Cliff
10-30-2011, 04:36 AM
All Contests:
Entries are open for submission anytime between 12:00 am on the 1st and 6.00pm on the 14th.
Contest voting will begin around the 15th ending on the 22th, winners announced on the 23th.
If a person becomes ineligible for any reason during the voting process, the win goes to the next in line.
All entrants and nominees must be in good standing during the entire nomination/entry/voting process.
Photo Comps:
*The photos entered must not have been posted in any section of the forum for the past two months Effective 01 Jan 2013, this will also apply to videos. Just as one example, you can not take a picture of your tank to enter it in TOTM, then right after that make a video of the exact same tank and post this video on the forum.
*Each person is allowed a maximum of one entry per category each month.
*This must be a photo you took yourself. TOTM must be one of your tanks and APOTM only must be a photo taken by you.
*Major photo editing is not allowed. No background changes, black-outs, or adding-in of anything not in the original photo and no coloring-up. This includes no addition of watermarks, copyrights or signatures. All will lead to disqualification. Cropping, resizing, editing of brightness or clarity is allowed to make your photo more contest worthy.
*Photos that have not yet won an award can be entered again into future contest.
*Photographs should be no more than 800 pixels wide. Photographs less than 800 pixels wide will be accepted.
*The mod team reserves the right to disqualify any entry we suspect to contain significant edits or alterations.
*You must be the original artist. The person who took the photo.
*Photos not entered according to rules will simply be disqualified
*If you had won First Place in the photo comps you will be restricted from entering the next scheduled comp. If you have won second place there will be no restrictions from entering the next scheduled comp.
* You cannot submit a link to a photo on a image hosting website (like photobucket). You must up load the image to this website. The below link can provide some instructions on how to do that if you are unsure.
http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquariumforum/showthread.php?t=98080
Check the Winners Circle thread if you need to refresh your memory for dates.
Anonymity
*The entries will be numbered and anonymous to keep the voting as objective as possible.
*If you are entering one of your photo comps, your photo must not have been posted in the forum during the past two months.
*You may not discuss the photos in any way that may reveal who the photo belongs to or why you voted for them. There are no exceptions.
*If you do not win and wish to enter that photo again, you also may not disclose which photo was yours.
*Knowingly violating these anonymity rules will result in disqualification from current and/or future contests.
Voting:
To qualify for voting in any of the competitions, you must have posted at least 50 posts AND have been a member for 30 days AND have earned 100 rep points. The polls will simply prevent you from casting a vote so try again next month. (This prevents spammers and friends simply registering to vote for your entry.)
Ties in the Photo Comps:
Ties for first place will go heads up in a 3-day tie breaking poll. These polls take place from the 25th-28th, after which the winner is announced.
Members tied for second place in photo contests will all receive the reward of 10,000 points and second prize medal.
Those that come in second place after the tie will automatically win Runner-Up. If ties still remain after the tie-breaker vote, all winners are awarded for the place they are tied for, be it first or second.
Ties in MOTM voting:
In the case of a tie for MOTM, the award will go to both members. In the event of a tie between three or more members, a tie breaking vote shall be used.
Prizes:
First place in any category wins a medal and 15,000 points.
Second place in any category wins a medal and 10,000 points.
MOTM wins a medal and 10,000 points. (No Second Place)
Please allow ample time for these awards to be given out as they are done so by the Admin directly.
Format:
I’ll remind everyone here that all photo entries must be no larger than 800x wide. If your image exceeds a certain file size (too large) it’s possible the mail client will reject it. In addition no PNG images are allowed, they are almost always too large for the mail client.
MOTM - Member of The Month:
Each month any user may nominate one member who they believe is the most helpful to the other members of the forum and the forum in general. It should be someone who is active, knowledgeable, experienced and willing to share their knowledge of all things related to this hobby while remaining polite, respectful, courteous, and friendly.
You must be a member of AC for at least 3 months before nominating a member, or being nominated for MOTM. Members not meeting this criteria will be removed from the nominations or have their nomination removed.
The 3 month criteria will be determined by the Mods since they are the ones who have access to actual join dates. If a person has joined prior to the 15th of the month, the month they joined will be counted as a full month. If they joined after the 15th, then that month can not be counted. Since the Moderators are the only ones with actual join dates, they will verify any questionable nominations.
Each member can only be awarded MOTM once per year. If a member has already won for that year they may not be nominated.
As in all contests, only those in good-standing will be accepted.
TOTM - Tank of The Month:
This must be a photo you took yourself and of your own tank..
Entries must be full tank shots! This means the entirety of the tank is included in the photo, not half or a part of the tank.
POTM - Picture of The Month:
Fish/Hobby related pictures only. Fish, Invertebrates, Aquatic Plants, Corals or other aquatic creatures.
Your entry must be a photo taken by you.
APOTM - Animal Picture of the Month:
This is a contest where the subject is terrestrial animals rather than fish. Examples might be, an insect you found outside, a picture of an animal from the zoo or other pets. (No family photos.)
NO FISH or other entries that could be entered in POTM.
This must be a picture taken by you and a be a acceptable subject as described above.
Picture of the Year Competition
Each year we will take the 1st place photos from the POTM, APOTM, and TOTM competitions and vote on the picture of the year within each category. These competitions will take place after the December comp winners have been announced and end on January 15th. While the same level of anonymity may not be possible, we will take all reasonable steps to maintain anonymity during this competition. All the rules for voting in the comps still apply. If there is a tie for the winning photo in any one of the categories, a 3 day tie breaking vote will take place to determine the winner. The winner of each of the pic of the year comps will also get a metal and 15,000 points. Second place will get a metal and 10,000 points.
