[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Yesterday I was eating popcorn and reading comments as a friend of mine was removed from an internet community.

The rough part about this is, I can see both sides of the story. The community has a “no photos, no selfies” rule and is set up to discuss a particular subject (is that vague enough for you?). My friend is a journalist. She put up a very topical (and positive and cheerful) post about the subject the community was set up to discuss, and included a photo she thought of as an image in an article to illustrate the topic. The post was immediately removed as being in violation of the “no photos, no selfies” rule. On the other hand, many members of the community post topical posts with meme-type images attached every day. That is, photos found on the internet with a couple words typed on them. These images are, according to moderators,  allowable within the rules of the community.

A giant debate followed: what is a “photo” or a “selfie” or a “meme” under the rules of the community, what’s allowed, when is a photo of a person not in the community a “photo” and when is it a “meme.” At one point a moderator defined “selfie” as “photo of you or someone you’ve slept with” which is when I broke out the popcorn. That’s kind of an interesting redefinition of a term we’re all familiar with which has a clear vernacular meaning. (From here on in, my selfies will be entirely pictures of Imperator Furiosa.)

That’s kind of a long and rambling introduction to my main point: rules are hard. They’re hard to read and they’re hard to write. So we encourage you to read the rules, but we also want to know where they’re confusing. Let us know! Just like a story or essay, a rule that’s confusing to more than a couple people should be rewritten for clarity. Questions that are asked and answered more than once or twice should be preserved in a FAQ. Think about the difference between “under 1,000 words” and “1,000 words or under” and “1,000 words.” Is it nitpicky? Sure. But it’s necessary. If we’re going to hold you to the rules, we need to write clear rules that the majority of folks can understand without having to ask for clarification. And we promise: a selfie is a picture of you, taken by you.

While you’re digesting all that and wondering where to find our rules and FAQ, I’m going to give you the results on all three of our grids – nonfiction, fiction|poetry, and microfiction – right here!

But it’s not all about the popular vote, folks. We also hand out editorial staff picks. Every week our editors comb through your submissions looking for the best of the best. Picks are based on writing quality, how successful the author is in conveying information, and just plain style. We don’t just hand a pick to our favorite on the grid- it’s got to be independently excellent. In fact, if we’re impressed by several posts on one grid, we’ll give them all picks! If nothing stood out for us on another grid, we’ll hold off entirely. If you’re curious what earns a staff pick, scroll back through our winners post archives and check out some examples.

Keep scrolling down to check out who won the popular vote on all three grids. If you earned the highest number of votes in any challenge, you are this week’s crowd favorite! If you came in first, second or third, you get “top three” honors. Grab your badge from our sidebar!

If you’re lost in the middle of the grid and wondering how you can get a little more feedback on your posts, check out our membership perks!

Everybody: before you go, please take some time to leave your favorites a little love in the comments.

Looking for your badge? The fiction|poetry, nonfiction and microstories challenges all have the same winner, staff pick, and top three badges. It doesn’t clutter up our sidebar, and they’ll still look pretty on yours![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][vc_column_text]

Weekend moonshine grid opens today at 6 p.m. eastern time

Speaking of inclusive communities with very few rules, did you know we have a weekend grid where there’s no word limit, no date requirement, no genre requirement and no cover charge? That’s right, the moonshine grid opens every Friday at 6:00 and stays open through the weekend, so come on down. The only rule is no commercial posts. That seems easy![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][vc_column_text]

Congratulations to the crowd favorites at yeah write #251

The thumbnails are now sorted in order of most votes to fewest. Ties in the overall number of votes are broken by number of editor votes.

Congratulations if you’re at or near the top! Writing well is hard work, and we’re honored you’ve chosen us this week to showcase your entry.

If you’re at or near the bottom, don’t be discouraged. You’re in the right community for learning and growing as a writer, and we are always available with resources for those who ask nicely.

To our readers and voters: thank you! See you next week.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

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