HP Fanfic Fan Poll - Spring/Summer & Fall/Winter Round 2013 Changes
Revamping the awards has been a six-month-long debate between myself and the other committee members. The issue at hand is that we've been told the awards are too big in general, and fans are only going to vote for their favorite relationships anyway come the end of the day. Sadly, our statistics over the last two Rounds prove that theory to be correct.
After a lengthy discussion regarding the future of these awards, we've decided to continue on, rather than close them down. However, that means making some serious changes to the overall structure of the awards, and to the Categories. It also means taking on more work for us on this end, but we've agreed to try it for at least one more year and see what happens. We'll re-evaluate the awards again next year.
In the meantime, the solution to the problem of preferential voting was decided to be a several-fold approach:
First, we split the Rounds up by relationships (ships) which we are calling 'GROUPS', so that fandoms for certain ships don't have to concentrate on stories they don't care about, and the awards will more accurately reflect the interests of the fans. Here is the split:
Spring/Summer Round Groups:
Second, we eliminated a bunch of Categories, including WIP nominations for every Category, to make the voting process easier. Additionally, we added only 1 new Category - Best Legacy Story. This Category is your only chance to nominate & vote on a story that was written and completed at any point between 1997-2011. This Category is supposed to represent the story which is your most favorite story for that ship for all time. We've decided that it CAN be a story previously nominated in other Rounds of this awards ceremony.
The new Categories are:
Third, we decided against adding fanart, fanmixes, podfic, and fanvideos to this awards ceremony, despite the emails, PMs, and polling we conducted on the matter, because it's much too difficult to juggle all of those extra Categories. Besides, the name of our awards is "HP FANFIC Fan Poll", so we'll keep these awards about fanfiction, as we always have in the past.
Finally, we decided that you are only able to nominate 1 STORY per CATEGORY per GROUP. A story CAN be nominated in multiple Categories (in other words, the same story can be nominated for Best Romance, Best Smut, and Best Comedy, for instance, if you want), but you only get to fill the slot for that Category with ONE nomination and ONE vote.
For example, in the Spring/Summer Round, say you want to nominate/vote for only Harmony, Albius, Tom Riddle/Voldemort x anyone, Minerva McGonagall x anyone, and the Gen Fic Groups, your nomination ballot might look like this (obviously, these are all fake story names & fake authors):
Harmony Best Drabble - "Wishing On Stars" by XYZ
Harmony Best Drama-Angst - "Look My Way, Not His" by HorcruxesSuk
Harmony Best Comedy - "Hermione's Hair" by ABC
Harmony Best Romance - "Hermione's Hair" by ABC
Harmony Best Het Smut - "Do Me Baby One More Time" by HarmonyLuvr
Harmony Best Threesome/Moresome Smut - "Me and Harry and Our Dragon" by ThreesomeFun (Harry x Hermione x Draco)
Harmony Best A/U - "Hermione, Reformed Death Eater" by XYZ
Harmony Best Dark Fic - "Stepping On My Spine" by SexyLibrarianMione
Harmony Best Legacy Story - "Together Forever" by IWroteThisStory (written in 2003)
Albius Best Drabble - "Drabs" by PotterVsMalfoy
Albius Best Drama-Angst - "We Are the Sons of Our Fathers" by Me
Albius Best Comedy - "Thanks For The Knuckle Sandwich" by ABC
Albius Best Romance - "Kinda Sweet" by AlbiusShipper
Albius Best Slash Smut - "Riding The Pale Horse" by MalfoysDontTanWeBurn
Albius Best Threesome/Moresome Smut - "Scorpius Likes To Share" by AlbiusPlusTeddy (Scorpius x Albus x Teddy Lupin)
Albius Best A/U - no nomination/vote
