Crowdfunding: Connecting Creators and Patrons

Voting is now open for the Other Project category of the Rose and Bay Awards. These awards honor excellence in cyberfunded creativity (aka crowdfunding), and this category recognizes exceptional creators of eclectic content. Everyone is encouraged to vote. Please read the complete details below, and then make your vote in the following poll. For more information about this award, visit the 2022 Landing Page.

The 2021 winner was "Cakes & Ale Online!" by Tony & Mark Korol-Evans.

What Is the Rose and Bay Award?

The Rose and Bay Award focuses on a growing business model known as "crowdfunding" or "cyberfunded creativity," which directly connects creative people and patrons of the arts online. This award recognizes exemplary projects and enthusiastic patrons. It currently features six categories: Art, Fiction, Poetry, Webcomic, Other Project, and Patron. (Other Project includes any cyberfunded creativity that isn't art, fiction, poetry, or webcomic -- or that spans more than one category -- such as movies, music, etc. The categories and their handlers are listed below:

These are the handlers for the 2022 award season:

Art: fuzzyred Nominate art! Vote for art!
Fiction: fuzzyred Nominate fiction! Vote for fiction!
Poetry: nsfwords Nominate poetry! Vote for poetry!
Webcomic: scrubjayspeaks Nominate webcomics! Vote for webcomics!
Other Project: ng_moonmoth Nominate other projects! Vote for other projects!
Patron: scrubjayspeaks Nominate patrons! Vote for patrons!

The award period for eligible activities spans January 1-December 31, 2021.
The nomination period spans January 1-January 31, 2022.
The voting period spans February 1-February 28, 2022.


Voting Rules

1) Voters are encouraged (but not required) to browse the nominees before making a final decision; that's what the links are for, and the purpose of this award is to promote the splendor of crowdfunded projects. If you have not already explored the nominees, please refer back to the Other Projects nomination post.

2) Voting will take place via Dreamwidth non-transparent polling in this community, open to all. Everyone is eligible to vote; if you do not have a Dreamwidth account, you may leave a comment below with your full name and your vote. In each category, you may vote for as many entries as you consider worthy of the award. It helps to avoid voting for ALL of the entries. (There may need to be more than one poll question per category, and runoffs, in categories with a high number of nominees.) You may vote for your own project, or yourself as a patron.

3) Winners will be announced after the polling is completed.


How You Can Help

The Rose and Bay Award depends on your enthusiasm to make it a success. Here are some ways you can help that happen:

1) Cast your vote! Watch for the voting polls to appear for the other projects, and vote in those too.

2) Promote the Rose and Bay Award by blogging about it, emailing your friends, posting it on social networks, or any other method you can imagine. Everyone is encouraged to spread the word as far as possible whether you are a creator, a donor, or a curious bystander. Here is some art for promoting the Rose and Bay Award.

3) If you're a patron or audience member, link to your favorite nominees and then direct people to the relevant voting pages. Also, nominees may make use of the Nominee Badges available here, courtesy of nsfwords.