Sounds like you have some pretty good ideas there Neko. A writing contest that is held by the writers themselves. I only scanned through all the posts but I was wondering how do you select the winner? Would there be a vote or do you pick?

Well, the way I have it planned is to have the 2 judges and myself (as a permanent judge of sorts) split up all the entries and pick out the ones we feel fit the theme and requirement for the week the best out of our own batch and discuss them with each other. From there, we all decide 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places (possibly even 4th) and then announce it (if that makes sense). It's also the reason I want to have judge rotations, so that nobody gets biased towards certain authors and everyone gets to participate :)

And if I can't entice any judges with the juiciness of reading a bunch (or just some) entries, then I'll put it up to a vote from everyone who participates or visits the thread.

Sounds like a good idea. I think that if you do have people vote then it would be best to get people who didn't particepate in teh writing contest to vote. Otherwise you might just get a lot of people who end up voting for themselves because they want to win. You never know. A judge r two would probably be the best bet.

I still need to find a way to actually get people to help me though o.O I don't have a lot of expertise and other than putting up a notice somewhere or somewhere in the first post of the contest itself, I'll have a bit of a tough time finding myself some volunteers, yo.

So... hmm... advertising seems to be the big draw back here, eh? Well... Maybe if you go to all the really active threads with a lot of people in them and also promote your ideas there, or ask your friends to help spread the word. They could all pop into a thread with a link inviting people to the writing contest. If enough people see it, someone is bound to click on it. Sometimes it doesn't work on the first try so... Maybe give them pleanty of notice for the first contest?

Heh, I need to start the contest thread first though. Right now I'm still working on making enough gold to have prizes, or give the gold itself out as a prize. It would also help if I was more active in more threads >.< Since a lot of people don't really bother looking at anybody's signatures and stuff. PLEH

That's most of the reason it's still a work in progress, but I think I'll start it possibly tomorrow and open it sometime tomorrow afternoon, so I can get the layout all set up and stuff. I think (still very green at this kind of thing).

Well maybe you could use CI's for prizes? A lot of people don't buy them on their own or gold works too I guess. It'd have to be enough to entice people but then again people who really like writing don't need to get a lot of gold for a prize. Hmm... I like the CI's idea... I have some old ones and stuff... Is that your quest thread in your siggy? I think because it's just a link that people might not click on it. They aren't sure what it is so they just stick with what they know. I forgot how to make it look all cool and just come up as clickable words... Like... hmm... I think you can do it in the advanced part or something. I used to know this stuff ><;; [link]www.menewsha.com[/link] I have no idea... just trying some things... <.<

Heheh, nah it's the link to the contest names poll. I'm going to get a banner from Sakura when I start the thread so I can have something nifty for people to click in my siggy :heart:

I don't know if I'd be able to get CI's though, maybe the more expensive items in the shops and stuff for now (unless I get donations or people want to sell them to the contest mule).

I might have some that I'd be willing to part with. Just saying... I'll have to look though. At first I didn't know that the stuff that some random very kind person had given me was CI's. I thought they were just regualr Items but turns out, I'm super lucky like that I guess ;)

Haha, super-uber lucky! The only CI's I've actually seen are just the ones for this month, sadly enough. I got my account over a year ago but lost interest until I got an e-mail from Mene wishing me a happy birthday o.O

I know right XD

So I was asking around a little bit and it seems that there are a lot of people who would be interested. I guess... did you figure out any way to get the word out besides word of mouth?

Haha, that's nice! Mene wished you happy birthday and I think that I deleted the account that I signed up with :P

Zephi lead me to this thread and I have to say, I think it's an absolutely incredible idea!!
I would join every week! :)

Yay! I think that I'm going to keep posting the link to the info about the contest all over ^^ Everyone shall know about the wonderfulness of the writing contest that is to be held :D Muahahaha!

I'd definitely like to do something like this, though I don't think I'd be able to enter often with each contest only lasting a week - I'm in college and such - but I could participate during my breaks!

So maybe if it was like a bi-weekly event type thing? Might work for more people cause I know ther are a lot of them that either have school or very demanding work schedules... Maybe...? Neko?

Well, the plan is to have very short entries (that's why the title's going to have the word Blurbs in it). Cami gave me the idea of some weeks' requirements being stuff like 'Best First Line', 'Best Title', 'Best description' and stuff like that. That way it's not taxing, and at the end of every month, depending on what the requirements for the past weeks were, there can be an actual story week, except it'll be easier for everyone if the word requirement is kept to the minimum of five to seven hundred words :)

And the only way I could think to promote would be to have the link to the contest in my siggy ^_^

And I'll keep going around everywhere and telling people about it and this thread. And when the contest starts (if I'm here) I'll promote that for ya too ^^

*grins* Moar motivation!! I think it's about time for me to put up the thread, even if it's not quite open yet :ninja:

Ooooh.. well you could put it up to let people know about it, or when it's going to start. Then I'd have a better link to be handing out :heart:

Workin' on iiit~ I'm playing some of the games at the same time to save more gold for it ^_^

[Edit]
It's been put up! Even though it's not open yet.

http://www.menewsha.com/forum/showth...post1768725877

Schweetness! *runs around to all the threads posting it everywhere*

*laughs* I'm still a little nervous about it all, since I'm not sure that the way I've set it up will be acceptable to everyone *fidgets*

Well you can always make adjustments later on. But for now, you just have to try it out and see what happens.

I've posting in all the active threads right now.. I'll get the rest in the morning. Good night!!

Good night! And sweet dreams!

[Edit]

The contest is OPEN!! Link is in my signature *points*

i've run out of threads to post in so I thought that I would go through some old ones and see what I could dig up. Hmm... Neko, you always do your homework before you make a move. You're so calculating, in a good way ^^ Better than just jumping into something headlong and failing miserably.

Neko, have you illustrated your monkey meets the clam story!? You should do that.. and then you should illustrate one of my stories too. Yes... do that.