2011 Rose & Bay Awards Followup Report & Discussion

[ysabetwordsmith]

The 2011 Rose and Bay Awards for excellence in cyberfunded creativity have now concluded.  Winners have been announced for Art, Fiction, Poetry, Webcomic,  Other Project, and Patron.  We are currently working on the certificates for winners.  You can read more about this project on the 2011 Rose & Bay Awards landing page.

Special Thanks To...These

Comments

[ellenmillion]

*applause* A lot of work went into this, and congratulations to all the winners.

I have many thoughts...

I would like to see all non-transparent voting. I find it very awkward to vote publicly when I know so many of the nominees.

I suggest long and short fiction as the breaks in those categories. I further suggest that short fiction should encompass both short stories and poetry - there were only 4 nominations in poetry, which isn't comparable to the other categories. Long fiction can cover serials and novels.

I'd like to see discussion of divination as a category - I know a lot of people who do that.

Organization - it was very awkward having the final polls split up over several posts over several days. I honestly don't see any reason that one person can't post one poll that covers all the categories. I don't see any conflict of interest in a person who is nominated creating a poll that they can't manipulate after posting.

Please, please when creating the poll(s), have a link to the nominations, preferably individually, or copy

[aldersprig]

You covered most of my thoughts already.

*Repeats, yes, please, as said by Bovidae below,

*Non-transparent voting, yes, please; I didn't vote in categories where there was transparent voting and I was friends with more than one nominee.

*Off-LJ site, yes, please x100; I heard the most complaint about this of anything

*Less wall-of-text voting polls; the rules were lost in the text.

*More categories, I agree.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Repeats, yes, please, as said by Bovidae below, <<

I'll try to set a poll for this after the discussion. Meanwhile, what kind of changes would you like to see here? That should be discussed to determine what kind of options should go into the poll.

>> Non-transparent voting <<

Also headed for a poll.

>> Off-LJ site, yes, please x100; I heard the most complaint about this of anything <<

I'd be utterly thrilled by this. We have an offer of hosting space. I have site design notes for features that people want. What we do not have is a site developer who can write the necessary code. That's been the sticking point for years.

>> Less wall-of-text voting polls; the rules were lost in the text. <<

Other folks are welcome to make a try at streamlining the text.

>> More categories, I agree. ... )

Re: Thoughts

[siege]

What we do not have is a site developer who can write the necessary code. That's been the sticking point for years.

Perhaps just shop around for quotes, and put it on Kickstarter once we get a firm idea of the cost -- and then hire the developer once we get funded.

[bovidae]

One suggestion off the top of my head: is there a rule yet that a given year's winner cannot be re-nominated the next year? (For one year or maybe two-three years, depending on what people think). Now that we know the R&Bs are here to stay, I think such a rule would help some of the lesser known projects and/or new projects have a fighting chance against long-established popular ones. Nothing wrong with being popular! I just don't want to see the same one or two projects winning their category year after year without a break for new stuff.

Well...

[ysabetwordsmith]

This has been requested repeatedly and I'll try to post a poll on it after the initial discussion. Right now I'd like to hear refinements on this issue. What specific options would people like to consider?

Re: Well...

[aldersprig]

My thought -

A one- or two-year "break:" if you won in X category in 2011, you cannot win that category in 2012 [or 2013, possibly].

Re: Well...

[bovidae]

I think a set but not infinite/unlimited time period where a previous winner cannot be reconsidered would be the best compromise. After all, if a project does continue over many years anad continues to be popular over that timespan - yes, we should be able to vote for them again to acknowledge that! I think a simple one-year disbarring after a project wins would be the easiest way to do that, and then in the future it could be re-visited if needed.

In my mind, this would be one a per individual story/project/site/patron basis. Other works by an author, cartoonist, composer, etc. would be still be eligible. I.e. if Author X writes story A & story B, and story A wins, then it is specifically story A that is ineligible for the next year, but story B could still be nominated.

My thoughts on it, anyway.

[eseme]

I also did not vote in categories where I knew or had some contact with more than one nominee, other than fiction, which had anonymous voting. It is very awkward having your vote visible to anyone and everyone, and visible as long as the poll exists, which can be years

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I also did not vote in categories where I knew or had some contact with more than one nominee, other than fiction, which had anonymous voting. <<

This topic is intended for a poll.

>>I think more communication among the staff members would be helpful. Had I known when the artwork would be made available, I would have held off on my first email to all 18 fiction nominees.<<

I agree that more communication would be helpful. I'm not sure how to achieve that, though. *I* didn't know when (or if) artwork was going to arrive -- it's strictly volunteer. (Hrm, we might consider crowdfunding that too.) I gave volunteers information as soon as I got it. *sigh* Not to mention the times I emailed all the managers, and then a few hours later had to do it all over because somebody found some other problem that needed to be fixed.

>> I really hope the awards can move to another site next year. ... )

[minor_architect]

I agree that the R&B Awards needs its own website and resident coder who is paid to do the work. I also think it would encourage participation to offer prizes to the winners in each category. However, I'd like to know what everyone thinks about running both fundraising efforts at the same time. Or do we wish to fund the website coding for basic features first and stock the prize kitty later? Or vice-versa?

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>I agree that the R&B Awards needs its own website and resident coder who is paid to do the work.<<

We're working on ideas for these.

>>I also think it would encourage participation to offer prizes to the winners in each category.<<

I think so too.

>>However, I'd like to know what everyone thinks about running both fundraising efforts at the same time. Or do we wish to fund the website coding for basic features first and stock the prize kitty later? Or vice-versa?<<

I would rather not have those two projects overlap completely although they made overlap partially due to timing concerns. For the prizes, I think it would be better to do the collecting shortly before the award season rather than way in advance; so maybe November-December rather than spring or summer. The less time the funds/goods have to be held, the less chance of something going wrong.

For the hub site, ellenmillion is potentially willing to do the coding but only after some other projects are done. If that means, say, summer or early fall then there will be little or no

The "Don't Vote For Yourself" rule

[wyld_dandelyon]

You know, in elections and in many other votes, you are not prohibited from voting for yourself

Re: The "Don't Vote For Yourself" rule

[ellenmillion]

Heh. Yes, I had the same thought - most of the people who might have voted for Torn World were ineligible, even if they weren't part of the core active group.

Not nominating yourself, I can understand. Not voting for yourself... I wouldn't mind seeing that rule dropped. Particularly if we go with open voting where you can vote for more than one project.

Re: The "Don't Vote For Yourself" rule

[wyld_dandelyon]

Good point about allowing voting for more than one project, which I definitely support.

Re: The "Don't Vote For Yourself" rule

[eseme]

Speaking as someone who had to scan through over 200 votes for the names of the creators to double-check and enforce this rule, I think it should go.

It was a real hassle.