HI Amitav,
Welcome to the site! You've posted your content so that only people connected to you can read it. To get feedback you might want to open it up by allowing anyone in TheNextBigWriter Premium group to also access it. You can change it by going to the Publish tab when you access your content from your portfolio.
Best,
Sol
Hi all,
We are ready to announce the winners of the 2018 Strongest Start Competition. As always, the judging was very difficult. The winners are:
Grand prize:
Maiden SS2018 by Seabrass
Runner-ups:
Swan for Contest by Ann Everett
Death Rights (Contest Edition) by Don Chambers
Congratulations! I'll be in touch with each of the winners to discuss the receipt of your awards.
Sol
I downloaded it. I'll give it a read and a review.
Yes, thanks for bringing it up. We'll fix these problems. They are annoying.
After much deliberation, we're pleased to announce the finalists in the 2018 Strongest Start Competition. They are, in no particular order:
For the Love of Mellie by Marilyn Johnson
Half by Deckland Oz
Death Rights (Contest Edition) by Don Chambers
Maiden SS2018 by Seabrass
Swan for Contest by Ann Everett
The Family Secrets by Suin
Congratulations to all of the finalists! And, as we say every year, congratulations to everyone who entered. Hopefully, whether you made the finals or not, the process has helped you create a better start to your book.
We'll be announcing the winners next week, Saturday, December 15.
Update. We need one more day. Finalists announced tomorrow, Sunday, December 9.
Sorry, December 8!
Hi, this should be fixed now.
Hi all,
We haven't forgotten about the contest. We'll be posting the finalists next Saturday, December 3 and the winners one week after that. Thanks for your patience.
Sol
Yes, that page is loading slowly. We'll take a look. We made some changes to the site to increase security and it might have caused a loading issue. Thanks for letting me know.
This should be fixed now.
It's definitely a glitch. We removed features stories for now until we have the problem straightened out.
The problem is not from hackers but from a bug. We made some updates and it seems to have caused a few problems. We're working through them and should have them resolves shortly.
I don't think this is a hack. It's probably a technical glitch. We're looking into it.
Hi Seabrass,
The judges are a bit behind but are working through the entries. We hope to have the finalists announced after Thanksgiving.
Sol
This article provides a bit more info about Groups. The moderator can update the group's visibility any time. If you are in a public group, anyone can join and the forum threads are visible. The opposite is true of private groups.
Hi Dirk,
The forum you are posting in has to be set to private. Private forums aren't indexed by Google.
Sol
I'm not sure if this is due to the hacker or not. I've gone through a major revamp of my latest novel and deactivated it while making changes. I've made the changes, and published four chapters, but the chapters do not show up- the points were taken, the button says the are active, but the novel itself is inactive. And on the Publish Page, there is no "groups" to publish to. I've never encountered this before. Am I missing something?
Try connecting the novel to the groups it previously belonged to, including Premium. This could be a relic of the hacker. Not sure.
Yes, the hacker got back in. I think we resolved the problem. It had to do with groups which is why the hacker was able to mess with the groups. Groups have a lot of control and power so this allowed them to really mess things up, especially with Premium.
He might have left the group after he entered. Anyway, he's not eligible to win if he's not in the group since we can't read his entry. No worries.
Hi all,
A hacker today was able to exploit a security vulnreability on TheNextBigWriter to cause a bit of mischief on the site. The hacker changed the name of several groups and sent private messages to members of the site. We have identified the vulnreability and fixed it.
At no time was your credit card information or password information exposed. Credit card info is not stored by TheNextBigWriter so even a total hack of the site would not provide access to this information. Passwords are encrypted so they also cannot be stolen.
We have reverted the forums to yesterday's state in order to clear out some spammy posts, so anything you posted today is lost. We apologize for this.
I can't guarantee that this hacker will not reappear and try to find and exploit another vulreability. We are always vigilant and do our best to secure the site and protect your data. If you notice anything amiss, please let me know asap.
Thank to everyone who let me know what was happening today and provided me with the information that led to a speedy resolution. And thank you to everyone for your understanding and patience.
Sol
I know Anita Mumm has worked with members from the site before. She's taught a Strongest Start class in the past.
Hi Joyce Anne,
You got it. If you need any additional help let us know.
Sol
Hello all,
I'm pleased to announce the winners of the Winter 2018 Flash Fiction Contest. They are:
Grand prize: Tragedy Level 9_Flash Fiction by Roxanne
Runner-ups:
Thumbs Up by Ann Everett
What's In A Name by Brian Asher
Congratulations!
The problem is that the book was originally posted in January 2017, before the valid date. Even if you add new chapters, the system goes by the date that the first chapter was posted. You'll need to create a fresh book and put those chapters into it. You can contact me about it if you have questions or want to discuss further.
Sol
