I've decided that...
I’ve decided that the Dash will have a contest very soon and it will be based around the previously mentioned theme of “Family Traditions” as was in the 07/25/20 Dash. You might want to start doing some planning on how you will share your favorite or most unique family tradition.
Thank you to all who gave me suggestions on how to possibly structure the contest. Trying to figure out this contest hasn’t been easy for me.
The main reason is that I like to keep things simple. The other reason is the more complex a contest is the less desire people have to enter.
In an effort...
In an effort to stick with myself imposed “contest guidelines” when doing contests there won’t be any requirement of up voting or re-blogging the contest announcement.
Normally, I make it where the entry submissions can be seen in the comments section of the announcement but I have a feeling that this contest won’t lend itself to that. So your entry should be posted on your own home page and just put a link in the comments so I’ll be able to go directly to it and check it out.
There were suggestions...
There were suggestions on how lengthy the entry submissions should be and they ranged from a few paragraphs to an exact word count of 500 words.
I’ve been in those exact word count contests before and I didn’t like them. I also don’t like that I would have to do the counting of the words to make sure it would be the correct amount; so I can tell you right now there won’t be a word count limit.
Most of you know I’m a big believer in free speech but “meaningful free speech”. So there won’t be a required number of paragraphs or limit on those either.
“Meaningful free speech” means to me; “say what you need to say in order to get your message across to the reader”. Anything more than that is meaningless and detracts from the story.
This will be...
This will be a written word contest. An entry can include photos and even embedded video, but I’m going to tell you right now I probably won’t even look at the video. Others may want to watch it but your written words should tell me all I need to know about your family tradition.
With a generous...
With a generous donation from an unnamed source, and my poker winnings, I’ve budgeted $100 HIVE in prizes for this contest. So this is by far my largest prize giveaway since I started doing contests. The previous high was $60 HIVE and that contest ended back on 7/18/20.
The prize breakdown tentatively looks like this:
1st Place / $50
2nd Place / $30
3rd Place / $10
There will also be two $5 prizes as well.
One of them will be for the “Best Appearing” post. By best appearing I mean the visual appearance of the post with formatting, pictures, subtitles, captions and such. You know what I mean, eye catching appeal that would draw a reader to stop and read it.
The other $5 prize I haven’t quite figured out yet so I’ll just call it the “Mystery Prize” for now because it is honestly a mystery to me what it will be given for. I just know that every time I do one of these contests I always think of something I would have wanted to add and this will allow me to do it.
Those two $5 prizes are independent of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes. Meaning an entry could win more than one prize. In fact, a really damn good entry could win three prizes in total.
This contest will...
This contest will be limited to one entry per registered HIVE account. If you have several family traditions you need to choose the one you think we’d like to hear about.
If everything goes right this contest will kick off when the official announcement is made in this coming Saturday’s Dash. So you have some advanced notice for being a regular reader here.
I also did something...
I also did something on Monday I never thought I would do. I went ahead and signed up for a twitter account.
I actually found myself on twitter watching a video of some dumb ass BLM protester with an AK47 rifle in Austin, TX learn about threatening a concealed handgun carrier.
It didn’t turn out well for the protester, funeral services haven’t been announced yet. I think the coroner still has to rule on the cause of death.
If old Sult was the coroner the official cause of death would read something like this; “Having fully examined the body, talking to the APD detectives, reviewing video and witnesses statements. The man died from rectal brain spasms (head up his ass), leading to a severe case of lead poisoning."
" But… but all of those previously mentioned conditions were just underlying conditions because this is 2020 and the only cause of death allowed right now by law is COVID 19. Cause of death: COVID 19.”
Anyway, while I was on twitter and I looked to see if the @sultnpapper was available and before I knew it I was making my first tweet.
I don't know...
I don’t know much about twitter or tweeting but I’ve heard it is like limited content or limited characters, so I didn’t want to go overboard.
I figured a one word tweet would be a good start for me and I can work my way up from there.
Until next time,
Sult
Photo credits: Sult N Papper
Welcome to Twitter! It is a toxic wasteland and a rabbit hole of curiosities. Lol. I'm not on there much, mostly to promote my books and Hive. I'm looking forward to your contest but might have to watch from the sidelines this time because I'm in the final weeks of editing my new book. We're already mid way through the week. I hope yours has been good!
Thanks Eric. What isn't a toxic wasteland nowadays? Just about every form of social censored media and bias broadcast media are so I'd say that we might be setting here in a sanctuary , the Garden of Freedom.
Rabbit holes are fun for the most part has been my experience.
The book is exciting time I'm sure for you, it deserves all your attention right now. There will be more contests in the future and someone already gave me another idea that I'm strongly considering that would fall right in line behind the Family Traditions contest very nicely.
