Hiya!

Despite less-than-great interest in this, I've decided to try to implement the idea of Story of the Week. If there is interest in this, I will continue. If not - this will be the last one

The simplified and shortened rules are below:

- First there are nominations, then there will be a voting phase
- Prizes: link on the front page of the group + PM from one of our Admins + copy into a special folder

- Only a single nomination per person
- No self-promotion
- Only stories that are in the group folder allowed. Add your candidate to the group if necessary.
- Between 5 and 10 nominations and more than 10 voters per phase required
- No super-short, cancelled or abandoned stories in progress.
- A completed story is allowed regardless of its length

Here is the full thing in all the gory details:

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RULES

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GENERAL:
- (TWO PHASES) each competition consists of two phases:
- first, the NOMINATION PHASE
- then, the VOTING PHASE
- (PRIZES): the story which wins the VOTING PHASE is declared the 'Story of the Week' and the link to it is posted to the main page of a group. Additionally, the Author of winning story is congratulated by PM by one of the group Administrators. Everypony else is encouraged to congratulate the Winner. Moreover, winning stories will be copied into a separate folder. This will create the Official List of Cool Stories.
- (NO PRIZES IF NOT ENOUGH VOTES OR NOMINATIONS): If there are less than 5 nominations OR less than 10 voters per phase, the whole competition ends and no prizes are awarded.

NOMINATION PHASE:
- (ONLY A SINGLE NOMINATION PER PERSON) Everypony is allowed to nominate only one, single story each nomination phase.
- (NO PREVIOUS WINNERS): one cannot nominate a story that has won any previous Story of a Week competition
- (NO SUPER-SHORT STORIES IN PROGRESS): Story must be complete, OR of significant length to be judged - more than 7499 words
- (NO CANCELLED STORIES): A story cannot be marked 'cancelled' or 'on hiatus' at the time of nomination.
- (NO ABANDONED STORIES): One cannot nominate an 'in-progress' story that has not been updated in the last 180 days.
- (OLD COMPLETED STORIES ALLOWED): Completed stories can be nominated, regardless of time they have been written.
- (NO SELF-PROMOTION): One cannot nominate a story he/she was anything more than an ordinary reader (e.g. a proofreader cannot nominated the story he helped with)
- (ONLY GROUP-ADDED STORIES): only stories that can be found in the group folders can be nominated. If the story is not on the list, the person wishing to nominate it should add it to the appropriate folder prior to nominating it (which can be done immediately after adding the story to appropriate group folders).
- (AT LEAST 3 NOMINATIONS PER STORY ALLOWED) any story that has been successfully nominated (i.e. that fulfilled all the requirements) can be nominated for at least 2 more consequtive weeks (regardless of the Author's inactivity) if any person wishes to do so.
- (NO AUTOMATIC NOMINATIONS): Each nomination for 'Story of a Week' must be done by hand. The same person is allowed to nominate the same story each week if he/she so wishes (and the story meets other requirements).
- (NO REMOVAL DURING VOTING): After nomination phase, no story can be removed from voting for any reason
- (NO REMOVAL OF WINNERS): If a story wins in voting, it cannot be removed from the group
- (ONLY HiE STORIES): one cannot nominate a story that is not appropriate for the group, i.e. that is not a Human In Equestria story. All the forms of those stories are allowed, including, but not limiting to rebirth to Equstria, summoned to Equestria, accidentally thrown into Equestria, Pony / Griffon / Diamond Dog / FIM canon Dragon etc. on Earth and/or Human / Dog / Elephant() etc. in Equestria but (at least one of main characters) of the story must be human in any part of it. The humanized ponies' stories are also allowed. All HiE stories, regardless of ratings (including Mature and clopfics) are also allowed but all highly questionable content should be included as tags after the title.
- (HOW TO NOMINATE) Example:

A nice clopfic [MATURE, SEX, SAD, GRIMDARK]

The nominated story MUST be linked to an appropriate FimFiction.net page to avoid errors.

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NOMINATION PHASE DURATION:

- (5 OR MORE NOMINATIONS NEEDED) if there are less than 5 nominations after one week, the whole competition ends :(.
- (NO MORE THAN 10 NOMINATIONS) the nomination phase ends as soon as there are more than 9 nominated stories OR 1 week has elapsed.
- (EVERYTHING AFTER 10 NOMINATIONS IS VOID) all nominations added after 10th one are invalid and can be post again during the next competition if desired

============================= END OF RULES ===================

Please nominate the best stories below. Since one of the goals of this is to promote the relatively unknown stories, if you have to choose what to nominate, choose the less-well-known story. This is not a requirement though.

