As promised, the profits from a post of very little value will be donated back to the community. Some of these profits are being donated directly to a couple of worthy causes here on Steemit and the remainder (and then some) will be donated back in the form of a contest. I will be updating this post today with details of the direct donations.

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The contest has few constraints, but it must be something about you or someone you know personally. It should not be fictional, but of course you may alter names and places as you see fit.

The motive is to create a moving, passionate, emotional article. The winning article must move the judges to tears, laughter, suspense or awe. Please do not write sob stories to solicit donations, write an article that tells the story of life.

The Payout will be as follows:

$15 SBD to the 1st place winner.
$ 5 SBD to the 2nd and 3rd place winner.

The winning article will need to be moving, well articulated, decent grammar and acceptable spelling. An article that is grammatically poor is likely to distract from the story as does one not checked for spelling errors. Considerations are required to a degree, especially for those who do not have English as their primary language. This will be up to the judges.

The contest will begin in a couple of days and submissions will be requested at THAT time via a second post on this blog. All work must be new and original content and cannot have been posted prior on Steemit or elsewhere!

Once the actual contest begins, submissions will be accepted for a period of seven days.

What we need today are 5 curators (judges). Judges will be paid $2.5 SBD (sorry there is a limit to funds) and if you are judge, you cannot enter the contest.

I will act as a one of the judges for each week (oh, yes, if this is well received, we'll try to repeat it monthly or weekly even if possible).

If you would like to be a judge for this contest, simply reply below with #byColemanJudge along with a link to an article you have written which demonstrates your writing skills, or a comment below on why you would make a great judge.

That's it for now. If there are not sufficient judges, we'll continue with the contest and do our best to curate unbiased.

Update - 02/17/18 - 10:53 AM CT (USA) -- Judges have been chosen

Let me first just say, thank you to everyone who submitted their names and links!

This was no easy task, I knew there would be some great articles submitted, I simply had no idea that they would all be -- great!

There was not a single submission that I did not enjoy reading. Everyone of you has passion! You have created quality articles that are true assets to this platform. I encourage each of you to continue with your writing, you will be well served by it.

Due to the high quality of the submissions, I was forced to grade each article (or articles) on the following, with each being rated 1-10 and having equal weight in each category.

• Presentation, articulation and impact. (These features are more subjective than the following.)
• Form/Structure
• Passion (Everyone got a 10!)
• Vocabulary/Grammar
• Spelling

Two authors received a perfect score of 50. I am not going to tell you who, so you can all believe it was you!

Each of these I graded as unbiased as I could. I also asked my wife to read each and then AFTER I calculated mine, I asked for her overall impressions. There were no differences in our final choices.

As much as it pains me to let the technicalities have so much weight; it was necessary due to the other factors being so tight. Grammar and spelling ending up as the final filter. Those with English as a second language had a tougher time here and understandably so.

This still left me with with a quandary. To much talent and not enough slots. So....

There will be 7 judges and I will not be one of them!

I will be on standby to break any ties if necessary or fill in if any judge is unable to complete the task.

In the order they appear in the remarks section, here are the #bycolemanjudge finalists:

@nihalmaz
@nosmas
@naufil
@conradt
@renalexis
@gems.and.cookies
@doughtaker

Again, thank you all. I do hope those not chosen will submit an article for the contest.

OK, with this much curation talent it was time to make another decision. The contest will be BIGGER!

I wanted to start out a little slow, but we have what it takes to at least gallop out of the gate.

The payout will be as follows for this first contest.

$25 SBD to the 1st place winner.
$10 SBD to the 2nd and 3rd place winners.

Two honorable mentions will be given.

Sorry, judges, this first go around you still have to work with the 2.5 SBD, but you do get your names in the bright lights. :)

I am looking at starting the contest tomorrow so it ends on a weekend. Any thought on this is most appreciated.

I plan to create a new post formally announcing the contest and fully outlining the details, constraints and submission windows.

This contest will be promoted. I expect plenty of submissions, so get ready judges!

******* End of Update: Judges have been chosen ********

Invest wisely in yourself for the future.

@bycoleman
https://ColemanAir.us
Craig