Jordan aka FltAdmlWolf

Welcome to the fleet. Let me know if you need anything -- my door is always open.

Starting in 2013, the voting system will change. We hope that the new system will increase the amount of participation in voting across the fleet by way of decreasing the amount of times that people have to vote each year. 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 2013! All announcements for the entire 2013 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 -- the window to open a post closes after a short while. 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 Round 1 submissions: through November 23, 2012Round 2 submissions: December 1 to December 31, 2012Round 3 submissions: Tuesday, January 1 to Sunday, January 20Round 4 submissions: Monday, January 21 to Sunday, February 3Round 5 submissions: Monday, February 4 to Sunday, February 17Round 6 submissions: Monday, February 18 to Sunday, March 3Run-off Round 1: Monday, March 4 to Sunday, March 31Set 2 Round 7 submissions: Monday, March 4 to Sunday, March 17 Round 8 submissions: Monday, March 18 to Sunday, March 31Round 9 submissions: Monday, April 1 to Sunday, April 14Round 10 submissions: Monday, April 15 to Sunday, April 28Round 11 submissions: Monday, April 29 to Sunday, May 5Round 12 submissions: Monday, May 6 to Sunday, May 19Run-off Round 2: Monday, May 19 to Sunday, June 16Set 3 Round 13 submissions: Monday, May 20 to Sunday, June 2Round 14 submissions: Monday, June 3 to Sunday, June 16Round 15 submissions: Monday, June 17 to Sunday, June 30Round 16 submissions: Monday, July 1 to Sunday, July 14Round 17 submissions: Monday, July 15 to Sunday, July 28Round 18 submissions: Monday, July 29 to Sunday, August 11Run-off Round 3: Monday, August 12 to Sunday, September 8Set 4 Round 19 submissions: Monday, August 12 to Sunday, August 25Round 20 submissions: Monday, August 26 to Sunday, September 8Round 21 submissions: Monday, September 9 to Sunday, September 22Round 22 submissions: Monday, September 23 to Sunday, October 6Round 23 submissions: Monday, October 7 to Sunday, October 20Round 24 submissions: Monday, October 21 to Sunday, November 3Run-off Round 4: Monday, November 3 to Sunday, December 1FINAL RUN-OFF OF 2013: Monday, December 2 to Sunday, December 29 This run-off selects the Top Sim of 2013. Set 1, 2014 Contest Round 1, 2014 submissions: Monday, November 4 to Sunday, November 17Round 2, 2014 submissions: Monday, November 18 to Sunday, December 1Round 3, 2014 submissions: Monday, December 2 to Sunday, December 15Round 4, 2014 submissions: Monday, December 16 to Sunday, December 29Round 5, 2014 submissions: Monday, December 30 to Sunday, January 12, 2014

Please use this thread for any general discussion or questions about the Top Sims Contest. Do not post praise or criticism for submitted sims in this thread. Instead, post those praise or criticisms in the submitted sim's own thread.

Link to original archive item: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/sb118-ops/message/23078

Congratulations!

Thank you, everyone, for chiming in with your thoughts. Community participation and brainstorming is what helps make things better Just to be clear, we have no plans to drop the Top Sims Contest, and there's not really any impetus to radically alter the program, either. I was merely asking if anyone had anything in particular that was vexing them about the contest that we need to fix, or if there's any great ideas for increasing participation which we haven't thought of yet. Please feel free to drop other thoughts into this thread!

As we close the 2012 Top Sims Contest, I'm curious if anyone has suggestions for improving the contest for 2013? Are there any suggestions on getting more people involved in each round of voting? Ways we can cut down on the number of sims people have to vote on/read each round? Are there important changes that we have to make to ensure the contest is more fair, or more representative? Let's hear your thoughts!

Just two and a half hours until this voting closes

DATES: The class began on December 17, 2012, and ended on December 23, 2012. LIST: sb118-academy1 COMMANDING OFFICER: LtCmdr. Nugra FIRST OFFICER: LtCmdr. Bree Keeley GRADUATES: * Solara Androsia * Alahndra Nevarass * Tobias Malik Welcome to the fleet! We're glad you're here, and my door is always open if you need anything

DATES: The class began on December 17, 2012, and ended on December 23, 2012. LIST: sb118-academy4 COMMANDING OFFICER: Cmdr. David Whale FIRST OFFICER: LtCmdr. Tracey Townson GRADUATES: * Wanda DyAmone * Zackarias Dixon Welcome to the fleet! We're glad you're here, and my door is always open if you need anything