Alright so, when I reset the images for the banners to public before announcing, apparently some of them didn't save the new setting. I've reset them again and hopefully now everyone can access them. As LJ is being wonky and I'm at work, if anyone still has trouble with their banners, please contact me through my email forcryinoutloud at gmail dot com to let me know. :)

EDIT:

For those curious and who missed out on the explanation of what exactly the puddlejumper awards are when they were introduced, here's a brief recap.

We knew that there were stories and art that Smuffster and I both thought deserved recognition that did not win any awards and, much like the Stargate awards, decided to create an award from the award organizers. The Puddlejumper awards were born. ;)

This year, we had so much help vetting the nominations from some awesome volunteers, I sent out an email asking if anyone was interested in picking a few of the PJ awards (I felt they deserved to be a bigger part of the awards after all their hard work and I knew that neither myself nor Smuffster had read all the stories or checked out all the art). So in the end, there were seven people (with myself included) that picked out the PJ awards. lavvyan, mischief5, tagetes, 2of7, birggitt, and katydidmischief. So another HUGE thank you to all of them for taking the time to share the stories and art they felt deserved recognition. :)

The winners have FINALLY been announced!

Thank you to everyone that took part in any way!

-forcryinoutloud

Just wanted to post an update that I AM working on getting the votes tallied - Smuffster has tallied the first 13 categories for me and Lavvyan has been so generous and kind as to offer her time to tally the categories that she's not nominated in for me, leaving the final categories for me to tally. I'm also making all the winners, runners-up and puddle jumper award banners and coding the winners page but am HOPING *crosses fingers* that I will be ready to announce the winners on Sunday. *\o/*

I am going to post the winners from the three previous years (and eventually this year as well) here with all the links for posterity's sake.

NOTE:

Some of the links are to geocities which, as you all know, no longer hosts any websites so some links don't work. If an author wants to give me alternate links I will edit the posts but will not be going looking for new links myself.


( 2005 Winners & Runners Up )

This is just a reminder that TODAY is the LAST day to get your votes in!

Alright, so, Smuffster has edited the pages that needed editing. In the end it was just Best Story, Best Author and Best Artist. The "Best" categories were compiled MONTHS after I did up the nomination list and when I went through to choose which stories and authors had the most nominations to make up those categories, I had forgotten that Lamardeuse and Crysothemis had opted out. Totally my fault, for which I again, apologize.

There are two authors that accepted their nominations but do not wish to participate now. As changing all of the pages they were on would just take too long, and as they did accept their nominations, they are being left in. However, they have asked that people do NOT vote for them and that, should they win, their award go to the runner up so I am respecting their wishes. They are Sheafrotherdon and Beadattitude. So, while you will see them listed under the voting pages in various categories, please do NOT vote for them as your vote will simply be null and void as they do not wish to take part. As for those people that already voted for them, I am sorry but there is nothing we can do about that. Both authors accepted their nominations and as such we decided not to redo the categories that they are nominated in which means that the votes already cast for them are null and void.

Smuffster has, as I said, edited the three "best" category pages to remove both Lamardeuse and Crysothemis from the options however that does NOT reset the voting pages themselves (that would have required redoing the entire page rather than editing it). So, I am creating three polls, one for Best Author, Best Story and Best Artist. The people that voted FOR Lamardeuse and Crysothemis can REVOTE here for someone else. Please note that we DO have the list of everyone who has already voted so if you attempt to cheat by trying to vote multiple times, we will know and immediately disqualify your votes (and if you are the author/artist in question, will immediately disqualify you in the awards all together).

The polls will be text boxes that only I can see, so no one will know who you are voting for. I will handcount these votes towards the total for these categories.

PLEASE NOTE: If you HAVE NOT voted yet, you can just use the website voting pages for these categories. These polls are ONLY for those people who have voted for Lamardeuse and Crysothemis to recast their votes for one of the other nominees.

I am making the nomination list and the voting page active again so you will be able to access both (the nomination list itself has Sheafrotherdon and Beadattitude removed - they remain only in the voting pages as they accepted their nominations and it would be too difficult to edit all of the pages now, in the final week of voting).

After having spoken to Smuffster, I am officially announcing that this is indeed the LAST year for the McKay/Sheppard Awards. Thank you to everyone that has taken part over the past few years through nominations, voting, volunteering and all the kind words of appreciation. Thank you for the patience you've shown over the past year in getting these awards finished and thank you to those that offered kind words of support in this past, hopefully our very last ever, awards mishap. A HUGE thank you to all of the wonderful people that volunteered their time to help vet stories and make sure they were in the proper categories. A HUGEHUGEHUGE thank you to Smuffster for all of her website coding. And a huge thank you to the SGA fandom in general, the McShep faction most particularly, for being so awesome.