Please PM me with any questions, comments, or concerns
Entries are open for submission anytime between 12:00 am on the 1st and 6.00pm on the 14th.
Contest voting will begin around the 15th ending on the 22th, winners announced on the 23th.
If a person becomes ineligible for any reason during the voting process, the win goes to the next in line.
All entrants and nominees must be in good standing during the entire nomination/entry/voting process.
Photo Comps:
*The photos entered must not have been posted in any section of the forum for the past two months Effective 01 Jan 2013, this will also apply to videos. Just as one example, you can not take a picture of your tank to enter it in TOTM, then right after that make a video of the exact same tank and post this video on the forum.
*Each person is allowed a maximum of one entry per category each month.
*This must be a photo you took yourself. TOTM must be one of your tanks and APOTM only must be a photo taken by you.
*Major photo editing is not allowed. No background changes, black-outs, or adding-in of anything not in the original photo and no coloring-up. This includes no addition of watermarks, copyrights or signatures. All will lead to disqualification. Cropping, resizing, editing of brightness or clarity is allowed to make your photo more contest worthy.
*Photos that have not yet won an award can be entered again into future contest.
*Photographs should be no more than 800 pixels wide. Photographs less than 800 pixels wide will be accepted.
*The mod team reserves the right to disqualify any entry we suspect to contain significant edits or alterations.
*You must be the original artist. The person who took the photo.
*Photos not entered according to rules will simply be disqualified
*If you had won First Place in the photo comps you will be restricted from entering the next scheduled comp. If you have won second place there will be no restrictions from entering the next scheduled comp.
* You cannot submit a link to a photo on a image hosting website (like photobucket). You must up load the image to this website. The below link can provide some instructions on how to do that if you are unsure.
http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquariumforum/showthread.php?t=98080
Check the Winners Circle thread if you need to refresh your memory for dates.
Anonymity
*The entries will be numbered and anonymous to keep the voting as objective as possible.
*If you are entering one of your photo comps, your photo must not have been posted in the forum during the past two months.
*You may not discuss the photos in any way that may reveal who the photo belongs to or why you voted for them. There are no exceptions.
*If you do not win and wish to enter that photo again, you also may not disclose which photo was yours.
*Knowingly violating these anonymity rules will result in disqualification from current and/or future contests.
Voting:
To qualify for voting in any of the competitions, you must have posted at least 50 posts AND have been a member for 30 days AND have earned 100 rep points. The polls will simply prevent you from casting a vote so try again next month. (This prevents spammers and friends simply registering to vote for your entry.)
Ties in the Photo Comps:
Ties for first place will go heads up in a 3-day tie breaking poll. These polls take place from the 25th-28th, after which the winner is announced.
Members tied for second place in photo contests will all receive the reward of 10,000 points and second prize medal.
Those that come in second place after the tie will automatically win Runner-Up. If ties still remain after the tie-breaker vote, all winners are awarded for the place they are tied for, be it first or second.
Ties in MOTM voting:
In the case of a tie for MOTM, the award will go to both members. In the event of a tie between three or more members, a tie breaking vote shall be used.
Prizes:
First place in any category wins a medal and 15,000 points.
Second place in any category wins a medal and 10,000 points.
MOTM wins a medal and 10,000 points. (No Second Place)
Please allow ample time for these awards to be given out as they are done so by the Admin directly.
Format:
I’ll remind everyone here that all photo entries must be no larger than 800x wide. If your image exceeds a certain file size (too large) it’s possible the mail client will reject it. In addition no PNG images are allowed, they are almost always too large for the mail client.
MOTM - Member of The Month:
Each month any user may nominate one member who they believe is the most helpful to the other members of the forum and the forum in general. It should be someone who is active, knowledgeable, experienced and willing to share their knowledge of all things related to this hobby while remaining polite, respectful, courteous, and friendly.
You must be a member of AC for at least 3 months before nominating a member, or being nominated for MOTM. Members not meeting this criteria will be removed from the nominations or have their nomination removed.
The 3 month criteria will be determined by the Mods since they are the ones who have access to actual join dates. If a person has joined prior to the 15th of the month, the month they joined will be counted as a full month. If they joined after the 15th, then that month can not be counted. Since the Moderators are the only ones with actual join dates, they will verify any questionable nominations.
Each member can only be awarded MOTM once per year. If a member has already won for that year they may not be nominated.
As in all contests, only those in good-standing will be accepted.
TOTM - Tank of The Month:
This must be a photo you took yourself and of your own tank..
Entries must be full tank shots! This means the entirety of the tank is included in the photo, not half or a part of the tank.
POTM - Picture of The Month:
Fish/Hobby related pictures only. Fish, Invertebrates, Aquatic Plants, Corals or other aquatic creatures.
Your entry must be a photo taken by you.
APOTM - Animal Picture of the Month:
This is a contest where the subject is terrestrial animals rather than fish. Examples might be, an insect you found outside, a picture of an animal from the zoo or other pets. (No family photos.)
NO FISH or other entries that could be entered in POTM.
This must be a picture taken by you and a be a acceptable subject as described above.
Picture of the Year Competition
Each year we will take the 1st place photos from the POTM, APOTM, and TOTM competitions and vote on the picture of the year within each category. These competitions will take place after the December comp winners have been announced and end on January 15th. While the same level of anonymity may not be possible, we will take all reasonable steps to maintain anonymity during this competition. All the rules for voting in the comps still apply. If there is a tie for the winning photo in any one of the categories, a 3 day tie breaking vote will take place to determine the winner. The winner of each of the pic of the year comps will also get a metal and 15,000 points. Second place will get a metal and 10,000 points.
Please PM me with any questions, comments, or concerns