Post by Krall on Jan 6, 2016 13:37:51 GMT
The Official AltHistoria
MAP OF THE FORTNIGHT
Cartography Contest
MAP OF THE FORTNIGHT
Cartography Contest
Hello everyone and welcome to the MotF's new home on AltHistoria!
The Map of the Fortnight is a regular map contest for any member of AltHistoria to enter and vote on. Every two weeks a challenge is chosen, and anyone wishing to enter has two weeks to make a map fitting the challenge requirements. After the entry period is over we take the submitted entries to a vote, and the person with the most votes after one week is the winner!
That's the short explanation, at least. There are a few more nuanced and complicated rules about all this, but feel free to head into things without knowing every inch of the rules - most of it's pretty intuitive and I'm always happy to help out newcomers to the contest! The exact rules and regulations, however, are as follows:
- Choosing the Challenge -
The challenge for each round of Map of the Fortnight is officially chosen by the Contest Overseer - myself - based on the suggestions and support of people in this thread. You are free to post new ideas for contest challenges and express your full opinion on any and all challenge suggestions you wish at any time, and you may participate in the discussion regardless of whether you intend to enter the contest or not! Challenge suggestions generally consist of a title and a text, for example:
The Promised Land
Make a map showing a voluntary mass settlement.
Make a map showing a voluntary mass settlement.
You can refer to each idea and suggestion by its title alone - you may even post a message including nothing but a challenge's title in order to indicate support for it - but please try to embolden the title of any challenge suggestion you mention, as it makes it easier on me when I come to tally up the support for the different challenge suggestions.
You may repost any previous challenge suggestion if you wish, even challenge suggestions that have already been used for previous challenges if you wish the idea to be rerun! Feel free to check out this list of previous challenge ideas and repost any you like the looks of.
- Who May Enter, and Whether Entries are Valid -
Anyone with an account on AltHistoria may enter the contest - there are no restrictions and no registration. All you have to do is make an entry and post it in the entry thread before the deadline.
Each contest round will have a challenge and may have other requirements or restrictions on entries. These will all be detailed in the opening post of that contest round's entry thread. Provided your entry meets some reasonable interpretation of the challenge requirements, it is valid. In instances where the Contest Overseer is unsure if an entry meets the challenge requirements or not, the entry will be given the benefit of the doubt and be permitted. If an entry is not permitted you will be messaged privately by the Contest Overseer informing you of this, and explaining why your entry was invalid.
You may edit your entry at any time before the deadline. If your entry has been declared invalid you may edit it to make it valid or withdraw it by deleting your post in the entry thread and then enter a new entry by posting in the entry thread again. It's generally polite to privately message the Contest Overseer (me) when you edit or change your entry.
The entry period for each round begins when its entry thread is posted and ends when its voting thread is posted, roughly 2 weeks apart. Your entry should be made within that entry period - not before - so existing maps that meet the challenge requirements are not permitted. Feel free to use existing resources or "cannibalise" maps you've previously made in order to make your entry though; provided it's at least partly original it will be valid.
- Who Wins, and How -
The winner is decided by a public poll posted on this forum. The poll for each round will be open for exactly 7 days, and the entry with the highest number of votes at the close of the poll is declared the winner! Entries may also be awarded Honourable Mentions for the following criteria:
-High Popularity (defined as gaining at least 1/3 the number of votes as the winning entry)
-Impressive First Appearance (In cases where a person's first entry into this contest is particularly good)
-Unique Map-Making (For entries that are very unusual or experimental in design or construction, or otherwise well outside the norm)
In the event of a tie the tied entrants will be entered into a Map Duel, and will be given a challenge by the Contest Overseer. They will then have to make entries fitting that challenge, which will be posted by the Contest Overseer along with a poll in order to determine the ultimate winner. An Honourable Mention for Fighting a Map Duel will be awarded to entrants who do not win a Map Duel, but still enter.
Once the voting is over and the winner and Honourable Mentions decided, the Contest Overseer will post a victory announcement for that round in this thread.
- Timing and Schedule -
As you may have guessed, each round of the Map of the Fortnight contest lasts for a fortnight (two weeks). The entry thread for a contest round will be posted on a Sunday, and the entry period will be open until that contest round's voting thread is posted on the second Sunday afterwards. The next contest round begins immediately, so the voting thread for the previous round and the entry thread for the next round will be posted concurrently every other Sunday - thus there is no gap between the entry periods for each round and there is always an ongoing contest.
Over Christmas a hiatus will be taken as people rarely have time over this period to enter the contest, and the Contest Overseer rarely has time to oversee it. Contest rounds begin again on any Sunday in January, at the Contest Overseer's discretion.
Once a year a Map of the Month contest round will be held, usually around July or August, which will have a 4-week-long entry period. Challenges for Map of the Month rounds usually require extra work compared to normal MotF rounds, thus making good use of the extra time that entrants have to make their entries.
- Threads and Their Use -
There are three types of threads used in the MotF contest, each with a different use. They are as follows:
The Main Thread: That's this one. Discussion of entries, challenge suggestions, and the contest in general go in here. This is also where victory announcements will be made. If you're in doubt of where to post something relevant to the contest, post it in here.
The Entry Threads: Each contest round will have an entry thread with a title showing the round number and the title of the challenge used for that round - for example "MotF 22: The Mouse That Roared". The only thing you should post in these threads are your entries. You do not need to post your entry in a single post though, and people often post a text description in one post followed by the map entry in the next.
The Voting Threads: Similarly each contest round will have a voting thread with a title identical to that of its entry thread with "Voting thread" amended at the end - for example: "MotF 22: The Mouse That Roared - Voting thread". Discussion of that round, entries for that round, and your vote for that round may all go in here.
- Wiki Pages -
Main Page
This page gives a general description of the contest, as well as going over its history and rules.
Contest Rounds and Winners
This page has details of each MotF round, complete with links to the entry and voting threads.
Challenge Suggestions
This page has a list of most of the suggested challenges as well as the challenges used for past contest rounds.
Main Page
This page gives a general description of the contest, as well as going over its history and rules.
Contest Rounds and Winners
This page has details of each MotF round, complete with links to the entry and voting threads.
Challenge Suggestions
This page has a list of most of the suggested challenges as well as the challenges used for past contest rounds.
And I think that's everything! If you have and questions or queries on anything at all, please feel free to ask them in here or in a private message to me.
