(Author's note: while compiling information for this article, I asked the opinions of a number of fans. Due to the flamebait nature of some of the comments, only those who gave specific permission to use their names have been identified.)

Fandom comes in a series of natural stages: initial distrust, squee, fanfic, organization, ficathon, fanfiction awards, flamewar, "Yer All Bastards!," new fandom, nostalgia. In future installations of Dr. Merlin's Soapbox, we will be examining this process in greater detail, but for now, our focus is on an event that occurs in every fandom with sufficient fanfic: the awards.

It's human nature to strive for dominance. While considered (incorrectly) in broader society to be a primarily male attribute, women are no strangers to competition, and for all that media fandom tends towards the "sorority of equals" notion, anyone who's been in fandom more than a day will be perfectly capable of pointing out situations of when some are "more equal than others." BNFs are the easiest example to make; we all might be equals in Fandom Q, but while you and I know each other, everyone knows Fan X. There's bitterness in that, oftentimes. (Please see "Fandom as Democracy" for more detail.) After the BNF hierarchy has been established, other fans, usually feeling the best of the fandom has gone overlooked, emerge to try and democratize the kudos given to fanfic. Thus are fanfiction awards born.

Sometimes, the fandom is small, and the awards reach every fanfic written in the fandom. Gargoyles fandom circa 1997 managed that feat, with websites that included code for constant voting on favorite authors, fanworks, and so on. (As in many of these cases, the sites were taken down after people bombed the site with fake votes.) Other fandoms are too big, and either set their own limits or have limits imposed. Alt.Startrek.Creative, the first real home to Trek-based online fanfiction, began running an annual awards ceremony in 1996 (for the 2005 stories) including only stories posted to A.S.C. during specific dates, and organized in categories. Other fandoms tend towards this model, consciously or not: specific posting dates, certain types of stories, posted in certain places (the latter often unintentionally).

and Angel fanfiction have many different awards, some based exclusively on pairings (a quick Google turns up over a dozen Spuffy awards). Harry Potter fanfiction has similarly varied awards. Much like the fandoms themselves, the fanfiction awards take the "bite-sized chunk" approach to fanfic, and by narrowing the focus, shining a light on the best each specific genre or pairing has to offer.

Taking the opposite tack, the Rerun Awards bring together "the best in every fandom," by pitting stories from any (cancelled) series head-to-head against each other. Thus, fans can vote among a Sentinel story, a Batman: The Animated Series story, and a Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Unfortunately, it's again a matter of scope: only people who know about the awards can nominate or vote, and a Livejournal-based award will skew towards Livejournal-posted stories.

Farscape fandom has managed to maintain one central fanfiction awards system for nearly eight years. Previously known as the "Sparky's", the Aurora Awards are the best-recognized fanfiction awards in 'Scaper fandom.

AstroGirl, a past Sparky winner, said that when she was first nominated for the award, she felt, "[p]leased and rather flattered." As for the stories that won, she says, "With the exception of 'Circle of Life,' which won an honorable mention in the Dark Fic category, and which I'm rather proud of, I'm not sure if any of them are ones I'd have voted for myself. I've even had a story win (or, rather, take second place) which I personally regard as one of my less successful attempts at fic. But, honestly, I'm the worst person to judge."

The variation in quality and taste that comes out in fanfiction nominations and awards tends to be one of the biggest complaints about the awards system.

A fan who asked not to be named said, "Fanfic awards can bring out small, unexpected gems of fic or art or graphics and that's always a pleasure to find. On the other hand, a lot of times what some people consider 'good' is not what I consider 'good'. Mostly because the works that people remember and therefore nominate tend to be those that hit their 'kinks' - so people will nominate a certain pairing having sex a certain way, a depiction that romanticises the relationship between two characters whose interaction is canonically conflictual, a favourite canon character Mary Sue'd to be wonderful... There's a difference between 'most memorable' and 'best'. I tend to nominate both that which is memorable to me as well as well-executed. But I've participated and managed awards where the nominations turned out to be mostly friends nominating friends, and I wouldn't have given most of the nominations the time of day. Then again, I am a bit of a fic snob."

Another fan said, "If I'm going to lose, there are writers who I know I should be losing to. When it's instead someone whose work I can't even finish reading, then I lose faith in the voters' ability to have a say on who is best. So when I do win an award, I suspect it's not really worth all that much.… All I know is, there's a reason why the Oscars are considered much more important than the People's Choice Awards."

