~ Why did the time timeline change?
We hope to do this again next year, but we also realized a lot of fics that people wanted to submit were in that 2022-2024 range. Since we plan on doing this next year in February, it was decided instead of sticking it out, we would open it up all the way back to 2022! This is a one time thing; the next awards will be more time restricted, but we know it's been a long time since there's been any kind of reader's choice awards for the TMNT community.
~ Can you nominate the same story for different categories?
Yes! As long as it follows the rules of the category, it can be nominated!
~ Why don't I see my nomination on the spreadsheet?
If you can't find it, it was probably disqualified! You can send an ask or a message to ask for specific reasons if you like.
~ Can I submit a series?
You can submit a fic that is in a series that fits the criteria, but it must be a single fanfic. If you have already submitted a series, I've done my best to find the first fic that qualifies in the series. Please try not to submit any series!
~ Why wasn't x category included?
I held a vote earlier this month about which categories people would like included and suggestions for more categories. I collected all I could with what information I had and took the voting into consideration when deciding on the categories. If it wasn't included this year, next year's might! I will hold another vote next year for categories.
~ Can Mature works be submitted?
Yes! AS LONG AS they do not include anything with NSFW, torture, violence, suicide, or abuse. I can only work off of tags because of how many fics there are, so if something says it's mature and includes topics of violence, I'm going to assume it's a mature-level depiction of violence. This may change in the future, but for the 2026 awards this is how it's going to work.
~ Why are you not including explicit works?
The majority and most popular of TMNT content is supposed to be for kids. Of course there are adults that enjoy it as well; I am one of those adults. The biggest reason is because this is being run out of the Pit discord server, which is 14+ friendly.
The other reason is when I put out a vote asking which categories people would want to see, romance as a genre got 8 votes. The next lowest category was the comic-based fanfics at 14. Not enough people wanted to see a romance category in general, let alone explicit works.
Another reason is I have to review all of these fics. It's a whole other layer of moderation involved. I'd have to make the decision on what stuff is allowed or not, and that's not something I have the energy to moderate. I also just don't personally enjoy reading explicit fanfic, so looking over them to make sure they follow all aforementioned rules would be exhausting for me. I'm doing this for fun, and this would just make it not fun for me.
That doesn't mean that I think they're not "real literature" or that I have something against it. I just don't want to include it in a reader's choice awards that is for everyone to enjoy. It's the choice of the people running the awards. This is not "censorship". Please look up the definition of that word if you want to use it. I'm not censoring the explicit fics. I'm not saying you can't go and read explicit fics. I'm not trying to get rid of the explicit fics. As I mentioned in another ask, anyone is free to make their own fanfic RCA that includes the explicit category!
~ AH. EVERYTHING CHANGED.
Yes, sorry about that! 😬 This is my first time organizing something like this, so me and the other mod assisting is trying to figure this out as we go. Things will change as we figure out what works best. Please be patient with us! You can send me an ask if you're confused about something, or you can go to The Pit Discord and ask in the RCA chat there!
