To follow up on our esteemed Lady Macbeth's post.

When you see a rule violation, instead of reviewing the piece and simply informing the violator of the problem, hit that "Alert Webmaster" button. This should especially be done in major cases such as plagiarism. Please don't review them and tell them they have plagiarized. They know this already! Well, I suppose you could leave an informative review for other readers but certainly do not bash these poor people. They deserve our pity and the moderators' iron fists, not shameless flames. Certainly do not sick the poodles on them; seriously, don't do this. I have witnessed poodles being banned along with the plagiarists because turning review boards into flame wars is also a major rule violation.

Next time, when you see a violation, please just hit "Alert Webmaster." The site can take care of the offending piece much sooner and more easily that way. While the moderators do patrol new uploads, it is time consuming and sometimes they may not always be available to catch everything. Help the moderators!

I assure you they'll do everything they can to take down plagiarized material and ban the offender. Alert Webmaster will put it in a queue for their review and eventual removal, so it makes sure that the moderators are aware of the problem and can tackle it as soon as possible. It's win-win for that 5 seconds of time it takes for you, our fiction readers and art appreciators.

Thank you all in advance.

Mediaminer will be making another appearance at Anime Iowa this year. Several of our more prominent forum members are going and if last year's con was any indication, there will be many more readers and authors from this site present. I will be doing my best to make it this year and I also encourage everyone else to look into the possibility. Even if you're not from the United States! Of course, I know how expensive that would be, but isn't this site, your family, worth it? Maybe not but still; if you can make it, please do! Fanilia, our beloved admin, will be there again, certainly, and she alone is worth the trip, I promise.

Though I lack solid information currently, there may be a table or two up in Artist's Alley. If I'm not mistaken, one for a site member and another for the site itself, hopefully.

So, get a table! Submit a panel! Cosplay! Or just come for the fun and friends.

Check out the thread for AI on our forums, as well. Post ideas, find out who's going, and stay updated. The AI forums are also a good choice to find others who are going and may arrange a carpool in your area. Neat! Too bad I'm too far away for driving there.

That's right, the deadline for the contest has finally passed. I hear there are many last minute entries and several of the categories filled rather quickly in the last 48 hours. I entered myself, though I have little confidence in my ability to win. I know for a fact who some of the entrants are and I know some of them, who are far better writers than I, are in the same categories as me. Hopefully the judges think better of my writing than I apparently do.

Good luck to all the entrants, and to the judges who have to sift through good and bad fiction alike to find the best three. Having judged before, I know how hard it can be to fit your top five picks into three places. There are just always so many good entries!

Being rather anonymous, I feel that I can tell you I am a judge this year, though for what categories I will not say in case someone can, in fact, guess my identity. (plus, you'd know for a fact who I am once the contest is over.) One of mine is already judged and was rather easy, being small, but my second is rather large and will take some time. I know already that there are at least a half dozen fantastic entries and I don't look forward to deciding which of them just aren't good enough when they actually are. It's a tough job.

Also, it nearing the end of the year for many university students here in US (and, I imagine, many other countries), so I wish to say congratulations on the end of another semester/quarter/etc.; and to all those who are graduating, I wish you the best in your lives.

It has just been filled! By me, of course. Unfortunately, The News Source is without the ability to enjoy the internet, so he or she wanted to get another person on the news team and here I am, the News Correspondent.

Unfortunately, even with the long news absence, there haven't been many developments. The Max Challenge contest is almost over; you have another week to enter and then that's it! The organizers of the contest have been posting entry totals in the contest discussion thread and they're fairly low, so if you were planning not to enter because you don't think you have a chance, do so anyway! Statistically speaking, you have a good chance of placing in many of the categories. I don't have the same sources TNS does, so I couldn't tell you which categories lack quality entries, so I'll just assume they're all about B quality. If you can get B-quality, submit! Hell, if you have C quality, you should; I might be very wrong.

Remember, you only have until the fifteenth of this month to enter, so time is quickly running out. Submission doesn't take long, just five or ten minutes, tops. You can enter any finished fic on your account, no matter when it was finished, or you can enter any work in progress over 10,000 words and has been worked on in the past year. So hop to it! Have some confidence in your art; the best entries frequently come from people who are hesitant to find their fics good enough for the contest.

That's all for me, your News Correspondent.