Fan Fiction Awards 2006

Unread post by **Sapphire** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 2:09 pm

The annual fan fiction awards always seem really popular in the awards chat, but up until that point, it's often a struggle for me in terms of promoting them and getting people to participate. Last year, we did really well, and I actually thought I wouldn't have to do much to get enthusiasm rolling for the Fic awards, this year especially with it being Beast Wars's tenth anniversary and after such a stellar Botcon.

Well, with 9 days left, the Awards are a definite flop at the moment. If no one bothers to send in a nomination or two for any fic they've read this year and liked, then that's that. No awards. Not now, not ever. I spend every weekend of my life updating this enormous website, on top of a demanding full time job, and I just don't have the energy anymore to say, "hey people! Let's do stuff to keep our fandom alive!"

I'm sorry if this comes across and whiny and self-pitying. I've had a horrible week at work, and I'm very tired, and frankly, rather deflated and disappointed. These fan fic awards are for YOU. They require little effort on your part if you WANT to see them work and enjoy them. But hey, if it's obvious no one really cares, then why should I?

Vampyerba · Unread post by **Vampyerba** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 6:56 pm

I would nominate, but...I don't know whats only come out in the past year.

Unread post by **Sapphire** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 7:31 pm

Every fanfic that is eligble for nomination this year has a date at the top.

Dragonsflayme · Fri Nov 17, 2006 7:41 pm

I haven't nominated anything because I'm just not that big of a fanfiction reader.. and haven't really read anything on this site. I'm sorry to hear that the turnout has been low...

*hugs* Don't give up yet.

Zucca · Unread post by **Zucca** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 8:20 pm

Maybe I can help?

I'm sorry I've been absent lately... Been nursing a cold/sinus infection/dust allergy reaction all at once X_X Sinead has the Gollum-sounding voice I had over the phone to prove it ^_^;

Anyway, I'm going to start reading some fics I've been meaning to. Oh, and in one week, my next Prophecy chapter will be ready. For real this time! ^_^;;

Beastbot · Unread post by **Beastbot** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 2:28 am

*sighs*

Hoo boy. I knew this was going to be coming sooner or later...

First off, I hope NO ONE takes this post personally, especially you, Sapph. I know I haven't really done anything regarding such projects on this site, and I feel you deserve an explanation, especially considering all the hard work I know you put into this site.

I donate to this site primarily because I love seeing you guys every Botcon and chatting with you all-- I love this community, there's quite honestly nothing like it anywhere else in the Transfandom that I've seen, and I don't want it to go away. On other sites, the people I chat with are acquaintances; you guys are my best friends. However, to be honest, I can count the number of fanfics I've ever read on this site on my fingers and toes.

Why? Well, firstly there's the obvious answer of "I don't have enough time to do everything I want". However, if I really wanted I'd still have enough time to read every fanfic on the site if I so desired. I just have other things that I want to spend my free time on more, like playing video games, checking up on the latest TF toys and searching for them, etc. But, 3+ years ago I read a LOT of fanfics, 95% of them Beast Wars fanfics. Why the change? Well, to be honest, it's been ten years. Don't get me wrong, I still love Beast Wars, it's easily my favorite Transformers series of all time and my second-favorite TV series of all time, next to X-Men: Evolution. But no matter how good the fanfics actually were (and most of them have been good), lately the BW fanfics I've been reading I've found I've been doing more out of a sense of obligation than my own personal wanting to. Basically that's because it's been seven years since the series ended. I'm painting in broad strokes here, but basically everything that could concievably be done with the series has been done already. Certainly there can always be difference in the details, but I've just been hit with the "sameness" bug, especially in fics that deal with the core BW cast without adding in a bunch of new characters. It's why in the past 2 years or so my own TF fanfiction series has become less and less of an actual Beast Wars series and more of a Transformers-in-general series set in the Beast Wars timeline, and why after the current fic I'm working on, the series is coming to an end. (Were it solely because of my own interest in my BW fanfic series, I'd have stopped writing it about 10 fics ago, but continued because if there's one thing I hate, it's a good fanfic series coming to an end abruptly or with a rushed finish, and I vowed not to let that happen to my series.) And it's in this aspect that I don't think I'm alone, though certainly I could be wrong regarding this.

