Ah, so here's the least fun part: the rules. Unfortunately, however, they're very necessary. So please be sure to read them over carefully before you nominate, because I can't accept nomination forms that aren't filled out correctly.

1) All pairings are welcome, including slash, but the main focus must be on Spuffy (or Buffy/William, Randy/Joan, etc.), and the story must be considered "Spuffy positive." For example, it's ok if Spike or Buffy are paired with other people for part of the story, as long as they end up together.

2) All ratings (including NC-17) are welcome in every category.

3) WIP's are welcome, but must have at least five chapters completed in order to be nominated. And if the story is nominated for the Becoming Award, it must remain a WIP until the date judging finishes. (If a story is completed before judging is finished, then it will be taken out of consideration for the WIP category.)

4) AU stories can be nominated in every category. Any story that does not follow canon is considered AU (And in the Tabula Rasa category, stories may still have slayers and vampires so long as they don't follow canon. I'm considering Alternate Reality and Alternate Universe to be the same thing here.)

5) If you are nominating someone else, you must provide the author's email address. Because really, what's the point of winning an award if you don't even know you've won?

6) A single fiction can be nominated in up to three categories, and one author can have up to three different stories nominated at one time. (So, in theory, one author has the potential to be nominated 9 times in one round.) However, one author cannot be nominated more than two times in one category.

7) Feel free to nominate yourself. I understand sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

8) If you are nominated, please save one of my codes to your computer and link me up. If you don't have a site, then you can just give me a shout on the tagboard or sign my guestbook, though it's not at all required in order to be nominated. Though it is a nice gesture :D

9) Once a story wins an award, it cannot be re-nominated in the same category(ies) for which it won. Also, in the next round, that author cannot have any of their stories nominated in the same categories for which they won in the previous round. (eg: If in Round 3, Author "X" wins The Chosen Award with their Story "Y", then Author "X" cannot have any story nominated for The Chosen Award again until Round 5, and Story "Y" can never be nominated for The Chosen Award again.)

10) Judges may have their fictions nominated, so long as they're not nominated in the same categories they're judging.

11) Each category must have at least three fictions nominated in order to be judged. If only three fictions are nominated, then only one winner will be chosen. If there are 4 or more stories nominated, then there will be both a winner and runnerup.

12) A category will be closed once it has 15 nominees.

13) You must provide a direct link to the story, since I don't want to have to search through archives and sites to find them. Any permanent archive/personal site is fine, and Livejournals are also ok as long as they are not friend locked.

14) From Round 4 and on, stories must be complete in order to be nominated in the Chosen category. Also, the Chosen Award will be broken into two subcategories, so please read the category descriptions carefully.

15) Where the nomination form asks if you read the rules, please type: Let me rest in peace.

Well, that's it for the rules, so nominate away!


+ If anyone needs a list of previous round winners for any reason, please email me and I'll send you the list.