Spooky Awards

The Spooky Awards, also known as the Spookys, were an annual fan-run event to recognize excellence in X-Files fan fiction. 
Beginning in 1995, any fic posted to alt.tv.x-files.creative, or sent directly to the Spooky organizers, was eligible to be nominated for a Spooky. Until 2001, fic not archived at alt.tv.x-files.creative was ineligible. In 2001, alt.tv.x-files.creative was no longer the only place that fans could post and read fiction. To recognize this change, some specific categories of fiction in 2001 and 2002 were "sponsored categories." This was represented by a "**". The sponsors were fan communities, websites, and/or mailing lists that catered to a very specific kind of fic. It is unclear if these stories had to be archived at the newsgroup as well, or just at their own archives. It is unknown if this practice continued from 2003 onwards, or if the phrase "sponsored category" was no longer used. 
Awards were categorized by genre, story length, characterization, or pairing, as well as other specialized divisions. The specific awards varied by year to account for fannish trends and new developments in canon.
In general, and this also varied by year, the Spookys began with open nominations where fans nominated their favorites for each category. After these votes were compiled, select nominations took place and fans voted for their favorite fics in each category. Then, with the pool narrowed down further, fans voted a final time, choosing three fics per category. This process took place entirely over e-mail. 
The Spookys were held every year from 1995 to 2004, with the exception of 1997, and were run by a variety of personnel that often changed from year to year. RedThunder, TexxasRose, Lauryn, Diandra, Mrs. Fish, and Alicettlg have all taken turns heading up the awards.
In September 2016, it was announced that the Spooky Awards hosted by Alicettlg (2003-2005), would be moving to the Archive of Our Own as an Open Doors Project.The Basement, ScullySlash, and the Spooky Awards are Coming to the AO3 (Accessed 9 September 2016). This import was completed in April 2018.
==No Awards in 1997==
These awards were not given in 1997. 
It may have had something to do with the problem of ballot-stuffing. 
* Update: Stuffing the ballot., Stef, January 25, 1997
===Interview with a Ballot Stuffer===
Interview with a Ballot Stuffer ("An Interview with Elysavets -- Questions by CiCi Lean) was a 1998 interview with a fan who stuffed the ballots in the 1996 Spooky Awards: see 
==Awards by Year==
==Meta/Further Reading==
* Stuffing the Ballot <sigh>; archive link, January 25, 1997
* Spookys (a.t.x.c. fanfic awards), January 3, 1999
* , February 20, 1999
* 644 alt.tv.x-files.creative posts with "Spooky Awards" as a key word: search
==See also==
*EMXC Awards
*Lisa e Krysa Awards
*Morley Awards
*Silver Sutures Awards
*Starbuck Awards
*UUFFAA (Unofficial USENET Fan-Fic Achievement Awards)
*Whammy Awards
==External Links==
*Spooky Awards On WayBack With Working Links
*Spooky Awards
*Spooky Awards on LiveJournal
*Links to other X-Files fan fiction awards
* (despite the archive link, appears to be offline)
*Spooky Award Archive
==References==
Category:1995 Awards
Category:1990s Awards
Category:2000s Awards
Category:X-Files Awards