beeps
22nd May 2009, 1:55 AM
Hello, and welcome to the Sim Contests Forum!
The Official Rules for this forum are as follows. If you post a contest here, it is understood you have read and agreed to the following rules.
:here: About this Forum - These are a couple things that all contestant hosts, contestants and judges should know about the contest forum.
:!!: DO NOT ASK WHEN YOUR CONTEST WILL BE APPROVED. The Moderators cannot give anyone an assured date. However, if you are going to be away ...etc... please make a note at the top of the contest you are submitting indicating the earliest date you would like the contest to be approved. It wont always be approved on that date, but it will never be approved earlier if so noted.
Hosting
To Be a Host. In order to be able to host a contest on this site, you must qualify. You must have at least 20 posts (in any forum) and have successfully participated in at least one contest as either a judge or a contestant here at MTS or on our old sister-site, Sims 2 Community (http://old.sims-community.com/). Successfully participating in a contest means that you judge for the entire duration of the contest or you compete the entire duration of the contest or until you are eliminated. You must have made it through at least the application, first, and second rounds of a contest if youve chosen to participate as a contestant to be able to meet the requirements for hosting a contest of your own. This does mean that if you participate in a one or two round contest, it will NOT meet the requirements to host.
The threads in this forum are moderated. When you are ready to submit a new thread, it will not be visible in the Contest Forum until it has been reviewed by staff and approved. Approvals can take up to a month depending on your location on the Waiting List. The Waiting List located here will show your position in line. Additionally, all contest approval questions should go directly to heaven (http://www.modthesims.info/member.php?u=2650007) , via PM (Private Message).
There are three different sub-forums in this forum, Sims 2 Contests, Sims 3 Contests, and Sims 2 + Sims 3 Contests. When submitting your contest for approval, please submit it to the general Contest Forum, and your contest will be placed into the appropriate category once it completes the Application Stage. Rules are stricter for joint contests as any rules must be applicable to both games in regards to custom content, limitations, etc so joint contests may be harder to get approved.
Submit only one contest at a time. If you already have a contest listed on the Waiting List, please do not submit another contest to the forum until the aforementioned contest is completely finished. Anyone not following this rule will have their contest rejected from the Moderation Queue, and subsequently it will not be placed on the Waiting List.
Save your contest template. Please make sure, as a contest host, to save a copy of your contest template somewhere safe on your computer. Should your contest be rejected for a specific reason, you can make changes and resubmit. We do not have a way of saving your rejected contests.
Editing after submitting. When you submit a contest to the Contests Forum, you will not be able to edit it until the day it is approved. That's just the way the system works. If you feel edits have to be made, you can opt to resubmit (and always save your current template). Remember though... your old template will be deleted from the Moderation Queue and the approval position you had saved on the Waiting List will be changed. Therefore please try your best to submit contests when you know you won't have to change much. If things have to be changed, you can edit your contest thread when it is approved.
The Sims Contest Forum. All contests which are viewable in the general Sims Contest Forum area are in the Application Stage and should be appropriately labeled with the "Application" tab. Once the contest is finished accepting applications, please remember to edit your thread to display the "In Progress" tab. From there, the contest thread will be moved to its appropriate subforum (ie Beauty, Houses or Other).
Multiple Cycles of Contests - As most of you know, there are some members who host contests for more than one cycle (i.e. Miss Beautiful Sim Cycle 3). There will now be a limit on the number of cycles allowed for a contest. Any host can choose to run up to three cycles of their contest. This way, not only can the host take their successful contest idea and run with it up to three times, but it will also encourage contest hosts to come up with creative and unique ideas instead of running the same basic template a zillion times.
RP and Strategy Type Contests are NOT allowed here. If you would like to run an RP-based contest or a strategy-type contest, please post your contest thread in the Roleplaying Forum. If you try and submit one here, it will be rejected from the Moderation Queue.
Contests started here, stay here. There has been an increasing number of contests that are run here and at least in part on another "secret" board away from the eyes of Moderators. This causes a lot of trouble because we cannot 1) see that the rules are being followed or 2) prevent members from being abused. The Contests Forum is here in order that you all may run contests on this site. We expect contests that are run here to be run on the site for everything they entail. Group PM's can easily take the place of secret boards. There is no acceptable reason that a contest cannot be run completely on this site. Contests ignoring this rule will be deleted or locked without warning. If you have a contest waiting in the Moderation Queue that you were planning on doing this with, please re-think your strategy. Group PMs, where everyone can talk to each other (and the host) privately at the same time, will suffice.
Abandoned Contests.Contest hosts who abandon contests at any stage in the competition will no longer be able to run contests on this site. If you have a contest in waiting and feel you may not be able to run it, PM heaven (http://www.modthesims.info/m/2650007), and she will remove your contest from waiting or make arrangements for dates. DO NOT JUST WALK AWAY. If a contest is abandoned in the application round, it will be deleted. Contests will only be allowed to be taken over once they have begun round 1 or more. If a contest is abandoned or mismanaged, members of MTS's staff will step in and vote on an appropriate winner.
