Time once again to vote!

We're running a quarterly Ranma Fanfiction poll, to determine the fans'
favorites over the past three months.  We've set up a web page for this
poll at:

http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/sterman/voting.htm 

This is not a project that we are taking lightly.  We want this to be a
product of the community at large.  We also want the voting to be as
impartial as possible.  To that end, we have asked a prominent non-Ranma
fanfic writer to count the votes.

Our intentions are simple.  We want to conduct a poll of what *you*
think the best Ranma 1/2 fanfics are.  Because so many Ranma fanfics are
released each year, we decided to conduct a quarterly poll.  The three
top vote-getters from each quarter will be placed on the ballot for the
best Ranma 1/2 fanfic of 1997. 

The rules are straightforward: 

1.  Eligible fanfics are those placed in the rec.arts.anime.creative
archive at ftp://ftp.cs.ubc.ca/pub/archive/anime-fan-works/Ranma/ during
each quarter. Fanfics are automatically placed into the archive after
being posted to r.a.a.c.

2.  You may vote for up to three fanfics per quarter.  The votes are not
weighted; each vote counts as one.  Only three votes per email address
will be accepted.  If you have multiple email addresses, please send
your votes from only one of those addresses.

3.  Do not vote for fanfics you have written. This will not be strictly
enforced, but we know that you are all honorable people. ^_^ 

4.  Only fanfics are eligible.  We do not consider the following to be
fanfics:  Visual Artwork, Songfics, or Novelizations (converting Ranma
1/2 Manga to prose format).  "Teasers" (intros to fanfics not yet
completed) are also not counted.

This round of voting will cover fanfics posted to the r.a.a.c archive
between July 1, 1997 and September 30, 1997. VOTING HAS BEGUN and will
end October 15, 1997. The results will be posted on our web page on
October 22, 1997. 

That's it! Pretty simple, neh? If you have *any* questions or problems,
please send them to sterman@sprynet.com. 

Please stop by and take a look.  Spread the word around, let everyone
know about the voting - the more votes we can get, the better!  ^_^

We encourage people to put links on their home pages.  Anything you can
do to help publicize this voting is greatly appreciated.

AN IMPORTANT NOTE:  This voting is not associated at all with the Annual
and Monthly Best of Ranma Fanfic Awards at:

http://www.tass.org/~ukyou/ 

These guys are doing something a little different.  We are not competing
with them; we are offering a different sample size and different
methodolgy.  We are in communication with them, and we hope to compare
results at the end of the year to see what we can learn.

Again, the voting rules and the list of eligible fanfics, as well as any
other important information, can be found at:

http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/sterman/voting.htm.

We appreciate any comments you may have about this endeavor.