This is the voting phase for the 2024 User Choice Awards. Look at the thread titles below to select Award categories to vote in, and help your favourite threads be crowned as UCA champions!
User Choice Awards Voting: Best Ongoing Fic
- Thread starter Skippy
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- Ongoing
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Hello!
Voting for Best Ongoing Fic opens , and will remain open until . For those of you who are looking for more information on the Users' Choice Awards generally, you can find it in this thread!
In short, the Users' Choice Awards are about celebrating the best and most beloved quests, stories, and other creative wonderfulness on SV, as decided by SV users. The Awards take place in two phases. During the Nomination Phase, almost four hundred nominations were made across nine categories. These have been narrowed down to only five* in each category.
Now, in the Voting Phase, you get to vote to see which is crowned as champion!
*(In the event of multiple nominees tying, then the tied nominees will all go through to voting so long as the total number of nominees does not exceed ten. In this case tied or excess nominees will not be counted. We will adjudicate this so that no tied nominees are ever privileged any other tied nominees, and nominees with the lowest number of votes are always discounted first.)
Please try to take the time to read the nominees before voting. Each of them had to fight really hard to get here, and they are worth giving a chance!
At , the poll will be closed, and the thread with the highest number of votes will be the winner!
In the event of a tie, we will have joint winners.
This thread will serve as a discussion thread for the voting.
Please feel free to discuss the threads you are voting for, and why. Whether it's an impassioned argument for why people should vote for your favourite work, or just some great commentary and analysis, we love to see it, and this is the place for it!
Voting for Best Ongoing Fic opens , and will remain open until . For those of you who are looking for more information on the Users' Choice Awards generally, you can find it in this thread!
In short, the Users' Choice Awards are about celebrating the best and most beloved quests, stories, and other creative wonderfulness on SV, as decided by SV users. The Awards take place in two phases. During the Nomination Phase, almost four hundred nominations were made across nine categories. These have been narrowed down to only five* in each category.
Now, in the Voting Phase, you get to vote to see which is crowned as champion!
*(In the event of multiple nominees tying, then the tied nominees will all go through to voting so long as the total number of nominees does not exceed ten. In this case tied or excess nominees will not be counted. We will adjudicate this so that no tied nominees are ever privileged any other tied nominees, and nominees with the lowest number of votes are always discounted first.)
How Voting Works
Voting will be done via the poll you see right at the top of this thread. You can vote for as many or as few of the nominees as you like, and you can also change your vote if you wish, up until the close of voting. It's just that simple!Please try to take the time to read the nominees before voting. Each of them had to fight really hard to get here, and they are worth giving a chance!
At , the poll will be closed, and the thread with the highest number of votes will be the winner!
In the event of a tie, we will have joint winners.
Nominees
And now, without further ado, the User Choice Awards Nominee for Best Ongoing Fic:Article:
This thread will serve as a discussion thread for the voting.
Please feel free to discuss the threads you are voting for, and why. Whether it's an impassioned argument for why people should vote for your favourite work, or just some great commentary and analysis, we love to see it, and this is the place for it!
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- Location
- Edmonton, Alberta
Let's see ig Hyphen can finally bring home the gold.
Dermonster
The Shittiest Wizard
Everyone on SV: How many times (2021); must we teach you this lesson (2022); old man you shitty wizard!? (2023)
Hey guys, its me again. Back for round four. Can't keep a magic man and his nifty pokemon story down.
I think most people know what this story is. I was even the pick of the month in september! I think I'll just port in the summary this time.
Hyphen
Leaving the safety of her hidden commune, a Ralts narrowly avoids capture on Hoenn Route 102. Finding a discarded pokeball, she ventures into the human world only to discover that her home is in danger from Humanity's rapid expansion. Now she has one recourse: disguise herself as human and become the pokemon champion before her village is discovered, and prevent the tragedy that is sure to come.
It's too bad she has to deal with subterfuge, eco-terrorism, the end of the world, and awkward inter-species friendships along the way.
I've just dropped three neat and cool updates in a row over the past three weeks, culminating in a long-awaited moment years in the making.
Even if you don't vote for me, I hope you give it a try! And check out my fellow authors as well! Both Flair and Fabhar have made excellent stories, and though I shamefully haven't been following them, both Winged_one and Zarin are surely fantastic as well.
Happy winterfest!In a few decades I'll have enough silver to make my entire house a ward against like. vampires or werewolves. Shiny.
Hey guys, its me again. Back for round four. Can't keep a magic man and his nifty pokemon story down.
I think most people know what this story is. I was even the pick of the month in september! I think I'll just port in the summary this time.
