New Tolkien Fanfic Award! Volunteers Needed!

[dawn_felagund]

As many of you have heard, the Middle-earth Fanfiction Awards, fondly known as the MEFAs, will not be continuing. Many of us have fond memories of experiences, stories discovered, and friends met there, and it's understandable to be sad about their ending. However, the ending of the MEFAs has left a big gap in that there is no longer a fandom-wide award for the Tolkien writing community. To that end, a group of fandom members have stepped in to start a new fandom-wide award.

MEFA Rebooted (because we haven't even gotten so far as deciding what name we want the new award to have!) is looking for volunteers and input from all corners of the Tolkien writing fandom. The image above will take you to the post where you can sign up as a volunteer. A lot of discussion is underway on the community about the future of the awards, and whether you volunteer or not, your input is certainly valued. We're talking about everything from site software to ratings policy to categorization, so feel free to jump in. I cannot emphasize enough that we hope to be both diverse and inclusive and welcome perspectives from all corners of the Tolkien community.

This is a rare opportunity to build from the ground up something that will be used by the entire Tolkien fandom and has the potential to bring much fun and joy into our community, as the MEFAs did for eight years. I do hope many of you stop by to share your ideas or sign up to volunteer.

Comments

[just-jenni.livejournal.com]

I just signed up - I had to really think about it for a few days. But I want to help if it's possible that I could be useful somewhere, being a creaky old dinosaur that is usually/always late to the party and seemingly a few steps behind everyone else. ;)

I hope I wasn't too late. :(

[dawn_felagund]

Goodness, you're not too late at all! We've really only just begun. Have you found everything okay to get started? There's a lot going on in the comm right now. Let me know if you need anything and I'll try to point you in the right direction! :)

[just-jenni.livejournal.com]

Good, I'm glad I didn't respond to this too late because I'd love to help if I can. I know nothing about coding and stuff like that, but I do think my main strength is in calming things down if discussions get overheated, etc. I have more of an ability to see the big picture as opposed to delving into minutiae and trying to make sense of it. I do have pretty good organizational skills as well. So I volunteered in 3 categories, but the one the least represented was no. 11, 'Dark Lords and Ladies...'. So far. ;)

And thanks. I think I'll be OK finding my way around. My name is not on any of the lists yet, but once I see it there I'll start liaising with my other 'teammates'. :)

Thanks a lot, Dawn. I'm really looking forward to this in a very positive way. XD

[dawn_felagund]

You might want to PM nelyo_russandol to add you to the list--I'm not sure if she's still tracking the poll results! Or just jump in! :) I just posted a summary of the initial discussion for Team 5: General Policies that still have a lot of issues in need of commenting on. I know you're good at this from helping to build the SWG back in the day. ;)

[just-jenni.livejournal.com]

Okay, sounds great, Dawn! I'll PM lj user=<"nelyo_russandol"> right away and then read your summary. ;)
Oh heck yeah, I really miss all those convos from back in the day... :)