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 |  Announcements pertaining to Writing.Com! |
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| Happy Birthday, Writing.Com! It's official, ! Today (September 1st) Writing.Com turns 15 years old! Soon, it's going to be asking for the keys to the car... and we have to start looking at colleges! We are older than Facebook, have more years than Twitter and were here long before the first iPhone. And we are still going strong, better than ever, and enjoying every second of building this website to be the absolute best online writing community writers could imagine. Every year we hit a bigger milestone and it gives us goosebumps of pride every single time. We have some exciting site updates, a list of amazing community-run contests and activities, and an all-around wonderful week of festivities ahead!  The Biggest Writer's Block Party EVER!From September 1st through September 7th, Writing.Com is hosting the biggest online block party for writers of all interests and levels! Contests, activities, increased daily rewards, reviewing challenges and rewards, new releases, and a 10% back sale... don't miss a single thing at "Writing.Com Party Central 2023!"  !  The Writing.Com 15th Birthday SALE!For every order placed in "The Writing.Com Shop" during September 1-7, 2015, we will manually send you back 10% of your order's total in Gift Points!* Purchase a one-year Premium membership at the regular price and you will receive 139,950 in Gift Points. Buy a 3-month Upgraded membership, and you'll receive 19,950 back in Gift Points. Buy 1 million Gift Points, and you'll receive an extra 100,000! And if you order tangible items like mugs, t-shirts, journals and more, we'll even include your shipping in that 10% back. We're that excited to be turning 15! * 10% back only when paid by credit card, PayPal, check or money orders. Orders paid with Gift Points are not included in this offer. This process is not automatic and we'll try to get the bonus Gift Points back to you within a day.  NEW: "Writing.Com Anniversary" Merit Badges!We've added brand new yearly "Writing.Com Anniversary" merit badges into our shop for all of our members! As soon as any member hits a milestone anniversary, he or she will automagically receive a Writing.Com Anniversary merit badge from us as a congratulations! Your merit badge will correspond to your anniversary year. Merit badges will be sent for your first, third, fifth, tenth and fifteenth anniversary. These particular badges come from Writing.Com only and may not be sent by members of Writing.Com. http://www.writing.com/main/badges  If you've already hit any of these milestones, you will receive the appropriate badge(s). Just give us some time to get caught up.   NEW: Emoticons Revamped!Over 1,000 Writing.Com emoticons have been completely revamped and given a new look! Our original icons, which we started creating in the year 2000, were based on small pixelated files. 15 years later, with better screen resolutions and fast connections, we had to start from scratch, recreating each and every icon in more detail... But the change was well overdue! We are very excited that your fun little emoticons won't look pixelated and outdated any longer on screen or mobile. And we are excited to bring you over 250 new ones to play with this week, so stay tuned and check "Writing.Com Party Central 2023!" every day through September 7th to see what's been added! NEW Emoticons!To kick off your birthday week:  = {e:angelic} = {e:crazy} = {e:devilish} = {e:gag} = {e:geek} = {e:greetl} = {e:greetr} = {e:golucky} = {e:ha} = {e:headbang} = {e:hungry} = {e:inlove2} = {e:irritated} = {e:jamming} = {e:martian} = {e:meh} = {e:proud} = {e:rant} = {e:rolling} = {e:shock2} = {e:sleeping} = {e:sleepy} = {e:smirk2} = {e:sob} = {e:temp} = {e:think} = {e:vomit} = {e:whistle} Watch "Site News & Announcements" and "Writing.Com Party Central 2023!" each day through September 7th for our daily new releases, which will open around Midnight (WdC time) each night. Keep your eye on the community newsfeed to see what surprises might pop up and be sure to add Writing.Com Support   as a favorite so that you don't miss a thing! NEW: Notification Updates!We've given your Notifications area a brand new look! When you click your Notifications link in the side column navigation, you will now find sections which break down your notifications by type: All, Likes, Tags, Forum Replies, Ratings, and Birthdays/Anniversaries.  