Sajha is blessed to have so many talented writers among us. They have spent lot of their time and effort in sharing their literary pieces with sajha visitors, even tolerating responses which could be far from appropriate. Their perserverance and effort and their personal interest in sharing their stories is highly praiseworthy. In order to appreciate their skills, we will be giving a small token of appreciation - a $200 gift card from Amazon.com to the most popular story posted in the month of March, 2013. The writer will be selected on March 31, 2013.

To be considered for the prize, stories should be posted to the "Stories / Essays / Literature" category and have at least 1000 words, and posted between March 1 and March 30, 2013. The stories need to be original and not posted anywhere in the past.

If this proves to be a good encouragement for writers to post their stories, then this will be a regular feature in sajha, ie. monthly appreciation.

Thank you everyone for spending your valuable time in sajha.


EDITED/ADDED:  Only postings that are deemed to be STORY (not essays), will be eligible for the March recognition. The ones that are eligible will be marked as *** Story *** by sajha.

A story envolves a narrative about one or more characters. It has a plot, and some sort of conflict.

An essay is an explaination about a topic or is a presentation of the authors opinion in an effort to pursuade someone else.

I have decided to change the evaluation mode to a more democratic voting process so that it is fair for everyone. The most popular story will be selected by means of online voting in sajha from April 1 to April 7th midnight EST.

Previously, stories posted in advance would have more time to accrue views and likes than the ones submitted later. Since I want to dedicate the whole month of March for the writers, the new set up will allow people to submit stories till the end of March, and all the stories will have the same grounds upon which the votes will be cast. Thus it will be fair for everyone no matter when they submit the story. So we still have 2 more weeks for submission.

Another reason is that initially we had asked that the stories should be finished in one part so that stories having multiple parts do not generate an advantage on views. This seemed to be unfair to many story writers who prefer to write in parts, yet their stories are appreciated fully without any doubt. In the new voting system, even their stories will be able to participate in the voting, thus making it fair for everyone.

Besides that, not having to consider different variables in scoring will make the process more democratic. 

Thanks to everyone who have taken time to share their ideas and for giving valuable suggestions. It has been amazing month so far in sajha, being able to read all these fascinating and outstanding stories. Many people in Sajha Chat have offered excellent advice and I am grateful to them. (If you haven't visited Sajha Chat, please take a moment to click HERE, you will need to be logged in to sajha to be able to get in. Sajha chat is inhabited by a very diverse intellectually stimulating crowd, who are very fun loving, critical at times but good at heart. Many people who may have had relationship problems or lonelyness due to foriegn land, have quickly found lifelong friends in the chat room. So if you have too much time in your hands, and want to spend some time in the company of some fun loving people, you are invited to join the Sajha Chat!)

 @ Sandai - I think the selection date should be postpone a lil bit further coz the one who post stories on last week of March won't get enough views and likes as the one posted on first week of March. just my 0.2 cents.

 Great idea.I was thinking the same: to appreciate the good writers and keep them fueling for their imaginative attempts so we can all enjoy various creations.No doubt there are many genuine and skilled writers here in Sajha whose works and words have entertain,amuse and inspire the crowd.And yes,it's not  about money or a gift card,it's about giving a honest recognition for their efforts,the style they carry themselves and liking it which can outshine any treasure.Keep the good work.

is there some law regarding plagiriasm? can we copy and paste here.

Geology Tiger, behovee_me, eclectic, annehathaway, and all others, please be prepared for this contest. Don't know whom to choose. Ya'll are my best. Good initiative San dai.

Thanks all for your feedback. 

Giordano: You have a good point but everyone has the same starting point right now so they can plan appropriately for the selection on March 31st.

Dayasagar: It should have been clarified earlier. Thanks for pointing it out. The stories should be original (Nepali and/or English) and not published anywhere in the past. 

Annehathaway,Beehoove_Me,Eclectic are my favourites lately. I have been highly impressed by their style of writing.
There used to great writer like Deepika02,Deep , the writer who wrote story called 'Monster'(forgot his name).I really hope they come back.

There are some writers like Spiritual who post their stories in Episodes. If one of his episode is published in Month of March , does he still qualify in this contest

 @javier: Do you remember the person name baire, he wrote a story about his girlfriend who was in NY and later they moved to Denver. Don't know whether he is here in sajha with some other names or not. 

Facebook views/comments seems out of place for sajha users. What if one does not have facebook account ?

 @ Sandai - I am sorry you didn't get my point so nevermind. But good luck to all the writers.

