News

Champions of the Portkey Challenge 2018-1, and Topic for 2018-2

Well, Ginny and Harry are found, Molly's blood pressure is subsiding below volcanic levels, and the people have clearly decided that our authours treated us to some wonderful fanfic literature!

Congratulations to all contributors -- every entry received votes for at least some categories and no selection was unanimous. That said, our champions for 2018-1 are:

Most Romantic: For Luck by melindaleo
Most Adventuresome: Odyssey to the Orient by potterfan2008
Best Overall: Odyssey to the Orient by potterfan2008
People's Choice: Odyssey to the Orient by potterfan2008

Sincere appreciation to MG, OB, HG and YK for your dilligent evaluations!

And now, on to our voter-selected topic for Challenge 2018-2:

Tis the Valentines feast at Hogwarts, and something is odd. The pumpkin juice tastes suspiciously good, and all who drink it are behaving strangely. Uh oh.

The topic was based on a suggestion by Gin110881. Awards will be made for Most Humourous, Most Unexpected, Best Overall, and People's Choice. Please stay tuned for a followup announcement in about a week, specifying rules for Challenge 2018-2, and opening the voting process on possible topics for Challenge 2018-3.

ghl on 2018.04.01 - 07:04AM ()

Comments

potterfan2008 came out of the woodwork on 2018.04.01 - 11:24AM to say:

Wow! Thank you, so much! I am honestly quite shocked - there were so many excellent stories! Congrats to Melindaleo on her win and honestly to all of the other authors (Esp Arnel, who I thought would win one of the categories!)! I'm so glad the Challenges were continued, they are fun and inventive!

Gin110881 came out of the woodwork on 2018.04.01 - 03:08PM to say:

Congrats to the Winners and Happy Easter to all who celebrate it. Oh, and Happy Birthday to Fred and George.

GHL came out of the woodwork on 2018.04.01 - 08:47PM to say:

Yes, thank you Martin! Happy Easter to those who celebrate, and our sincere best to the twins on their big day!

Going back to Sharon's comment, I do know of one time where the challenge recognised one story as, basically, the 'best of the rest', which is to say that it was a story that received close consideration for multiple awards, but didn't win any. That make be something that we consider implementing in the future, especially if we continue to get 5+ submissions per challenge.

melindaleo came out of the woodwork on 2018.04.02 - 10:04AM to say:

Wow! Holy Smokes - thanks very much. Romantic - that's quite an honor. Congratulations to Potterfan for her very impressive sweep, and also congrats to all who submitted stories. It was a good round. I, too, have to express my appreciation to Arnel who not only wrote a great fic, but found the time to beta several of the stories. Finally, thanks to all who voted and to SIYE administrators for keeping the fun rolling!

potterfan2008 came out of the woodwork on 2018.04.02 - 05:41PM to say:

I like the idea of an honorable mention or something like that. Especially when there are so many good stories. The other thing that would be nice is a best new author for the Silver Trinkets.

GHL came out of the woodwork on 2018.04.07 - 08:09AM to say:

Thank you for the excellent suggestions -- I too think author-focused achievement awards may be an interesting way to spice things up. I'm sure other administrators are reading this too, but I'll definitely raise the concept in a semi-formal way.

One other question that's been rattling around my brain is what might be a good mechanism to bring old stories to people's attention? There are literally thousands of great stories on this site that have been buried so long that relatively new readers might never become aware of them. I wonder if a panel of long-time readers might be convened to put forward an evolving list of recommendations or whatnot? Thoughts?

Gin110881 came out of the woodwork on 2018.04.07 - 09:52AM to say:

Just a first short note: Great idea. I often search the favourites of no longer active members for the hidden treasures.

GHL came out of the woodwork on 2018.04.07 - 01:20PM to say:

Great! So can I interpret that as willingness to help lead such an effort? It would not be easy to find someone with much greater qualifications! To enhance the diversity in stories highlighted, it would be great to have a few more people take on the task. Volunteers welcome, though perhaps we could also twist arms of some of the more prolific active reviewers.

GHL came out of the woodwork on 2018.04.07 - 01:55PM to say:

Regarding authour-focused awards, I think it would be an effort (perhaps Herculean) to rejigger SIYE's own Trinket system since that keys on stories rather than writers. However there are external polling services that are not too spammy that might suffice for competitions of that sort. Anyway, comments and suggestions welcome.