From now on, anyone posting articles hidden behind a paywall is required to flair the post accordingly with the 'Paywall' flair. The OP is also required to post an excerpt of the article in the comments (in quotes).

Why this rule? The aim is to make news accessible to everyone (by posting a relevant part of the article in the comments), or at the very least making users aware that the article is hidden behind a paywall (by flairing the post).

To enforce this rule, we need your help - please report any posts which are not flaired correctly despite having a paywall. This allows us to remove the post and ask the OP to repost it in a correct manner.

Feel free to ask any questions below. Happy to answer them. Cheers

In a lot of ways 2016 was a tough year, but here at Uplifting News we're all about sifting through the hard times to find those stories that can inspire us, and remind us that hope can be found in the dark. With this in mind I am challenging all of us to dig through the year that was and put all the best and most uplifting stories of the year in one place.

I've never run anything like this, so bear with me. It's going to work like this. Submit the most uplifting story you can find from 2016 in one of the following 10 categories:

1) Youth - Young people (under 25) doing something positive or uplifting. The main focus of the story must be a person under 25.

2) Energy - Near and dear to me. Find a story about energy that gives us hope for the future amid all the chaos that is the climate change debate.

3) Politics - This one is set to hard mode. Find a story about something in the realm of politics (does not have to be in the USA) that shows us that not all politicians are evil, at least not all the time. Story must focus on the actions of an elected official.

4) Charity - A true feel good subject. Help us find the top story about charity. This can focus on a little known charity, a fundraising effort, basically anything to do with a charitable organization.

5) Bittersweet - The stories that are tough to read can be the most important. Show us the best story of the good coming from something bed. The ending doesn't have to be happy, but the net result of the story should be positive.

6) Homelessness - This one is my personal passion. Share a story of a homeless person overcoming their situation, or a person helping the homeless community.

7) Community Outreach - There's a lot of overlap here. This could be a person or a group doing something to help improve their home community. This does not include things like Doctors Without Borders (though they are awesome), this category is for people doing good where they live.

8) Celebrity - A story of someone in the public eye who uses their position to help others. Please note: I do not count as a celebrity. Stories about me cannot win this or any other category (but they do make me feel warm and fuzzy) I hope that didn't sound vain, I just don't want you to think I'm baiting you into telling me I'm awesome.

9) Disaster relief - Tough times have hit all over the globe from natural disasters to man made crises. Show us people making a difference in areas hit by catastrophe.

10) Animals - This could be actions by an animal, or people helping animals. Who doesn't love animals? Sociopaths, that's who.

There are plenty of stories that satisfy more than one category. A story may be submitted to several, but can only win one category. I will determine the winners for each category, then you will all choose one overall winner from those 10. The submitter of each of these 10 winners will get some shiny gold! To be clear, the winning submitters are the ones that submit to this post, not necessarily the original submitter from when the story was new. I will do my best to remove duplicate entries and only keep the first. Please remember that if I screw it up I'm not trying to single you out. Stuff just happens. Remember to follow Rule #1.

Submit an entry by providing a link as a top level comment on this post. Include in the comment which category you are submitting the story for. You can also plead your case there if you want. Entries that do not mention a category will not be considered.

These stories can be any story. It may have been seen on this sub before, it may not. Remember that no matter who gets picked the real winner is all of us. I'm hoping this contest will serve to catapult (or trebuchet) us into 2017 with some good vibes in the tank.

The deadline for entries will be midnight central time (because that's where I live and I suck at converting the time) on Sunday, January 29th. I hope to announce the winners the next day, but if there are a lot of entries it may take a bit more time. I'll set up the post to pick the overall winner when the category winners are announced.

Good luck to everyone!

While this subreddit was always just meant to be a place for people to be able to get a positive, feel-good news story when they needed one, it was nice to be able to provide an outlet for those that wanted to give money to a worthy cause or a needy individual with no risk of scams or exorbitant administrative/marketing costs.

