The 2010 State Fair of Texas ended a record 24-day run Sunday.

The great weather also led to a record number of photos - more than 1,000 and counting - submitted to neighborsgo.com's fourth annual Hit Us With Your Best Shot! contest.

Below are 15 finalists selected by neighborsgo editors as the most representative and creative photos from this year's fair. Of these, three were named "weekly winners" and the photographers received iPod shuffles and neighborsgo T-shirts.

But now comes the main event: the grand-prize iPad. And you still have time to be eligible to win, because 15 more photos will be selected between now and Wednesday, and all 30 images will be judged next week by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographers at The Dallas Morning News.

Whether you've previously entered and won (or not) or have never heard of this contest until today, you have until Wednesday (Oct. 20) to send in the winning shot that's in your camera or on your smartphone.

So come on, what are you waiting for, neighborsgo nation? Hit Us With Your Best Shot!

• Upload a photo (and include "State Fair" in your caption)
• More contest details
  

The 2010 State Fair of Texas is up and running, and so is our fourth annual Hit Us With Your Best Shot! photo contest.

Each week, we're picking a winner and featuring it in all 17 of our print neighborsgo editions. (The photographer also gets an iPod shuffle.) 

By posting a 2010 State Fair of Texas photo on neighborsgo.com, readers also are eligible to win our Apple iPad grand prize, which will be judged by a Pulitzer Prize-winning photo team at The Dallas Morning News.

The first week of the contest saw more than 100 entries that touched on familiar fair themes - kids, corny dogs and rides. Scroll down to see the Week 1 finalists, plus the winner.

Congratulations to all and thanks to everyone who has shared their images with us. (And if you didn't win or would like to enter, don't worry - we encourage people to post early and often. Find details on how to do so at neighborsgo.com/statefair.)

Unlike last year, when it rained for 14 of the fair's 24-day run, we're having great weather this year. So what are you waiting for? (Need tickets? Enter our ticket giveaway here: http://ow.ly/2HL9h ) Get out there, shoot some great photos and enter our contest! Good luck, neighborsgo nation!

Twenty photographers of all types – student, amateur, pro – joined neighborsgo editors recently to discuss the benefits of posting on neighborsgo.com and appearing in our print editions.

The best part was when participant and ace contributor Andie Smith was asked to lead part of the discussion … and she did! (More about the experience directly from Andie, although she left out the part about touring the DMN gallery on the third floor, then talking to DMN photographers about the time they brought a circus elephant into the studio.)

For the benefit of the folks who weren't there, here are links to the PowerPoint that was presented: Part 1 | Part 2

Below are session highlights. Feel free to share these and the above links, and include your own suggestions (or questions) in the comments area or via e-mail at community@neighborsgo.com.

What are tinauu and zitauu, you ask?

Apparently, entities that sent the following note recently to several hundred members of neighborsgo.com:

Hello
I read your profile today and it was so good to me.u know that i am interested to be a friend first.i also believe that coming to you will be a probability of meeting that very love that has been lacking in my entire life. please i will like you to contact me direct to my e-mail address, (editharnuld@yahoo.com) i dont know the posebility of remaing in forum for long time,i will give you a full introduction of my self with my pictures ok. i will be waiting for your mail to my e-mail adsdress(editharnuld@yahoo.com) as you know there is no age,race,colour n religion bar when it comes to true love,
cares Tina.

"I don't know the posebility of remaing in forum for a long time," Tina wrote so eloquently.

And she was right.

The lousy spelling alone deserved censure, but we zapped her profile when someone complained about receiving this e-mail.

As in love, "there is no age, race, colour 'n' religion bar when it comes to true spam."

How you can help us

If you get a note like this in the future, contact us immediately and we'll ban the person immediately.

How you can help yourself

1. Log on to neighborsgo.com

2. Click on "my corner" (upper right)

3. Click on "edit profile" (under your photo)

4. Click on "settings" (in orange bar)

5. Click "Friends Only" or  "Nobody" under "Contact me via site e-mail"

6. To NOT receive notices to your external e-mail, uncheck "All Communication," "Friendship Requests," "Private System Requests" and "Events."

In case you missed yesterday's note sent to all neighborsgo.com users, here it is:

Just last Friday, we asked you what a record snowfall looked like to you.

Boy, did you show us.

This week, it's our pleasure to bring you the best of more than 500 snow photos posted on neighborsgo.com by you and your neighbors.

Below is a sampling of covers and pages. Did yours make the cut? Pick up today's neighborsgo in your community to find out.

Thanks again to everyone who shared their snowy moments with us.

And remember - it doesn't have to be a record weather event to get your photo in our newspaper. If something is happening in your community that you think your neighbors should know about, we're interested in representing it in our pages.

For details on how our Web site works with our newspaper, please visit neighborsgo.com/help. To contact our editors, visit neighborsgo.com/connect. Or drop us a line at community@neighborsgo.com.

Five final words: Post online, get in print!

There's a new book about journalism out, and what do you know? It mentions something called neighborsgo. Questions, comments?

Click on the image below for a brief photoplay of cute kids, pets and one incredibly pink snowperson.

It has come to our attention that several neighborsgo.com users received an e-mail recently from a "Miss Linda" inquiring about the possibility of having a relationship.

Please know that such inquiries violate our terms of service.

If you receive such e-mails in the future, please forward them immediately to feedback@neighborsgo.com, so that we can delete the user who sent them.

All the great stories in neighborsgo print editions this week? Visit our dallasnews.com blog for direct links to the stories below, pick us up at Starbucks today or subscribe to The Dallas Morning News to get us every Friday in print.