Albius Best Dark Fic - "Cut My Hair For Me, Will Ya?" by RunningWithScissors
Albius Best Legacy Story - "Best Friends For Life" by ScorAl4Eva (written in 2009)
Minerva McGonagall x anyone Best Drabble - "Gryffindor Pride" by TWN
Minerva McGonagall x anyone Best Drama-Angst - nada
Minerva McGonagall x anyone Best Comedy - "Feet Firmly On The Ground" by RunAwayHat
Minerva McGonagall x anyone Best Romance - "She Loves Me - Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" by TheSortingHat
Minerva McGonagall x anyone Best Het Smut - "What Could Have Been" by Me (Minerva x Gellert Grindewald)
Minerva McGonagall x anyone Best Femmeslash Smut - "I Kissed Rolanda and I Liked It" by PassionateEmbrace (Minerva x Rolanda Hooch)
Minerva McGonagall x anyone Best Threesome/Moresome Smut - nada
Minerva McGonagall x anyone Best A/U - "Minerva, The Queen of Slytherin" by NeverGonnaHappen
Minerva McGonagall x anyone Best Dark Fic - nada
Minerva McGonagall x anyone Best Legacy Story - "Headmistress At Long Last" by XYZ (written in 2011)
Tom Riddle Jr./Voldemort x anyone Best Drabble - "Want A New Wand" by MotorBikesRok
Tom Riddle Jr./Voldemort x anyone Best Drama-Angst - "Behind the Mirror" by SiriusDiedSob
Tom Riddle Jr./Voldemort x anyone Best Comedy - "I Hate Harry Potter" by GiveMeANewLifePlease
Tom Riddle Jr./Voldemort x anyone Best Romance - n/a
Tom Riddle Jr./Voldemort x anyone Best Het Smut - "Lolita" by TheSortingHat (Tom x Lily Luna)
Tom Riddle Jr./Voldemort x anyone Best Slash Smut - "My Werewolf" by TomNRemus (Lupin x Tom)
Tom Riddle Jr./Voldemort x anyone Best Threesome/Moresome Smut - "Bella and Narcissa Are Both Mine" by TomIsAGreedyLover (Tom x Narcissa x Bellatrix)
Tom Riddle Jr./Voldemort x anyone Best A/U - "Time-Turner" by OopsIDidntMeanToDoThat
Tom Riddle Jr./Voldemort x anyone Best Dark Fic - "Beast in Me" by EvilandProud
Tom Riddle Jr./Voldemort x anyone Best Legacy Story - "Tom's Worst Day Ever" by IAvadaMyself (written in 2001)
Gen Fic Best Drabble - none
Gen Fic Best Drama-Angst - "Hogwarts Sorting" by MinervaMcGonagall
Gen Fic Best Comedy - none
Gen Fic Best A/U - "Voldemort Died At Age 10" by ABC
Gen Fic Best Dark Fic - "Dumbledore's Evil Plan" by Me
Gen Fic Best Legacy Story - "Harry Forever" by ILurveHP (written in 2007)
Also, no Original Characters can be considered for any nomination/vote, no Works-In-Progress (WIPs) stories can be considered for any nomination/vote, and no Series Crossovers (i.e. Dr. Who/Harry Potter, Supernatural/Harry Potter, etc.) will be considered for any nomination/vote. The 2013 awards will be strictly "Harry Potter" series.
Reference List of Characters by Generation:
This is not a complete list, obviously, as there are a lot of characters that are only mentioned once or twice in passing and aren't main characters, but here are ones that we usually see in fanfiction:
The timelines & requirements will remain the same as before:
SPRING & SUMMER ROUND
The only fanfics that qualify for this Round’s Nomination period must have been completed (not an author's note, but the last chapter written for the story) and their final update written between April 29th the year prior until April 28th of this year
FALL & WINTER ROUND
The only fanfics that qualify for this Round’s Nomination period must have been completed (not an author's note, but the last chapter written for the story) and their final update written between October 29th the year prior until October 28th of this year.
After a lengthy discussion regarding the future of these awards, we've decided to continue on, rather than close them down. However, that means making some serious changes to the overall structure of the awards, and to the Categories. It also means taking on more work for us on this end, but we've agreed to try it for at least one more year and see what happens. We'll re-evaluate the awards again next year.
