Welcome to the second issue of the Books And Articles newsletter. The big news this week is our first writing contest, but we also now have our first blogger (@cryotosensei) and our first poetry submissions. I’ll talk a little bit about that later, but first I want to talk about the contest.

I came up with this idea as a way of promoting the territory. Monthly fees were coming due, so I wanted to generate some interest. I didn’t put much thought into it, nor did I know whether there would be enough engagement to warrant the post. I picked the topic for two reasons: I wanted a prompt that could inspire lots of stackers to enter a submission, and I love reading stories about people’s bitcoin journeys. So, it was a little selfish. In the end, let’s just say it exceeded my expectations.

And now, for the big moment…

The winner of the first Books and Articles Writing Contest is @grayruby !!!!

I am happy to say that the first winning entry was more than worthy. Not only did he have a great story to tell, and not only is he a talented writer, but @grayruby also put the time and effort into crafting his story. It was lengthy so it needed a separate post. I learned something new about Stacker News. Replies have a 10,000 character limit. I will be zapping @grayruby his award, which is a bit skimpy considering the quality of his story- 6199 sats. In this case justice was served, since his separate post did very well in the sats department. Maybe in the future we can find sponsors for the contests.

As for the contest itself, I had a revelation of sorts as the entries rolled in. The replies to the post were all of high quality, and they all told fascinating stories, at least in my opinion. There have been times over the years when I would do a search for “my bitcoin story” or some term like that just to find these stories. I couldn’t get enough of them. Now, they were showing up as replies to the post. I got so caught up thinking about the contest and the territory that I didn’t expect the sheer joy I got from reading everyone’s stories. The contest post with attached replies is now a treasure trove of origin content.

Reading them affected me in a more personal way than I expected. Anyone who’s spent some time on Stacker News knows that I hang around the site more than is probably healthy. I have had an account since the Spring of 2022, and during that time I have gotten to know people here who I consider friends. That’s how I feel, whether it makes sense or not in our nym filled space. Many of those people participated. In some cases their honest, heart felt entries got to me on an emotional level. I’ll limit the sappiness. I am on the verge of embarrassing myself and them. They know who they are.

Therefore…

In the newsletter I am going to keep a link to each contest, so there will be an easily accessed way to read these stories. I am also going to create a “My Bitcoin Journey” category, to encourage post length, fleshed out origin stories like @grayruby’s. His will be the first link in the section.

In other news, in addition to @cryotosensei’s new blog, he also posted a poem which had previously been published elsewhere. @plebpoet also posted a previously published poem, accompanied by an analysis by the poet. It made one of the top posts of the week. I recommend that everyone give it a read. I learned a lot from it.

I’m happy to also mention that two more books are being posted to the territory, one chapter at a time. @cleophas is posting “Who Brought The Steak Tartare”, and newcomer @jbschirtzinger posted the first chapter of the book, “The Rogue Scholar.” Links to both can be found in the Books section.

Last, but not least, @cryotosensei is selling a fancied up copy of his children’s book, Happy The Hippo on the ~AGORA territory! Here’s the link.

Well, that’s it for now. I hope I’m not forgetting anything.

The top post of the week will be forwarded 50% of the zaps earned on that week’s newsletter post. Rankings will be determined using the SN zaprank.

Here are this week’s top posts:

Inspired by Writing Contest #1, this is where stacker’s bitcoin origin stories will be posted for easy reference.

None posted yet.

None posted yet.