The Holmsies Awards

The Holmsies Awards was an attempt to honor the excellent writing in the Sherlock fandom. After a nomination process, the awards were presented but controversy immediately surfaced. Accusations of ballot stuffing, deletion of works after failure to win, and even objections by winners for being noticed, led to the awards being dissolved. The Holmsies showcased the problem with recognition within fan communities. Differing perceptions of fan writing made the very concept of offering awards for fan works problematic and the blowback led to the destruction of the fan communities who sponsored it.
==Announcement==
The Holmsies awards were started and administered by two fan communities Sherlock BBC Fic Recs [] and Fuckyeahteenlock []
The announcement for the awards was posted on tumblr as well as on the webpages of the host sites..
It was reblogged to other fan communities and was mentioned on the Midnight Fic Obsession Podcast. 
==Rules==
Nominations were decided by the mods of fuckyeahteenlock and sherlockbbcficrecs. The maximum number of nominations per category is five, but some categories have fewer fics - these categories had fewer submissions than others, and we didn’t feel it would be fair to always include five for every category (e.g., if there were only seven submitted total).
The votes and comments were placed on a google form. Some vote spamming was noticed.
==Nominees and Winners==
===Categories based on LENGTH OF FIC===
*Best longfic/slow burn
**Till We Have Cases by fiorinda_chancellor (winner)
**Missing in Action by amphigoricsymphony
**These Violent Delights by pasiphile
**Not Yet Dead by castiron
**Can’t Rewind Now We’ve Gone Too Far by basser
*Best shortfic
**Quite the Excitable Young Lady by taylorpotato
**34 Minutes by bendingsignpost (winner)
**Parallel, Perpendicular, Parabola by calamitybreak
**With Words We Build and Words We Break by alutiv
**Kiss the Tin Man by hyacinth_sky747
===Categories based on GENRE===
*Best original AU
**Art Of The Reasoner by tellytubby101
**The Bone Fiddle by htebazytook/vulgarweed (winner)
**A Moment’s Surrender by anchors
**A Study In Squawking by castiron
**The Dead Bury Their Dead by jezunya
*Best fusion
**Dragon Heartstring In Ebony, Nine Inches, Quite Stubborn by what_alchemy (winner)
**They Mostly Come Out At Night by tawabids
**Unsettled by axemeaboutaxinomancy
**The Madness of Angels by ayalesca
**I Wake Up And I Wake Up And You’re Still Dead by thisprettywren
*Best magical realism
**Beautiful Dreamer by worldaccordingtofangirls
**Invisible by chappysmom
**Bring Me A Dream by lotherington
**Cold Burn by anactoria (winner)
**Genius Loci by silverware
*Best smut/PWP
**The Seduction of Dr. John Watson by xistentialangst (winner)
**Off, Off Book by scullyseviltwin
**Five Times by strangegibbon
**The Subversive Potential of Gender Transgression, Or: Goddamnit, Sherlock, Stop Drugging My Drinks by trashyfiction
**Stairway to Heaven by beautifulfiction
*Best fluff
**The Bottom of the List by atropabelladonna1120
**Euphoria Morning by anonymous
**We Call Them Miracles by theuniversewillsing
**Evidence by jezebelgoldstone
**Sherlock-the-Pooh by thisprettywren (winner)
*Best angst
**Finish Lines by wunderxfunk
**Lion’s Teeth by basser
**Master And Hound by joolabee
**As It Happens by cathedral_carver (winner)
**Apokalypsis by songlin
*Best crack
**How To Accidentally Summon A Demon by patster223
**No Request Is Too Extreme by moony
**Fairy Tale Of Regent’s Park by basingstoke (winner)
**Intellect And Instincts by kryptaria/mitaya
*Best humor
**The Cycle Of Revenge Is Not Going The Way I Planned It by azriona (winner)
**The Adventure Of The House That Was Not Empty by ancientreader
**The Adoption of John Watson Holmes by cyerus
**Please Switch Off All Mobile Phones During The Performance by garmonbozia
**Psychophysical Examinations of Perceptual Effects Of Differential Somatic Stimulation by jedusaur
*Best crossover
**The Dog Who Did Nothing in the Forbidden Dog Park by bishopsbird
**Paper Chase by copperbadge
**Like a Phoenix by chappysmom
**Initially, He Wanted To Be a Pilot by ariane_devere (winner)
**A Brief Account Of Life With Zombies by silverpard
*Best missing scene
**A Girl’s Name by caseyrocksmore
**Landscape With the Fall of Icarus by caitlinfairchild
**A Little Leverage by awanderingminstrel
**Orange by emmagrant01
**Ask John by prettyarbitrary (winner)
*Best epistolary or texting!fic
