machshefa | Congratulations and Thanks

It's so very easy to find behind on LJ. I know I have and I just wanted to again congratulate everybody who was nominated for the

sshg_awards this round. I'm hoping to get back to each and every journal on LJ, but it may take a while. For now, let me just say that I'm awed by the complete nomination list and eager to read and reread.

Also, I want to again thank

sshg316 and her helper

renitaleandra (and others) for all the hours of work they put into the awards. As

annietalbot said so eloquently the other day, we appreciate what you do, and while it's sometimes difficult (who doesn't want to have a story nominated in every category? *grins), we value the opportunity you give us to showcase our work, and to find treasures to read.

Here is a repost of her open letter (with my own extra commentary, because... I couldn't resist):

Thank you.

Thank you for donating your time (hundreds and hundreds of hours of time). You all have lives, yet you carve out time so that we can share our favorite stories, so that some of us can be thrilled by being nominated, so that a very few can experience the joy of victory, and so that every one of us can have the opportunity to read stories that are new to us and discover new treasures.

Thank you for your fairness and openness. You tell us what is going on every step of the way. You are willing to let us see your process (these awards are remarkably and admirably transparent), to admit when you do not know the answer to problems, and to solicit (and listen to) opinions when issues arise (and the awards mods are remarkably reflective, too). You follow the rules, even if it means disappointing friends whose stories don't make the cut or don't get nominated in their desired categories.

Thank you for your patience. We've all been disappointed at times. Either we have stories nominated that didn't win, or our stories haven't made the cut, or things we have nominated on behalf of others don't appear on the final ballot. Yet you bear our disappointment with grace and kindness, even when we express ourselves in ways that are at best tactless and at worst insulting.

We strive to have a healthy approach to this -- to reach out to others in their celebration no matter what we wish we could be celebrating, ourselves.

As a member of the fandom, I thank you. Your efforts go a long way toward keeping this corner of the fandom alive, and I'm profoundly grateful to you for it.

Amen.