The Shorties began about two years ago as a way to recognize producers of social media content, sort of like an Academy Awards thing for Twitter. There's been others like this, but most were flash-in-the-pan things that didn't last or were just a way to sell advertising to site visitors during a voting blitz. The Shorties are the real deal and now have a bit more *oomph* behind them.
We won't fit into any of the existing categories, but the Shorties allow you to make up your own:
You can vote in any of the Official Categories or make up a category of your own. If a new category becomes popular, it might be turned into an Official Category with an award presented at the ceremony in March.
Honestly, I doubt we'll get recognized at all. Fanfiction usually doesn't. But @trip_tucker has been nominated once before in a user created category along with a couple of other non-fanfiction original Twitter fiction creators.
NOTE: For voting to be effective, you'll probably want to create one type of category hash tag and stick with that (in the past #twitterfiction, #twitterfic and #fanfiction have been used) and get other people to vote with the same hashtag. I'd suggest #twitterfanfic.
On a personal note, I think it's about time the group's content got a little recognition. We weren't the first fictional characters on Twitter by any means, nor were we the first to tweet "In Character" either. (The original Firefly tweeters did that and I based what I did on what they were doing.) But the ENT group was the first set of Star Trek characters to tell fully realized stories, i.e. fanfic, via Twitter rather than tweeting simply for satire or humorous effect.
We were also the first to create a mirror universe character (the previous version of Mirror Reed - he was renamed ColMalcolmReed when we reset that universe) and then the whole set and subsequent stories. All the other Trek twitter RP groups proliferated after us, borrowing from a Guide for followers I wrote, the support website we added and even twitter conventions like using "*" marks to indicate actions versus speaking or the use of Blip.fm and TwitPic. All the other Mirror Universe characters came after us. The Rebellion original Star Trek fiction group leader has even mentioned before that the ENT group was inspiration for what they're doing.
The ENT group has evolved quite a bit over time. It started with just @trip_tucker in November of 2008. That was joined a short time later by @Dr_Phlox and @Chef_NX01. In January of 2009 @MalcolmReed, @T_Mayweather and @captain_archer joined the group. @_TPol became active by early February and @Hoshi_Sato by mid-February. Several other players and minor (and non-canon) characters have come and gone, changed hands and been reset until ENT became the group you see listed on our web site now: Crew Manifest, Mirror Universe. Today there's 24 characters and only five players/writers. I think they do a hell of a job.
