Rules for the 2010 NCIS Awards
If you intend to nominate or otherwise participate, we'd very much appreciate it if you took the time to read the rules.
Rules for the NCIS Awards 2010
NOMINATIONS
To nominate a story, you need to post a reply to the post for the pairing in question, listing stories you like (comments are screened). Please give a location for the story so that we can link them together and promote voting.
Use the following template:
Category:
Title:
Author:
Author’s email:
Rating:
Link to story: (if you are nominating a multi-part story, please provide a link to the first chapter, or a master post)
A category must have at least five (5) nominations in order to be in the awards. Categories may be combined at the discretion of the Awards Team to prevent deleting any works from the competition. If a nomination cannot be placed in a different category, it will be moved to that pairing's "Other" section, to be voted on.
If any one pairing receives less than four nominations, it will be included in the appropriate Rare pairings category.
If any one pairing in the Rare pairings categories receives five or more nominations, a new pairings category will be created for that pairing for voting.
Please don’t submit every good story you’ve read. This is supposed to be the very, very best, and to avoid massive lists of nominated fics, be picky when you chose what to nominate.
Each nomination needs to be accepted by the author. If the author cannot be contacted, the story will not be available for voting. As such, please make sure that the Awards Team has a working email to the author.
If you are nominated, you will get an email from the Awards Team. You need to respond to the email so that we are sure you want to be in the awards, and to make sure that the story is in the right category. You will not go up on the nominees list until you’ve responded to the email.
The Awards Team crosschecks nominations for eligibility and removes entries that don't meet the requirements.
The Awards Team may nominate stories, and Awards Team members may be nominated.
If there is a question regarding what pairing/category the story should be nominated, it is up to the author do decide what they intended with the story.
Nominating yourself
Self-nominating is not allowed. These awards are to represent what you really find interesting, not to promote your own stories.
ELIGIBLE STORIES
General
The judges reserve the right to question the nomination of a story that doesn't meet the requirements of the category it is nominated to (ie. a primarily slash story nominated for a het category).
The pairings categories are for romantic relationships. If a story only contains friendship, it should go in the Gen category.
Previous winners of NCIS Awards
Stories that have won an NCIS Award a previous year may not be nominated. Other stories by an author who has won an NCIS Award may be nominated. Stories that have been nominated but haven’t won may also be nominated.
You can find the previous winners here: 2009
Stories per category
Multiple stories by the same author can be nominated in the same category. For example, an author who has written two Gibbs/Ducky romance stories can have both stories nominated in BEST ROMANCE.
Stories may be nominated in more than one category and stand. For example, a Gibbs/Ziva fantasy story can be nominated for BEST FANTASY as well as BEST ROMANCE in the Gibbs/Ziva category. Both nominations will stand, and both will be voted upon.
Stories with multiple chapters
If you are nominating a story with more than one chapter, please either provide a link to a master post of some kind where all chapters of the story can be found, or to the first chapter if the rest of the chapters are linked together, or provide a link to each chapter. Not all authors use tags/links for people to find previous and later parts of a story, and for the voting process to be as easy as possible, all chapters need to be easily accessible.
Works in progress
Unfinished stories cannot be nominated in the awards. Stories from an unfinished series can be nominated, but only if the story itself can be read as a stand-alone. However, keep in mind that if one part of an unfinished series wins an award, the entire series is no longer eligible to be nominated in any other categories or award years, regardless of its completion.
Real People Fiction (RPF)
Stories featuring real people are not allowed. Please note that references to real people are not covered by this rule. For example, if two characters are having a conversation about movies, naming real actors within that conversation doesn't make the story RPF. If one of them actually meets an actor in the story, that's a RPF by the team's definition and is, therefore, ineligible.
Works hosted on a non-public website
Stories can be nominated only if they are on a publicly accessible website. Stories archived in areas where a membership or login is required to view the story cannot be nominated in the Awards. Examples are mailing lists, friends-locked journal entries, discussion boards for members only, etc.
Basically, if you cannot supply a direct link to the story that will work for everyone, it's not "on the web" by the Awards definition.
Language
Works must be in English, as it wouldn't be fair for a non-English work to be judged by mostly English-speaking fans.
VOTING
Each person gets one vote per category. You do not have to vote in every category. Vote by replying to the voting post in question. Each pairing will have its own voting post. Make one comment with all your votes for the pairing in question, to make things easier for our vote mod.
You cannot vote for yourself.
The Awards Team members may vote. The mods of the specific pairings and categories post their votes for the specific pairings and categories they mod before the official voting period opens, to avoid being affected by the votes already cast.
