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hot48cricket came out of the woodwork on 2007.05.01 - 01:18AM to say:

I voted...it was hard! There were too many really good stories and authrors!!!

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deenas came out of the woodwork on 2007.05.01 - 11:37PM to say:

I don't mean to sound picky or anything, but it seems as if the same stories and the same authors are nominated every month. There are several wonderful authors on this site who never get recognized and who should. But I do understand that the stories and authors that have had all these nominations are wonderful...but still, it can be very frustrating and disheartening for others to constantly see the same works get nominated over and over again. It's just my two cents...

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NaruKoibito came out of the woodwork on 2007.05.05 - 12:32AM to say:

deenas: I think it's partially because of the mere-exposure effect, where one begins to like something a bit more every time it sees it. Most of these stories are extremely long and so most people see them first. Humans have the tendency to like to trust familiarity. But also, most of these stories are very well written. Of course, I do understand what you mean about how there's not too much difference in the polls...but that's something collective and we really don't have too much control over it. What's more, a lot of these stories are really, really long so they keep getting nominated over and over and over. =/ So it seems like a complicated and sticky situation. Isn't it the same with "Featured Stories" where the administration picks which stories it likes? It seems rather arbitrary (is it because they like it?) and usually if one of the author's stories are featured then all of them are featured. Ah, but I'm still fairly new to all of this stuff so go ahead and correct me if I'm wrong. ^_^;

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Chreechree came out of the woodwork on 2007.05.09 - 06:16AM to say:

Congratulations to the other winners, especially to my dear friend Matt who morphed into a veritable juggernaut this month. Thanks to everyone who took the time to read my story. I’m just pleased that it was pretty well received, so this was icing on the cake.

As for the voting, you can’t force people to vote for stories for the sake of variety. There are excellent stories that are nominated month after month that never win, and, yes, other than the one shot and comedy categories, we do tend to see the same handful of stories winning every month. These stories are worthy award winners, and, as they are extremely well written and plotted, there is a reason they win repeatedly. If, however, we want to see some variety, I still think that the best solution is a Hall of Fame. I know that it has been suggested before, and, according to the rumor mill (take with a grain of salt), it is something that apparently is not going to happen. If that is true, I think it’s a shame as it seems such a logical and easy solution. I would think that after a story (not an author) wins a category 2 or 3 times within a calendar year, that story goes into the Hall of Fame and can no longer compete for a Trinket in that category. It would allow for some variety within the Trinkets and provide a “Best Of� for people to look up the most popular stories. I believe most authors would not mind too terribly if they were eliminated from a category because the Hall of Fame would be even more prestigious than the Trinkets. Most importantly, we’d prevent any long term monopolies in the monthly awards.

Regardless of Trinket results, the best thing we can do to encourage young and novice writers (some of us are inexperienced writers but aren’t so young) is to take the time to review a story and, even better, to say something specific beyond “That was good� or “I loved it.� Any feedback is helpful, but comment on a moment that worked well so that the author can know what resonated with his or her readers. If you choose to criticize, use it as an opportunity to teach the author so that he or she can improve. More experienced writers are always learning, too, so they also need to hear from their readers. And, yes, I do practice what I preach.