Quite frankly, the fact that the BW fandom still remains THIS strong after a full decade is so amazing as to be pretty much unprecedented regarding a kids' show that isn't even the original incarnation of a series like G1 is, and I think that's a testament to just how darned good the show was. And the series got a bit of a kick in the rear this year, what with the tenth anniversary subline, the Botcon toys, and the IDW miniseries, but let's face it, beyond a few more IDW miniseries this is likely the last thing we're going to get BW-wise for a long, long, looooong time. Interest is likely going to dwindle substantially more in the next few years, because unlike G1, Beast Wars does not get continually reinvented, and the upcoming TF movie-- likely a trilogy of movies-- means that the G1-verse and core characters are likely to get the focus for at least a decade or so. Kids that the TF series are aimed at now have no idea what BW is, they weren't born yet or were toddlers when it first came on.

To sum it up, Sapphire, there will always be a few small communities such as this, and I hope this community stays together for a long time to come, but even BW diehards like myself are starting to get distracted by other, newer things, now that I've seen the TV series so many times I can quote pretty much every line in every episode, have collected almost the entire line, and have read hundreds of fanfics based on the series. Does this mean the site is useless, so you might as well abandon it and stop updating it? Of course not, don't be silly, it's a great site and I fully appreciate all of your hard work. The main thrust of the point I've trying to make, Sapph, is that you don't need to take the lack of feedback for stuff like this personally, that just because I (and, I'm assuming, we) don't e-mail you often regarding the site or take part in things like this doesn't mean that we don't care about the BWInt community or don't care about all the hard work you put into this site. My interests have just shifted slightly, and though I still have appreciation for the things of the past, they're starting to get a bit stale without any (or very little) new official material to go on. Although it's certainly nice and ideal to have such things as yearly awards and the like, I don't really think you should expect it at this point.

There, I'm done. I hope I didn't make anyone angry.

Unread post by **Sapphire** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 6:43 am

Beastbot. Firstly, thank you for giving me such a well thought-out, honest reply. I do appreciate it, and I understand what you are saying and where you are coming from. Now, I need to say a few things in response.

I know it has been ten years. *I* don't have the time to read hundreds of fan fics like I used to, but I will say that I am continually surprised by the fresh ideas and plots that crop up in fan fiction sent in by 2nd generation Beast Wars fans. Yes, there's a lot of newbie mary sue stuff - fic writers have to start somewhere - but by hosting things like Fanfic Challenges, Bwint ends up pulling in stuff that still surprises ME, and I have read, no lie, close to 1000 fics. You'd think *I* would have seen it all, but I haven't, which is why when I get a chance, I still read it. But I know that there's only so much material based on an old cartoon show that one can swallow.

With these awards, I am not asking people to suddenly rush to reading a ton of fics out of obligation. I made the mistake of ASSUMING that all the fics I have been putting up over the past year were actually being READ, at least one or two fics per one or two individuals. I thought, well, if I'm still getting sent half a dozen a week, that means people are still writing it, and if people are still writing, surely they are still reading? Also, the site hits indicate a lot of people frequent Bwint, and one of the main point of updates is the fan fiction. I guess I've misinterpreted a lot.

There was a time I was spending 12 hours a weekend working on site updates. Then I got help from Miss Special and a few others who helped ease the workload. It was incredibly stressful for me and I sometimes wondered why the heck I was doing it. I'm a Beast Wars fan, but I'm not crazy-obsessed with it - I don't have all the toys, I don't watch the show every week/month, I haven't read all the BW-themed comics. I like the show because it inspired me so much; it prompted me to take up writing, and that's now become a career path for me. I also made my best friends out of my interest in BW, some of who I truly love now. Far more important than content, was community, and that's what made Bwint special. Unlike other major TF boards/sites, it had a friendly spirit. It survived because it was held together by people who cared, not just about Beast Wars or that there was a site for it, but for each other as well. I know - I have seen it at Gatherings, at Botcons, in the co-written fics and RPs that spring up, in the Bwint chats and so forth. It's quite amazing.