***VOTING WILL BE OPEN UNTIL FRIDAY NOVEMBER 6TH, 2009. ***

Here are the nominees for each category.

***Please enter the STORY and AUTHOR in the Best story category poll.***

BEST STORY:

A Clear and Different Light by Friendshipper & Naye
A Hundred Happy Things by Busaikko
An Inaccurate Telling by Chelle & TheGrrrl
As Wide an the Sky by Seperis
Children of Lantean Design by Xela
Decreasing Radii by Cathalin
Every Day in Every Way by Velocitygrass
Forget Me Not by Maisierita
In This Era of Liberty by Chandri
Indelible by Shaenie
Male Enhancement (The Soul and the Company Store Remix) by Leah
OK Coputer by Speranza
Second Chance by Madison
Theory of Everything by Rheanna


BEST AUTHOR:

Auburn
Busaikko
Cathalin
Chandri MacLeod
Chelle
Cupidsbow
Fiercelydreamed
Helen
Ladycat777
Lavvyan
Madison
Sardonicsmiley
Sharkie
Seperis
Sheafrotherdon
Speranza
Tarlan
The Cephalopod
Thingswithwings
Velocitygrass

BEST ARTIST:

Aesc
Anna_luna
Beeej
Berlinghoff79
Bluespirit
Chayiana
Clear as Blood
Fennegie
Gnine
Le_mot_mo
Leyna
Newkidfan
Steammmpunk
Tardis80

Poll #1478213 Revoting
This poll is closed.
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None, participants: 14

Best Story?

Best Author?

Best Artist?

Alrighty so, as I said in my previous post - TWO people that opted out were accidentally included and we are working to resolve that. HOWEVER, this is not the chance for those of you that have reconsidered your accepted nominations to request to be removed. We have copies of ALL of the surveys filled out and as I explained to several people each person was given an access code to access their nomination forms to accept or reject their nominations. They had to choose "YES" for the category drop down menu to show up for them to choose the category. They had to SAVE the form for it to be sent to us. There would have had to have been an AWFUL lot of coincidences for these to be "glitches" considering the long and arduous process it takes to choose to include each and every story/piece of art and then choose the category for each and every nomination and then to SAVE those choices. AND, considering I have actually seen some of the people telling me they were never notified commenting in other journals that they were "reconsidering accepting their nominations", yeah that's just not on.

We understand that because it has taken so long for these awards to get to this point because of real life issues for Smuffster and I that people have forgotten filling out the surveys however, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE stop posting to your journals saying that we never notified you about your nominations when it is VERY clear that we did considering you FILLED OUT THE NOMINATION SURVEY. We have kept every single email we have ever received from someone in regards to these awards and have PROOF that you have been notifed AND that you have acted on that notification.

If you have changed your mind about accepting your nominations, I am sorry but you are going to be remaining in these awards - we're in the LAST STAGES right now. However, if you feel the need to post to your own journal requesting people not vote for you or that you are going to be declining the award, should you win, that is totally within your rights. Anyone that voted for you, their vote will simply be null and void. The ONLY categories that will either be redone completely (through a poll here) or fixed through the website, are the ones with the TWO people that OPTED OUT and mistakenly were included. NOT the people that ACCEPTED their nominations and are now deciding they don't wish to be included.

I understand that people are decling for various reasons and I completely respect those reasons but these awards have taken a YEAR to get through and I am NOT willing to completely revamp them and basically START OVER because some people have changed their minds after having accepted their nominations and forgotten about doing so. Again, if you feel so strongly about it and happen to win, you're free to give your award to the runner up.

If you THINK that you have not received a notification, PLEASE contact us first before posting on your journal that we didn't do our jobs because all that does is ruin the reputation of the awards - especially considering in many cases it is NOT THE TRUTH! As I said, we have every single email we've sent out and received during the course of this year so we have PROOF whether or not you did or did not receive your notification and whether or not you accepted your nominations.

I was planning to wait to announce this but I might as well do it now. This will be my last year doing anything with these awards. That may or may not (depending on whether Smuffster wants to take over) mean that this will be the last year for the McKay/Sheppard Awards. That being said, I want to get them FINISHED as soon as possible and that is becoming MUCH harder the more people who accepted their nominations email me requesting to be removed in the middle of the voting period. Please let us fix the TWO mistakes that I made so that the winners can be announced and this entire thing can just be finally put to rest.