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By 1998, the Forever Knight fandom had developed a strong and thriving fan fiction community on-line. Fans wanted awards, dating back to the tradition in fan fiction communities with the FanQs. They started voting for best fan stories on the web with the The Forever Knight Fan Fiction Awards. The results covered fan fiction published on-line in 1997 and 1998.

[edit] History

On 12/21/97, Susan Garrett posted a message on FORKNI-L@LISTS.PSU.EDU requesting information on Forever Knight author contacts with regard to the MediaWest*Con Fan-Q Awards. Toward the end of the post, she wrote: "As a side thought . . . has anyone ever considered setting up awards for the on-line Forever Knight fiction? We're prolific enough to have one. I know the X-Files people run something every year. Could that be done?"

Listmember Juli Monroe answered the question by volunteering enthusiasm - with the understanding that she would need assistance with technical expertise. Imajiru offered html coding expertise. And with additional listmembers volunteering technical and non-technical assistance, the idea of Fanfic Awards for Forever Knight online fiction was born.

Discussions continued through January of 1998, topics including categories (with older fiction to be in a "classic" category), the awards name, and whether adult material could or would be included (given certain internet providers' restrictions on hosting adult content). The last mention of the awards on the list was mid-February 1998.

On June 26, 1998, Susan Garrett posted a awards FAQ and announced that online voter registration would be accepted from Voter ID # Registrations will be accepted from June 26th until August 9th. No nominations would be accepted until 12:00 AM (ET), June 29th. Nominations were closed on July 12th, 1998, at 11:59 PM EST. Voting ended August 11th, 11:59 PM. The winners were posted to the ForKni-L Mailing List on Sunday, August 16th at 12:01 AM. Sharon H created the advertising banners and Imajiru created the nomination and award winner graphics nominated and winning authors could post on their sites.

On December 10th, 1998, the 1998 Forever Knight Fan Fiction Awards notice was posted to ForKni-L by Susan Garrett. The awards were expanded from two divisions (1997 and Historic) to four (1998, Historic, 1998 Adult, Historic Adult), with a possible total of 28 award categories. Nominations were accepted between Jan 10th and Jan 23 1999. The Preliminary Ballot was finalized between January 23rd to Jan 30th. Votes were accepted from Jan 31st through Feb 26th. Votes were counted from Feb 27th through Feb 28th. The results of the awards were announced live at 10:00 PM (EST) on March 1st, 2009 on IRC, with a repeat announcement at 11:00 PM (EST) at the Monday AOL chat. The results were then posted to the usenet group, SciFi Channel Dominion Boards, FK Loop, ForKni-L and FKFic-L on March 2nd 1999.

[edit] Rules and Procedures

[edit] 1997

Anyone who had read any FOREVER KNIGHT fan fiction and who signed up through voter registration was eligible to nominate/vote. Everyone wishing to nominate/vote was assigned a Voter ID#.

Nominations were accepted for a voting ballot. Voters could nominate as many items as they liked, 1 nomination per item.

After the nominating deadline, all nominations were collected and categories and divisions assigned. The authors of the top six entries in each division were contacted and asked if they wish to participate in the awards. Authors wishing to remain on the ballot must have replied before the preliminary ballot deadline--if an author did not reply, they would be removed from the ballot. Any author who wished a work to be removed from the ballot should send an e-mail requesting its removal. Only authors wishing to remain on the ballot had their works appear on the final voting ballot.

Any complete Forever Knight story, poem, or filk that was or had been available to the general public in an electronic form was eligible for nomination. Definition of AVAILABLE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC--it was posted to the FKFic-L list or any other electronic list or is/was archived on an FTP site or a website. It did not have to be currently available to be NOMINATED. Definition of ELECTRONIC FORM--readable on-line from a computer terminal, downloadable to a computer, or transferable by diskette Definition of COMPLETE--the nominated item must have been posted in its entirety by December 31, 1998.

Any work that appeared on the final ballot MUST have been available for the voting public to read and review. The author was requested to allow either a link to the nominated work or a copy of the nominated work to be available from the voting website. This allowed voters to read all of the works nominated on the final ballot and make an informed decision. After the results were awarded, individual items and links were removed as per the author's request.

The final voting ballot was available on the voting web page and was also be posted to ForKni-L . Wide dissemination of the ballot AND the rules was encouraged. Votes were placed for one nominee in each category during the designated period. Awards were given to the nominee with the most votes in their category and division--ties were entirely possible and were honored as such.

Categories were determined by Word Count after the nominations were made in either the Historic or 1997 division for a total of 14 award categories, as follows: Category Word Count

Vignette (Under 2,000)
Short Story (2,000 - 7,499)
Novelette (7,500 - 17,499)
Novella (17,500 - 39,999)
Novel (40,000 or more)
Filk (No Limits)
Poem (No Limits)

All stories for the 1997 category must have been posted to a web site or to a mailing list IN THEIR ENTIRETY by December 31st, 1997. The last part of the story must have been posted on or before that date. If the last part of a story was posted on or after 1/1/98, it would be eligible for the 1998 awards. This was the only year that stories posted between 1/1/97 and 12/31/97 would be eligible for an award. 1997 stories would NOT be eligible for historic awards in subsequent years. The historic awards were categorized as works posted on or before December 31, 1996 and would be eligible for a few subsequent years.

A FAQ was posted on ForKni-L and the voting webpage with voting specifics.

Total Nominations made - 1987
Total Valid Nominations made - 1939
Total # of Voter ID's who sent in nominations - 136
Largest # of nominations received from one ID - 255
Average # of Nominations/Voter ID # - 14
Highest number of nominations for one work - 23

[edit] 1998

The rules for the 1998 awards were the same as the 1997 awards, with the exception of the division changes - the awards were expanded from two divisions (1997 and Historic) to four (1998, Historic, 1998 Adult, Historic Adult), with a possible total of 28 award categories.

A FAQ was posted on ForKni-L and the voting webpage with voting specifics.