Blog Harbor from The Talent Pond

Each entry must include a link to the news article you'll be writing about.

Each day runs from 12:00AM WDC time to 11:59PM WDC time, and there are no make-ups. This activity doesn't require perfect participation to get the prizes, so if you miss a day, you miss a day. No need to cram in a bunch of catch-up entries in if you're offline for a bit. Both the blog entry and the forum post must be time-stamped for the current day. The article itself should be relatively recent (published/posted within the last 48-72 hours).

You do not necessarily have to write about serious stuff. If you want to write about the latest Trump Administration drama or judicial decision or climate science or corporate corruption or refugee crisis, that's fine... but it's also perfectly acceptable to write about current events related to feel-good pet stories, a new art exhibit coming to a town near you, or a sporting event you're particularly passionate about. Or better yet, mix things up and write entries about a whole bunch of different topics! This is your opportunity to share the stories you find interesting and newsworthy, wherever in the world you find them.

Your entries (and your comments on the entries of other bloggers) should be respectful and polite. You are welcome to express disagreement with the opinions of others, but do NOT do so in a combative, rude, or insensitive manner. The intent of this activity is to allow bloggers to explore whatever they find interesting in the current news cycle, not to get into arguments about our respective positions on hot-button issues. Civil discourse is okay, as long as there's an emphasis on being civil.

You will receive up to 1,000 GPs for each day you write an entry, as well as up to 250 GPs for each of your fellow bloggers' entries you comment on. The latter is a one-time reward per entry, so commenting more than once on the same entry's comment thread will still only count for 250 GPs. In order to receive your GPs, please post a link to each entry in the forum, along with a link to the other entries you've commented on that day (if any).

The quality of your entries and comments will be taken into consideration. For example, if you only post an entry that says, "Here's an article about baseball because I think it's the best sport ever" or commenting on another blogger's entry by simply saying, "Cool article about cookies! I also enjoy baked goods" will only earn you a fraction of the GPs you'd otherwise receive for more thorough, thoughtful contributions. The GPs awarded are at the sole discretion of Blog Harbor staff... so no haggling or arguing allowed. You get what you get!

Anyone who writes more than 25 entries during the activity will receive a Merit Badge. Additionally, the three best blog commentators (who comment on at least 25 other entries) will each receive a 10K Awardicon for their own blogs. On top of that, Awardicons for the best blogs will be awarded among the qualifying bloggers who submit at least 25 blog entries as follows:

                   7+ qualifying bloggers:
                              75K Awardicon for 1st Place
                              50K Awardicon for 2nd Place
                              25K Awardicon for 3rd Place

                   5-6 qualifying bloggers:
                              100K Awardicon for Winner
                              50K Awardicon for Runner-Up

                   3-4 qualifying bloggers:
                              150K Awardicon for Winner

                   1-2 qualifying bloggers:
                              Bragging rights, the satisfaction of a job well done,
                                  and a consolation prizes commensurate with effort

Additional prizes may be given out for blog entries and comments that the Blog Harbor staff find particularly well-written or entertaining.

The sources listed below (with the exception of Google News, which I added) were pulled from a MarketWatch article   that reported on a study   of the trustworthiness of various news sources in the United States, as conducted by the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri. For the sake of simplicity, these are the ONLY news sources that are acceptable for this activity, mostly because we don't want arguments over whether a certain source is biased or not. It would be great if the conversations could remain about the content of the article and not the veracity of the article itself.