Anonymous votes will be discarded. To vote, you need to have an LJ account and be logged in. If you don’t, you have to get one - otherwise we have no way to remove anonymity. Anonymity needs to be removed to know that ballot stuffing doesn’t happen.
When voting, please use the following template:
[ Category ]: [ story name ] by [ story author ]
example: Best fantasy: The Title by the author
Ballot stuffing
Ballot stuffing can take several forms, and all of them are against the rules of the Awards. Ballot stuffing is, for example, using different LJ IDs to vote several times.
Ballot stuffing wastes the time of the Awards team and lowers the credibility of the winners. We operate a zero-tolerance policy. Anyone who participates in ballot stuffing will lose nominating and voting privileges. If an author is ballot stuffing, we will also remove all of their works from the Awards.
WINNERS/TIES
The story/author/creator with the most votes within a category wins.
Each pairing/category (depending on which is applicable) needs at least three votes for a winner to be announced.
If there is a tie in any category, the two or more stories that got the same amount of votes will share the winning spot. There are no first, second, and third places - if your story gets the same number of votes as anyone else’s, you deserve to be recognized for your work.
OTHER STUFF
Campaigning
Campaigning is asking people to nominate or vote for specific works, whether they're yours or someone else's works. It is NOT allowed.
To avoid campaigning, please follow the simple guidelines below:
DON'T say "please vote for X", even in the context of letting people know something has been nominated.
DO post recommendations, including recommendations from the nomination lists.
DO tell people about the Awards.
DO let people know you have been nominated.
DO thank people for their support.
Any form of campaigning, whether it's asking friends and family to vote for you, posting to mailing lists, message boards, livejournals, or anything else, will be considered cheating and anyone caught doing this will receive a warning and, if it's not immediately removed, be disqualified from the Awards.
IN SHORT
: Nominations :
1. Please only nominate stories you believe are the best.
2. Self-nominations are not accepted.
3. Fics can be nominated in several categories.
4. Authors can have more than one fic nominated in each category.
5. WIPs are not accepted.
6. Winning stories from previous years may not be nominated.
: Voting :
1. You may vote only once in each category.
2. You are not required to vote in every category.
3. Anonymous votes are not accepted.
4. Make one comment with all your votes for the pairing in question.
Good luck and we hope you all have fun!
Rules for the NCIS Awards 2010
NOMINATIONS
To nominate a story, you need to post a reply to the post for the pairing in question, listing stories you like (comments are screened). Please give a location for the story so that we can link them together and promote voting.
Use the following template:
Category:
Title:
Author:
Author’s email:
Rating:
Link to story: (if you are nominating a multi-part story, please provide a link to the first chapter, or a master post)
A category must have at least five (5) nominations in order to be in the awards. Categories may be combined at the discretion of the Awards Team to prevent deleting any works from the competition. If a nomination cannot be placed in a different category, it will be moved to that pairing's "Other" section, to be voted on.
If any one pairing receives less than four nominations, it will be included in the appropriate Rare pairings category.
If any one pairing in the Rare pairings categories receives five or more nominations, a new pairings category will be created for that pairing for voting.
Please don’t submit every good story you’ve read. This is supposed to be the very, very best, and to avoid massive lists of nominated fics, be picky when you chose what to nominate.
Each nomination needs to be accepted by the author. If the author cannot be contacted, the story will not be available for voting. As such, please make sure that the Awards Team has a working email to the author.
If you are nominated, you will get an email from the Awards Team. You need to respond to the email so that we are sure you want to be in the awards, and to make sure that the story is in the right category. You will not go up on the nominees list until you’ve responded to the email.
The Awards Team crosschecks nominations for eligibility and removes entries that don't meet the requirements.
The Awards Team may nominate stories, and Awards Team members may be nominated.
If there is a question regarding what pairing/category the story should be nominated, it is up to the author do decide what they intended with the story.
Nominating yourself
Self-nominating is not allowed. These awards are to represent what you really find interesting, not to promote your own stories.
ELIGIBLE STORIES
General
The judges reserve the right to question the nomination of a story that doesn't meet the requirements of the category it is nominated to (ie. a primarily slash story nominated for a het category).
The pairings categories are for romantic relationships. If a story only contains friendship, it should go in the Gen category.
Previous winners of NCIS Awards
Stories that have won an NCIS Award a previous year may not be nominated. Other stories by an author who has won an NCIS Award may be nominated. Stories that have been nominated but haven’t won may also be nominated.
