Papa Bear
Awards 2017
The PBA
for Beginners
The Papa Bear Awards is an
annual game in which we elect the very best work in Hogan's Heroes fanfiction
from the past year. It usually takes place between January and April, and has
been around for several years – I believe since 2003.
We have several story
categories, but we also elect the best portrayal of characters, the best quotes
and the best teasers. Categories and rules have varied a bit over the years,
but the basic idea has been the same: to elect and honour quality in Hogan's
Heroes fanfiction.
The election process starts with
a nominating round. Every HH fanfic author and every HH fanfic reader may
nominate his favourites – this year 1 favourite in each category. It's not
necessary to have read every story before you nominate – you can just nominate
the best from among the stories you've read. And every nomination counts: one
nomination is sufficient to continue to the voting round. (Only the most
prestigious category "best story of 2016" works a bit differently.
For more details, see the FAQ section!)
When all the nominations are in,
they get published. Especially when there are so many stories to choose from as
these past years, you may regard it as a very great honour to have your work
nominated out of so many others!
Once the nominations are
published, the voting round begins. In this round, everyone has 3 votes in each
category. But we do ask that you try and read everything nominated in a
category before making your decision in that category – for how can you make a
well considered decision if you're not acquainted with all the good stuff that
others nominated? Regularly, you'll discover some real jewels among the
nominated work that you had missed during the year!
Of course it's not obligatory to
participate in every category. If you are pressed for time, or if for example
you’re not interested in a certain category, you can just skip entire
categories. As a matter of fact, the whole PBA is not obligatory at all. You
can even choose to lurk in the dark, just having your stories out there and see
what others think of it!
However, you don't have to feel
obliged to stay away from nominating and voting just because you have stories
participating this year. The majority of the nominators and voters in the PBA
are in this position. As long as you can make an honest decision as to which
story is best (and it may not always be your own), you are very welcome to participate.
And rest assured: in order to prevent authors from shamelessly promoting their
own work, we have a strict rule that authors cannot nominate their own work.
Still, if someone else has nominated your work, you are indeed allowed to vote
for it in the voting round :-)
Once all the votes are in, they
will be tabulated. And the three winners in each category will be awarded a
gold, a silver and a bronze Papa Bear Award. (Don't get your hopes up; it's
nothing fancy – just a computer made pdf or jpg file :-) And of course the
winners will get published in the next edition of The Stalag 13 Gazette website
of fanfiction.net!
And a few things to keep in
mind:
The Papa Bear Awards are just
a game.
It's not a matter of life or death to win a Papa Bear Award.
Winning a Papa Bear Award
will not grant you global fame.
But it does feel good to know that your fellow HH authors appreciate your
writing!
Participating in the Papa
Bear Awards is free of charge.
You won't win a million dollars with it either.
All HH stories that were
completed in 2016 are in the PBA election by default.
So you don't have to register to have them participate.
(But feel free to tell us if you'd rather not have them participate.)
There is no reason to
withdraw your work just because you feel shy.
Let others be the judge of your writing
And you might just be surprised at their opinion.
FYI: every year, there is a fair number of new authors who win awards.
Even gold awards!
The number of votes in the
voting round are not made public.
Thus if your story got nominated, but doesn't get any votes in the voting round
You'll never know.
Nor will anybody else.
So no embarrassment.
With so many stories out
there as this year
It really is a
great honour to get your work nominated out of so many others.
Even if you
don't win an award.
And if you don't get anything
nominated
Look around at the fierce competition and you'll know there's no reason to feel
bad.
Just concentrate on the positive reviews you got for your work
And don't be discouraged: keep writing!
There is no reason to
suddenly hurry your stories to an end.
It's fairly certain that there will be another PBA next year for you to
participate in.
The Papa Bear Awards is an
election of the best fanfiction work.
It's about the
quality of writing.
It's not a contest to see who has the most friends.
If you'd like to check out
the winners of the earlier editions of the PBA
You can find links to them from here.
The Papa Bear Awards are
organized by HH fanfic authors and readers just like you.
We dedicate a lot of time to it
And have a lot of fun doing
it
But we don't make any money with it.
So who are we?
Konarciq
(this year's director)
WhistleWhileYouWork,
Belphegor, Winterfrost15, Thaddeus MacChuzzlewit and Basketballgirl Kaitlin
(assistants in practical
matters)
Book’em Again, Snooky-9093
and Abracadebra
(this year's PBA committee – they advise and supervise)
And remember:
If you have any questions,
don't hesitate to ask!
We're only a PM or an email
away!
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