the author name. Find your name on the list and this will tell you what stories by you have been nominated.

If you have a nominated story for which you have not received an email, or if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to email me at mefasupport at gmail.com .

I have compiled a list of authors who may not have received their nomination emails. Please see:

http://community.livejournal.com/mefas/8455.html#cutid1

Many of these authors have very legitimate reasons for not having replied, or possibly have replied and are still discussing their nominations with their liaisons. However, if you see your name on this list and have not received a nomination email please contact me at mefasupport at gmail.com .

Yours,
Marta (MEFA Admin)

[AngmarsElfhild]

My story, "Thirsty," has been nominated for the MEFA 2006 awards. How do I put a nomination banner on the story listing on OSA?

[Rhapsody]

Contact the admin and show them your nomination, they will take care of the rest.

Congratulations!

[AngmarsElfhild]

Thank you, Rhapsody! How do I contact the admin?

[Rhapsody]

How about sending them an e-mail at: support@openscrolls.net?

[Robbie]

Whilst it's there, might as well make a few things clear.

You don't have to have hte banner, but if you do:
a) You must place the nomination banner somewhere on a server (we don't host the little bannery things)
b) The banner must be NO LARGER than 100 pixels wide, 60 pixels high (otherwise it gets too obtrusive)
c) The banner must be no larger than 10kb in size otherwise it gets too slow to load for dial-up users

We need the following information:
a) Location of banner
b) URL that shows the nomination / award (so we can verify it)
c) URL to story as located on openscrolls
d) Suitable text e.g. "Nomination for..."
e) URL to go to when clicking on the banner, i.e. whichever Awards' website it is (optional)

And we can do the rest.

[Rhapsody]

Hey guys,

The Middle-earth Fanfiction Awards has decided to extend its nomination season an extra two weeks, through June 15.

To nominate you need to be a member of the [MEFAwards] Yahoo group. Once you join you will be sent a username and password to log in to http://www.mefawards.net/MEFA2006/ , where you can nominate stories, poems, and essays by your favourite Tolkien fanfic writers. Including yourself! You can nominate up to twenty pieces by yourself or others.

I have also posted some reminders about what is eligible and what's not. See http://community.livejournal.com/mefas/9267.html

You can also view our FAQs on eligibiility at http://www.mefawards.net/faq/viewforum.php?f=1 .

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask - simply email me at mefasupport@gmail.com . If you aren't a member of the [MEFAwards] Yahoo group and need help joining, you can also request help at that same email address.

Marta
(MEFA Admin)

[NancyBrooke]

Does anyone here correspond with Luthien Tinuviel/Chibimelody (http://www.openscrolls.net/fanfic/authors.php?no=540)? One of her stories has been nominated and I am her author liaison but have been unable to reach her.

If any of you knows her and can send a message to her please do. She needs to e-mail me at nb@nancybrooke.com.

Thanks,

NB