In the meantime, the solution to the problem of preferential voting was decided to be a several-fold approach:
First, we split the Rounds up by relationships (ships) which we are calling 'GROUPS', so that fandoms for certain ships don't have to concentrate on stories they don't care about, and the awards will more accurately reflect the interests of the fans. Here is the split:
Spring/Summer Round Groups:
- Harmony (Harry Potter x Hermione Granger)
- Scorose (Scorpius Malfoy x Rose Weasley)
- Dramione (Draco Malfoy x Hermione Granger)
- Albius (Albus S. Potter x Scorpius Malfoy)
- Snily (Severus Snape x Lily Evans)
- Tom Riddle Jr./Voldemort x anyone
- Minerva McGonagall x anyone
- Golden Trio threesome (Harry Potter x Hermione Granger x Ron Weasley)
- Hogwarts Founders x anyone (Godric Gryffindor/Helga Hufflepuff/Salazar Slytherin/Rowena Ravenclaw x anyone; slash/femmeslash/het, same gen or cross-gen allowed)
- Weasleycest (any Weasley x any other Weasley; slash/femmeslash/het, same gen or cross-gen allowed)
- Gen fic (stories not concentrating on any romantic or sexual relationship - any era)
- Drarry (Draco Malfoy x Harry Potter)
- Romione (Ron Weasley x Hermione Granger)
- Jily (James Potter x Lily Evans)
- Snarry (Severus Snape x Harry Potter)
- Hinny (Harry Potter x Ginny Weasley)
- Snermione (Severus Snape x Hermione Granger)
- Harron (Harry Potter x Ron Weasley)
- Sirius Black x anyone
- Lucius Malfoy x anyone
- NextGen Cross-gen (any canon NextGen character x anyone not of their same generation; no NextGen Cross-gen x Weasleycest/Tom Riddle Jr./Voldemort/Minerva McGonagall/Sirius Black/Lucius Malfoy stories allowed for this, as those characters have their own Groups - see below for list of generations)
- Rare Pairs (any other couple not listed as their own Category in either Round - for example: Harry x Seamus, Lupin x Hermione, Narcissa x Rose, Pansy x Ginny, Luna x Rolf, Ron x Fleur, Draco x Neville, Bill x Lavender, Teddy x James II, etc.; no NextGen Cross-gen/Weasleycest/Tom Riddle Jr./Voldemort/Minerva McGonagall/Sirius Black/Lucius Malfoy/Hogwarts Founders stories allowed for this, as those characters have their own Groups)
Second, we eliminated a bunch of Categories, including WIP nominations for every Category, to make the voting process easier. Additionally, we added only 1 new Category - Best Legacy Story. This Category is your only chance to nominate & vote on a story that was written and completed at any point between 1997-2011. This Category is supposed to represent the story which is your most favorite story for that ship for all time. We've decided that it CAN be a story previously nominated in other Rounds of this awards ceremony.
The new Categories are:
- Best Drabble (500 words or less)
- Best Drama-Angst Fic (any size)
- Best Dark Fic (any size)
- Best Comedy (any size)
- Best Romance (any size)
- Best Het Smut (any size, only for heterosexual couples)
- Best Slash Smut (any size, one for male homosexual couples)
- Best Femmeslash Smut (any size, only for lesbian couples)
- Best Threesome/Moresome (any size, for het/slash/femmeslash action involving three+ people at the same time involved in the sexual situation)
- Best A/U (any size)
- Best Legacy Story (any size)
Third, we decided against adding fanart, fanmixes, podfic, and fanvideos to this awards ceremony, despite the emails, PMs, and polling we conducted on the matter, because it's much too difficult to juggle all of those extra Categories. Besides, the name of our awards is "HP FANFIC Fan Poll", so we'll keep these awards about fanfiction, as we always have in the past.
Finally, we decided that you are only able to nominate 1 STORY per CATEGORY per GROUP. A story CAN be nominated in multiple Categories (in other words, the same story can be nominated for Best Romance, Best Smut, and Best Comedy, for instance, if you want), but you only get to fill the slot for that Category with ONE nomination and ONE vote.
