#thealliance Karaoke Contest and Member Updates

For those unfamiliar with us and wondering...what in Steemit is #thealliance???? Let me put it like this:
#thealliance is a group of allies that stay consistently supporting each other here on Steemit, upvoting and curation being just a small part of our system. Members come and members go, but the underlying thing that we all have in common is, we are great content creators, and don't mind taking the time to actually read a post and give a full fledged opinion in replies and comments. Feel free to follow us around on here or on Twitter, or you can be as bold to join our group on 'ew' Facebook. It works by throwing up our tag #thealliance here on Steemit. Simple enough, right? Follow us and we'll find you.

I would like to welcome 3 new members with this update. First, we have @donatello who is all bout helping the musical artistry here on Steemit. He has a website you can vist by clicking here where you are invited to post your Steemit posts! Another new ally we have is @hardikv. He is a producer and musician being the founder of @muziclub and involved with the band Alif. Good music people. Finally, we have @tattoodjay. He is a kiwi in Connecticut, working in New York that has rediscovered his passion for photography and he is very good you guys.

Current active allies are:

@enginewitty

@michaeldavid

@miriamslozberg

@thequeendizzle

@sagittarianqueen

@razux

@flexifriday

@rlyeh

@classydapper

@nolnocluap

@awarenessraiser

@jan-mccomas

@jrtbx

@christheaudioguy

@stephiesawyer

@jaynie

@eddyova

@sam19

@thedamus

@nagavolu

@phelimint

@jrandolph

@anialexander

@donatello

@hardikv

@tattoodjay

and be sure to follow our pet @killerwhale!

So here we go, starting Mondays the 7th of August at 12:00 a.m. through Fridays at 11:59 p.m. CST (or as close as we can get there) The Karaoke Contest will begin. Obviously, we don't expect this to be huge from the onset, so the prize pool will be dictated by any sponsorships and/or revenue from the initial submission thread and those thereafter until it is established.

What we have come up with thus far, is a cross-posting on the Open Mic Submission threads, where @luzcypher has graciously agreed to promote us and likewise, we will promote their contest. Many thanks for that! Here are the rules:

RULES

1. The 1st tag for your submission post must be #karaokecontest.
2. Submission thread must be upvoted and curated (resteemed).
3. Video of entrant singing must be in comments of submission thread (so you can get the popularity vote), or at least a link to their post.
4. Must choose one of our selected songs to sing along to.

JUDGING CATEGORIES

1. Popular vote: This will carry 40% of the overall score. Whoever has the most upvotes (not reward amount for the post), will win the popular vote. You may only vote for yourself ONCE, purchased bot votes for yourself will not count.
2. Timing: 20% weight - how close you are to the timing of the original lyrics.
3. Pitch: 20% weight - how close you are to staying on key to the original lyrics.
4. Likeness: 20% weight - how much you actually sound like and embody the singer of the original lyrics.

PRIZES

We will award prizes for 1st, second and third places the following Tuesday (8 days later for the payout). Prize pools will be announced upon submission closure for the week, which still gives them all of Saturday to attain more popularity votes. I'm sure that in the beginning, prize pools will vary. Any sponsorship and/or SBD revenue will be the contributors to the contest purse. Steem Power generated will be used to maintain @killerwhale's voracious appetite. Winners will be announced Mondays, ideally with the posting of the new submission thread.

We have our judges now! @hardikv, who was the winner of Open Mic 39 (2nd position) and won @fyrstikken's 50k SP for a week contest! Excited to have him aboard. @enginewitty who is the founding member of #thealliance and energetic Rap Challenge participant. Also, @jaynie has agreed to step her passionate self up to the plate and be a judge for us. Thankful for all of you. And finally, we have @michaeldavid doing the magical math involved with tallying all the scores so...he's the one you'll have to bribe if you really want to win LOL j/k! This is going to be fun though everyone, we're excited!

Just keep swimming...just keep swimming...