Considering how often these newsletters are being skipped, it's very important that you read this one.
Greetings
Tomorrow will mark the end of our current COMtest and usher in a new one. There will be a post detailing everything you need to know about that one, and yes, they are different than the current one. However, ahead of such an occasion, with a huge money prize pool, there are some things we need to go through first:
Some Key Criteria
What Makes A Post Comedy
Our Upcoming 150$ COMtest
Some Key Criteria
While we obviously don't want to fill the place with rules that it loses all the fun behind it, there has been a wave of posts and actions that we really don't want to see in our COMmunity as they are disruptive one way or another. Some of you are already aware of them, but here they are anyway:
- No excessive use of images and GIFs
If your image or GIF isn't saying something your text is saying, there's no reason to put it.
- No use of Emojis
Just no. None whatsoever. If you use an emoji in your post then you're just asking us to skip your post in terms of curation and contest rewards.
- No jokes plagiarism
Now, it's obvious that we already plan to mute and downvote any post that is plagiarised. But, this is specific to these little one-liners added in the middle of a post. If you didn't come up with the joke yourself, don't write it. If you really need to use one, then at least source it.
- Use of memes
Opposite to GIFs and Images, you are free to use as many memes as you want, granted, of course, that they need to be 100% yours through any site of your choosing. You can't just copy and paste one from the internet.
With that out of the way, let's move on to the next point.
What Makes A Post Comedy
Think of your favourite stand-up comedian and how they tell a bit. They key difference that makes us call it a "bit" not a joke is the fact that a bit needs to include more than one joke within it. It can't just be a post where only one funny instance occurs within it.
Here's an example:
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What you need to realize is that while Louis C.K.'s story did have a beginning and an end, what makes the story a comedy is the jokes within the story. He's just not a long story from A to Z where the only funny part is what happened at Z. That's how we'd like the posts here to be like.
Think of the comedy in a post as a percentage. If your post is 700 words long and the only funny sentence in it is 7 words long, then your post is 1% comedy. The best place to be is around 70%, but going as low as 30-40% is okay as well. What matters is that the post needs to contain jokes.
The best rule of thumb we can think of when it comes to this is to ask yourself the question: Is this post good enough for you to perform at a comedy club? If the answer is no, then keep working on it.
We read all the posts, so if your post wasn't rewarded then it is probably due to it breaking community rules or not following the criteria mentioned above.
Our Upcoming 150$ COMtest
This is probably the reason you clicked on this post to begin with. It is true, tomorrow we'll be launching a new COMtest with the prize pool being 150$. That will be the minimum as there will also be Hive, POSH, and maybe some other tokens added to the mix. It is definitely our biggest contest so far, and we can't think of another contest with such a high prize pool.
This COMtest will be sponsored by a site outside of Hive aiming to promote itself, so there will be an emphasis on sharing the word around, including on non-Hive social media, and we really hope our members help with such a mission as meeting the goals set here simply means that there will be more collaborations in the future.
This is where the POSH sponsorship comes into play as even not participating in posts could earn rewards simply by sharing the announcement post and entries. There will be also Hive rewards for people spreading the word around. Such a collaboration means a lot to us as its success could open the door for a great expansion for Hive among other sites and it would allow us to show the value of working with Hivians.
The contest will operate within a specific theme, and if you made it so far, then you will get a heads up of what the theme will be for the contest, giving you around 30 hours of preparation for when the new contest starts.
Dating Chronicles
That will be the theme of the contest. Sponsored by Paritae.com, this contest will be the best place for you to share your collection of hilarious, awkward, or unforgettable dating stories. It can be one story, it can be a compilation, you can make it into a general topic and go into some details from some dates, and you have creative freedom as long as you remain within the boundaries of the theme.
This will also give you great exposure as certain posts will be used and put on the site where people could read your post and find your account whenever.
There will be more to share in tomorrow's post, but this is a great chance for all involved to benefit. You can still enter the current COMtest as it is not affected by the upcoming one.