How to nominate an author or work

Have you found an item that is excellent, well written or well thought-out, and an asset to the WDC community? Do you know an author that consistently provides quality work and/or whose efforts serve the WDC community? If so, read on!

Step #1: Check to see what category the item/author fits into.
          Remember, genre nominations will be processed later by judges, so don't nominate people in those!
          Don't worry too much about getting it into the right category; we'll make sure it gets there.
Step #2: Check to see it's eligible!
          Hint: Was it written/created in 2011? It's eligible! Was it heavily modified in 2011? If yes and it's a non-static item, it's probably eligible! If no, it's probably not.
          Click on each award to see any category-specific rules.
Step #3: Add a post with the category name in the title, and a link to the item and (if you'd like) a couple sentences explaining why it's extraordinary in the body of the post.
          The sentences you write will be posted in "2011 Quills Nominations and Winners"  (no names will be posted for privacy) so make sure they're good!
          For help linking items, see "The illustrated guide to linking" .
          If you'd like to nominate anonymously, follow the same process, but e-mail Andrew C. Bowman directly instead of posting in the forum.
If in doubt, nominate and we'll check it for you!



A couple things to keep in mind when nominating...
If you want to nominate your own work, you must nominate at least three other items for every work of yours you nominate.
An author may have no more than two nominations in any category. If an author is nominated multiple times in a category, he or she will be asked to pick those he or she wishes to appear from those nominated.
You may nominate as many items as you wish, as long as you follow the other rules. So go forth and nominate!


and a couple more things in general...
Nominations will close in mid-January 2012. Finalists will be announced in early February for the requisite categories and the awards ceremony will take place on Saturday 25 February 2012 at 8pm WDC time. The ceremony will last approximately 4 hours.
The awards to be handed out will be mostly funded by donations. If you wish to donate, please send GPs to group #1375927. Those donating 10K or more GPs will be listed here for all to see, and those donating 40,000 GPs or more will receive a Fundraising (or similar) Merit Badge!
         Special thanks to SoCalScribe for featuring the Quills as beneficiaries from the "NaNoWriMo Write-A-Thon" !

And of course...

          Have a fun time!

Calendar (all times are WDC time, all dates are 2011; all dates are subject to change):

          Wednesday 25 January, 11:59 pm: Nominations close!
          Sunday 29 January: List of genre nominations revealed; reviewing longlist revealed
          Wednesday 1 February: Ceremony poll opens (to determine date)
          Friday 3 February: Finalist voting begins!
          Saturday 11 February, 11:59 pm: Finalist voting ends
          Sunday 12 February: Reviewing shortlist announced
          Sunday 12 February, 11:59 pm: Ceremony poll closes
          Sunday 19 February: Genre voting begins
          Monday 20 February: Invitations sent out
          Tuesday 21 February: The PreQuill Red Carpet Gala
                    Link: "5th Annual Quill Awards: The PreQuill!" 
          Thursday 23 February: Genre voting ends
          Saturday 25 February: The 5th Annual Quill Awards Ceremony!
                    Link: "5th Annual Quill Awards Ceremony" 




Awards that receive less than 4 nominations will not be given out.
Awards that receive more than 8 nominations will have 3-7 pieces selected as finalists through a combined public voting and private judging process.
Judges' decisions are final. No if's, and's, or but's. (Or butts for that matter. ) Judges reserve the right to not grant an award in any year if no nominees are deemed worthy of an award.

Awards are offered in the following categories (***Please click on them for more info; nominees for awards in brackets will be selected following the end of the regular nomination period so you may not nominate in those categories! Click on them for more information regarding this.):

Non-Static Awards: (11 categories)
must have been created and/or reasonably active in 2011

Best Forum (Non-Contest)
Best Interactive or Campfire
Best In and Out
Best Single-Person Activity*
Best Image/cNote
Best Image/cNote Shop
Best New Contest
Best Contest*
Best New Group
Best Group*
Best Blog






For a list of this year's nominees, please see "2011 Quills Nominations and Winners" 


Don't forget to stop by "Quills Guide and History-Under Constru-!" 





Click on the category above to see what the prize is for that category. (Prizes vary from category to category.)

Prizes went up for the 2010 Quills! To see what the prize for each award is, click on the descriptions above. Honorable Mentions will be handed out as the judges deem appropriate and will be appropriate Merit Badges.

If the winning author wishes to take the GP equivalent of any MBs and awardicons for his or her awards, he or she should contact me as soon as possible after the nominations are announced. If the prize is an awardicon and the item has an awardicon of equal or greater value, the winner will be contacted to see if he or she prefers the awardicon, a GP equivalent, or a Merit Badge.

NOTE: Awards may change according to donations. They will not decrease, but they may go up according to donations given. If you would like to donate, please send GPs to "The Quill Awards Panel and Bank" 





Donations: The quickest, easiest way to help out is to send a GP donation to group #1375927 to help us run the Quills! Those donating 40K or more GPs will receive a Fundraising or similar Merit Badge.


                                                           -HuntersMoon - Gone4Awhile 150,000 GPs
                                                           -Gabriella 100,000 GPs
                                                           -Beka - scrambling to catch up 50,000 GPs
                                                           -janice48 Enjoying Nice Weather 40,000 GPs
                                                           -chopstix 100,000 GPs
                                                           -Atticus 40,000 GPs
                                                           -Julie D 40,000 GPs
                                                           -JMariah 100,000 GPs
                                                           -"NaNoWriMo Write-A-Thon Group"  430,364 GPs
                                                           -Riot™ 100,000 GPs
                                                           -njames51 40,000 GPs
                                                           -Myst~gone until May 27th 100,000 GPs
                                                           -Jen d'Arque - Busy Bee 10,500 GPs
                                                           -Nicola 50,000 GPs
                                                           -J. Marie Ravenshaw 100,000 GPs
                                                           -LJPC - the tortoise 50,000 GPs
                                                           -Your name?



Judging: If you would like to help judge the Quills, please fill out this form: "The Quills Judging Form" 

Other ways to help:

-If you have suggestions for improving the Quills, please use this survey: "Quills Suggestion Box" 

-If you are interested in hosting the 2011 or future Quill Awards ceremonies, or in presenting or sponsoring one of the awards, please indicate so by filling out a form in the Suggestion Box above or e-mailing me directly.


DISCLAIMER: The Quill Awards have never claimed, do not claim, and will not ever claim to be the sole arbiter of quality work and service on WDC. The Quills are merely a substantial effort at recognizing and celebrating individual and community work on WDC throughout the year. It is a collection of extraordinary people and works, not the collection.