Costumicons Available!Costumicon subscriptions are available for purchase! This subscription will last through 11:59pm on September 30th, 2015. Subscribe to or change your current costumicon from the "My Account" area or directly at: http://www.Writing.com/main/my_account/view/costumicons  NOTE: You can gift costumicons to your fellow members and friends! To gift a subscription, head to your My Gifts Points page:http://www.Writing.Com/main/my_gifts/tab/shop  DON'T FORGET: One FREE Badge Every 30 Days!Every paid member can send one free virtual Merit Badge every 30 days! Choose a member, choose a badge and send it. It's that easy. If you are eligible for a free badge at the time, the Writing.Com system will automatically know this and discount the badge you wish to send. (You can not defer the free badge; the system will always use the free one first when giving badges.) http://www.writing.com/main/badges * Physical merit badges are not free and are the same additional cost.  Thank YOU!We are so proud to reach this milestone. FIFTEEN years! Thanks to all of you, our members, for your support and participation. We love hosting this online home for writers... here's to the next 15 years!  We hope you have a great time celebrating with us this week. We look forward to seeing many of you around the site... invite every writer you know to come and join the party! Cheers! The StoryMistress  and The StoryMaster  |
The following winners for the July 2015 running of "Rhythms & Writing: Official WDC Contest" were chosen from the 17 entries submitted. Each entry was judged based on the criteria provided in "Rhythms & Writing: Official WDC Contest" . Congratulations to the following three winners: First Place - "The Sound Shell" by Sparky   Second Place - "Invalid Item" by A Guest Visitor Third Place - "The Bulwer-Lytton Resolution" by Jeff   ,~~ The StoryMaster |
Congratulations to the following three winners of "Good Deeds Get CASH!" ! First ($100): Invalid Review  by Anonymous Second ($50): Review of "Bite of Vengeance" by Just an Ordinary Boo! Third ($25): Review of "Sethos - The Prince's Tomb" by Antonia Ryder To select the winners, 10 entries to the contest are randomly selected and then The StoryMistress , Jeff and I individually rank those 10 reviews according to "Guidelines To Great Reviewing" . I combine our rankings and from that we get our top three winners. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and entered this month. Best wishes, ~~ The StoryMaster |
Congratulations to the following three winners of "Good Deeds Get CASH!" ! First ($100): Review of "Moving Back to the Farm" by Anonymous Second ($50): Review of "Dark Energy" by Writer's Blockhead  Third ($25): Invalid Review by AnonymousTo select the winners, 10 entries to the contest are randomly selected and then The StoryMistress , The StoryMaster and I individually rank those 10 reviews according to "Guidelines To Great Reviewing" . I combine our rankings and from that we get our top three winners. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and entered this month. ~Diane |
The winners for the June 2015 running of "What a Character! : Official WDC Contest" were chosen from the 26 entries submitted. Each entry was judged based on the criteria provided in "What a Character! : Official WDC Contest" . Congratulations to the following three winners: First Place - "Nobody Loves Me" by Just an Ordinary Boo! Second Place - "Beast of Chicago" by Shannon  Third Place - "Humpty Dumpty - The Conspiracy" by woody Thanks also to the judges for their time spent reading and determining the winners! ~Diane Contest for July  "Rhythms & Writing: Official WDC Contest" |
Congratulations to the following three winners of "Good Deeds Get CASH!" ! First ($100): Review of "Beyond Caring" by Elle - on hiatus  Second ($50): Invalid Review by Anonymous Third ($25): Review of "Sitting on The Sidewalk" by Dave To select the winners, 10 entries to the contest are randomly selected and then The StoryMistress , The StoryMaster and I individually rank those 10 reviews according to "Guidelines To Great Reviewing" . I combine our rankings and from that we get our top three winners. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and entered this month. ~Diane |
The following winners for the May 2015 running of "Journey Through Genres: Official Contest" were chosen from the 36 entries submitted. Each entry was judged based on the criteria provided in "Journey Through Genres: Official Contest" . Congratulations to the following three winners: First Place - "Oasis" by ßlueyeʐ 💮  Second Place - "Invalid Item" by A Guest Visitor Third Place - "Forever (To my wife of 40 short years)" by Oldwarrior  ~Diane |
