# Ursa Major Awards for 2008



## ScottyDM (Feb 9, 2009)

Greets, Peeps!

The Ursa Major Awards are for "anthropomorphics" in 10 categories:
Motion Picture
Dramatic Short Work or Series
Novel
Short Fiction
Other Literary Work
Comic Book
Comic Strip
Magazine
Published Illustration
Game
Miscellany
I mention this because (at least) two of our own have a total of five works nominated for the award in Short Fiction this year.
#11 Abra Cadabra, by Vixyy Fox (based on the picture "Nightfire" by Charha). (in ANTHRO #20, November/December)
#12 Buckman Rogers, by Vixyy Fox (based on the picture "Dog of War" by Dark Natasha). (in ANTHRO #17, May/June)
#15 Swear Not By the Moon, by Renee Carter Hall. (in A Fly In Amber, November)
#16 Two Rivers, by Renee Carter Hall. (in Heat #5, July)
#17 Waking the Beast, by Renee Carter Hall. (in Alone in the Dark, October)
Scoring is by popular vote. A method that has nothing to do with merit and every thing to do with popularity. Poetigress (Renee Carter Hall) brought this to my attention, from a Writing-World.com newsletter about the failure of popular vote to be fair or accurate:





> Another factor in a reputable contest is HOW material is judged. Ideally, every entry should be judged on its own merits, NOT against the merits of other entries. In other words, judging is NOT simply a matter of comparing entries and choosing favorites. In many competitions, judges are provided with score sheets that assign point values to various aspects of the entries -- e.g., theme, voice, originality, technical ability, presentation, appropriateness of subject, and so forth. Each entry is scored individually and the winning entries are determined by the total number of points scored.
> 
> Perhaps the least effective form of contest judging is the "reader vote" method. This type of competition either publishes or posts entries, and the winner is chosen by the number of reader votes it receives. Unlike the method described above, this is a purely "comparative" method of judging. Readers are not judging each story on its own merits, but declaring simply that they like this story better than that story. One has no guarantee that readers have, in fact, read every entry (as a judge must), or that you have won due to merit or simply because your entry was slightly less awful than the rest.



Anyway... ummm... let's support the best stories out there.

Voting opens March 14, 2009.

And if anyone knows any other FAers with something in the contest, post it below.

Scotty


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## foozzzball (Feb 9, 2009)

I think theoretically everything and anything published during the year is available for consideration? I know almost everything out of ANTHRO tends to show up in the reccomended reading lists - you could probably do the same with submissions in your anthrofiction contest. 

I think right now they're taking nominations through to the end of the month? And the short fiction list you linked to is the reccomendations - which aren't automatically nominated?


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## Poetigress (Feb 9, 2009)

FA's Seht and TShaw are also represented, with works from _Alone in the Dark_:

God Keep You, Tommy, by SeHt. (in Alone in the Dark, October) 
Arrive the Shuffling Mob, by Thomas Shaw. (in Alone in the Dark, October) 
Can the End of Rainbows Hold the Answers We Seek, by Thomas Shaw. (in Alone in the Dark, October) 


And yeah, as far as I know, everything published in 2008 is eligible, including works self-published on archive sites like FA.  The works on the recommended list aren't automatically nominated, and you can nominate works even if they don't appear on the list.

I don't know if the contest entries would be eligible, though -- I would tend to think not, because (due to the password system) the stories aren't technically published.  If a story from the contest is on an archive site, though, that would be eligible, but not stories that only appeared online in the contest.

(And on a personal note, I'm kind of surprised that "A Winter's Work" didn't show up on that list, but then, _Renard's Menagerie_ does only have one story mention in the short fiction category.  I wish more people had been aware of RM when it was going...)


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## Poetigress (Feb 9, 2009)

ScottyDM said:


> I mention this because (at least) two of our own have a total of five works nominated for the award



Technically, just to be clear, they're not nominated yet.  The Ursa Majors use kind of a confusing system, which breaks down something like this:

1) people send in suggestions for the Recommended Reading List
2) people send in their nominations, up to five per category (with the Recommended Reading List as a possible resource to draw from, although they're not limited to it)
3) the top nominees (I forget whether it's three per category or five) then move on to the voting stage
4) people vote for their favorites among the top nominees, which
5) selects the winners

I think that's roughly how it works.  ><


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## ScottyDM (Feb 9, 2009)

I'm pretty sure nominations are closed for 2008, so no additions to that list. However I don't know what to make of this:





> Nominations are not limited to items included on the Recommended Anthropomorphics List, which are merely some people's recommendations. Any works first published during the year under consideration are eligible.


(From their home page.)

Nor do I quite understand this page, especially in light of the quote, above. I wonder if they know quite what they're doing.... Ah well, they've been doing it for several years so maybe they do. Perhaps they don't quite know how to properly explain what they do, to us.

Nominations are open for 2009 and an e-email address to suggest nominations is available on the contacts page.

Scotty


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## Poetigress (Feb 9, 2009)

No, nominations aren't closed.  Nominations run until February 28th.  What's closed for 2008 is suggestions for the Recommended List.  (That's what's open for 2009 already -- suggestions for the list, not nominations.)

Honestly, the Recommended List really has nothing to do, functionally speaking, with the official nominations.  It's just sort of a list of stuff people think other people should check out, as noteworthy from the past year, and then it can be a guide to jog people's memory when it comes time to actually nominate stuff.  But if you want to nominate a story that isn't on the list, you can do it.  You're not limited to nominating stories and works that appear on the Recommended List.  And being on the Recommended List doesn't mean you're actually nominated for anything yet.  It just means somebody sent in the name of your work to have it added to the list.

I really wish they would overhaul the whole thing and make the process and terminology less confusing.  More people would probably vote if they could figure out what was going on when.  >9_9<


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## ScottyDM (Feb 10, 2009)

First: Revisionist posting. I changed the first post to add that quote rather than link to a post that quoted that quote. (ehh, what?)

Second: The Ursa Major thing seems kinda confused. I guess some other awards such as the Oscars use popular vote, but I believe they have a committee that does the voting--not a bunch of Net randoms (that is, you and me). Personally, I feel a scoring method gets better results, although it's more work for those filling in the ballots, and a whole lot more work to calculate the results.

Third: That Writing-World.com newsletter doesn't go far enough. Popular vote is almost purely based on who can raise the biggest army of friends and supporters and has nothing whatsoever to do with merit. There may be a few people familiar with more than one entrant, and who choose their favorite based on which they feel is better, but they are in the minority. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if many votes come from people who've never seen any of the entries--they're just voting because someone asked them to.

Scotty


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## ScottyDM (Feb 10, 2009)

What would the ideal scoring system for a "People's Choice" style award in anthropomorphics look like?

Public nominations, followed by a committee to pick a short list based on merit, then finally a popular vote to simplify bookkeeping. There are a lot of contests based on popular vote. Almost anything the public is involved in uses popular vote. Heck, the Presidency uses popular vote.

Maybe we should have a scoring system to pick the President? Categories like: grooming, public speaking, grasp of the issues, quality of their political promises, charisma of their running mate, etc. ;-)

S-


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## foozzzball (Feb 10, 2009)

How many people, d'you think, would it take to elevate material that is clearly FUBAR to the height of the furry fandom? Surely this would help motivate them to start some alternative method for picking yearly bests? You know, a sort of perversion of justice.


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## Poetigress (Feb 10, 2009)

You mean sort of like a furry Atlanta Nights, except using the Ursas in place of PublishAmerica?


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## foozzzball (Feb 10, 2009)

Yes! Exactly that! Break the system, bring down the man, etc!

We will have _three_ chapter twelves!


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