Yuletide Rarity and an Incomplete List of Ineligible Fandoms

[elynross]

We're hoping to get nominations going next week, and we'll let you know then about deadlines and such! For now,

Comments

[myxginxblossoms]

Out of curiosity, does this mean the demise of the ten-years-inactive rule, since it isn't mentioned among the guidelines?

I ask because I see that it looks like every live-action Star Trek except DS9 is automatically out, and I don't want to waste a nomination on DS9 if that's going to end up in the rejected pile.

[elynross]

No, it's still a consideration, and DS9 is actually the one ST series that falls well below the ffnet guidelines, and since it's been pretty inactive for a while, it is eligible again, by my book.

[rachelmanija]

Questions for clarity:

1. If you attempt to nominate something that has already been rejected, will some kind of notice pop up saying, "This fandom is ineligible?"

2. If your nominations all get rejected after you make them, are you then unable to make substitute nominations?

This isn't a question for clarity, but a suggestion: Certain fandoms seem larger than they are because of elements which loan themselves to borrowing by other fandoms.

For instance, nearly 200 stories are labeled "Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern," but very few of them involve canon characters. Most of them are stories about other fandoms which just borrow the "telepathic dragon" concept. I suggest that in those cases, you look at how many stories actually involve McCaffrey's characters. Similarly, it looks like there are more Philip Pullman stories than there really are, because of other fandoms using the "daemon" concept.

[elynross]

1) No, and 2) Yes. This is why it's important that people decide up front what three fandoms they most want to nominate, and be careful that they're genuinely rare, by the given guidelines.

And yes, we're aware of the complications of crossovers and such, which is one of the reasons we remain open to changing the list, if people make such a plea, and try to err on the side of generosity and eligibility. We depend (and have always done, really) on the people in those fandoms to contact us and let us know that this is the case.

[take_liberties]

Sorry... just a point of clarification. Last year's nomination signup post says http://yuletide-admin.livejournal.com/102150.html

The form will let you know if a fandom you submit has already been ruled non-obscure.

Does your No to #1 here mean that functionality been taken out?

[elynross]

Last year, nominations were run on the old site, so quite a bit is different this year, including this. One of the reasons for posting the incomplete list of ineligibles before nominations is so that it can be used comparatively to determine probable eligibility. As long as people are aiming for fandoms that are well within the threshholds listed here, they should be fine.

[jlh]

When you say "archives" do you mean separate archives or do LJ comms count?

[elynross]

They do count, but the problem is how difficult it often is to get an accurate count of full stories of whatever length. But if a fandom has an active comm that's getting story postings regularly, it is probably an indication that the fandom itself is fairly active. Now, if there are dozens of postings, all of which are from the same person, posting "chapters" of a hundred words or so, that's less persuasive. *g*

One of our rough measures in the past was being able to find 500+ or so stories of equivalent length outside of ffnet, on archives or comms. That's still a valid way to measure rarity, it can just be hard to actually count, given crossposting and the dwindling of independent archives, these days.

[andelendir]

So far my preferred fandom seems on the good side yet, but just to point out:

There are repositories gathering stories in part 30+ years old together, which may or may not have just 2-3 current writers actively writing.

There are fandoms where stories get posted and reposted in a variety of venues, but they are nothing but doubles of each other.

A question aside - is there a lowest amount of "rarity" you allow for? E.g. a fandom where nothing at all has been written yet?

[elynross]

One of the considerations we've used over the years is to rescreen fandoms more than 10 years old for current activity level/whether archives have disappeared. This is how Sports Night and Homicide: Life on the Streets have regained eligibility.

This is also why we allow people to write to us and convince us concerning their fandom's eligibility, because they're the ones that know the actual activity levels and such. We tend to use ffnet and AO3 as the major measures, at this point, in large part because of their familiarity to many fans, and their relative stability.

I'm not sure I understand the last question; if something has nothing written for it at all, it would definitely be eligible?

[rise_your_dead]

No impassioned pleas on my part, but I was wondering if there will still be a pre/post nomination post where those of us who're involved in fests for those larger fandoms might promote them, as there was last year?

[elynross]

That's definitely something that could be done on yuletide at any point! I don't know if it was an "official" post last year, but there's no reason it needs to be.

[sarafinapekkala]

One small nitpick: Fairy Tale (manga) should be spelled Fairy Tail

[elynross]

Oh, absolutely reasonable, shame on me! *g*