Way back when we first came up with the idea of the Sam & Jack Multimedia Awards the Committee realized some categories might get too many nominations. Not that one can really have too many fanfic, fanvids and fanart, but people would still have to vote and thus check them all out. So, the committee figured there should be a maximum number of nominations per category.
At the same time, though, it seemed unfair to cap them off at ten (which seemed like a reasonable number) and just close the category once the first ten were in. We were pretty new at this and people weren't familiar with us yet, so the early birds would be able to fill up all the categories before others might even learn of the SJMA's existence!
Obviously, we would need a different method. The committee decided the best way would be to allow everyone to nominate their faves (as long as they adhered to our rules) and then, once the nomination period closed and we knew how many noms there were, we would pare them down. It seemed like the fairest option and at the same time, it gave us an opportunity to test the voting ballot.
So, over the course of the past few weeks the committee has been keeping up with all the nominated works in categories with more than 10 nominations. Everything had to be looked at and/or read, because we knew we wouldn't be able to do it all in the week between the nom period closing and voting opening! It might not seem like it, but we do have real lives that interfere with our Awards stuff!
Each of the committee members had their own method; some simply based it on their personal preferences (which had they enjoyed the most and which the least?) while others were more methodical about it by creating spreadsheets with criteria to add and subtract points to every nom. Then, the voting ballot came and we had to list every nominated work from high to low. It would then use an algorithm to decide which nominations ranked the highest out of all the ballots submitted by the committee. The results are the bolded nominations on our website.
Easy, right? Wrong! Not only did it take a lot of time to go through all the noms in the selected categories, but we discovered a glitch with the voting ballot! Turned out some of us took too much time (according to the site) to submit our choices, while others had no problems finishing it in time. The committee immediately realized how bad this was and went looking for a different service, because once voting opened all the noms (well, except the pared down ones) would be on the ballot and that would take even longer to fill out!Fortunately, a new service was found in time. It was much easier to work with but also cost a fee, which is why we added it to the donations page. At the moment of writing this blog post, a few ballots have already been submitted and we haven't heard any complaints yet, so we're really happy we made the switch just in time! Let's just hope the rest of the voting period goes on without a glitch too...
We hope that was a satisfactory explanation for everyone and that you all understand why we did this. It was not meant to discourage or disappoint nominees, but simply a practical way of preventing too many choices once people got to the voting stage. All the nominations/nominees who have been removed from the ballot are still considered nominees of the Sam & Jack Multimedia Awards 2014 and may continue to display their flair. All the nominated works shall remain listed on the website as well, so there is no need to worry about copying the links for future enjoyment of shippy material.
Don't forget to vote! The ballots were sent on Monday, September 2nd and if you haven't received it despite registering to vote, then please check the spam folder of your inbox. Everyone should have received their ballot and we're looking forward to all of them being returned to us, filled out and everything.
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