Judging Guidelines
It is of the utmost concern of the judges of FOF 2004 that judging of all categories operate in a fair, unbiased, and objective manner. In this regard, we will post the manner in which every category is judged, and the statistical method in which we tally and weight all votes:
Nominations do not carry weight in the final judging process; i.e., the number of times a story is nominated does not affect its chances of winning. Therefore, if you see a story or author already nominated as reflected on the website, please do not re-nominate that story.
Similar to previous years, there will be two voting pools in the FOF - those of the general public and those of the judges. First round voting will be weighted 75%/25% between general voting and judges' votes. The top seven stories in each category who garner the highest percentage of votes will advance to finalist status. Remember, during first round voting, you may vote for as many stories per category and in as many categories as you'd like. Your votes in this round should reflect those stories you feel deserve to be considered for final consideration.
Final round voting will be weighted the same way as first round voting, 75%/25%. However, each person who votes may vote for ONLY ONE story, as in, the one story you feel deserves to win.
The final winners will be determined by weighting both the first round and final round votes, weighted at 70% final round voting and 30% first round voting. There will be three winners announced per category, first through third place. In the event of a statistical tie, there will be two winners announced for that place.
Since some of the judges are also writers and one or more of their stories may become nominated, the judges have decided to institute a rule that no judge may vote for her own fic during either of the voting rounds.
Again, the process of weighting and tallying votes in a fair, objective, and impartial manner is of the utmost importance to the FOF judges. If you feel, during any part of the FOF 2004, that there is a discrepency in voting, or if you have specific concerns about the voting or judging process, please do not hesitate to contact the judges for further explanation or clarification.