Jordan aka FltAdmlWolf

DATES: The class began on February 22, 2016 and ended March 2, 2016. LIST: sb118-academy2 COMMANDING OFFICER: Captain Nugra FIRST OFFICER: Lieutenant Rustyy Hael GRADUATING MEMBERS: * Lincoln Calder * Harper Derreing We're glad you're here. My door is always open if you ever need anything!

DATES: The class began on February 22, 2016 and ended March 2, 2016. LIST: sb118-academy1 COMMANDING OFFICER: Commander Jhen Thelev FIRST OFFICER: Lt. Commander Kalos Fiorr GRADUATING MEMBER: * Tertius Luca We're glad you're here. My door is always open if you ever need anything!

Polling closes at 11:59pm Eastern on Saturday, April 30. This is a run-off poll, where our general membership (that's you!) chooses which sim, from Set 1 of 2016 (Rounds 1-6), should proceed to the final round of the contest for a chance to be selected as the Top Sim of 2016! These sims below were chosen by a panel of judges (one from each ship) from the sims submitted in Rounds 1-6 of the contest. TO START, please read these sims: Round 1: Alora DeVeau & Lobo, "Unlikely Fellows" Round 2: Renos & Traenor, "Point of View/Pain of View." Round 3: Didrik Stennes, "A different calling” Round 4: Akeelah D'Sena & Tabitha Gard, "Sleepover" Round 5: Merrick R'Ven, "Past Goodbyes" Round 6: Safine Tan, "The Room Where I Died" NEXT, using the poll above, vote for the sim you like the most. It should be the sim that's the best written, with strong characterization, and evocative or descriptive scene-setting. DON'T vote for a sim just because you serve on the same crew as the person who wrote it. Any crew that "stuffs the ballot" (by having everyone on the crew vote for the same sim to ensure that it wins this poll) will be eliminated from the contest and shamed by the rest of the community as terrible, terrible cheaters. That would be awful. Good luck to the nominees!

DATES: The class began on February 15, 2016 and ended February 22, 2016. LIST: sb118-academy4 COMMANDING OFFICER: Lt. Commander Ceciri Hakashri FIRST OFFICER: Lt. Commander Anora Manar GRADUATING MEMBER: * Paul Sudarshan Scudder We're glad you're here. My door is always open if you ever need anything!

DATES: The class began on February 8, 2016 and ended February 15, 2016. LIST: sb118-academy3 COMMANDING OFFICER: Capt. Nugra FIRST OFFICER: Commander Jhen Thelev GRADUATING MEMBERS: * Amuro McKnight * Han Yamaki We're glad you're here. My door is always open if you ever need anything!

Winners for Set 1, 2015: Round 1: Alora DeVeau & Lobo, "Unlikely Fellows" Round 2: Renos & Traenor, "Point of View/Pain of View." Round 3: Didrik Stennes, "A different calling” Round 4: Akeelah D'Sena & Tabitha Gard, "Sleepover" Round 5: Merrick R'Ven, "Past Goodbyes" Round 6: Safine Tan, "The Room Where I Died" Winners for Set 2, 2015: Coming in May, 2016 Winners for Set 3, 2015: Coming in September, 2016 Winners for Set 4, 2015: Coming in December, 2016

HOW VOTING WORKS There are two types of voting in this contest: member voting and judges voting. After each round of submissions, all the sims from that round are voted-on by a panel of judges. The winning sim from each round of judges voting then proceeds to a run-off round. Run-off rounds are open to all members for voting. The winning sim from each run-off round proceeds to the final round. The final round is open to all members for voting. For a sim to win the final round, at least 20% of the voters for that sim must be from a ship other than the ship it originated from. HOW THE JUDGES PANEL WORKS The judges panel is comprised of one member from each ship. Judges are free to resign from the panel at any time or be switched-out but are expected to judge for a full "Set" (see the Contest Calendar). At the end of each Set, Captains will be encouraged to review their ship's judge. A judge's "term" lasts for three sets, after which they must be switched with a new judge from the crew. After a judge's term is over, and a new judge has been selected and served for at least one term, the previous judge is again eligible to begin a new term. Judges can be of any rank, as long as they are able to demonstrate a basic grasp of good simming skills. Each ship's Captain appoints the judge from their ship, but they are free to use whatever method they deem appropriate to select that judge. They can select themselves as the judge. Judges use a ranked voting method called Instant Runoff Voting (IRV). For more information about IRV, see the Wikipedia page. When voting, judges are not permitted to vote in the top slot the sim from their crew. This ensures that judges are not favoring their own crew's sims. They can still choose their ship's sim in the second slot or lower.

