Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related 25th Annual Kerth Awards 2023: Let’s Discuss Categories!

I didn't see the best new author category. Maybe that's because you assume it's a given. I'm just wondering if maybe we should change it to "best author", because we don't have so many new authors that it seems like every new author would be nominated by default. I don't know how many new authors are on AO3, so I might be mistaken.

Thoughts anyone?

This is something the KComm has been discussing extensively. This category is beloved and we want to continue honoring it, but you are absolutely right that we don’t have enough new authors annually for it to be a viable, competitive category like it once was. It seems we are averaging around 2-3 new authors per year, which is not even enough to fill the ballot spaces AND creates a situation where we have one winner and one “loser” which doesn’t feel encouraging or uplifting. We don’t want anyone to feel like a “loser” — being nominated should be an honor in and of itself.

To that end…we’d like to do away with the category as a competition and instead feature each new author during the ceremony.

I’m envisioning scattering the profiles throughout the ceremony (like the Oscars take turns featuring the Best Picture nominees). Each feature could highlight a New Author’s portfolio of work this year and introduce them to the fandom as a whole.

I’m intrigued by the idea of including a Best Author category and would love to hear more opinions about that. I know in (long) past years it’s happened that an author will have multiple stories in competition and will split the vote, such that they don’t win the categories that they might otherwise have won if they weren’t competing against themselves. This might be a way of circumventing that issue as well as a way to honor an author’s entire body of work over the course of the year as opposed to individual stories.

Hi FoLCs!

A summary of all of the nKerth Awards and an FAQ is available at http://www.lcficdirectory.com/nkerth/

Thanks!
Dawn & nKerth Committee

I don't mind the idea of a best overall author category, but what would the criteria be? Or would we just give a list of all eligible authors and let people choose based on their own reasons?

Hey guys! I'll throw my 2 cents in here, with the added experience of currently going through the annual awards in my other fandom.

- I definitely agree with DeadlyChakram that Art and Videos should be considered separate categories. It's understandable that there may not be too many of them, but it's just the first year we'll be doing these categories; maybe it's worth taking a shot at it if there are at least 5 of each.

- In my other fandom, Mature and Explicit stories compete in all categories without limitations, and there's also a Best Smut category, which is obviously where they compete against each other. FWIW. There's also a Best Kiss category.

- Another couple of categories we have in my other fandom would translate as Best Clark Characterization and Best Lois Characterization. (They sound familiar, did we ever use to have these?)

- AnnieM answered the question about Best Commenter perfectly. I think it's a good category to have. It encourages people to leave comments, and besides (having just been nominated for it in my other fandom!) I can tell you that it feels not so much as a win for the individual person as a contribution to the community! It's subjective, definitely - one may vote for the person who leaves the most detailed comments; one may vote for the one who SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEES and capslock-smashes; one may vote for the one who leaves a one-liner of a comment on every single fic. But that's the beauty of it.

- I think Best Overall Author would work better as an "Author of the year" award. Someone who either wrote a lot this year, or wrote something FANTASTIC, or anyways any person that you were really looking forward to seeing updates from this year.

- And yes, a Lifetime Achievement Award would be nice, but as it's not as a competitive category, maybe the idea of a larger committee who decides on it would be nice. Obviously can't be awarded to the same person more than once. :p Also, to me it does feel like something to be given either to people who either have retired from fandom entirely, or who are otherwise not likely to be awarded any of the other awards (even if they used to be writers and have many awards).

Overall, I'd like to add this:

Best is subjective, and we all know that. Personally, I have never managed to vote for a winner xD somehow my taste is always so different than the majority's! But that's fine, we all vote with our tastes and that's what gives more flavour to the fandom.

I'll come back if I think of more stuff to add!

OH!! Re: New Author. In my other fandom, as New Authors qualify all who haven't posted fic in over 3 years. I feel like, with a fandom like ours, it wouldn't be fair, because there's a steady core of fandom here, with the boards and the Archive and everything - I didn't feel like a n00b coming back here after 15 years, but I did when I got back there and found the fandom having moved from FF.net and LJ to Tumblr and AO3, and no familiar names at all anywhere, most current active writers only having started to write during the quarantine years.

