I think the underlying issue here is that the awards themselves have become somewhat niche in the wider community. That leads to a partial cycle: Since the pool of nominators is somewhat small and narrow in its interests, the pool of nominees starts to see rather obscure picks every year - this is noticeable in categories which don't get much everyday attention in the mainstream furry fandom. (Furries aren't even-handed in the media they seek out; when it comes to content made IN the fandom, art is head and shoulders above other media, partly due to its accessibility and wide selection.)
When it comes time to vote, an unfamiliar voter will see a the nominees in, say, short fiction, and go "I've never heard of any of these stories or authors." This has two effects: the voter isn't as likely to vote on that category, since the time commitment to review all of them is an issue and the genre and content of the nominees may turn them away. And worse, seeing these uninspiring choices may convince the voter that the body of nominating voters is ruled by a clique, with narrow interests that are mostly unique to the group. Think the dissonance between the most popular films and "Oscar bait" ones, which the Academy and other awards committees have had public struggles with in recent years. The same, naturally, will occur once the winners are revealed, except it will put people off from the next year's awards instead.
The goal here then should be to make the awards more appealing to more subsets of furries. Wider promotion and spreading of information of the awards could help, though more important a change would be to overhaul the awards' categories. The most "mainstream" categories could get sub-awards, such as for artwork. Of all creative output produced by the furry fandom, artwork probably has the widest appeal, so published illustrations could get more subcategories. Animations are another area that could use more differentiation, different length animations might need their own categories, loops and other short animations included.
Obviously, more transparency is good, and the Awards have made improvements here in some areas. Apart from the sharing of voting results, the recommendation list now updates weekly, which goes a way towards addressing the issue. But seeing how the nomination round of voting goes will also be insightful - keeping in mind that the Ursa Major staff curates the nominees to a degree, seeing how choices pan out, and how the staff's decisions are made with attached written explanations, will give voters more confidence in the chosen votes.
I think the underlying issue here is that the awards themselves have become somewhat niche in the wider community. That leads to a partial cycle: Since the pool of nominators is somewhat small and narrow in its interests, the pool of nominees starts to see rather obscure picks every year - this is noticeable in categories which don't get much everyday attention in the mainstream furry fandom. (Furries aren't even-handed in the media they seek out; when it comes to content made IN the fandom, art is head and shoulders above other media, partly due to its accessibility and wide selection.)
When it comes time to vote, an unfamiliar voter will see a the nominees in, say, short fiction, and go "I've never heard of any of these stories or authors." This has two effects: the voter isn't as likely to vote on that category, since the time commitment to review all of them is an issue and the genre and content of the nominees may turn them away. And worse, seeing these uninspiring choices may convince the voter that the body of nominating voters is ruled by a clique, with narrow interests that are mostly unique to the group. Think the dissonance between the most popular films and "Oscar bait" ones, which the Academy and other awards committees have had public struggles with in recent years. The same, naturally, will occur once the winners are revealed, except it will put people off from the next year's awards instead.
The goal here then should be to make the awards more appealing to more subsets of furries. Wider promotion and spreading of information of the awards could help, though more important a change would be to overhaul the awards' categories. The most "mainstream" categories could get sub-awards, such as for artwork. Of all creative output produced by the furry fandom, artwork probably has the widest appeal, so published illustrations could get more subcategories. Animations are another area that could use more differentiation, different length animations might need their own categories, loops and other short animations included.
Obviously, more transparency is good, and the Awards have made improvements here in some areas. Apart from the sharing of voting results, the recommendation list now updates weekly, which goes a way towards addressing the issue. But seeing how the nomination round of voting goes will also be insightful - keeping in mind that the Ursa Major staff curates the nominees to a degree, seeing how choices pan out, and how the staff's decisions are made with attached written explanations, will give voters more confidence in the chosen votes.