**Folder Name: John H. Watson by joanagomez (winner)
**Baker Street Letters by mcxi and zooeyscigar
**In Confidence by emmadelosnardos
**FILL by lizzledpink
**What He Wrote by fitofpique
===Categories based on TROPE===
*Best teenlock
**Constable in the Alley by crimpsyche
**Poster Boys by peevee
**Us Against by augustbird
**At Seventeen by archipelago
**The Boys of Summer by mazarin221b (winner)
*Best university AU
**Six Crates of Beer and One Cigarette by persiflager/peevee
**Proxy by cherryblossomtide
**Five Times Molly Hooper Lent Sherlock Holmes A Helping Hand and One Time He Made Her Coffee by verity
**Bad Influence by azriona (winner)
*Best parentlock
**The Third Holmes by heartsdesire456
**Once Upon A Bookshop by moffnat
**The Case of the Teddy Interrogation by amypound
**Luminosity by what_alchemy (winner)
*Best kidfic
**Free Falling by twistedthicket1
**The Sign of Three by emungere (winner)
**Starlight and Fairy Tales by starysummernights
**Family Affairs by s0mmerspr0ssen
**Never Never Land by shay_fae
*Best rarepair
**Echoes by siluslocke/x57
**Gravity by impishtubist
**The Deepest Secret Nobody Knows by sciosophia
**Molly and the Woman by trashyfiction (winner)
**Our Burning Fragments by sweetcupncakes
*Best genderswap
**Modus Operandi by joolabee
**At the Bottom of the Pool by philalethia
**Obvious by patternofdefiance
**How The Mouth Changes Its Shape by breathedout
**No Bangs Without Foreign Office Approval by reckonedrightly (winner)
*Best omegaverse
**Expecting the Unexpected by sweetomegachild
**The Diary of a Young Omega by corpsereviver2
**Five Steps to Freedom by lunavere
**A Happy Accident by keeliethompson1 (winner)
**A Case of Identity by mycake
===Categories based on PLOT OR WRITING STYLE===
*Best characterization
**An Unlikely Association in Seven Fish by bold_as_brass
**It’s Going to Take a Lot to Drag Me Away from You by therestisdetail
**Intersections by mazaher
**Naked, Stripped, and Raw by nikoshinigami (winner)
**You Were Great by patster223
*Best original character
**No Bed is Narrow by innie
**Endgame by ajhall
**Miracle Year by chase820
**The Secret Identity of John Watson by scifigrl47 (winner)
*Best interpretation of classic ACD story
**Betwixt and Between by ivywatcher
**The Holiday by scriblit
**Bent by lifeonmars (winner)
**The Young Men Carbuncular by plaidadder
*Best original plot or casefic
**Cu Sylvatica by sprl1199
**If You Can’t Move Heaven, Raise Hell by splix (winner)
**Holmes:Moriarty by garmonbozia
**The Poster Girl by stardust_made
==Aftermath==
Attitudes about the awards varied. Some of those nominated were anxious about having their fandom works judged against others.
Comment from one nominee on a forum
Another nominee deleted her nominated work and all of her other works after losing.[] She also blocked access to the work through the internet archive. Whether this was because she lost, or due to other factors, we do not know.
The negative reactions were particularly troubling considering the work the planners did to read large numbers of suggested fics to make the nominations. 
Residentbunburyist said
What began as an optimistic attempt to celebrate fanfiction led to divisiveness as feelings were hurt. At least one winner refused the award. This suggests that negative attitudes toward fanfiction do not only exist in corporate spaces, but have been internalized by the fans themselves. Fans expressed negative views about their own works, and the purposes that they were being used for.
The Holmsies served as an example of a good thought gone wrong. Since recommendations were made by readers without consulting the authors before announcing nominations, some writers were upset because they did not want their works recognized. Others who hoped for validation felt shame or anger when they lost, perhaps because they conflated judging a work with judging the person. Those who ran the contest put in a great deal of effort and received mostly a critical response. The Holmsies should serve as a warning to those attempting to create fan awards to carefully gauge the attitudes of the fandom first.
==Legacy==
Despite the problems which led to the ending of these awards, the nominations make an excellent rec list of the best Sherlock works of 2014 and before. Many of the authors who won awards are still contributing new works today.
==References==
Category:Sherlock
Category:2014 Awards