Why the merger of two categories?

[HalWhitewyrm]

In order for a category to be viable, we need at least nine submissions from six different publishers.

This is information I wish I'd known beforehand. Is it available on the ENnies site? It could have helped us to avoid the issue below.

If I had known that this year, whether right off the bat or someone giving us a heads up partway through that not enough entries were received, I would have accepted the carbon footprint of shipping a half-dozen CD packages.

I wish a heads-up had been sent, either officially or unofficially. 20/20 hindsight and all.

Regardless of reasons, the truth is that we, the podcasting community (with some exceptions) dropped the ball and we have no one to blame but ourselves.

 

[ptevis]

Regardless of reasons, the truth is that we, the podcasting community (with some exceptions) dropped the ball and we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Agreed. I chose not to submit this year because I honestly didn't think my show deserved it. I should have submitted it anyway, not for myself, but for the community at large.

 

[RyanMacklin]

Regardless of reasons, the truth is that we, the podcasting community (with some exceptions) dropped the ball and we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Let's not push the blame game. Neither side dropped the ball -- individuals made choices on all sides and it turned out as it did. I'm sure if we had known this to be an issue (as we do now), it would become a community drive on our end rather than a series of individuals making decisions in a vacuum.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Crothian, I'm not blaming the judges. I do think there's a problem when that's the end result, however. And I am a bit baffled that Raiders of Oakhurst (a fine product) was placed there, instead of with something like Best Free Product.

Oakhurst was a judge's favorite and was, initially, being considered for Best Free Product, but the product reads: "Raiders fo Oakhurst is the first-ever free fan-released 4E D&D adventure." And so, in the end, we chose to consider it as Fan Product.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

As a judge, I was disappointed by the lack of pod casts. Last year, that was among my favorite categories to judge. Granted, at the time, I was working a crappy job all alone in a veritable dungeon for 9+ hours a day so the pod casts became my salvation.

That said, I really hope that more of the really great pod casters submit their stuff next year. I won't be judging (not running for 2009), but I think there are a lot of really talented people doing a lot of really awesome, entertaining stuff and they deserve recognition! *cough* Sons of Kryos!! *cough*

 

[Xath]

As a point of feedback, I would have respected if the category was (or categories were) closed this time for a lack of submissions. Clearly, that's your call, but it would have really communicated that we as a group need to step up next year. I now know that, and know that I'm not submitting my show just for myself but for the community of podcasters. If I had known that this year, whether right off the bat or someone giving us a heads up partway through that not enough entries were received, I would have accepted the carbon footprint of shipping a half-dozen CD packages.

Here's something copied directly off of the ENnies site:

The Judges have the right to place entries into categories which they deem the product eligible. If you do not wish to be considered for specific categories, please indicate this upon submission. The placement of entries in the final categories is at the discretion of the judges and Board. Their combined decision is final.

Because the number of entrants in a particular category fluctuates considerably from one year to the next, the ENnies Board, in consultation with the judging panel, reserves the right to divide, merge or otherwise alter the categories in which awards are given.

Side note: the idea to collect a bunch of podcasts into one series of packages (like how some fulfillment houses will ship one shipment for many entrants) rather than each podcast shipping separately only now occurred to me. Would that be a pain for you guys to deal with on your end, should you continue this method or requiring CDs for freely downloadable content?

That's perfectly acceptable. Don't forget, you don't need to be the publisher to submit a product either. If you're a fan of something that has particular merit, you can submit it yourself, as long as you obtain permission of the publisher and follow the ENnies submissions guidelines.

 

[Clueless]

In order for a category to be viable, we need at least nine submissions from six different publishers. We received insufficient quality entries in both fan site and podcast, so rather than scrapping both, we merged them and included other fan-driven content (zines and the like).

Thank you! I wasn't aware there was that large a minimum required, that makes a lot more sense now. I still hope the submissions actually did arrive in time, but I can certainly see now how you could have had not enough of them in to make the quota needed.

 

[Dextra]

By the way, I'm sorry if I came across as snarky in my last post.

I think that if publishers want to submit podcasts, that'd be great, and they would go under the free product/webhancement category. If we got a sufficient number of professional vid or podcasts submitted then we might split it off.

And by the same token, if fans want to submit their own podcasts, that too is great, and they would go under the fan product category. If we got a sufficient number of fan vid or podcasts submitted then we might split it off.

BUT I also won't let a split category gut its parent category. In other words, if we got only five fan sites and fifteen fan podcasts, I would still most likely merge them together to form one category.

I'm also thinking that making the judges sit through more than 2-4 hours of podcasts per entry is pushing it. And that encouraging podcasters to get together and send in one CD of a bunch of podcasts sounds quite clever.

One of the reasons we used to insist upon CD submissions of electronic material was so that if a judge had a crappy customer service experience from downloading a product- or a bad net connection- it wouldn't affect their evaluation of the product itself. It was also a bit of an artificial barrier to slow the onslaught of entries. The judges have enough time constraints put on them as it is without forcing them to spend hours downloading materials in addition to evaluating them. But if (and this is a pretty big if) the podcasters and judges agreed that they'd be willing to take the chance, we might consider allowing electronic entries. But if a judge couldn't listen to a podcast because their connection was constantly bad and gave up, then the podcaster would just have to deal with them not placing...

Anyhow, it bears consideration.

It's frustrating hearing people saying about how if only they'd known when we try and make the rounds of the major boards advertising the Awards. Heck, I called some publishers and was assured stuff was on its way and never saw it. There's only so much we can do to chase after product or beg peeps to enter, and after awhile, the entrants have to be responsible themselves for being aware of what's going on.

BTW, at Gen Con publishers and fan sites alike are very welcome to submit their product at the ENnies booth (#1504). I'll have an entry form ready by August 4th so those submitting product can download it and have a package prepared for Gen Con. Any product released after May 1, 2008 is eligible.

 

[madwabbit]

I'm also thinking that making the judges sit through more than 2-4 hours of podcasts per entry is pushing it. And that encouraging podcasters to get together and send in one CD of a bunch of podcasts sounds quite clever.

Interesting. On average, how long do you expect them to spend assessing a particular book, such as Pinnacle's Solomon Kane? I certainly don't think anything less than 2-4 hours on a single entry such as that is going to do it justice.

Then again, I bought a pet rock back in the day AND voted for Dukakis in '88, so my judgment might be suspect.

 

[Meghan]

I'm curious- is it possible to find out how many nominees for each of these combined categories there were?