The thing is, though, it's all very well saying, "Cool! We have an awesome site where we can gather at and be a community! And dude, every week there's something new to look at, to hold our interest!" But I have to COME UP with a lot of that material, I have to think of new and exciting things to add to keep the fandom alive. I have seen SO MANY great BW sites fade into oblivion, not because the community didn't support it, but because of lack of updates, of fan-generated content. That's why there are polls and pictures and captions and challenges and bloopers and so on and so on. There is still stuff to be done with this awesome show we love, but it requires just a little effort and imagination. With that, this website, this community, will continue to survive AND attract new generations of fan which will add to its friendly spirit. The thing is, I CAN'T DO IT ALONE. I can create the template, come up with the ideas, put them out there and then I have to rely on YOU guys for the support it needs to help generate the new content which gives ME a sense of purpose with this site and keeps Bwint alive. If no one responds, if people stop contributing, then it's just me making a lot of noise for nothing, and quite frankly, I'm too tired and stretched too thin to do that.

I need to know now, once and for all, what you WANT. Do you want a website that's just up to browse through, devoid of fresh content, but kept as an archive to refer to? Because I can do that, but I KNOW, after a while, the site will lose its pull and it will sputter out, like all the other now dead and gone BW sites. Or do you want a place that continually celebrates our reason for being here, being this community, and if so, are you willing to put in a little effort now and then, when it comes to taking part in fun competitions, voting at the odd poll and sending in a piece of fiction or art IF and WHEN you want to? Are you willing to take a little time to contribute to it, to support it, so that it continues? Because if everyone is too tired of BW, too busy, has simply lost interest or lost enthusiasm, then there is no point for ME, as a person with her own life and troubles and commitments, to take hours and hours out of my week to do all the work towards a dead end. Do you understand?

That's the underlying reason to the bitterness of the start of this thread. I'm not angry, I am just disappointed, tired, and wondering if this is in fact the beginning of the end. Maybe I've done all I can with this site, and it's time to just say, "well, it was fun while it lasted" and move on.

Beastbot · Unread post by **Beastbot** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 2:19 pm

Well, I haven't stopped reading fanfics completely, I still do read them now and again, just not near enough to feel I'm qualified to vote in the awards, and I'll usually read them in short spurts a couple of weeks out of the year... it's not like I never visit the main site at all or anything...

You also need to realize that there are a TON of lurkers out there who simply won't post or give any feedback pretty much no matter what. My site gets roughly 200-300 hits a day, but I usually recieve 2-3 e-mails about it a year. I tried a monthly poll question a few years back, but the most votes I ever got on any poll was 5. I just discovered a major mistake I made in a toy review and am going to correct it next update-- but this toy review has been on the site for a year now, and no one's pointed out the glaring mistake. There is a big enough percentage of lurkers-only browsers out there where you have to be an absolutely HUGE site like TFW2005 or the Allspark to get enough feedback to really be able to do a bunch of projects based off of it, and those sites are both just about TFs in general, so their material and reason for being there keeps getting renewed. However, my site gets 300 hits a day. I know I'm not doing it for nothing, people are reading the stuff I put up, even if they aren't responding. And that's why I keep updating it every two weeks and continually adding more content to it even though it's been around since early 1999. For me, I have enough free time and I enjoy updating the site enough where as long as I get at least a couple dozen hits every update, I feel it's worth it.