For example, in the Spring/Summer Round, say you want to nominate/vote for only Harmony, Albius, Tom Riddle/Voldemort x anyone, Minerva McGonagall x anyone, and the Gen Fic Groups, your nomination ballot might look like this (obviously, these are all fake story names & fake authors):
Harmony Best Drabble - "Wishing On Stars" by XYZ
Harmony Best Drama-Angst - "Look My Way, Not His" by HorcruxesSuk
Harmony Best Comedy - "Hermione's Hair" by ABC
Harmony Best Romance - "Hermione's Hair" by ABC
Harmony Best Het Smut - "Do Me Baby One More Time" by HarmonyLuvr
Harmony Best Threesome/Moresome Smut - "Me and Harry and Our Dragon" by ThreesomeFun (Harry x Hermione x Draco)
Harmony Best A/U - "Hermione, Reformed Death Eater" by XYZ
Harmony Best Dark Fic - "Stepping On My Spine" by SexyLibrarianMione
Harmony Best Legacy Story - "Together Forever" by IWroteThisStory (written in 2003)
Albius Best Drabble - "Drabs" by PotterVsMalfoy
Albius Best Drama-Angst - "We Are the Sons of Our Fathers" by Me
Albius Best Comedy - "Thanks For The Knuckle Sandwich" by ABC
Albius Best Romance - "Kinda Sweet" by AlbiusShipper
Albius Best Slash Smut - "Riding The Pale Horse" by MalfoysDontTanWeBurn
Albius Best Threesome/Moresome Smut - "Scorpius Likes To Share" by AlbiusPlusTeddy (Scorpius x Albus x Teddy Lupin)
Albius Best A/U - no nomination/vote
Albius Best Dark Fic - "Cut My Hair For Me, Will Ya?" by RunningWithScissors
Albius Best Legacy Story - "Best Friends For Life" by ScorAl4Eva (written in 2009)
Minerva McGonagall x anyone Best Drabble - "Gryffindor Pride" by TWN
Minerva McGonagall x anyone Best Drama-Angst - nada
Minerva McGonagall x anyone Best Comedy - "Feet Firmly On The Ground" by RunAwayHat
Minerva McGonagall x anyone Best Romance - "She Loves Me - Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" by TheSortingHat
Minerva McGonagall x anyone Best Het Smut - "What Could Have Been" by Me (Minerva x Gellert Grindewald)
Minerva McGonagall x anyone Best Femmeslash Smut - "I Kissed Rolanda and I Liked It" by PassionateEmbrace (Minerva x Rolanda Hooch)
Minerva McGonagall x anyone Best Threesome/Moresome Smut - nada
Minerva McGonagall x anyone Best A/U - "Minerva, The Queen of Slytherin" by NeverGonnaHappen
Minerva McGonagall x anyone Best Dark Fic - nada
Minerva McGonagall x anyone Best Legacy Story - "Headmistress At Long Last" by XYZ (written in 2011)
Tom Riddle Jr./Voldemort x anyone Best Drabble - "Want A New Wand" by MotorBikesRok
Tom Riddle Jr./Voldemort x anyone Best Drama-Angst - "Behind the Mirror" by SiriusDiedSob
Tom Riddle Jr./Voldemort x anyone Best Comedy - "I Hate Harry Potter" by GiveMeANewLifePlease
Tom Riddle Jr./Voldemort x anyone Best Romance - n/a
Tom Riddle Jr./Voldemort x anyone Best Het Smut - "Lolita" by TheSortingHat (Tom x Lily Luna)
Tom Riddle Jr./Voldemort x anyone Best Slash Smut - "My Werewolf" by TomNRemus (Lupin x Tom)
Tom Riddle Jr./Voldemort x anyone Best Threesome/Moresome Smut - "Bella and Narcissa Are Both Mine" by TomIsAGreedyLover (Tom x Narcissa x Bellatrix)
Tom Riddle Jr./Voldemort x anyone Best A/U - "Time-Turner" by OopsIDidntMeanToDoThat
Tom Riddle Jr./Voldemort x anyone Best Dark Fic - "Beast in Me" by EvilandProud
Tom Riddle Jr./Voldemort x anyone Best Legacy Story - "Tom's Worst Day Ever" by IAvadaMyself (written in 2001)
Gen Fic Best Drabble - none
Gen Fic Best Drama-Angst - "Hogwarts Sorting" by MinervaMcGonagall
Gen Fic Best Comedy - none
Gen Fic Best A/U - "Voldemort Died At Age 10" by ABC
Gen Fic Best Dark Fic - "Dumbledore's Evil Plan" by Me
Gen Fic Best Legacy Story - "Harry Forever" by ILurveHP (written in 2007)
Also, no Original Characters can be considered for any nomination/vote, no Works-In-Progress (WIPs) stories can be considered for any nomination/vote, and no Series Crossovers (i.e. Dr. Who/Harry Potter, Supernatural/Harry Potter, etc.) will be considered for any nomination/vote. The 2013 awards will be strictly "Harry Potter" series.