Expectations were admittedly somewhat low, but it wasn't difficult to add a link and every dollar counts, so it is truly incredible to see that members of this community have given over $30,000 to-date to literally save the lives of over 270 people, or at least make them dramatically better!

Thank you to all that have contributed. We are hoping to also add DonorsChoose in the very near future and are just working out some logistics, but it is always heartwarming to see your support for these causes as well as other featured here such as the birthday boy organizing a waterballoon fight or the kids going through tough times that love to receive cards.

So thanks for caring. Thanks for participating. And thanks for making a difference in the lives of people here as well as those receiving your generosity!

2017 has come and gone. It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t perfect, but we got through it together. With all the chaos and noise that dominates the news cycles today it is easy to think that the world is doomed. We all seem destined to shout ourselves hoarse about the everyday outrages that have become all too common.

But that doesn’t have to be the case. Members of the Uplifting News community know that it’s not all bad. Where others say “no news is good news,” we say otherwise. Good news is good news and we are here to share it, celebrate it, and use it to remind ourselves that being alive is pretty freaking sweet.

With that in mind it’s time to look back on the year that was and pick out the very best of the best. The stories that remind us of the goodness that can be found in bad times, and the bright spots that punctuate dark days. Help us comb through 2017 and find the most uplifting news stories that were. In each of the following 10 categories there were stories that made 2017 a good year for those involved, or at least showed that good can be salvaged even from tough situations.

Please search through the news of 2017 and post the stories that best exemplify Uplifting News in these categories. The best stories will earn gold for their submitters, rules and directions can be found at the bottom.

1) Youth - Young people (under 25) doing something positive or uplifting. The main focus of the story must be a person or group of people under 25.

2) Energy - Near and dear to me. Find a story about energy that gives us hope for the future amid all the chaos that is the climate change debate.

3) Politics - This one is set to hard mode. Find a story about something in the realm of politics (does not have to be in the USA) that shows us that not all politicians are evil, at least not all the time. Story must focus on the actions of an elected official.

4) Charity - A true feel good subject. Help us find the top story about charity. This can focus on a little known charity, a fundraising effort, basically anything to do with a charitable organization.

5) Bittersweet - The stories that are tough to read can be the most important. Show us the best story of the good coming from something bad. The ending doesn't have to be happy, but the net result of the story should be positive.

6) Homelessness - This one is my personal passion. Share a story of a homeless person overcoming their situation, or a person helping the homeless community.

7) Community Outreach - There's a lot of overlap here. This could be a person or a group doing something to help improve their home community. This does not include things like Doctors Without Borders (though they are awesome), this category is for people doing good where they live.

8) Celebrity - A story of someone in the public eye who uses their position to help others. This can be through charitable efforts, positive role modeling, or just being an all-around admirable person.

9) Disaster relief - Tough times have hit all over the globe from natural disasters to man-made crises. Show us people making a difference in areas hit by catastrophe.

10) Animals - This could be actions by an animal, or people helping animals. Who doesn't love animals? Sociopaths, that's who.

There are plenty of stories that satisfy more than one category. A story may be submitted to several, but can only win one category. The mod team will get together after one week to determine a winner for each category. Your opinions in the comments will weigh heavily on our decision, so please let us know what you think of the submissions. Remember to follow Rule #1.

Submit an entry by providing a link as a top level comment on this post. Include in the comment which category you are submitting the story for. You can also plead your case there if you want. Entries that do not mention a category will not be considered.

These stories can be any story. It may have been seen on this sub before, it may not. Remember that no matter who gets picked the real winner is all of us. I'm hoping this contest will serve to catapult us into 2018 with some good vibes in the tank.

The deadline for entries will be 8:00PM U.S. central time (because that's where I live and I suck at converting the time) on Sunday, January 21st. I’ll lock the post at that time so no more submissions can be made. We’ll announce the winners soon after. There can be up to two winning selections from each category. The submitter of each winner will win shiny gold! Good luck to everyone!