| The following winners for the April 2015 running of "Short Shots: Official WDC Contest" were chosen from the 16 entries submitted. Each entry was judged based on the criteria provided in "Short Shots: Official WDC Contest" . Congratulations to the following three winners: First Place - "The Sun will Follow" by Graham B. Second Place - "Invalid Item" by A Guest Visitor Third Place - "Invalid Item" by A Guest Visitor ~Diane |
| Congratulations to the following three winners of "Good Deeds Get CASH!" ! First ($100): Invalid Review by Anonymous Second ($50): Review of "A fathers struggle and a daughters love" by Rochndil Third ($25): Review of "Black Magic for Death" by Magicmama To select the winners, 10 entries to the contest are randomly selected and then The StoryMaster , The StoryMistress and I individually rank those 10 reviews according to "Guidelines To Great Reviewing" . I combine our rankings and from that we get our top three winners. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and entered this month. ~Diane |
| This week we've released some significant changes to Writing.Com that we are very excited to finally share with the entire community! Codenamed "Project 2015" (P15), this is our first major update in five years and the culmination of more than six months of working and reworking, tweaking and retweaking. We've highlighted just a handful of the many great changes and encourage you to make your way through Writing.Com to explore them: Our new navigation and user interface is more welcoming, easier to understand and less cluttered. Writing.Com provides more options, tools and activities than any other writing community, so this is a very important update and one of our favorites to P15! We've consolidated the text of various "tools" and "manage" areas and now use a standard  (gear) icon. Look for this image any time you want to edit, update or explore an item or area. Mobile usability and functionality is much more up to date and current. This is a huge change for Writing.Com and we are very excited about this one! Item creation and edit screens are easier on the eyes, simpler to fill out, quicker to comprehend and more streamlined than ever before. Covers for items and portfolios are easier to upload or choose. All members, regardless of paid or free accounts, may now use our Writing.Com stock covers for their items and portfolios! Portfolio covers are now used within the community, including the newsfeed and forum posts. This makes Writing.Com more personable, emphasizing our community and encouraging individual creativity. Our new Portfolio Organizer is dynamic and allows you to simply drag and drop your portfolio items into the order you want them. This update also makes it easy to see the entire layout of your portfolio in one glance without paging back and forth. Portfolios have been cleaned up and the highlighted items are now visually showcased with their covers more than ever before. Our sitewide search system has been combined with searching within portfolios. You can now search within your own portfolio or someone else's, depending where you are within the site. Skins & Themes and the colors they use are utilized more with our new navigation and layout. Customize your personal view of Writing.Com by easily changing the background, font and various other colors that will envelope your pages. Item listings have been given an updated look with a focus on covers.... This list only scratches the surface of our latest update to Writing.Com. There are countless other updates and visual improvements that haven't been mentioned, but will make the community more user-friendly for members new and old. The positive feedback from our community has been incredible! The P15 update took many cues from site members and testers who participated in our various testing periods and those that have posted in "Beta Tests: Comments" . We're always here to listen and help with any problems you may find within the new Writing.Com. So seriously: If you have any questions or bug reports regarding the new site, please visit and post in:
And don't forget... Our ongoing "Good Deeds Get CASH!" review contest offers cash prizes for your feedback! Authors on Writing.Com are looking for good, useful critiques and exposure within our community. Do a good deed by reviewing any qualifying item on Writing.Com and you might win!  First Place: $100 cash Second Place: $ 50 cash Third Place: $ 25 cash No purchase necessary; everyone may enter! No limit on the number of entries, review as many times as you want to increase your odds of being selected in the random draw portion of the contest. For the complete details, rules and terms, please see:
Thanks for your support and enjoy! ~~ The StoryMistress andThe StoryMaster |
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