Say that five times fast! I dare you haha Oh you did? Record it then, and I'll judge your performance ;)

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Steemit has been known for the contests many users hold here. The fact that there really is a prize exchanged is what sets it apart from other social networks. It's a fun distraction, and there is a wide range of contests out there. From wild and strange ones to open mic nights to meme challenges to horror story writing, it seems that there are unending sources for these contests. Some really showcases skill, while others are purely for entertainment. No matter what the intention or outcome is, they always provide ways to bring the community together.

I've joined a few of them myself, and I was fortunate enough to have won quite a few in the past, so I could attest that it's quite the experience. It provides users the opportunity to interact with others in a way their normal posts can't. Another benefit is discoverability--wherein others are given the chance to discover what you offer to the platform. Win or lose, everyone benefits.

The great @ogochukwu has recently approached me to grab the reins for this week's 50 Word Story Contest by the @literature-trail, and I've been having a blast. I consider it such a huge honor to be given an opportunity, and even though I don't get paid anything, it still gives me the opportunity to give others recognition. It's a huge responsibility, one that I'm surely not taking lightly. Sure, it's not high stakes, but STEEM is STEEM no matter how much.

Don't get me wrong though, this not my first rodeo in terms of being a guest judge, as @the-future has given me the opportunity to judge a contest in the past (ha!), but this has been quite the task for me. I have to admit, it's taking up more time than I initially thought, but reading all the wonderful works of fiction has been a reward in itself. So, for transparency, I decided to add to the growing list of things to do by documenting my thoughts while judging this contest.

(By the way, before I go any further, would you please kindly help @tincho and me out by voting our entry in @the-future's present contest (see what I did there?)? https://steemit.com/question/@the-future/the-best-question-ever-and-super-answer-50-steem-goes-to Thanks! We appreciate it a lot :D)

Tipping the scales

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Some of you may know me as a person who strongly believes in non-competitiveness, so isn't it a bit ironic for me to be judging a competition? It's not for me to say, but not necessarily. While any contest is a means to one up each other, I approach this one as sort of a showcase to display one's skill to a greater audience. Sure, the @literature-trail hands out prices based on my ranking (I'll get to that in a bit), but that's because it's their requirement. The reason why I accepted this is so that I would be able to help others get better recognized.

Not only did I grade their work, but I also commented on each and every post. Even though not all of them would end up with rewards, I wanted to let everyone know that their post is noticed and that they should keep pushing to be better. That's the essence of my belief in non-competitiveness--the all-together now mindset of helping each other improve.

I initially thought of giving consolation STEEM from my own pocket, but the sheer number of participants prevented me from doing so (because I really don't have all that much as well). Instead, I would just link to all of the submissions so far below, in hopes of providing them more readers and interaction. These entries are only 50 words, so if you can spare a minute or two, please vote and comment on the ones you like. They have already been graded and any interaction will not affect it.

Objective Subjectivity

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Many people know me for my fictional story A Day in the Clouds, and that I was a curator for @fiction-trail, so it's a given that I'm a huge supporter of Steemit fiction. Poetry, prose, long-form, flash fiction--any kind of fiction, I will gladly support. But, as many of you know, judging fiction can be very subjective. Personal preference plays a huge factor most of the time, which could potentially be unfair to some. So, with that in mind, I took my emotions out of it and formulated an objective metric to grade the submissions.

The criteria involved the uniqueness of the piece, grammatical correctness (though I provided some leeway here), readability (I used an algorithm that grades the work based on the construction of the sentences and the words used), and, most importantly, how prominent the topic of the week (light) was used.

One can never assure a purely objective assessment, but I tried to make sure to make it less subjective as possible. There were a few entries which I preferred but ranked lower than I expected based on the criteria. I wanted to make it a fair competition for all so that everyone would get an equal opportunity to win.

The Complete List of Entries (in random order)

• https://steemit.com/fiftyword/@mirzacho/light-in-the-body-201764t73551957z
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@writemore/50-word-story-contest-week-14-light
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@jennswall/50-word-story-contest-week-14-the-desperate-find
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@bookmanpage/50-word-story-contest-week-14-worth-the-wait
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@lightenup/light-is-everything-50-word-story-contest-week-14
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@henry-gant/fifty-word-story-contest-light-this-episode-a-first-draft
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@sighmanjestah/50-word-story-contest-week-14-the-light-ship
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@dyce/50-word-story-contest-week-14-the-beauty-of-darkness-condensed-version
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@timoshey/50-word-story-contest-week-14-a-renewed-hope
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@masyl/50-word-story-contest-week-14-light-the-beauty-of-aurora-borealis
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@creationofcare/50-word-story-contest-week-14
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@moataz/50-word-story-contest-week-14-my-light-in-the-sky
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@globearn/50-words-story-contest-week-14
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@annhoyblog/our-mind-is-like-a-wild-elephant-in-need-of-supervision
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@matejka13/50-word-story-contest-14-a-doorbell-in-the-night
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@costopher/50-word-story-contest-week-14
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@monkimo/50-word-story-contest-week-14
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@crossedsteems/50-word-story-contest-week-14-the-life-of-a-fly
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@creationofcare/late-entry-for-fiftywords-13-foundation
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@asimplewriter/50-word-story-contest-week-14
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@amrgiol/50-word-story-contest-week-14-from-the-darkness-we-crave-the-light
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@zf3eddiev6/50-word-story-contest-week-14-an-ode-to-light
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@whatamidoing/50-word-story-contest-week-14-his-battered-vessel
• https://steemit.com/redfish/@lawnboy2017/50-word-story-week-14-contest-michael-s-misfortune
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@callme-pep/50-word-story-contest-week-14-foolish-light
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@cryptokash/50-word-story-contest-week-14-st-bernard-s-little-angels
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@mineisjesus/50-word-story-contest-week-14
• https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@ghostwrite/50-word-story-contest-week-14

The contest is still ongoing (roughly 18 hours to go), so it's not too late to get your entries in. I will regularly check the tag #fiftywords but you can also link to your entries in the comments section below. Once I have commented on your work, consider it graded. Best of luck Thank you to everyone who joined, and please remember that it's not about the money or the recognition. If only I could reward you all, I would. Have fun with the contest and interact with your fellow competitors. We're all in this together, so take the opportunity to socialize and grow your network.

I leave it to @ogochukwu to release the complete list of winners, but if you have any disputes or questions how your entry was graded, feel free to leave a comment here, I would gladly discuss it with you. Reminder, I will not receive any notifications on the @literature-trail announcement, so if you want to make sure that I see and reply to your comment, you have to leave it here.

Edit (06/08/2017)

So, I just submitted the winners to @ogochukwu. The offer for disputes stands, so just leave your comments here. As I mentioned before, I tried to be as objective as possible, so very little emotion was applied to this. I can't help but be moved by some of the entries, but that didn't effect the grading for the competition. Again, I enjoyed reading and commenting on all of the submissions, and I hope everyone had fun writing them as well. For the winners, congratulations for the well deserved victory! For the others, don't be discouraged. Keep on writing and enjoying the storytelling process.

Long live Steemit fiction!!