Jordan aka FltAdmlWolf

Purely random alignment, unfortunately :-\

This vote is to choose a sim to proceed to the final round of the contest. Please choose one sim from the first poll, and one sim from the second poll. Remember that this vote is based on MERIT, not the fact that someone is your crewmate. Any crews found "stuffing the ballots" or ratings, will be disqualified PERMANENTLY - yes, that means the whole crew. This is NOT a popularity contest! This is a vote to find the BEST SIM in our fleet, which will then be lauded by our group on our website! The order and selection of the sims was determined by the Top Sims Contest "end of year" procedure. See this post for more information. Sim links, to read the sims: - "Nightmares Revealed" by Arista Devar & Emirry MacGowan - "Rebellion" by Lily Ventu - "No one can hurt you" by Hugh Barnes - "Stinging Truths" by Sidney Riley & Quinn Reynolds - "WildeFinger" by Idril Mar & Danny Wilde - "What We Owe" by Sidney Riley - "Tonight, We Will Argue (part 1)" by Karynn Ehlanii & Ethan Brice - "LtCmdr. Ben Walker" by Ben Walker - "Death Throes" by Will Rogers - "The Wedding" by Idril Mar, Danny Wilde, and friends - "Beneath the Surface" by Jackford Kolk & Karynn Ehlanii

Changes to the end of year procedure: Because "Death Throes" by Will Rogers got lost in the shuffle (it was part of a tie vote), I am splitting the last runoff round into two polls. Six choices in the first section, five choices in the second section. Everyone will need to pick one in each of the two sections. Those two selections will advance to the final round to create a total of four sims. How will the final round work? In the final round, there will be four sims posted in a poll. I will use the Random.org tool to choose the order of the sims. Voters will have two weeks in December to vote on the final sims. The order of the last sims is as follows:

The results of this round's voting are, shall-we-say, "inconclusive." As such, I'm going to allow both "It's Not All Great Being Engaged" by Heath West & Toni Turner, and "Explorations of Partner-ish- ship" by Karynn Ehlanii & Ethan Brice into the final runoff round.

The poll closes tonight at midnight, Pacific Time. Please be sure to remind your crewmates! Only 16% of the fleet has voted!

Guidelines: To participate, create a new thread. The subject of the thread must be the title of your story. If it is a Work In Progress, denote that with the heart post icon. If your work is complete, use the horizontal arrow post icon. Items not marked with an icon or marked with the WiP icon will not be considered for judging and will be moved to the "Character Cafe" forum at the end of the contest. Your work must be entirely your own. No co-authoring. You are welcome to create any character you so desire, but they must be from the Star Trek universe. No "canon" characters allowed. (i.e.- No one who has been on a show.) Want to participate, but can't start a new topic? Why didn't you view the "Read Me First!" forum? You'll need to ask a moderator or Senior Member to create a thread for you! Length: No more than 3000 words accepted. Beginning Date: Thurs., Nov. 20th Ending Date: Fri., Dec. 26rd See Also: the Writing Challenge Website Challenge: "What if the Federation descended into a civil war?"

Please use this thread for any discussion or questions about this writing challenge.

Please post a note on your ship's OOC list about this runoff!

Please use this thread for any general discussion or questions about the Top Sims Contest.

This vote is to choose a sim to proceed to the final round of the contest. Please choose one of the 10 sims, and remember that this vote is based on MERIT, not the fact that someone is your crewmate. Any crews found "stuffing the ballots" or ratings, will be disqualified PERMANENTLY - yes, that means the whole crew. This is NOT a popularity contest! This is a vote to find the BEST SIM in our fleet, which will then be lauded by our group on our website! The order and selection of the sims was determined by the Top Sims Contest "end of year" procedure. See this post for more information. Sim links, to read the sims: - "Listen..." by Tyr Waltas - "Achilles: Dinner and a Screaming Hissy Fit" by Idril Mar - "It's Not All Great Being Engaged" by Heath West & Toni Turner - "Ritar, Fourth of the Father - Entertain the End" by Lily Ventu - "Officers at Work...Almost" by Jackford Kolk - "Murder Ballad" by Danny Wilde and Jhen Thelev - "Monkey Work" by Ethan Brice - "Explorations of Partner-ish- ship" by Karynn Ehlanii & Ethan Brice - "Life With Wheeler" by Jefferson Reed - "Intensity" by Cura Assanti & Jacen Fanel

