NFA Community Forums

General Rules

1. Authors may not nominate or vote for their own fanfiction.

2. No award rigging. We encourage you to promote your fics or comment on your nominee’s fics, but soliciting votes through other forums or taking votes through mailing lists is prohibited. These awards aren't popularity contests; they are reader's choice awards.

Nomination Rules

1. The fanfiction story must be about NCIS and its characters. Crossover stories and stories with original characters are eligible, as long as they include NCIS and its characters.

2. The fanfiction story must be your own work. Plagiarized stories will not be considered. Stories written from a challenge or other prompt are eligible, as this does not negate the originality of the story itself.

3. The nominated writers must be NFA authors with an author board on the new site. If you would like to nominate a story from an author who was a member at the old site but hasn’t gotten an author board here yet, encourage him or her to join before the end of the nominations period. The only exceptions to this rule are stories posted on the NFA story board by authors who do not yet have enough posts to request an author board.

4. Unless the story is nominated for the Work-in-Progress category, the fanfiction must be complete upon nomination.

5. The fanfiction story must have been finished within the six-month eligibility period.

• For the June awards the story must have been completed between October 15th and April 14th.
• For the December awards the story must have been completed between April 15th and October 14th.

6. The same fanfiction story can be nominated in more than one category.

7. Authors are eligible for Outstanding Author if they have posted fanfiction within the six-month nomination period, even if no stories were completed.

8. There is no limit on the number of stories an author can have nominated in one category, as the award is for the story not the author. However, each author does have the right to decline a nomination.

9. All authors have the right to decline any of their stories’ nominations. All nominations will be received as accepted by the author unless we receive specific notification from an author that they would like to decline a nomination. The staff will not be asking authors if each nomination is accepted.

10. For a story/author to become an official nominee and appear on the voting ballot, it must be nominated by two users. A list of nominated stories and their status will be available during the nomination period.

11. Nomination Periods for the June and December Hinky Awards:

• If being considered for the June Hinky Awards, the fanfiction story must be nominated between April 15th and midnight May 15th, EST(Eastern Standard Time).
• If being considered for the December Hinky Awards, the fanfiction story must be nominated between October 15th and midnight November 15th, EST (Eastern Standard Time).

12. Nominations should be made on the official Hinky site. Keep in mind, each member may nominate two stories per category.

13. Remember to keep an eye on the official Hinky site for a list of current nominees. If a story you want to nominate is already official you can nominate another story. Each member may nominate two stories per category.

• The current nominations page on the official Hinky site will indicate whether a nominated story is officially on the ballot or if it only has one nomination and is not yet official.
  
• You do not have to nominate a story or author for every category. You may nominate two stories per category.
  
• Please read the Categories and Criteria and the above rules before submitting a nomination form.

Voting Rules

1. Voting for the June Hinky Awards opens May 19th and will run through midnight, June 8th, EST (Eastern Standard Time). Future voting periods will be announced during their eligibility periods.

2. If a category has only one official nominee, that story will be declared the winner. As long as two or more stories are officially nominated for a category, there will be voting held for that category. Some categories from the nominations form will be combined for the voting. In broken out categories such as the romance and friendship categories, the Shannon/Kelly story categories, NFA challenges and games, etc, any categories that do not receive more than two nominated stories will be combined for the voting. For example, if there is only one story nominated for McKee/Kate Romance, only two stories for Gibbs/Kate Romance and only one story nominated for Tony/Jenny Romance, all those stories will be combined under Het Romance – Other for the voting.

3. Voting will take place on the official Hinky website. All votes are confidential (with the exception of the person who will be verifying that no one voted for his or her own stories).

4. The prizes will be awarded as follows for each category:
1) First Place
2) Second Place
3) Third Place

If a story comes within one or two votes of Third Place, it will receive Honorable Mention. Honorable Mention will not be awarded for every category, only in those cases where the voting was extremely close.

5. The winners will be announced on June 14, 2008. (Time to be announced soon!)

Voting Instructions

Please read the following instructions CAREFULLY before placing your votes.

1. You MAY NOT vote for your own stories.

2. Each user will rank their Top Five nominated stories in each category; First Place, Second Place, etc…through Fifth Place. If a category has more than five stories nominated, you only rank your Top Five. You are not required to use all your votes! You are also not required to vote in every category.

3. Remember that you may not vote for your own stories. If you have a story nominated in a category, you may rank your Top Five from the remaining stories.

4. Please select the number of votes for each story by clicking the checkbox that corresponds with the rank you wish to assign to that story. You may choose one First Place story, one Second Place, etc.

5. Voting is FINAL. Please choose your point placement with care. You do not have to complete the voting in one try, but you will not be able to change votes once you place them.

**Please note that you do not have to vote in every category.