A third fan has mainly encountered fanfiction awards via one fandom. "My only experience with fanfiction awards has been in the Harry Potter fandom, and I hate them (the awards).

Another fan dislikes the competition angle. "I've never really much liked situations where for one person to win, another has to lose. And I have never seen a fan fiction awards nominations set that came close to representing the best that category has to offer, probably in large part because of campaigning (a person who provides a link from her work or LJ will get more votes than a person who doesn't; a person who begs for votes will get lots, even if her work is not the best) and popularity (people vote based on much more than just the quality of the individual work under consideration)."

Gray Cardinal suggests it's more in how the awards are run. "For example, a community of Kim Possible (or "KP") fic writers on Fanfiction.net has been running a set of "Fannie Awards" for the KP fanfic posted there; nominations for the 3rd annual awards will begin soon. Those awards strike me as a good representation of excellent KP fiction; it doesn't hurt that the extended KP writing community overlaps between FF.Net and several independent online sites. By contrast, I've also recently been made aware that the community at .Moon is including Kim Possible fic in the next slate of nominees for its "UFO Awards". I know very little about that community, but based on the short list of KP-related nominees, I'm less confident of their ability to identify and recognize the best work being produced in Kim Possible fandom. .Moon seems more focused on -- and thus probably more literate in -- other fandoms, and I'm not quite sure how to read their inclusion of fandoms outside their core interests in the UFO selection process."

Akino Ame had a similar thought: "Take the latest [awards contest] I was in, where I was an honorary mention. It was an anonymous drop-in by e-mail to the person running the contest. I had no idea it happened or that it even existed. The webmaster e-mailed me to ask if I accepted the nomination, and that was it. Everything was done privately. I didn't know who'd nominated me, who would have voted for me (as the fandom had almost no representation, I didn't have any problems there), or anything to that effect. Contrast with a messageboard I used to frequent in my earlier days of fandom. Members give one another superlatives, and among them is 'best fanfiction writer.' Now, we had been a pretty big board, but there weren't that many people writing. Part of that may have been because of the members who had been pushing for better quality writing (I had been one of them at the time)--in our quest to get better quality fics, I think we scared off a lot of prospective writers. So there was a limited pool to choose from, and worst of all: It was an open forum, and we could see everyone's votes. When I won those contests, I knew exactly who'd voted for me. They had all been my friends in those days. (Ironically, now I've lost contact with them and I don't think any of them remember me--just goes to show how your fifteen minutes of fame online can fade so easily) In this case, it was very easy to simply vote for your friend. Maybe I really was that good, but I can't be so sure simply because of the public vote."

Obviously, opinions vary on the subject. As well-known fan author Yahtzee said, "The best thing about fanfic awards are that they work to create a reading list of nominations and to attract more readers to stories that somebody has liked well-enough to nominate. Nominations also frequently bring out the generosity of fellow fans.… I have found many wonderful stories through awards or nominations that I might not have read otherwise, so I am grateful for the practice. "

Another fan added, "Who doesn't like seeing quality rewarded?" But she modified her statement somewhat: " Or dislike seeing popularity without quality rewarded, seeing wank erupt and feelings get hurt? … There's always some level of popularity (of pairing, of character, of person) wound up in with the more or less honest efforts at assessing quality."

When asked about the virtues of fanfiction awards, fans answered generally as expected. AstroGirl said, "[T]here was a nice little moment of ego-boo" when she discovered she'd won a Sparky. Another fan said, "I've been known to use them to try out authors that seem like they'll have a good chance of being decent."

Her comment was echoed by another fan, who likes the variety of works nominated. "The thing I like about FF awards best is that it provides me with lots of links to sort through, including some in categories that I normally wouldn't get to see all clustered together like that. (Not many people rec cover art, for example, and there's no central community for viewing it, and very often it gets posted long after I've read the story in question, so whether I see a given cover is mostly down to chance. Awards give me a second chance to see some of the cover art in a given fandom.)"

In general, fanfiction awards seem to act as rec lists for many fans. Stories that were forgotten, overlooked, or simply not read the first time around are brought back into public attention for a little while, giving readers the chance to find something they might otherwise have missed. But like any rec list, the taste of the reccer is going to distinguish who reads the stories. As one fan said, "I tend to find someone with whose views and perspective of the canon and the characters I agree with, and then pester them for recs. The chances of finding something worth looking at are considerably better."

What are your favorite fan awards?