 UPDATE:

Please visit http://sajha.com/sajha/html/index.cfm?forum=283&createmonth=3 to view a list of stories submitted during March 2013, ones eligible for the $200 prize. So far only one story has been submitted.

Although end of March is still far away, please remember that the earlier your story is submitted, the more chances of submitting a winning story!

isajha - There are many facebook users who "Like" and "Comment" using Facebook login. The person submitting the story does not need to have a Facebook account to post their story. It might benefit them however, to share their sajha post among their facebook friends.


Thank you!


EDITED/ADDED: Thanks to Rahulvai for pointing out that the current entry is an essay and not a Story. Only postings that are deemed to be STORY, will be eligible for the March recognition. The ones that are eligible will be marked as *** Story *** by sajha admin.

It's good to see more stories posted for the March appreciation.

As with any kind of online competitions, there are always chances of fraudulent voting, hence the votings and views will be monitored to reduce chances of misrepresentation. Entries that are found to be using spurious methods to get the votes and views high may be disqualified from the final tally.

Sajha decision will be final.

As mentioned before, the final score will be a function of views, replies and votes within sajha. Also, the likes and comments from Facebook  will carry a higher weight due to the exposure it provides.

Having said that, there is still time to submit stories. Thanks to everyone for participating!

The prize should go to the person who comes fourth, not top three. It will increase the mathematical thinking of contestants and well-wishers. Even the gaming of the system would have to be calculative so as not to overshoot oneself to top three. Moreover, I think it will foster camaraderie among the writers by mutually liking one another’s post- which at the moment might have been intuitively restricted for it may help your nemesis leap forward. Not to mention the hilarity that ensues !

P.S. I have twenty sockpuppet accounts. If anyone needs a little help, please send me your offer – both cash and kind accepted!

 Here is what I propose for grading - 




All in Jest.

 San bro, what you are doing is great. But I really do not like the way you are choosing the winner.
You should ask people to vote on the stories.

No, San Dai is doing great, and he knows what he's doing.
Let him do his job. Sajha is becoming lot better day by day.
Hats off to great writers out there, behoove_me, annehathaway, rahul_dai and all..

I wouldn't mind if he starts the forum membership as paid one.
I would happily pay monthly,yearly whatever. His initiatives are applaudable,
There is no question not liking his ways.


@sleepless, are you a'right bro??? lol

San dai,
Could you create one sticky thread where we can find link of the each stories?

Giordano,

You had a very valid point but I thought it would be fine to go with the flow, and now at this point I realize I should have reconsidered the evaluations. In any case, sajha has always been open to suggestions and taking in positive changes to make it accessible and fair to everyone.

In this case, due to few reasons outlined below, I have decided to change the evaluation mode to a more democratic voting process so that it is fair for everyone. The most popular story will be selected by means of online voting in sajha from April 1 to April 7th midnight EST.

Previously, stories posted in advance would have more time to accrue views and likes than the ones submitted later. Since I want to dedicate the whole month of March for the writers, the new set up will allow people to submit stories till the end of March, and all the stories will have the same grounds upon which the votes will be cast. Thus it will be fair for everyone no matter when they submit the story. So we still have 2 more weeks for submission.

Another reason is that initially we had asked that the stories should be finished in one part so that stories having multiple parts do not generate an advantage on views. This seemed to be unfair to many story writers who prefer to write in parts, yet their stories are appreciated fully without any doubt. In the new voting system, even their stories will be able to participate in the voting, thus making it fair for everyone.

Besides that, not having to consider different variables in scoring will make the process more democratic. 

Thanks to everyone who have taken time to share their ideas and for giving valuable suggestions. It has been amazing month so far in sajha, being able to read all these fascinating and outstanding stories. Many people in Sajha Chat have offered excellent advice and I am grateful to them. (If you haven't visited Sajha Chat, please take a moment to click HERE, you will need to be logged in to sajha to be able to get in. Sajha chat is inhabited by a very diverse intellectually stimulating crowd, who are very fun loving, critical at times but good at heart. Many people who may have had relationship problems or lonelyness due to foriegn land, have quickly found lifelong friends in the chat room. So if you have too much time in your hands, and want to spend some time in the company of some fun loving people, you are invited to join the Sajha Chat!)

Best Wishes

 Good Job Sandai. This looks fair. I like the voting system.

Now this is a good way to choose the winner.
All writers will get until the end of March to submit their story. The Readers will get time to read the stories.
Then they will get to vote from April 1-7.

I am also surprised to get a flag in my previous post.