You can find the previous winners here: 2009
Stories per category
Multiple stories by the same author can be nominated in the same category. For example, an author who has written two Gibbs/Ducky romance stories can have both stories nominated in BEST ROMANCE.
Stories may be nominated in more than one category and stand. For example, a Gibbs/Ziva fantasy story can be nominated for BEST FANTASY as well as BEST ROMANCE in the Gibbs/Ziva category. Both nominations will stand, and both will be voted upon.
Stories with multiple chapters
If you are nominating a story with more than one chapter, please either provide a link to a master post of some kind where all chapters of the story can be found, or to the first chapter if the rest of the chapters are linked together, or provide a link to each chapter. Not all authors use tags/links for people to find previous and later parts of a story, and for the voting process to be as easy as possible, all chapters need to be easily accessible.
Works in progress
Unfinished stories cannot be nominated in the awards. Stories from an unfinished series can be nominated, but only if the story itself can be read as a stand-alone. However, keep in mind that if one part of an unfinished series wins an award, the entire series is no longer eligible to be nominated in any other categories or award years, regardless of its completion.
Real People Fiction (RPF)
Stories featuring real people are not allowed. Please note that references to real people are not covered by this rule. For example, if two characters are having a conversation about movies, naming real actors within that conversation doesn't make the story RPF. If one of them actually meets an actor in the story, that's a RPF by the team's definition and is, therefore, ineligible.
Works hosted on a non-public website
Stories can be nominated only if they are on a publicly accessible website. Stories archived in areas where a membership or login is required to view the story cannot be nominated in the Awards. Examples are mailing lists, friends-locked journal entries, discussion boards for members only, etc.
Basically, if you cannot supply a direct link to the story that will work for everyone, it's not "on the web" by the Awards definition.
Language
Works must be in English, as it wouldn't be fair for a non-English work to be judged by mostly English-speaking fans.
VOTING
Each person gets one vote per category. You do not have to vote in every category. Vote by replying to the voting post in question. Each pairing will have its own voting post. Make one comment with all your votes for the pairing in question, to make things easier for our vote mod.
You cannot vote for yourself.
The Awards Team members may vote. The mods of the specific pairings and categories post their votes for the specific pairings and categories they mod before the official voting period opens, to avoid being affected by the votes already cast.
Anonymous votes will be discarded. To vote, you need to have an LJ account and be logged in. If you don’t, you have to get one - otherwise we have no way to remove anonymity. Anonymity needs to be removed to know that ballot stuffing doesn’t happen.
When voting, please use the following template:
[ Category ]: [ story name ] by [ story author ]
example: Best fantasy: The Title by the author
Ballot stuffing
Ballot stuffing can take several forms, and all of them are against the rules of the Awards. Ballot stuffing is, for example, using different LJ IDs to vote several times.
Ballot stuffing wastes the time of the Awards team and lowers the credibility of the winners. We operate a zero-tolerance policy. Anyone who participates in ballot stuffing will lose nominating and voting privileges. If an author is ballot stuffing, we will also remove all of their works from the Awards.
WINNERS/TIES
The story/author/creator with the most votes within a category wins.
Each pairing/category (depending on which is applicable) needs at least three votes for a winner to be announced.
If there is a tie in any category, the two or more stories that got the same amount of votes will share the winning spot. There are no first, second, and third places - if your story gets the same number of votes as anyone else’s, you deserve to be recognized for your work.
OTHER STUFF
Campaigning
Campaigning is asking people to nominate or vote for specific works, whether they're yours or someone else's works. It is NOT allowed.
To avoid campaigning, please follow the simple guidelines below:
DON'T say "please vote for X", even in the context of letting people know something has been nominated.
DO post recommendations, including recommendations from the nomination lists.
DO tell people about the Awards.
DO let people know you have been nominated.
DO thank people for their support.
Any form of campaigning, whether it's asking friends and family to vote for you, posting to mailing lists, message boards, livejournals, or anything else, will be considered cheating and anyone caught doing this will receive a warning and, if it's not immediately removed, be disqualified from the Awards.
IN SHORT
: Nominations :
1. Please only nominate stories you believe are the best.
2. Self-nominations are not accepted.
3. Fics can be nominated in several categories.
4. Authors can have more than one fic nominated in each category.
5. WIPs are not accepted.
6. Winning stories from previous years may not be nominated.
: Voting :
1. You may vote only once in each category.
2. You are not required to vote in every category.
3. Anonymous votes are not accepted.
4. Make one comment with all your votes for the pairing in question.
Good luck and we hope you all have fun!