The Top Sims Contest

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.

Status of contest

Current contest: Round 4

Timing and frequency

Each round has two parts: submission period and voting period. Each period of the round lasts two weeks. To view the full schedule, view the calendar page.

Contest guidelines

Submitting sims

Anyone can submit anyone else's sim. You do not need permission to submit a sim, nor do you need to submit your own sim.
You are welcome to submit your own sim.
When a sim is submitted, it must have been created within the current submission period, or the previously lapsed submission period. Do not sims which are any older.

Format

The sim must be written with good spelling, good grammar, and be in the correct format. Poorly structured sims will be ineligible.
To be included in the contest, a submitted sim must be at least 300 words long but not more than 3000.
The sim 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.)

Rating & voting

Everyone is welcome to rate and vote on any sims, including those authored by their crewmates.
We expect everyone to not rate or vote based on which crew a sim originates from, but instead to evaluate the post's spelling, grammar, format, plot, characterization and detail and decide on whether or not it embodies the "Top Sim" label.
Because the forum administrators can see who has rated/voted on a post/poll, they will be closely monitoring unfair advantage. If a crew is seen to be "stuffing the ballots," so-to-speak, that entire crew will be BANNED from submitting or voting on sims!

Commenting

Everyone is welcome to comment on submitted sims.
Commenters are expected to employ the "Hamburger" criticism method, like so: first, something you like; second, something you didn't like; third, something else you liked.
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.

General

If the sim uses a dialogue from a character which is not owned by the author of the sim being submitted, then the owner of the other character must have officially given permission for his or her dialogue to be used.
Joint posts are fine.
Sims must not include any "canon" characters. (i.e.- no one who has been on a show.)

How it works

To submit a sim to the contest, simply head to the Top Sims Contest forum and create a "New Topic" button. In the new topic, use the following settings:

Topic Title: the title/name of the sim
Topic Description: the author's name without their rank, then the ship this sim was posted to, like so: "Tristan Wolf / StarBase 118 Ops"

Now simply copy and paste the entire post, INCLUDING the author's signature, into the box. Do NOT include any OOC statements from yourself, or the author, unless they were included in the original post, and are relevant to the readers. Then submit the post. Do not use any "Post/thread icons," and unclick the box that says "Enable emoticons."

You, and readers, are now welcome to rate the sim.

At the end of the submission period, all of the current sims will be moved in to this particular round's sub-forum. The highest rated sims from the submission period will be entered in a poll, and readers will be asked to vote on their favorite.