Reference List of Characters by Generation:
This is not a complete list, obviously, as there are a lot of characters that are only mentioned once or twice in passing and aren't main characters, but here are ones that we usually see in fanfiction:
- The Beginning Era/Beginning of History to the Founders Generation (1000-1100) (includes Circe, Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Merlin, Morgana, Helena Ravenclaw [alive], Rowena Ravenclaw, Salazar Slytherin, The Bloody Baron [alive])
- The Middle Era/Medieval to Early Renaissance Generation (1100-1599) (includes Corvinus Gaunt, Lucius Malfoy I, Antioch Peverell, Cadmus Peverell, Ignotus Peverell)
- Rise of the Ministry of Magic Era/Middle Renaissance to Early 20th Century Generation (1600-1910) (includes Bathilda Bagshot, Cuthburt Binns [alive], Druella Black, Philius Nigellus Black, Barty Crouch Sr., Argus Filch,Cornelius Fudge, Merope Gaunt, Morphin Gaunt, Gellert Grindewald, Albus Dumbledore, Ariana Dumbledore, Aberforth Dumbledore, Marvolo Gaunt, Brutus Malfoy, Charlus Potter, Tom Riddle Sr., Rufus Scrimgeour)
- Rise of Voldemort Era/World War I to Post World War II Generation (1911-1950) (includes Avery Sr., Bathsheda Babbling, Charity Burbage, Crabbe Sr., Mrs. Figg, Filius Flitwick, Goyle Sr., Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank, Rubeus Hagrid, Rolanda Hooch, Igor Karkaroff, Lestrange Sr., Olympia Maxima, Minerva McGonagall, Dougal McGregor, Walden McNair, Moaning Myrtle [alive], Alastor 'Mad Eye' Moody, Mulcibur Sr., Nott Sr., Irma Pince, Poppy Pomfrey, Charlus Potter, Tom Riddle Jr., August Rookwood, Rosier Sr., Horace Slughorn, Pomona Sprout, Elphinstone Urquart, Lord Voldemort)
- Marauders Era/First Wizarding War Generation (1951-1969) (includes Avery Jr., Andromeda Black-Tonks, Bellatrix Black-Lestrange, Narcissa Black-Malfoy, Regulus Black, Sirius Black, Alecto Carrow, Amycus Carrow, Barty Crouch Jr., Antonin Dolohov, Vernon Dursley, Lily Evans-Potter, Petunia Evans-Dursley, Gibbon, Fenrir Greyback, Jugson, Rabastan Lestrange, Rodolphus Lestrange, Gilderoy Lockhart, Alice Longbottom, Frank Longbottom, Remus Lupin, Lucius Malfoy II, Marlene McKinnon, Mulcibur Jr., Peter Pettigrew, James Potter, Fabian Prewett, Gideon Prewett, Molly Prewett-Weasley, Quirinus Quirrell, Evan Rosier, Thorfinn Rowle, Selwyn, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Aurora Sinistra, Rita Skeeter, Severus Snape, Pius Thicknesse, Ted Tonks, Travers, Sybill Trelawney, Dolores Umbridge, Septima Vector, Arthur Weasley, Wilkes, Yaxley)
- Novel Era/Second Wizarding War Generation (1970-1997) (includes Hannah Abbott-Longbottom, Marcus Belby, Katie Bell, Susan Bones, Terry Boot, Lavender Brown, Millicent Bulstrode, Flora Carrow, Hestia Carrow, Cho Chang, Vincent Crabbe, Colin Creevey, Dennis Creevey, Roger Davies, Fleur Delacour-Weasley, Gabrielle Delacour, Cedric Diggory, Dudley Dursley, Marietta Edgecombe, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Seamus Finnigan, Marcus Flint, Anthony Goldstein, Gregory Goyle, Hermione Granger-Weasley, Astoria Greengrass-Malfoy, Daphne Greengrass, Angelina Johnson-Weasley, Lee Jordan, Viktor Krum, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood-Scamander, Ernie Macmillan, Draco Malfoy, Cormac McLaggen, Graham Montague, Theodore Nott, Pansy Parkinson, Padma Patil, Parvati Patil, Harry Potter, Adrian Pucey, Demelza Robbins, Stan Shunpike, Zachariah Smith, Alicia Spinnet, Dean Thomas, Nymphadora Tonks-Lupin, Romilda Vane, Bill Weasley, Charlie Weasley, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, Ginny Weasley, Percy Weasley, Ron Weasley, Oliver Wood, Blaise Zabini)
- NextGen Era/Post-Second Wizarding War Generation - (1998+) (Teddy Remus Lupin, Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy, Albus Severus Potter, James Sirius Potter, Lily Luna Potter, Lorcan Scamander, Lysander Scamander, Dominique Weasley, Fred Weasley II, Hugo Weasley, Louis Weasley, Molly Weasley II, Rose Weasley, Roxanne Weasley, Victoire Weasley)
The timelines & requirements will remain the same as before:
SPRING & SUMMER ROUND
The only fanfics that qualify for this Round’s Nomination period must have been completed (not an author's note, but the last chapter written for the story) and their final update written between April 29th the year prior until April 28th of this year
- Nominations period: April 1st - April 28t
- Voting period: May 1st - June 30th
- Winners announced: by July 10th
FALL & WINTER ROUND
The only fanfics that qualify for this Round’s Nomination period must have been completed (not an author's note, but the last chapter written for the story) and their final update written between October 29th the year prior until October 28th of this year.
- Nominations period: October 1st - October 28th
- Voting period: November 1st - December 31s
- Winners announced: by January 10th