Eligibility Rules

What are the Spooky Awards?
Is My Story Eligible?
Am I Eligible as an Author?
Can I Submit My Story?
How Do I Submit My Story?
What About My Work In Progress (WIP)?
What if I want to revise my story?
How many awards are there? What are the categories?
Can I vote?
My stories are listed as "pending" ... what does that mean?
Why is my story is listed as "ineligible"?
Help! I have no idea how to get my stories to ATXC!
Unanswered Questions
 
 

What are the Spooky Awards? | back to questions

The Spookys are the fanfic awards for the Usenet newsgroup alt.tv.x-files.creative (atxc). They are awarded annually to stories that are considered the most outstanding in their categories. The stories are nominated and voted on by the readers of atxc, and the winners are posted to the newsgroup and at Mark of X-Cellence.

The awards were started in 1995 and continued in 1996. They took a break in 1997. RedThunder resumed the awards in 1998 and 1999. I'm TexxasRose, and I took over in 2000. Lauryn bravely stepped in for 2001, and in 2002, I missed the fun so much I had to take them back again. Unfortunately, real life became too much and Diandra and Mrs. Fish bravely took over the awards for this year.

Is My Story Eligible? | back to questions

Before submitting your story, please ask yourself the following questions:

• Was my story (or a direct link to my story) posted to the Usenet newsgroup alt.tv.x-files.creative, either directly or through a mailing list?
• Was my story posted to atxc for the first time between October 2, 2001 and October 1, 2002?

If the answer to these questions is YES, then please submit your work to us at spookyawards2002@yahoo.com. If you are unsure of whether your story has reached atxc between October 2, 2001 and October 1, 2002, you can check with the atxc auto-archive, Ephemeral. If you are still unsure, go ahead and send us your story, and we can check for you.

If you submitted your story directly to Ephemeral and not atxc, then your story IS NOT ELIGIBLE. If you submitted your story directly to Gossamer and not atxc, your story IS NOT ELIGIBLE. To be eligible, your story must have gone to atxc.

The official rules are as follows:

• Every story posted to alt.tv.x-files.creative for the FIRST time between Oct 2, 2001 and Oct 1, 2002 is eligible. Stories forwarded from mailing lists that automatically post to atxc (XFF, XFC) are also eligible. If your story is on your website, and you post a link directly to the story (not to your main page) instead of posting the story itself, that story is eligible as long as the FIRST posting of the link falls within the eligibility time frame.
• Revisions or reposts of stories originally posted before Oct 2, 2001 are not eligible.
• No story that has previously won a Spooky award is eligible. This means first, second OR third place. Really. We really mean this one, folks. Even if you've posted new installments of an older series, if the series has already won FIRST, SECOND *OR* THIRD PLACE, it's not eligible. If you want to submit new installments of an older story, make a new series and call it something else. Really. We really mean this one, folks. Sorry if I sound a bit testy, but this is one rule I didn't expect to have to clarify, and I've been taking undeserved flak over it.
• Once you are sure your story has met the above requirements, you must submit your story to us to get it listed and linked on this site.

Am I Eligible as an Author? | back to questions

There are three awards specifically for authors, and any writer who posts stories to alt.tv.x-files.creative can be eligible for these awards. So if you are an author with your own website, please send your URL to spookyawards2002@yahoo.com - even if you have yet to post a story during this eligibility period.

NOTE: All authors are welcome to make themselves eligible at any time. However, if we get to October 1, 2002 and you do not have any stories in the awards, your name will be removed from the eligibility list. In other words, if you don't have story here to prove that you are an author, you can't win the author awards.

Can I Submit My Story? | back to questions

*** PLEASE READ: To save time and space, there are a few changes in the submission guidelines. In past years, volunteers have spent hours searching for long-lost stories whose authors neither know about nor care about the awards. This year, as in 2001, you must submit your name and your story's title to be eligible for an award. That way, we can focus more attention on the authors who wish to participate. ***

If your story is eligible, there are two ways to submit it:

To ARCHIVE your story here:

• It must meet the eligibility requirements outlined above.
• It must be in text (.txt) format. It can be sent in the body of the email, as an attachment, or zipped. HTML submissions will not be posted.
• It should have line lengths of no more than 70 characters. Use line breaks. If it's short and I'm bored, I might reformat it for you, but don't count on it. It's your story, and you should present it in the best possible light (if it looks good, people will read it).
• Please realise that if you send your story to us, you are giving us permission to archive it on the Spooky website.

To LINK your story here:

• It must meet the eligibility requirements outlined above.
• You must have your own website, run by yourself or an archivist, where your stories are posted. We cannot link to general archives.
• If you move your website or change the story's URL at any point, please notify us.