However... how about a Best Comeback? Several of us missed our chance but if another wave of FoLCs starts returning, it might be a good thought to have in mind!

It is wonderful to see all these comments about the proposed new categories for the upcoming Kerths. I haven't been around as long as Anna B., but the fandom has changed quite a bit in 12 years. So happy to see the new writers and great energy!

I don't know if it's too late for that, but I had an idea concerning the best commenter/ feedback category. The goal as I understand it, is to honor the people taking the time to leave feedback. But some people fear that folcs might feel discouraged to leave feedback, because they can't afford the time to leave detailed feedback. I think while most authors are excited about detailed feedback, they are just as thrilled if they get some FDK from someone who almost never leaves a comment.


My suggestion would be to have an open nomination. Every folc who has ever written a story can nominate a person they think qualifies for the award. They'd have to give a reason, though. IDK, like Person X leaves always Feedback, or his/her feedback meant so much, because he/she decided to delurk for me. Of course the reason can (or should be) a little more detailed than that)

That way - I think - every nominated folc can read what their comment meant to the author and get a reward even if they don't win the award.

Thoughts, anyone? It's just a suggestion.

I'm late to this party....

I love the idea of Best Kiss.

I'm excited that the nKerth's may be happening this year! While I don't write nfic, I do enjoy the stories. It's great to have the opportunity to recognize those works too. If they wouldn't be happening, I agree adding them into the Kerths would be great.

My thought/suggestion would be to have authors place their own fics into certain categories? As an example: Best Revelation. A thread could be started for that category and authors would insert their fic. Fred would place their fic into Best Revelation because one of their stories has a reveal. Jen would also place her fic into this thread as there is a reveal, but it's an OC reveal. We could use those lists for nominations instead of the KComm committee trying to categorize everything, and as authors, we know our stories best.

Sorry... I don't think is as clear as it is in my head at the moment I wrote it up in a nice big post and then my tabs closed

So, the nfics all get two chances to win a Kerth and all the gfics only get one? Doesn't seem fair at all.

Thank you so much Anna, Morgana, bakasi, and Toomi for sharing your opinions!! And thanks for your patience with us over the holidays and whatnot while we (or at least me ) play catch up with everything and work to get things rolling for the Kerths behind the scenes!

Bakasi—I really like that suggestion! As we’re finalizing the category list, we’ll also be making sure the category definitions make sense and make things easy to nominate and vote. With best commenter being so new and different, we’ll definitely have to take all these ideas into consideration and come up with something that makes the most sense.

Toomi—I love Best Kiss, too! The K-Comm will double check things, as with all categories, and see if it makes sense for this year!

I do hear you on the categorization—it’s a tricky things, for sure! And it used to not be an issue when eligible stories were only from the archive, where everything gets handy category keywords from the GEs. The K-Comm has no intention of categorizing things! The nominations process itself will serve to do the categorization! The only thing the K-Comm will do is kind of a once over to decide whether or not there are enough “revelation stories” to warrant an entire category for them.

The great thing about the nomination process is that everyone who thinks, “Oh man, the revelation that Jane Doe wrote was AWESOME! I’m going to nominate that for Best Revelation!” Things will self-sort. And we’ll hopefully get some threads and games up soon to help remind people of some of those great moments from stories throughout the year.

Thanks!

Sara and the K-Comm

That’s a great point to bring up! At first glance, it does seem like that, but…that’s essentially what is happening now anyway even if the Kerths don’t include nfic eligibility.

I got a PM from an nKerth Committee member who gave me permission to post this on their behalf (they are a lurker who wishes to remain so) for you all in way of explanation as well as an informal announcement about this year’s nKerths.

Please let us know if this addresses your concerns!

Sara and the K-Comm

From an nKerth Committee member: