Vote, vote, but don’t be a goat.

Woohoo! Voting!  It’s as American as apple pie.  Or as Canadian as Timbits.  Or as fill-in-your-country-here as something else, but the US and Canada have holidays this week so they get dibs.

Speaking of voting, though, we’re all here to become better writers and bloggers.  So just like it’s not super helpful to get a comment that says “I love you! And purple! Purple is great!” it doesn’t help us as a community to vote with our hearts instead of our heads.

What does that even mean, you ask? It means that as your resident meanie-pants submissions editor I get to remind you that it’s not enough to write a post about how your uncle is dying an hee got won last wish an it was for thta his daughter should get a pony for Chrismas so the hole comunity came together an got Jenny riding lessins and now she is an olimpic rider and hear is a picture of her and her whores with a sine that says i love you dad.  Because while that’s heartwarming, it actually hurt a little to write.  Those tears in my eyes are tears of pain.

When you’re voting this week, remember that your votes should go to the all-around best two  posts!  That means the best spelling, grammar, story structure, and yes, that ever-elusive So What!  Part of being a better writer is being a better editor; if a post has mistakes in it that your English teacher would red-pen in class? I’m sorry, but another post should get your vote, no matter how much this one tugs at your heartstrings.  Of course, a post that has excellent structure and a good story to tell should be a sure-fire winner for your vote.

STELLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

I bet you didn’t know Comment Bob had a family, did you?  You should be ashamed of yourself.  And if you knew what good mojitos Stella makes, you’d be even sorrier.
Stella is the new face here at yeah write so we’re letting her take the summer off to get acquainted with the community, make sure her relocation reimbursements come through, and… something, I forget… oh yeah.  STELLA! Another mojito!

When we return to our normally scheduled programming after the summer series, Stella will be helping me out on the challenge grid.  She’s the penguin with the mostest, shooting at light speed through the vacuum tubes of the Internets to deliver your love letters and help you become a better writer.  If you get a love letter this fall and you take the chance to fix your facts, iron out your errors, and proof your post (that’s right, they can have my Oxford comma when they pry it from my cold, dead hands), you’ll have the right to grab that Stella badge and stick it on your post to proudly proclaim that you’ve improved. (Quick tip: avoid alliteration.)

Speaking of Bob and Kevin…

Comment Bob loves you, you love Comment Bob, and we love sending Bob home with folks who take the time to visit, read, and give thoughtful comments every week!  Show some love to the grid, and Comment Bob can show some love to you!  But not like that.  That would be creepy.

Because we have fewer than 30 entries on the grid this holiday week, Kevin the Kiwi will go home with my favorite post.  Remember, I’m picky and heartless. I don’t just want entries that meet the bare minimum submission guidelines. Kevin and I are looking for a post that’s as stylish as the scarf he’s wearing, with structure and substance.  Kevin would like me to let you know that it helps if you can make a mint julep, too.  Just kidding. Kiwis can’t talk any more than they can fly.  He does like mint juleps, though.

Is this your first time here? Welcome!

Did you follow the link from the badge on a friend’s blog? Welcome! Please check out our submission guidelines, then jump right in. We’d love to have you.

Did you land here out of curiosity because you saw a whole bunch of hits from yeah write in your wordpress.com stats? Welcome! That means somebody at yeah write stumbled over your post, thought it was a good fit for us, and submitted your post for consideration. We hope you don’t mind!

If you like, please grab the challenge badge from our sidebar, install it using the HTML view of your post, then visit the other entries on the grid. You’re just in time to vote for the best submissions in the writing challenge. In the spirit of yeah write, even though someone else may have added your post on your behalf, please don’t vote for yourself. Let our community rally around your awesomeness.

The challenge grid is open for popular voting!

The challenge grid crowd favorite and top row winners will be determined by popular vote. Be cautioned: yeah write isn’t an Internet clicking contest, and the votes are moderated for fairness. Read each post before voting.

Everybody gets two votes

We use scaled voting each week for the challenge grid. This week, we each get two votes because there are between 11 and 20 entries. Click on the thumbnail to read the post before voting. Click on the nifty heart-shaped voting icon to vote for the post after reading. Do not vote for your own post, please.

Read the posts before voting

We are responsible voters here at yeah write. Read, evaluate, vote on merit. We’re still writing the yeah write way, and we want the votes to reflect it.

Voting is open until Thursday, 10:00 p.m. EDT

Winners’ post published Friday by noon

Once the voting ends, the challenge grid will sort itself from highest number of votes to the fewest. Ties are broken by number of page views. Until the winners’ post is published, none of the sorting will be official, but you can still get a good idea of where everyone ended up until the votes are validated.

Voting for yeah write #168 weekly writing challenge is open…