kurofai | 2015 KuroFai Olympics - How to Vote & Voting Etiquette Guide

Hello CLAMPers! Welcome to the 2015 KuroFai Olympics, we're so excited to have you here!

Now, if you've never participated in or heard about the Olympics before, this is what they are: a fan-run event where two themed teams compete in a friendly competition to post up fic for a series of prompts, and our readers vote and score their favourites! This year we have Team Fantasy v.s. Team Sci Fi, and a list of eight prompts- That's sixteen brand new fics all up!

If you're a first time reader-voter, or even a veteran who'd like a refresher on how to vote and help your favourite fic do well, this short guide is for you. Please read through it carefully, and if you have any questions, post them in a comment down below- I'll get back to you as soon as I can!

First things first: Who can vote?

Pretty much anyone! If you've read a fic, you can vote for it- it's as simple as that! The only people who can't vote are the writers themselves, just to keep it fair for their teammates and their opponents. All we ask is that if you read and vote for a fic for one team for one prompt, e.g. Team Fantasy for prompt #1, please read and vote for the corresponding fic from the other team, e.g. Team Sci Fi for prompt #1. If you don't have time or don't want to, that's A-Ok, but the more people we have voting on both fics, the more fun it is for everyone.

Where are the fics going to be posted? And where do I vote for them?

Our writers are free to post their fics anywhere they please: tumblr, AO3, fanfiction.net, their own dreamwidth journals or even the community itself. However, we do ask that they create a main post in this KuroFai dreamwidth community following a set format, and linking back to their fic, so that readers can vote here instead of scattered all over the internet. If we can keep all the scores on the main posts for each fic, it's much easier to hunt down votes and tally them up. In fact, in order for your vote to count, it must be on the main post, not wherever else you might have read their fic.

Okay, but how do I vote? What are the scores out of?

You can vote for a fic by leaving a comment on its main post on the KuroFai dreamwidth community. You can post a comment either by logging in using a dreamwidth or livejournal account, or by leaving an "anonymous" comment. However, if you do comment anonymously, please provide a link to a tumblr, AO3, or other social media profile, to use as I.D. If we have no way of identifying you, your vote will not count.

Comments should score the fic following the format below:

1. How well did this fic fit the prompt?
(Use this to remark on how well you felt the fic reflected the chosen prompt. The prompt will be listed up the top, with the title of the fic, in the title of the post. New and interesting ways of interpreting the prompt are good, as well as ones that match the overall 'theme' of the team the fic is posted for.)

2. How well written was the fic?
(This is about technical writing; how well the fic was structured, and how well the words flowed. Did the story have a good plot? Were characterisations clear and fitting? Did you spot anything you felt didn't fit in terms of the story?)

3. How much did I enjoy the fic?
(For this, tell us how much you enjoyed it! If it was suspenseful, were you on the edge of your seat? If it was romantic, did you swoon at the big kiss scene? If it was action-packed, could you see the explosions with your mind? If you had anything you liked best about the whole fic, write about it here!)

Each section of the vote is scored out of ten, for a total out of thirty. You don't need to add your scores up to give a total if you don't want to, but you do need to score the fics out of ten points for each section, either in whole numbers or simple fractions. If you're in a hurry, you can just leave your number score, e.g. 7/10, 8.5/10, etc., but if you have the time, please leave a sentence or two about what you liked and what you thought could have been different, or what your favourite parts of the fic were. Our writers have worked very hard to create fics for this contest, so please take the time to give them some feedback! You don't have to write a novel, but a sentence or two would be really nice.

Also, please keep in mind that pointlessly negative or cruel comments will be deleted. I don't expect it to happen, as the CLAMPdom is a very nice fandom full of lovely people, but your votes and comments are here to build writers up, not tear them down. Be honest, but be kind. Constructive criticism, where you point out what could have been done better and give examples of how to improve it, is welcome; mean and hurtful remarks are not. And if you just want to flail about how fantastic a fic is, that's welcome too.

Are there any penalties I should keep in mind?

Since this is a competition, we do have penalties for late posting, unfinished fics, and missing fics; however, those will be applied by the contest mod (i.e., me.) to the scores during the tallying period. So you don't need to worry about them. Please score the fics as you find them, and how you feel they deserve to be scored; you don't need to score with penalties in mind.

How long can we vote for? And when will the final scores be posted up?

Since we're going to have sixteen new fics this year to read, which is quite a lot, I'm going to give readers a fair bit of time to vote: two whole weeks besides the duration of the posting up period, so finishing around the 7th of July. You can vote for fics as soon as they are up and posted; you don't need to wait until everyone has posted up their fics first.

After the voting period is closed and I feel like there is a good balance of votes for all the fics (I'm hoping to get at least three or four votes per fic), I'll tally up all the scores and do some math with averages to work out which team scored the most. Once that's all done, I'll make a post up here and on tumblr using the '2015 KuroFai Olympics' tag to let you all know how well everyone did.

That's all there is to voting, and I hope it was clear enough for you to understand. If you have any questions, or would like me to make any clarifications, please comment below; I'll edit anything applicable into this post for reference.

Thanks for reading, and happy voting!