Round 1 Runoff Information: Here's the list of sims by their number, duplicates include, which is why they don't correspond directly with the contest they won in: Per the procedure listed above, I then came up with this order:

"Explorations of Partner-ish- ship" by Karynn Ehlanii & Ethan Brice wins this round! Their sim will now be entered into the final round of the year for the chance at the title of Top Sim, 2008. Congratulations to them!

Congratulations to our winner, Delinda Sharee ("Dawn Breaking the Night"). Della Vetri ("Final Flight"), is our runner-up! Reviews coming in over the next few days. Next challenge will probably begin this next weekend.

Glad to have you!

Glad to have you!

I don't -- but you know how folks are around here about that sort of thing

Congratulations, and welcome!

This thread is ONLY for moderators to post their feedback as they write it. All other posts will be DELETED. Remember: you are under no obligation to accept or follow the feedback provided. It is only provided as a courtesy to challenge participants, and only reflects the personal opinion of the person writing it. If you don't like the feedback, we don't want to hear about it -- just close the thread and move on.

It's still considered GMT-8, in or out of daylight savings

PST (GMT -8). 'Cause that's where I live

I guess you don't know what you have until it's gone, eh?

No sims were disqualified due to low rating. This round of voting only qualifies one sim to be part of the final round of voting for the title of "Top Sim, 2008." Links: Round 18 sims. REMEMBER: This is NOT a popularity contest. Vote based on MERIT, not the fact that someone is your crewmate. Any crews found "stuffing the ballots" or ratings, will be disqualified PERMANENTLY - yes, that means the whole crew.

"Achilles: Dinner and a Screaming Hissy Fit" by Idril Mar wins this round. Her sim will now be entered into the final round of the year for the chance at the title of Top Sim, 2008. Congratulations to her!

For more information, including the rules and contest calendar, please see the Top Sims Contest website. *Note* If you're submitting a sim, please use the name of the author's primary character -- not the "NPC" name, if applicable. The "Topic Description" box should ONLY read, for example: "Tristan Wolf" - PRIMARY CHARACTER NAME ONLY! No RANKS, no SHIP NAMES, no NPC NAMES. Just the writer's primary character name(s)!! That's it! Important Dates: - Round 18 Submission period opens: Mo 10-19 - Round 18 Submission period closes: We 12-31 - Round 18 Voting period opens: Mo 01-05 - Round 18 Voting period closes: Su 01-18 Procedure: 1. Submit sims (from your ship, or another ship -- all sims welcome, member or staff) 2. Rate sims you see in this forum 3. Vote on sims submitted in the last round Notes: - Please find a balance between "too much" and "too little" on the submission end of this contest. Don't submit every post from your crew. But I DO encourage everyone to submit at least one post to the contest whenever they can. Last week there were approximately 300 sims in the fleet - an average of 40 a day. I would expect no more than five or six a day to be considered "Top Sim" contest worthy. - REMEMBER: This is NOT a popularity contest. We welcome submissions of your crewmate's sims, but ALL sims should be rated based on their MERIT, and NOT the fact that someone is your crewmate. Any crews found "stuffing the ballots" or ratings, will be disqualified PERMANENTLY - yes, that means the whole crew. - Want your crewmates to win more? Nominate only the best sims, and encourage higher quality sims! - Tip: If you find yourself relying on e-mail announcements from the "ufop-announce" list to know when a round ends or begins? You'd be best served by subscribing to this forum to receive reminders any time a new thread is started! You'll be notified any time someone posts a new sim, or the voting threads are created. To do so, simply go back to this forum's index page and click the "Forum Options" drop-down box (on the right-hand side, under one of the "new topics" buttons), and click "Subscribe to this forum." It will give you options to subscribe, and you'll never be out of the loop again!

Please use this thread for any general discussion or questions about the Top Sims Contest. Please 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.