Welcome to Top Sims Contest of 2016! All announcements for the entire 2016 contest will be posted in this thread. The Top Sims contest allows members of our fleet to be recognized by their peers for superior writing ability. Unlike the Writing Challenges, this contest allows only sims that have been used in a current plot to be considered. SUBMISSION GUIDELINES You can submit ANY sim -- from your ship, or another ship. You can submit your own sims if you wish. All sims are welcome, including staff (Captain, First Officer, etc.) sims. The sim must be written with good spelling, good grammar, and be in the correct format. Poorly structured sims will be disqualified. When a sim is submitted, it must have been created within the current submission period, or the previously lapsed submission period. Put another way: do not sims which are any older than a month. Submitted sims may not have any open dialogue tags. (i.e.: [respond here]) All dialogue in the sim must be filled in. (Just find the responding author's sim and fill in the blanks.) Sims must not include any "canon" characters. (i.e.- no characters who have appeared onscreen.) Please find a balance between nominating too many, or too few sims. Don't submit every good sim -- instead, post every great sim! Encourage your fellow crew-mates to submit at least a few sims a year. If you want your crew-mates to win more, you have to nominate the best sims, and encourage others to write higher quality sims! HOW TO SUBMIT A SIM First: Click the "Start New Topic" button. The format of the topic title should be as follows: "Character - Sim Title" For example: "LtJG Tristan Wolf - Everywhere you go, there you are" Note: Please do not clutter the topic title with an endless list of NPC or PNPC names or "JP" designations. Instead, simply include the primary character's rank and name. If it's a joint post, just include both rank and names -- no need to include the "JP" in there. Second: Choose from the "Topic Prefix" box the correct round number. (To check what round we're currently in, see the contest calendar below.) Third: Copy into the message box the complete sim. You don't need to worry about column width. Check to make sure that the sim is readable. You can click the "Edit" button to fix any issues, but don't delay -- you'll be barred from editing the post after 60 minutes. COMMENTING ON A SIM Everyone is welcome to comment on submitted sims. If you're going to provide constructive criticism, you are required to employ the "hamburger" criticism method: first, mention something you like; second, something you didn't like; third, something else you liked. If you just want to provide praise, no hamburger method required! Commenters who are rude, unfair, or overzealous in their commenting will be barred from future comments in the contest forum, and will have their actions brought to the attention of their CO. CONTEST CALENDAR Set 1, 2016 Contest Round 1, 2016 submissions: Monday, November 2 to Sunday, November 15 Round 2, 2016 submissions: Monday, November 16 to Sunday, November 29 Round 3, 2016 submissions: Monday, November 30 to Sunday, December 13 Round 4, 2016 submissions: Monday, December 14 to Sunday, December 27 Round 5, 2016 submissions: Monday, December 28 to Sunday, January 10 Round 6, 2016 submissions: Monday, January 11 to Sunday, January 24 Run-off Round 1: Monday, February 15 to Sunday, April 3 Set 2, 2016 Contest Round 7, 2015 submissions: Monday, January 25 to Sunday, February 7 Round 8, 2015 submissions: Monday, February 8 to Sunday, February 21 Round 9, 2015 submissions: Monday, February 22 to Sunday, March 6 Round 10, 2015 submissions: Monday, March 7 to Sunday, March 20 Round 11, 2015 submissions: Monday, March 21 to Sunday, April 3 Round 12, 2015 submissions: Monday, April 4 to Sunday, April 17 Round 13, 2015 submissions: Monday, April 18 to Sunday, May 1 Run-off Round 2: Monday, May 2 to Sunday, May 29 Set 3, 2016 Contest Round 14, 2015 submissions: Monday, May 2 to Sunday, May 15 Round 15, 2015 submissions: Monday, May 16 to Sunday, May 29 Round 16, 2015 submissions: Monday, May 30 to Sunday, June 12 Round 17, 2015 submissions: Monday, June 13 to Sunday, June 26 Round 18, 2015 submissions: Monday, June 27 to Sunday, July 10 Round 19, 2015 submissions: Monday, July 11 to Sunday, July 24 Round 20, 2015 submissions: Monday, July 25 to Sunday, August 7 Run-off Round 3: Monday, August 8 to Sunday, September 4 Set 4, 2016 Contest Round 21, 2015 submission: Monday, August 8 to Sunday, August 21 Round 22, 2015 submission: Monday, August 22 to Sunday, September 4 Round 23, 2015 submission: Monday, September 5 to Sunday, September 18 Round 24, 2015 submission: Monday, September 19 to Sunday, October 2 Round 25, 2015 submission: Monday, October 3 to Sunday, October 16 Round 26, 2015 submission: Monday, October 17 to Sunday, October 30 Run-off Round 4: Monday, October 31 to Sunday, November 27 FINAL RUN-OFF OF 2015: Monday, November 28 to Sunday, December 25 - this run-off selects the Top Sim of 2016. Set 1, 2017 Contest Round 1, 2016 submissions: Monday, October 31 to Sunday, November 13 Round 2, 2016 submissions: Monday, November 14 to Sunday, November 27 Round 3, 2016 submissions: Monday, November 28 to Sunday, December 11 Round 4, 2016 submissions: Monday, December 12 to Sunday, December 25 Round 5, 2016 submissions: Monday, December 26 to Sunday, January 8 Round 6, 2016 submissions: Monday, January 9 to Sunday, January 22 Run-off Round 1: Monday, January 23 to Sunday, February 19 Many thanks to FltCapt. Renos for putting together the calendar!

DATES: The class began on February 1, 2016 and ended February 9, 2016. LIST: sb118-academy2 COMMANDING OFFICER: Lt. Commander Roshanara Rahman FIRST OFFICER: Lt. Commander Ceciri Hakashri GRADUATING MEMBERS: * Caesar Hol * Alice de Wynter * Jaxton Vee We're glad you're here. My door is always open if you ever need anything!