The Epy Awards aims to recognize hidden gems amongst the millions of stories on the app. It was very much needed, especially when the Trending User section failed to recognize a variety of stories (of different genres) in the past year.

I'm so happy that it turned out to be such a great success in 2015! I mean, sure, we might not have a million followers on Instagram but we currently have about 200 story entries at the moment (and still counting) and that's a pretty huge number considering we only have 20 people on our team and we've only initiated this just last year! Since it has turned out to be such a great movement on Episode as a user-based contest, it led me to think more deeply.

The Epy Awards should expand more. The Awards should be recognized everywhere, not just the Episode writers community on the forums, but also the readers community on the app! I've realized that the Epy Awards is only mostly known amongst the writers community, and that shouldn't be the case. It shouldn't remain that way. I think it would be great for the rest of the community to recognize these hidden gems as well! Don't you think so, too?

So this is what I'm proposing to the Episode team.

Episode should adopt the Epy Awards, similarly to how Wattpad holds the Watty Awards annually, except that the Wattpad team actually manages the whole contest and there's no user involvement.

I'm not asking the Episode team to take over the Epy Awards entirely (plus, they don't have time to go over 1 million story entries with the small amount of staff they have currently), that's why I still think the Epy Awards should continue to be managed by the community. I really like how the community is so involved in this contest. I like that the community gets to decide who deserves to win. I like that writers and readers of the community get together as a team and discuss user stories. I like the unity and teamwork--- that's the foundation of the Epy Awards. After all, it still is a contest created by the community FOR the community, and that uniqueness of the Epy Awards will never change. However, I want the Epy Awards to reach a larger target audience, and the only way to do that is if the EA Team works together with the Episode team, and readers on the app get to actually SEE these well-deserved Epy Awards winners and their stories.

On another note, I think, like all other writing platforms that have their own awards/ contests on their various websites, Episode (also a writing platform) should have that, too! It's almost surprising that Episode doesn't have this feature yet. I honestly think this idea could work and it would really benefit writers on Episode as well as readers. There are countless of user stories that go unnoticed and I think the Epy Awards could help these talented and underrated writers out! Plus, it could be a great incentive for new writers to enter contests such as Spring Break/ Valentine's Day/ Epy Awards and get more writers to start writing for Episode!

If you're familiar with how the Epy Awards work, then you'd already know the first part of the process. In short, random Episode community members are selectively chosen (based on requirements) to be judges, and throughout the year, all judges (of different categories) will review all story entries under their specific category, pick their top 2 stories (per category), and the entire panel of 20+ community members will have a weekly discussions/debates on these selected stories to finalize the winners of the year. This is how the usual process goes, and it has been that way since 2015.

This is where the Episode team comes in if they decide to collaborate with us. Once we finalize the winners, these (a total of 9 stories, because we have only nine categories) stories are featured on the app, under the 'Epy Awards' tab, like how Spring Break and Valentine's day have their own specific tab! This tab will showcase the winners for a whole year (for example, 2016's badge of winners) until the next badge of winners is finalized (2017 winners, for instance), and that process will continue annually! It's actually fairly simple if Episode is able and willing to adopt this idea.

The same Epy Awards process will be carried out, however, the showcase of winners on the app will bring a larger audience to these award-winners (because they really deserve it). The major flaw within the Epy Awards system (which I personally find) is the fact that award-winners still don't get the recognition they deserve because the Epy Awards is only mostly known amongst Episode writers on the forums. That's the flaw that needs the most work, and collaborating with the Episode team will eliminate that flaw entirely!

If you'd like to know more about how the Epy Awards work, feel free to visit our official website at http://www.epyawards.weebly.com or follow us on @epyawardsofficial on Instagram! For info on: http://forums.episodeinteractive.com/forum/main-category/feature-ideas/957445-feature-adopting-the-official-epy-awards

If you think it's a great idea, do support by signing this petition so that we can make this discover-hidden-gems movement a reality!