However... that said, if I really felt that I didn't have enough time for the site, I would, however reluctantly, leave it up but otherwise abandon it. You sound like you've been really stressed lately, Sapph... and honestly, if you really are struggling that much to find the time to update the site, if it's not that much fun for you anymore-- in other words, if you depend on feedback to keep going with it, if you do it for other people, not because you like to do it-- then maybe it really is time for you to just keep the site as an archive site, and instead concentrate on the message boards and arranging things such as the yearly BWInt gatherings and Botcon get-togethers. BWInt is not a second job, or at least it shouldn't be. I understand your wanting to do this for your friends, but BWInt is not a charity, either. We won't starve or shiver in the cold out in a cardboard box--or likely be severely depressed either-- if you decide not to update every week. BWInt is your hobby, it's something you should do because you want to do it. This community WILL eventually die out, Sapph. That's just the nature of things on the Internet. Hopefully not for a long, long time, but I doubt we'll still all be chatting about Beast Wars and daily frustrations/achievements when we're 50. And I do also have to point out that of all the BW sites that have bit the dust in the past several years, most of them have done so because their creators not only didn't have the time to update their site, but because they didn't have the time to interact with their community. They didn't have time for the Internet, period. As long as you don't ignore the site altogether and still participate on the boards and get-togethers regularly, and maybe do the occasional fanfic project like the one we're starting to work on now, I still think this community will be together for a good, long while. I mean, there is a third choice here-- there is a pretty big medium between spending hours and hours updating the site every weekend and abandoning it altogether. You said that the site will die if we don't continually celebrate our reason for being here, and that's true. However, at least for me, my reason for being here may have started out being because it's a Beast Wars website, but my reason for staying is because of you guys. Not because of the fanfics, and I won't think one minutiae less of you if you decide you don't think it's worth it to update the site anymore.

Sinead · Unread post by **Sinead** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 5:11 pm

I agree to most of what Beastbot says. And you've gotten my email, Sapph, so you know one side of my stance. The other side is based off of the people, as BB said. Sure, we've all done great works in the past, sure we're continuing to do great works . . . but now most of them are between people creating something or doing something together, and not just pertaining to Beast Wars anymore, but because we've become good friends.

I do still want to see BWINT continue, but if weekly updates are beginning to be too much, and the people aren't responding as much as they used to, could it be possible to pull weekly updates back to become a monthly update? Even for just a while, Sapph. This has been your site from the beginning, and I'm 200% convinced that you need to take it a bit more easy upon yourself. This is a huge undertaking. And nobody would blame you if you decided to slow the updates. You've been supporting this site for many years, now, and I'm actually shocked that you haven't burned yourself out by now.

Lemme know what you think. I'll be talking with you soon, sis.

una · Unread post by **una** » Sat Nov 18, 2006 6:51 pm

If it comes down to it I argee with Sinead

Change the updates to month ones not week if it's too much

Take Break for 3-4 weeks then start it over

Don't pressure yourself Sapphire

Jagna · Unread post by **Jagna** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 7:26 am

i can imagine how busy u r sapph...
(hi evry1 im bak!)
soz bout my lack of contribyution, but its prob the same for me as it is for Beastbot, i havnt the time to read any fics, esp not rite now. usually during the hols im itching to get onto the fic page and read read read, and many r really good. but i, like you sapph, am just SOOO swamped at the moment iv had to have several extensions for my homework assignments. its cause i have 3 (yes, 3!) performances going on at the cycle.TWO of them are shakespear (ayeayeAYE! o dear primus!) and some charity concert for british week (i swear the english schools in this country are SOO sad!)
tonight is the last performance for a midsummer nights dream after 4 consequtive (sp?) nights as well as rehearsals; i ve got tht concert thing for two nights THE DAY AFTER m.n.d., and Macbeth is coming up real soon, and im just so knackered i dont think id be able to process any of the things i read, and id prefer to be in my prime

and give a justified nomination to a fic writer who deserves to win in my opinion. call me after my A/S exams in jan and pile 'em up!
i agree with una. u, like me sapph, need a BREAK! maybe this year, you should leave the competitions up to one of the other administrators. coz i have a feeling that u would want to judge it fairly...i would. so reax, and concentrate on ur work for a while and let some1 else do all the worrying for you!

i know we ALL need to right now.
tata!
Jagna
ps...all ive thought about while waiting for my scenes to come up was, 'i wonder what they're posting on bwint?' LONG LIVE BEAST WARS INT!!!!