What about my Work In Progress (WIP)? | back to questions

• It must meet the eligibility requirements outlined above.
• You can wait until your Work In Progress is finished and completely posted, then send it to us as a completed story.
• If you have your own website that contains the WIP, you can send us a link to the main WIP page.
• If you would like us to archive your WIP as it is being posted, you must send each new part to us as you send them to atxc.

What if I want to revise my story? | back to questions

If we are archiving your story and you would like to make revisions to it, please feel free to send us a revised copy. We will be happy to replace the old copy with the new version.

How many awards are there? What are the categories? | back to questions

There are 30 official categories in the Spooky Awards: seven length categories, six genre categories, six characterization categories, eight romance categories, and three author categories. In addition, there will be several sponsored catgories this year. A complete list can be found here.

Can I vote? | back to questions

Of course - voting is open to everyone. Voting for the Spooky Awards takes place in three phases:

• OPEN NOMINATIONS: Open nominations begin on October 24, 2002 at 12:01 A.M. (PST). In this phase, you may send in nominations for any stories on the eligibility list, including your own. You may nominate multiple stories. This process will lower the volume of stories to simplify voting in the second phase. Open nominations end on October 31, 2002 at 11:59 P.M. (PST) and results will be posted to the website and to atxc shortly thereafter. Stories not nominated during open nominations will not be eligible for the next phase of voting.
• SELECTIVE NOMINATIONS: Selective nominations begin on November 7, 2002 at 12:01 A.M. (PST). In this phase, you may send in nominations for any story listed on the Open Nominations list. ONLY stories on the Open Nominations list may be voted on. You may vote for UP TO FIVE STORIES PER CATEGORY. Selective nominations end on November 14, 2002 at 11:59 P.M. (PST) and results will be posted to the website and to atxc shortly thereafter. Stories not nominated during this phase will not be eligible for the final phase of voting.
• FINAL VOTING: Final voting begins on December 5, 2002 at 12:01 P.M. (PST). In this phase, you may vote for UP TO THREE STORIES PER CATEGORY. You do not have to vote in all the categories. Final voting ends on December 12, 2002 at 11:59 P.M. (PST) and results will be posted to the website and to atxc shortly thereafter.
• CAN I VOTE UNDER MORE THAN ONE NAME?: Please don't send us multiple votes under different email addresses. This is considered cheating. Every year, people try it, and every year, it just makes more work for the volunteers when we have to weed out the potential cheaters. If it is obvious to us that someone has cheated, we will discard those votes, and that person will NOT be notified. ONE vote per person, please.

My stories are listed as "pending" ... what does that mean? | back to questions

Mrs. Fish has to check the eligibility of the stories listed. If your story is listed as "pending" (if they are marked with a ), it simply means that Mrs. Fish hasn't gotten around to checking your story yet. Don't worry - you don't need to do anything. It will get checked eventually. Once Mrs. Fish has determined that your story is eligible, a  will appear beside it.

Why is my story is listed as "ineligible"? | back to questions

Stories marked as "ineligible" (with a ) were not found on atxc, or were posted to atxc before October 2, 2001 or after October 1, 2002. If this is the case for one of your stories, and you are sure that you posted it to atxc after October 1, 2001, contact me so we can figure out why your story is marked ineligible.

Help! I have no idea how to get my stories to ATXC! | back to questions

• First, you must realise that alt.tv.x-files.creative is a NEWSGROUP. It is not a mailing list, it is not a website, and it is not a bulletin board.
• If you have no idea what a newsgroup is, you should check out the "official" Usenet FAQ and/or the Basics of Usenet. Please don't email me with questions about Usenet - I honestly don't know that much and these guides should be able to tell you quite a bit more than I ever could.
• Now that you know what ATXC is, you need to find a way to get to it. Many ISPs (Internet Service Providers) offer a newsreader, which allows their customers to read and post to Usenet newsgroups. If you are unsure if you have a newsreader, you should e-mail support at your ISP and ask them directly.
• I cannot help you set up your newsreader. Every ISP is different. If you know that your ISP offers a newsreader but you have no idea how to locate it or make it work, you should e-mail support at your ISP.
• There are two mailing lists that forward stories to ATXC: X-Files Fanfic (XFF) and XFCreative (XFC). If you can't get through to ATXC using any other method, these mailing lists are guaranteed to work. Just be sure that you subscribe to XFF-ATXC and/or XFC-ATXC so you get the version that forwards. (Each of these lists has a separate version that does not forward stories.)
• If you are still thoroughly confused, go to alt.tv.x-files.creative at Google Groups and post from there.

Unanswered Questions | back to questions

Still lost? If you couldn't find an answer on this page, you can e-mail your question and I will try to answer it promptly.