After much procrastination and personal business that had me totally distracted for a while, the T-shirts for the promotion campaign were taken to the post office today and sent out.

Soon we will contacting the Top 10 winners about their additional prizes.

Just a quick reminder that there are just a few short weeks left until the end of February when we will be bringing the JAPUNDIT Promotion Campaign to a close. Though we are approaching the deadline, there still is plenty of time left to rack up points by posting articles, commenting on articles by others, and voting.

We also would like to announce that the list of prizes we will be awarding at the end of the campaign has expanded.

The original list of prizes consisted of a $50 gift certificate redeemable over at J-LIST (for winners located outside of Japan) or a 5,000-yen Quo card (for winners located inside of Japan) for each top 10 winner, and a strange English T-shirt for each of the the next 10 winners.

Now thanks to the people over at Rinkya, each top 10 winner also will receive a $10 certificate that can be applied when using Rinkya’s online auction and shopping services.

Rinkya is an English language buying service for on-line Japan auctions, stores, manufacturers and specialty websites. Rinkya provides worldwide buyers the ability to bid and buy on auction sites, from stores and specialty web sites, even special order goods usually unavailable outside of Japan without any knowledge of the Japanese language or business etiquette. Sellers simply ship to Rinkya’s Japanese warehouses, and Rinkya’s Staff ships the goods to the buyer anywhere in the world.

Remember… The JAPUNDIT Promotion Campaign runs until midnight March 1, 2009 (JST), so you still have plenty of time to participate.

Click here for full details about the JAPUNDIT Promotion Campaign including general rules, the point system, and a list of prizes.

We would like to direct everyone’s attention to the JAPUNDIT New Page posting guidelines, which have been newly updated. Click here to view them.

It also might be a good idea to check out our FAQ, which is available here.

The point values that appear in the “JAPUNDITS” list on the JAPUNDIT News Site sidebar is based on a karma calculation that is performed automatically by the software that runs the site.

I really do not know what type of algorithm the software uses (and really am not that interested in chasing it down), and I have no direct control over the points that it produces.

Following complaints about a loss of points by one member, I checked the karma configuration and found out that it was set up to delete karma points at the end of 90 days. This means that if a user stopped posting or started posting less, that user’s point total would begin to decline after some time. I have change the setting so karma points earned are never deducted, but I am wondering whether that is a good idea.

If anyone would like to express their thoughts on this it would be greatly appreciated.

JAPUNDIT is pleased to announce a new promotion campaign aimed at attracting new members and at stimulating more article submission, commenting, and voting among existing members.

Members of JAPUNDIT (japundit.com) will be awarded points for each type of activity, and every 10 points will earn an entry into a drawing for valuable prizes.

Even if you are not located in Japan or do not have access or original Japanese news, voting on articles submitted by others is a great way to earn points and entries into the drawing

The only way to take part in the drawing is to become a registered member of JAPUNDIT, which automatically earns you one entry into the drawing. After that, it is up to you to submit articles, comment, and vote in order to rack up points and improve your odds for winning.

The campaign runs from Midnight January 21, 2009 (JST) through Midnight March 1, 2009 (JST), so come on over and join the fun over at japundit.com and win!

Click here for full details about the JAPUNDIT Promotion Campaign including general rules, the point system, and a list of prizes.

Today JAPUNDIT is four years old.

As we slip into our fifth year, we would like to express our sincere thanks to all of the contributors, commenters, and voters who have done so much to make JAPUNDIT the most lively and popular site of its kind on the Web.

The following is the general JAPUNDIT policy for handling multiple postings of the same news item.

1. A news item that is double posted soon after having been posted originally will be deleted without notice.

2. A news item that is double posted after some time has passed after having been posted originally will be allowed to stand without deletion.

We really don’t want to get into the business of closely monitoring posts, so the above general policy will be applied solely at the discretion of JAPUNDIT Admin.

The JAPUNDIT News Pages are very lively, with new members joining almost daily. Thanks to all of the members who are doing so much to make the site a success.

A high level of activity also increases the possibility that some overlap will occur in the stories being posted.

The following are some ways contributors can help avoid multiple posting of the same story.

1. Before starting to post a new story, use the search box in the right side bar to search for a key word in your story. If your story is about polar bears, for example, searching for “polar bear” is a good way to find out if your intended topic already has been covered.

2. As you enter a URL, title, and description on the “submit story” tab, a list of related stories will appear at the bottom of the tab. Check these stories to see if someone already has posted something similar.

SiteMeter provides us with visitor data grouped by, among other things, country, referral, and continent.

I was surprised to note on the continent graph for JAPUNDIT visitors recently that we are even getting visitors from unknown continents. And to think that I have been going through life thinking that the world had been completely charted centuries ago. . . !?!

In order to avoid confusion that would be caused if we require separate logins here on the Japundit Blog and on the Japundit News Page, we have decided to open up commenting to the general public on the blog.

You no longer will be required to log in to comment, but our commenting rules still apply.

Of course, we reserve the right to remove any comment we feel is in appropriate.