CabooseMoose7103 · Tue Nov 21, 2006 7:47 pm

Sapphire wrote:Do you want a website that's just up to browse through, devoid of fresh content, but kept as an archive to refer to?

I'd like to give a very big, resounding, "NO" to that question.

I would also like to point out that it is Thanksgiving week here in the U.S. Many people who might have participated in the Fanfic Awards may be busy this year with holiday plans.

Sapph, you sound very tired and stressed. I really don't think anyone will mind it if you either postpone the FanFic awards until a later date or skip them this time around. If people do not appear to be responding to fan fiction very readily, then maybe it's time to try something different. There was talk of a podcast or other form of media response to the 10th Anniversary of Beast Wars, maybe you could try focusing on that instead and see where you could go with that idea. Put up a poll for either postponing the FanFic awards or cancelling them this time around in favor of doing some work on a podcast.

My overall opinion is; take a break. I seriously doubt anyone will fault you for it. Take a break, collect your thoughts, paint a masterpiece, whatever. Just take a break.

Unread post by **Starath** » Fri Nov 24, 2006 3:37 am

Hiya Sapph. I've given a lot of thought of what I'll say here. I'll probably end up repeating some of what's already been said but certain things, I think, must be stressed so you know they're important.

I echo Moose's resounding NO to that particular question. In my opinion, a step towards a website's demise would be to become an archive. In saying that, I realize that means the site needs to keep having fresh things like you mentioned.

I also agree that you should take a break from BWint for awhile. Sapph, you do an amazing amount of work, and that's totally admirable. But it saddens me that it drags you down so much. Perhaps updating less often will help you? That way you'll be able to spread everything out in a longer period of time rather than hurrying up to update once a week. I don't know all that you do in an update, but are there things that need adjusting EVERY week? Maybe if you could sort things out in piles of "what must be done often" and "things that can wait", that can help too. Once a week is too much if it drags you down, Sapph. An important thing is that you're doing this because you want to, not simply out of obligation.

As for whether or not fan fiction is actually being read, I would say it is. But just because you're not getting a huge feedback for the fan fic awards doesn't mean it's all for naught. I've read my share of fics, but to be honest, if you asked me which, I probably wouldn't be able to tell you anything but a few because I'm human and I forget. I bet others are the same too if they've been reading. For the awards, it's a matter of going back and reviewing or calling a fic to mind that someone adored. Unfortunately I suspect that's where things fall through.

To touch on what Beastbot said, it's been ten years since Beast Wars came out. I was 11 years old when I watched it. Lack of enthusiasm for an event is partly due to that span of time, but also because we who love BW are grown and out working jobs and/or going to higher school. It's not that we're not interested anymore, it's just that we're not free to goof off all the time like we used to. Trust me, I would gladly put aside all my final papers and studying for reading and dipping into BW stuff if not for the fact that I'm paying to go to school. @_@ Also, we do have a new generation of BW fans popping up too, but again, it's been ten years since its full power hit.

It's communities like this that are important because it can keep BW alive. So no, I don't want this site to be a place that gets covered in dust. If the site doesn't get updated as often I don't think it will hurt us because what makes the place run are the people who gather at these boards, conventions and gatherings who become friends.

For the Fan Fic Awards this year, either extend the nomination period or just call it off for this year if it's so upsetting to you. But don't give it up. Take a break, sit back from things for awhile, and go at it again when you feel better. You need ta keep your sanity, you know, so at least one of us around here isn't crazy. *hugs*

--Starath

RobotInDisguise · Fri Nov 24, 2006 2:02 pm

I also check regularly for updates and love this site, even if I don't say much. This is the best Beast Wars site alive and I would hate to see it die, but it's up to you, Sapph. If it's getting to be too much for your, then maybe you should. I understand teh time constraints since that's what stopped me from reading as many fanfics as I used to.