The winners of these awards will be nominated and voted on by you, the community members. The current schedule plan is for nominations to be accepted on March 13 - 20 and voting to be held March 21 - 28. The winners would be announced on April 1, the 15th anniversary of Fringes of Algo. More details on the nominations and voting will be forthcoming closer to that period.
To be eligible for participation in the 2012 Muskies, members and content must meet the following criteria as of March 13, 2012:
- Content must have been submitted or actively updated between March 14, 2011 and March 13, 2012, the "eligibility dates."
- Content must be posted somewhere on Fringes of Algo.
- Artwork must be hosted directly on Fringes. Offsite works, such as those hosted on Photobucket and linked in a topic here, are not eligible.
- Be a community member in good standing (not banned or suspended).
The categories that will be available in the 2012 Muskies are listed below. Others categories may be announced when nominations are opened. I am still open to suggestions of additional categories.
- Best Single Chapter Fan Fiction
This award recognizes your top choice of any story posted in the Fan Fiction section that consists of only one chapter (or post). - Best Multiple Chapter Fan Fiction
This award recognizes your top choice of any story posted in the Fan Fiction section that consists of more than one chapter (or post). - Best Fan Artwork
This award recognizes your top choice for outstanding fan artwork. Please note this is for an individual piece of artwork, not an artist's body of work as a whole. The Muskies Eligible Fan Artwork Gallery will display all artworks eligible for this award. - Best Original Artwork
This award recognizes your top choice for outstanding original artwork. Please note this is for an individual piece of artwork, not an artist's body of work as a whole. The Muskies Eligible Original Artwork Gallery will display all artworks eligible for this award. - Best Artist
This award recognizes your top choice for an artist that has displayed great skill in a visual medium. For this award, please do consider an artist's body of work as a whole. A list of eligible artists will be provided at nomination time. - Best Writer
This award recognizes your top choice for a writer that has displayed great skill in the written mediums of Fan Fiction, Original Writing, or Roleplay. For this award, please consider a writer's body of work as a whole. A list of eligible writers will be provided at nomination time. - Best Original Character
This award acknowledges a remarkable original, fan created character. Fan characters have appeared in fan fiction, artwork, games, roleplaying, and other works shared with the community. The Original Characters thread can be used to promote your original characters for nomination. - Best Other Fan Work
This award recognizes fan creations in the areas of fan games, music remixes, and videos. Eligible items can be found in the Fan Games, Music, & Video forum (any project posted or updated within the eligibility dates in any currently unlocked topic). - Best Forum Game
This award recognizes your choice for the top game in the Forum Games and Roleplay sections. - Best Introduction Topic
This award recognizes your choice for the top topic created within the eligibility dates in the Introductions section. - Best Avatar
This award recognizes your choice for the member who had the most impressive avatar within the eligibility dates. - Best Signature
This award recognizes your choice for the member who had the most interesting signature within the eligibility dates. - Most Successful Discussion
This award recognizes your choice for the best discussion topic on the forums. Non-discussion topics or topics that fit into another award category (such as Forum Games or Fan Fiction topics) are not eligible for this award. - Most Enthusiastic Fringer
This award recognizes a member of the community who has shown a great enthusiasm for some activity during the last year. Whether it's obsessing about a certain game, posting news stories, entertaining with random skits, or some other activity, this is something the member does often and does well. (Fringes Staff is not eligible for this award.) - Fringer of Excellence
This award recognizes an outstanding member who you feel best illustrates the qualities that the community values. Kindness, sharing knowledge in a productive manner, things like that. You don't have to be a Phantasy Star expert to receive this award - just a great community member. (Fringes Staff is not eligible for this award.) - Staff Member of the Year
This award is intended to acknowledge the staff member who you feel is deserving of special honor due to their contributions to the community and its livelihood. Nominations are not excepted for this award. The ballot will consist of Caged Wolf, Lucas, and Silver_Surfer1.
Anyone that would like to display additional signatures or avatars they have used during the past year for the Best Signature or Best Avatar categories can do so in a thread created for that purpose.
Winners will receive recognition of fellow Phantasy Star fans, bragging rights, a notation of excellence on their member profile/topic/whatever, a special Muskies Award banner, and maybe other prizes that have yet to be determined.