Hyphen
Leaving the safety of her hidden commune, a Ralts narrowly avoids capture on Hoenn Route 102. Finding a discarded pokeball, she ventures into the human world only to discover that her home is in danger from Humanity's rapid expansion. Now she has one recourse: disguise herself as human and become the pokemon champion before her village is discovered, and prevent the tragedy that is sure to come.
It's too bad she has to deal with subterfuge, eco-terrorism, the end of the world, and awkward inter-species friendships along the way.
I've just dropped three neat and cool updates in a row over the past three weeks, culminating in a long-awaited moment years in the making.
Even if you don't vote for me, I hope you give it a try! And check out my fellow authors as well! Both Flair and Fabhar have made excellent stories, and though I shamefully haven't been following them, both Winged_one and Zarin are surely fantastic as well.
Happy winterfest!
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Fallow Fields is genuinely one of the most interesting takes on an SI that I've seen in a very long while, with the typical, 'Grind until you get strong enough to punch god' route forcibly taken from them and the very thoughtful and mellow attitude of the fic. I love it.
But Hyphen is also a great fic and it'd be well deserved for it to win.
But Hyphen is also a great fic and it'd be well deserved for it to win.
- Location
- Oregon, USA
Oh yeah, I was analyzing Hyphen, wasn't I? Guess I should get back on that.
Anyway, don't just vote for one because it's the only one you've read. I encourage voters to actually try at least a few of these.
In terms of my thoughts: I've read almost all of them and tried the last one, and IMO it isn't really close. In terms of quality of writing, Zarinthel trumps most published authors. The other fics here are largely fluff pieces- entertaining enough to read, but lacking any true depth. The level of care, skill, and thought that goes into crafting something like Fallow Fields surpasses that of all the other nominees combined. I'd go as far as to say it's a better told story than the source material, if one that doesn't pander as much to the lowest common denominator.
As for those others, Hyphen and Shaded Silk rely on the novelty of their concept as well as the appeal of their fandom. The former has better characterization, while the latter has better worldbuilding. Neither of their plots are particularly compelling, and both have their fair share of problems. Again, they're entertaining fanfiction- but they are very much fanfiction, enjoyable because of the way they play on the original. They are good only by fanfiction standards.
Queen of Puddles is a bit meatier. The fact that a digimon story is competing with Naruto and Pokemon speaks to that, though a good part of that is banking on Flairina's established reputation to ensure people give it a chance. It's less entertaining of a read than the other two, but its plot is significantly more compelling. In terms of characters, well… it's based on a mediocre kid's show. The SI has good characterization at least.
Can't really speak to Feng Shuei Engineering, though it being original and doing this well despite that is a good indicator for its quality. Maybe I'll post a follow up after reading it.
Anyway, don't just vote for one because it's the only one you've read. I encourage voters to actually try at least a few of these.
In terms of my thoughts: I've read almost all of them and tried the last one, and IMO it isn't really close. In terms of quality of writing, Zarinthel trumps most published authors. The other fics here are largely fluff pieces- entertaining enough to read, but lacking any true depth. The level of care, skill, and thought that goes into crafting something like Fallow Fields surpasses that of all the other nominees combined. I'd go as far as to say it's a better told story than the source material, if one that doesn't pander as much to the lowest common denominator.
As for those others, Hyphen and Shaded Silk rely on the novelty of their concept as well as the appeal of their fandom. The former has better characterization, while the latter has better worldbuilding. Neither of their plots are particularly compelling, and both have their fair share of problems. Again, they're entertaining fanfiction- but they are very much fanfiction, enjoyable because of the way they play on the original. They are good only by fanfiction standards.
Queen of Puddles is a bit meatier. The fact that a digimon story is competing with Naruto and Pokemon speaks to that, though a good part of that is banking on Flairina's established reputation to ensure people give it a chance. It's less entertaining of a read than the other two, but its plot is significantly more compelling. In terms of characters, well… it's based on a mediocre kid's show. The SI has good characterization at least.
Can't really speak to Feng Shuei Engineering, though it being original and doing this well despite that is a good indicator for its quality. Maybe I'll post a follow up after reading it.
Dermonster
The Shittiest Wizard
If it helps, the first 20 chapters have been vastly re-edited. Should be much easier to read.
I thought I did alright at worldbuilding too, but I'll take having good characters. It's a good thing to be good at. Good.
Magery
Life blooms like a flower, far away or by the road
- Location
- Australia
Fallow Fields is just a genuinely incredible piece of writing.
It's a story that examines, slowly and carefully and thoughtfully even and especially at its most brutally cutting, themes of grief, and innocence, and maturity, and hope, and I think above all the theme of connection—what it means to be connected to other people, the responsibility those connections carry, how hard they can be to accept or handle, how easy they are to get wrong, and how important it is to try anyway.
