  Contests & Activities
This week: Leave a Message at the Beep Edited by: Legerdemain  
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The purpose of this newsletter is to highlight some of the current contests and activities on the site, help educate members on how to host contests and activities, and provide clues to submit quality entries to contests. Write to me if you'd like something in particular covered.
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| ASIN: B083RZ2C5F |
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Amazon's Price: $ 19.99
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Leave a Message at the Beep
We all like to visit this community and have fun. Whether it's a contest or activity, we don't join to be miserable, we join to meet friends and have a good time. This newsletter is about complainers. Everyone who runs activities or contests will encounter a complainer a some point. But what to do about them?
Before you react to the complaint, remain calm and ask yourself these questions:
 Is the complaint legitimate?
Did you forget to post an important rule or date on your page? Did you forget to close the activity on time? Forget to post a winner?
 Everyone makes mistakes. Admit there was an error, apologize and do everything you can to make it right, even if gift points have to come out of your pocket. Move on, you learned a lesson to be more careful and clear in future activities.
Are they just being a sore loser?
Did they think they had a winning entry and are trying to spoil the fun because they didn't win?
If they post something rude, remove it. If they email rudely, respond in a reasonable tone. It is pointless to argue or get in a flame-posting war - this merely gives the trouble-maker fuel for their fire. Ask them to stop their bad behavior. This is your contest or activity and it's important to maintain control over it.
What if they won't stop bothering the contest/activity?
Do they keep posting comments or sending rude emails?
If this person hasn't stopped posting or emailing, use your Block User tool. Go to your Account page, Options tab and click Block/Ignore Members. Read the Block and Ignore documentation carefully. This is a good tool to use, rather than being tempted to say something rude in return. This just gets you and the rude member in trouble. Blocking prevents the other member from accessing your account. You don't need to "see what they're saying about me". You can always choose to remove the block after everyone simmers down.
They threatened me personally, or won't leave me alone. What should I do?
If you feel this member is seriously threatening or harassing you, report them. This should be done after all other actions (like blocking) have been tried. You don't need to handle these issues yourself.
Submit a harassment complaint here: "Submit a Complaint" "Writing.Com can not force members to get along. Harassment complaints can not be used to settle disputes among friends, groups or other similar disputes. Writing.Com can not be a mediator in disputes and it is not possible for Writing.Com to be involved in or fully understand the detailed personal nature of some disputes that will naturally occur when people interact." This form is not for 5th grade-he said-she said arguments, this is for serious problems only.
Many times if you react calmly and gently explain to someone who is upset, they will settle down in a day or so and won't be a problem. But if they do become a problem, don't hesitate to ask for help from a Moderator or Staff. We want this site to be a safe community for everyone. Keeping an activity fun or a contest fair can sometimes be hard work, but trust me, the other members will appreciate your actions.
This month's question: How do you handle a complainer? Send in your answer below!  Editors love feedback!
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Prompt: "Childhood memories: What are the best or worst memories you have from childhood? These stories do not have to be completely biographical." Entries due November 18th.
Prompt: "There are 184,000 seconds in a day. Use one to say "thank you" to the One Who gave them to us. Write a poem about anything you are thankful for." Entries due November 30. Surely you have something to be thankful for...
Please consider taking a moment to join this activity. While there are prizes, every entry is a winner. This will enrich the holidays for many soldiers who will not be home for Christmas.
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"Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to create a character that I will remember long after your story ends. A character that brings your story to life, and makes it matter." Deadline is November 18th.
Inspiring cNotes, take a look!
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How well do you know your afternoon dramas?
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"Round 3 of So, You Think You Can Write is now open! Round 3 will run from September 15 through November 30th at midnight. Choose between some brand new sub-genres to go along with Action/Adventure!"
"This group is open to anyone at Writing.Com who has a blog. All are welcome."
"The CSFS is a group to help writers hone their writing skills in the genre of Fantasy. As you can see at the top of our homepage there is a wonderful variety different of fantasy types. This group caters for all fantasy writers of any style of the genre. Be it high and epic or low and urban you are welcome here."
"Post one three-word block at a time." It's addictive...
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Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
Don't forget to support our sponsor!
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Amazon's Price: $ 13.99
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This month's question: How do you handle a complainer?
Last month's question: What scares you?
koyatedor88 replies: Any of my limbs getting stuck then I have to dismember it to get out.
Itchy Water~fictionandverse  reveals: Things that scare the daylights out of me: politicians, Larry King, Snooki, a person with the last name of Kardashian, Nostradamus, irregularity, Spice Girls, the periodic table, businesses who "care", Bigfoot, Mr. T, Bob Saget, Weird Al Yankovic, Power Rangers, Pillsbury Doughboy, Teletubbies, infomercials, VHS, Fannie Mae, Cabbage Patch Kids, Deliverance, Jerry Springer...
Steve adding writing to ntbk.  admits: Spiders still scare me but not as much as before. I can get quite a chill when I'm alone in a room and there's a knock at the door.
Dawn Embers  says: Honestly, I'm not sure what scares me. A couple years ago, Storm spent like an hour on scroll talking with me and we tried to figure out what scared me so I could attempt horror writing. We never really made much progress. And I'm still terrible at writing horror. I can get ideas that if written right could be scary to some (like clown chemist turning women into mannequins and such) but my writing style just doesn't seem to work for horror. I can make a story dark but just not quite fitting of the horror genre.
ingenuity66 comments: I agree!!! A writer can still write a scary story without blood, murder, etc. in it. A semi-good example of that, a screenplay called; "Sleeping with the Enemy"...lots of horror there, yet with no,(but attempted)murder or blood spill involved.
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| ASIN: B07B63CTKX |
Product Type: Kindle Store
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Amazon's Price: $ 6.99
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Contests & Activities: November 06, 2012 Issue [#5357]
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