I nominate:
The Thessalonica Legacy
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CURRENT NOMINATIONS:
1) The Thessalonica Legacy by Happy Thoughts (that's me! :])
2) The Other Side by 300255
3) Article 2 by 300328
4) The End [Sad, Dark, Comedy, Adventure] by 300434
5) Not the Afterlife I Signed Up For by 300509
6) The Mystery of a New World by 301008
7) The Machinations of a Trickster by 301067
8) Aliens: New World [Tragedy, Dark, Crossover, Adventure, Alternate Universe] by 301640
9) Magic, and Mayhem, and... Murder? Oh my... by 301848

300236

Huh, interesting.

So, are you planning on continuing this 'Story of the week' thing? Because if you are, I'll make a group folder for it.

300238 - Let's first see how everypony reacts to it. If there is interest - why not. If not - why bother :). If all goes well, we will need a group folder in about a week and a half.

ps. Where is your nomination :)

300240
Gotcha XD

Also, I'm on my phone, so I'll post mine when I get a chance.

Also, as you can tell, I screwed up and accidentally left the group So, I'm going to have to wait till one of the other admins to get on to re-add me XD

I nominate: The Other Side

I nominate: Article 2

300328

Oops, we're supposed to be choosing lesser know Fics aren't we? Sorry, I'll chose a more obscure one next time.

I already approved of this. :D

300238
I'll make that folder if you havn't yet, bro.

300329 - you can nominate whichever fic you feel deserves it. Only when you're unsure which ones to select, you should nominate a less well known one. One of the goals of this is to promote the relatively unknown gems but not at the cost of devaluating the prize.

ps. 300350 - where is your nomination? .

I nominate The End [Sad, Dark, Comedy, Adventure]

Huh...Now I must find a fic to Nominate!

Hmm, Article 2's already been nominated so I choose, Not the Afterlife I Signed Up For

300458 - I know this is hard, but I am sure you will manage to choose one :).

300384
I doubt I'll nominate anyone at all. I'll probably just read some of the nominations and will definitely read the winning fic.

300614 - C'mon, 3,524,616 words read and no favorite HiE story? The whole idea is to have fun and (more importantly ) promote some less-well-known gems we might have missed. I already started reading one of the nominees and I like it so far :).

300623 Less well known gem? You mean like mine?

300627 Wait until the voting and everything will be clear .

300580

I try to...I fail to...oh well lol

300623
I read more shipping than i read HiE :3 so probably 2.500.000 of those words are from shipfics.

well, that or clopfics.

or gore.

i do like me some gore.

Well, I guess I COULD nominate someone.

I'll just go with The Mystery of a New World

Now i'll wait for someone to nominate mine.
(like that's gonna happen)

My choice: The Machinations of a Trickster.

I hope someday I will see my fic here!

301008 - clopfics (and every possible genre of HiE) are allowed (hint for the next nominations )
301067 - I do not know this one (my reading queue is so overstuffed it will soon burst ).

Guys - only 3 spots left. Nominate now :)

301082 My reading queue is stuffed too... and this competition is not helping! I now have 38 stories on me to read list...

301084 - I have just 28 stories to read later . At least somepony has more stuff to read than me! I have just 1228 chapters to catch up though. Real life can be a tough mistress...

301086 Real life is tough, but it is worse when there are just too many good stories to try out. Once I think I am about to catch up on my reading list, I find another hidden cache of fics... It never ends!

Everypony, only 3 slots left :). If you want to play, nominate ASAP .

Sure. Why the hell not? I nominate Aliens: New World [Tragedy, Dark, Crossover, Adventure, Alternate Universe] by Armalite
Enjoy

301640 Added! Two slots left!

I'm flattered to see my story here, but it should probably be removed from the list since I just put it on hiatus. I'll be back for the title later

301700 - I am sorry but it stays . A quote from Da Rulez: A story cannot be marked 'cancelled' or 'on hiatus' at the time of nomination..
Besides, if you have 274 votes for your work and only 9 against, coupled with 652 comments, your story CANNOT be that bad! Don't sell yourself short .

On a more serious note - where is your nomination ?

301758 - as one Master said: use the Blog, Dusk, use the Blog :). Nopony here can nominate your work as whoever wanted to, has already submitted his/hers vote.

301839
Magic, and Mayhem, and... Murder? Oh my... Shall be my nomination dear chap.

Since 1 week has elapsed from the beginning of the Nomination Phase, it is now over! Thank you to everypony who cared to submit their nominations!

300255>>300328>>300434>>300509>>301008>>301640>>301848>>301067>>301700 - guys - it's time to CAST YOUR VOTE IN THE DESIGNATED THREAD!