The prose is stellar: as I said in the nomination thread, I think zarinthel may well be unparalleled on the forum for emotional control in both sentence and scene construction, and the concept of the 'zarinthel moment' (a sentence that just undercuts you at the knees at the perfect time to truly hammer home the point of a conversation or a scene or a chapter) should probably become a phrase in everyone's writing lexicon, especially if you're looking to improve your ability to connect to your readers on an emotional and aesthetic level.
And the things that prose is used to do... the characterisation is impeccable, especially in terms of the respect the writing pays to every person in a scene to treat them like human beings instead of window-dressing for the protagonist and the plot, the story itself threads the needle of changing some parts of the future while acknowledging that even when Seiko tries there are things beyond her power and influence because she is not the centre of the world (far from it, which is part of the point of the story: the summary reads "For every rising star that the shinobi world produces, a hundred other geniuses are chewed up and spit out. Seiko crawls out of that grinder, only to find that she still has the rest of her life to face head on." for a reason), and it's like...
I think the best way I could phrase it is that writing fanfiction is an art, but not all fanfiction is art. I've been doing the former for twelve years now, and some days I like to think I've occasionally managed to make the latter.
But it's not easy. It's really, really not easy.
zarinthel, though?
In Fallow Fields, zarinthel makes it look easy.
Even if you don't vote for the story—which you damn well should—I implore you all, if you haven't already, to go and read it. A lot of us get trapped in our fandom bubbles, our genre bubbles, and never really get to expose ourselves to all the things that stories can do and all the things that they can be outside of what we're used to.
Trust me: you need to see what zarinthel can do.
It's a story that examines, slowly and carefully and thoughtfully even and especially at its most brutally cutting, themes of grief, and innocence, and maturity, and hope, and I think above all the theme of connection—what it means to be connected to other people, the responsibility those connections carry, how hard they can be to accept or handle, how easy they are to get wrong, and how important it is to try anyway.
The prose is stellar: as I said in the nomination thread, I think zarinthel may well be unparalleled on the forum for emotional control in both sentence and scene construction, and the concept of the 'zarinthel moment' (a sentence that just undercuts you at the knees at the perfect time to truly hammer home the point of a conversation or a scene or a chapter) should probably become a phrase in everyone's writing lexicon, especially if you're looking to improve your ability to connect to your readers on an emotional and aesthetic level.
And the things that prose is used to do... the characterisation is impeccable, especially in terms of the respect the writing pays to every person in a scene to treat them like human beings instead of window-dressing for the protagonist and the plot, the story itself threads the needle of changing some parts of the future while acknowledging that even when Seiko tries there are things beyond her power and influence because she is not the centre of the world (far from it, which is part of the point of the story: the summary reads "For every rising star that the shinobi world produces, a hundred other geniuses are chewed up and spit out. Seiko crawls out of that grinder, only to find that she still has the rest of her life to face head on." for a reason), and it's like...
I think the best way I could phrase it is that writing fanfiction is an art, but not all fanfiction is art. I've been doing the former for twelve years now, and some days I like to think I've occasionally managed to make the latter.
But it's not easy. It's really, really not easy.
zarinthel, though?
In Fallow Fields, zarinthel makes it look easy.
Even if you don't vote for the story—which you damn well should—I implore you all, if you haven't already, to go and read it. A lot of us get trapped in our fandom bubbles, our genre bubbles, and never really get to expose ourselves to all the things that stories can do and all the things that they can be outside of what we're used to.
Trust me: you need to see what zarinthel can do.
- Location
- Edmonton, Alberta
Huh, it's interesting to hear you say that; I'm absolutely in love with Arsonist's Lullaby, whereas I'd consider Fallow Fields a fairly standard, or even mediocre, story.
Serial fiction, and fanfiction in particular, is a medium which lends itself to being sprawling, bloated, and careless of its words. It is not so terrible a failing - we read and write fanfiction to spend more time with the characters and settings we like!
Yet it is a rare joy to read a long-form work that is as precise with its telling as Fallow Fields, where every sentence written carries weight, and the sentences not written sometimes carry more. In many places, I look at Fallow Fields as an exemplar of how to do powerful character and theme work in a limited word count.
I have read and enjoyed all of the nominees, and I think all of them would be worthy winners, but I while would characterize the rest as excellent within their field, zarinthel is doing something unique with Fallow Fields.
Yet it is a rare joy to read a long-form work that is as precise with its telling as Fallow Fields, where every sentence written carries weight, and the sentences not written sometimes carry more. In many places, I look at Fallow Fields as an exemplar of how to do powerful character and theme work in a limited word count.