My week so far as been pretty good. Tomorrow and Friday I have some conference calls that might get a little "testy" but such is life.
Hope your week is equally good if not better.
Sult
Great point. Twitter has its own unique flavor of toxicity. Lol. Hive does feel like a respite from the censorship. I enjoy exploring those depths of knowledge too. Each rabbit hole feels like a virtual adventure.
Speaking of rabbit holes. You know from reading Alarm Clock Dawn I have an interest in Mars. Just the other day I was hearing about what they were finding on Mars so I searched, "Martian artifacts" and that resulted in a two day journey sifting through mostly hoaxes but I think there were some credible stories peppered in there as well. If I was a betting man I'd say there's most definitely life there, buried under the surface. It was probably inhabited by intelligent life at some point in the distant past, maybe humanity really did destroy it and found their way here?
I've been really good progress this week. Everything is falling right in line. I'll be releasing the final draft of the first chapter here on Hive probably next week. I'm glad you're getting inspiration for more contests! It's kind of additive to sponsor them, especially when you're free to set all of the rules.
Agh, conference calls! I don't miss those at all. May yours be short and/or cancelled, those are the very best kinds. Take care my friend and I'll be watching for your contests.
The contest sounds interesting. I will have to think about which tradition to write about. I haven't written anything on my page in a long time...
I can't believe that you joined twitter! This is an interesting turn of events. I value my privacy too much to put myself out there in too many socail media places. Let me know how it works out for you.
I can't believe I joined it either, probably won't use it much. More than anything I did it just to make sure that if I want to use it I have the same name over there as here on HIVE.
WoooHooo (I think) you be on twitter. I've been on twitter for at least 12 years and haven't used it much. I know it was that long because my uncle insisted to me that it was going to be a thing (he was a genius) so I joined. He died in 2008.
I didn't have one word of input on your contest. Part of that may be that 'family' is a really complicated word for me right now. I've found out my birth father too. And I knew him. And no, I'm not quite ready to write about that... Note: I just broke a hard and fast literary rule twice by starting a sentence with 'and'.
So. I'll probably have something for the contest, but no help going in. I'm sure you'll do just right!
I think you probably did 35 tweets and, the last usage was in 2009 if I had to guess. Most likely, all of them private.... but that's just a guess.
You were the inspiration behind this coming contest in case you didn't catch that Dash.
And as far literary rules go, those are other peoples rules they can follow them if they want. And you go ahead and take all the time you need or want to decide on writing about that birth father discovery. If you even care to do it at all.
But ( is there a rule on "but" starts too?) But the contest has time constraints so you'll need to figure out from your vast choices now which tradition you'll write about.
Well, I'm happy to say that this morning I had a memory pop into my head of a tradition which I will be going with. I'm glad overall that you're not going with a word count also. Not saying that mine will be short but I have no idea till I start it..lol. That is a most generous prize pool that you're offering too and should attract lots of attention and entries! 💖
Hmmm..twitter...it can be brutal on there. I've thought of joining but more to like other people's tweets. I think this rioting (not peaceful protests) bs has gone on long enough and it just needs to be shut down at this point. Interesting that covid deaths continue going up but most other deaths (in the US anyway) have gone down to darn near zero! 🤔
Yes, the twitter thing was really more to just protect the name in case someone else decided to be "me". Like that would really happen...lol. I have already gotten a couple of followers though. The power of the almighty "Guzbuck!" tweet.
Good to hear that you plan on entering the contest. I just couldn't put restrictions on word count or size, just not my style of contest.
I do hope that it is well received and that there are several entries outside of the USA, I'd really like to know about different family traditions. I hope everyone realizes I keep stressing the word "family" in this. It might be something to do with the fact that the "family unit" has been systematically torn apart by design of the "powers" and I don't like that path we are being lead down.
Thanks for all the support,
Sult
You're welcome and I totally agree on the "family unit" being torn apart which started very long ago and continues today. I feel that it is pretty blatant at this point. Take care! 🙂
Twitter seems like a necessary evil at this point.
It is a great way to spread the word about hive. :)
I look forward to the contest announcement so I can tell everyone about our traditional teriyaki squid roast.
I probably won't tweet much but it was more to keep the name in case I want to use it.
I've never heard of teriyaki squid roast , in fact , squid roast at all. All I've ever seen are small squid in our grocery stores so I've learned something new already from this coming contest.
Ya.....I made up the squid roast. :)
But we do have a few traditions I can write about.
Well then, I still learned something after all even if it wasn't squid roast.
So you probably won't be mad when you see the headlines that you win the upcoming contest; but then later on in the body of the post you find out that I just making that up too. ;)
Oh, and I will check your tradition with a fine tooth comb.
Sult