I have read and enjoyed all of the nominees, and I think all of them would be worthy winners, but I while would characterize the rest as excellent within their field, zarinthel is doing something unique with Fallow Fields.
- Location
- Oregon, USA
I think it's saying something that Fallow Fields is the only fic to have gotten readers advocating for it so far.
[] Fallow Fields
The only psychological-drama on any of the three websites I've ever read that actually nails the "psych-drama" part of its story. Also noteworthy for skipping - not subverting (which is just a fancy way of saying "lying through your teeth to pull a bait-and-switch" imo), skipping (as in, not doing them at all) - several of the more egregious, common, and egregiously common Naruto fanfic tropes.
The only psychological-drama on any of the three websites I've ever read that actually nails the "psych-drama" part of its story. Also noteworthy for skipping - not subverting (which is just a fancy way of saying "lying through your teeth to pull a bait-and-switch" imo), skipping (as in, not doing them at all) - several of the more egregious, common, and egregiously common Naruto fanfic tropes.
Norr
Misophist
- Location
- Any chair
I'm going to say that Hyphen has quite a bit of worldbuilding, but it's not as obvious as, say, in Shaded Silk. Dermonster doesn't outright say 'this is how this thing works, this is it's history' but instead leave clues á la FromSoftware environmental storytelling about the history of the world, which the readers are encouraged to try and figure out.
- Location
- Oregon, USA
I'm not saying the worldbuilding doesn't exist. I just don't think it's as good. Though I am biased against portraying Pokemon as differently shaped humans, so if you like that sort of thing, I could see where we might disagree.
Norr
Misophist
- Location
- Any chair
I've found that I share that opinion, to a point. If pokémon are intelligent I like to see a bit of xenofiction in there, because their mentality would have evolved to fit their evolutionary pressures, not human circumstances.
Having pokémon be more like 'smart animals' makes for a better human-centric/ecology centric story (the quest Unprecedented Times is partially one of those, some few species are human-level intelligent, but even fewer of those actually interact like humans), but having human-intelligent pokémon can be better for a 'small friend group adventure' story. Depends on what the author does with it.
Hyphen is also one of the 'pokémon are smart animals' stories, with (as far as we know) the sole exception being the ralts and kirlia of Astra's village and one other enclave, to make the premise of the story work. Astra and her people are exceptions to the rule in Hyphen, not the norm.
- Location
- Oregon, USA
Maybe. It's been like 4 years since I read it, so it's quite possible I'm misremembering.
- Location
- Edmonton, Alberta
Most of the Pokémon in Hyphen are explicitly just very smart animals – though I suppose that since one of the few exceptions is the main character, I can see how you'd be put off anyway.
Crusader Jerome
Subsisting on Supplication
- Location
- My home away from Rome
The quality that sets good fiction from great fiction for me is the degree to which it delivers a powerful and authentic emotional experience, which I primarily measure by what a work makes me feel.
Hyphen is the one story on this list that I can say evoked an emption for me as a reader that I can reach into my memory and grab without having to go look for it. For that, Hyphen has my vote.
Hyphen is the one story on this list that I can say evoked an emption for me as a reader that I can reach into my memory and grab without having to go look for it. For that, Hyphen has my vote.
- Location
- Oregon, USA
Curse you for having an argument subjective enough I can't argue against it.
Absolutely recommend reading Fallow Fields myself. Its an excellent bit of character writing, and I'm honestly a little jealous of how effortless zarinthel makes it look. Even if you don't vote for it, at least poke your head into the thread and give it a chance.
Dermonster
The Shittiest Wizard
These damn ninjas snuck up on me!
- Location
- Attached to a wall
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I really thought Hyphen was going to win this year.
It makes me curious for Fallow Fields.
This isn't the first year that Hyphen has been nominated, so I'm not sure if there is anything to add.
Hyphen recently had a few big revaluations happen to various characters that are going to board, so there is probably going to be a fifth year If it isn't going to win this year.
It makes me curious for Fallow Fields.
This isn't the first year that Hyphen has been nominated, so I'm not sure if there is anything to add.
Hyphen recently had a few big revaluations happen to various characters that are going to board, so there is probably going to be a fifth year If it isn't going to win this year.
Honestly, Hyphen will probably continue to be nominated every year if it never wins. It's pretty much always ongoing since while it updates slowly, it updates steadily with a few massive chapters a year, it's modestly popular enough with a dedicated fanbase that will always nominate it enough that it makes it to the finals... and then every year it seems like it has at least one super popular or standout piece of competition that keeps it from first place. I can't even blame people for voting for Fallow Fields over Hypen or anything, it's also a really great fic.