Appropriate Application Time. Contests remaining in the Application stage for up to 2 weeks will be deleted. If you, the contest holder, cannot accumulate enough entries for a successful contest (10 entries) in a 2 week time, your contest thread will be deleted.
Eliminations and Entrant Limits. If a host would like to limit the number of participants, this must be stated in the MAIN POST. All contestants must be aware ahead of time that there is a limit. This means that the first X number of people to enter properly (no place holders) will be the contestants. Additionally, there will be NO more elimination contests . Eliminations are contrary to what contests are supposed to be about: having fun, learning, and getting to know other MTS members. If you, as a host, are concerned about large numbers of entries, set a contestant limit from the beginning. If a contestant cannot meet the basic requirements of the contest (number of pictures, picture size, required text, theme, deadline, etc.), then they can be disqualified from participation, but cannot be eliminated for low scoring or some other qualitative criteria.
Round Times and Extensions. Due to the decreased amount of contests, contest time limits will no longer be limited to just a month. However, they WILL be monitored to make sure they are being completed and scored in a timely manner. Additionally, hosts are permitted to allow extensions. An extension is exactly that: extending the round to last longer than intended. Typical extensions can be anywhere from a few hours to a week. However, all rounds following this should have their timelines adjusted as well. At no point, should an extended round be due later than a round that comes after it.
Bonus Rounds. Hosts are allowed to host "bonus tasks" or rounds, which contestants need not participate in unless they wish to earn extra/bonus points. The extra points earned by bonus rounds should exceed the required maximum points for that round. The bonus points should not be included in the round scores, they should be extra points (like extra credit points in school). Do not take off points from any contestant who does not participate in bonus tasks.
For example:
Round One is worth 50 points, and there is a bonus round worth an extra 10 points. As the host, you should be adding on the extra points onto the score total (i.e. 60/50 points not 50/50 points) for those contestants who chose to participate in the bonus rounds/tasks.
Judging
3+ judges are required. To keep this forum running in a fair, unbiased format, ALL contests require 3 or more judges. These judges must be used in ALL rounds (with the exception of a judge dropping out). Judges can NOT be your mother, sister, cat or remote control. You must have 3 members of this site help you. Judges cannot be secret. You must list your judges' forum names before the first round of judging. This ensures no favoritism and will help contests run smoother.
Commit to judging. If you chose to be a judge, you must follow through for the entire duration of the contests you chose to judge. Do not sign on to judge if you can not be prompt with your voting when each round is over. Be courteous to those who put time and effort into making entries and judge quickly and effectively. Any judge known to have abandoned their position as a judge may not be able to judge a future contest.
Judges giving criticism. As a judge, you are to ONLY provide CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. Judges who are found to have provided mean or hurtful comments will be given a warning and may not be able to judge future contests. If you, the contest holder, are sent a PM from a judge and find something you think may not be constructive criticism, its your responsibility to forward the PM to heaven.
Participating
Commit to participating. If you as a contestant sign on to a contest, you must commit to participating in the contest until either the contest is complete or until you are eliminated. If you MUST drop out, please PM the contest host with a specific reason as to why its imperative for you to leave the contest. In addition, members who are noticed to continually drop out of contests, reason or not, may not be able to participate in future contests. As a contest host, you are urged to bring this problem to the attention of heaven (http://www.modthesims.info/m/2650007) to be dealt with accordingly.
No Sim-stealing. It has come to our attention that more and more people are using others' Sims and trying to pass them off as their own. Please note that creators have put their Sims up for download at MTS in the spirit of sharing and kindness. This ALSO includes Sims you have won in certain contests. If you are proven to have used a Sim created by someone else, you will be taken out of the contests you are currently in and may not be able to participate in future contests.
No Sim-tweaking. Simply tweaking the Sim a bit and trying to pass it of as your own is odd because making a good Sim is not difficult if you have bodyshop, or at the very least, Create-A-Sim in game. If you have downloaded a Sim, changing the skintone/eyes does NOT make it your Sim.If you are proven to have used a Sim created by someone else (tweaked or not), you will be taken out of the contests you are currently in and may not be able to participate in future contests.
Abandoned Contest. If you are participating in a contest that seems to have been abandoned by the contest holder, do not hesitate to either report the thread or PM heaven (http://www.modthesims.info/m/2650007) explaining your concern.
Beauty Contests
Beauty Contest Submission - There has been an astounding number of beauty contests submitted for approval, and most of them do not have a particularly interesting concept. In fact, most of them are loosely based off the idea of "enter a hot female, and we will see who wins" with a twist or two. Therefore, contest templates falling within the "Beauty" section will need to be much more evolved in order to be approved.
Beauty Contest Approval - In conjunction with the above change, there will only be a few beauty contests approved per month. Only the most interesting ideas for beauty contests will be considered for approval, so work hard on making a really solid template before you submit it. This will encourage members to either create really unique and special ideas for beauty contests or stick to creating contests which fall into the "House" or "Other" categories. The actual number of beauty contests approved per month is subject to change in the future depending on the quality and uniqueness of beauty contest templates submitted.
Rules and Guidelines - These are the Contests Forum Rules which apply to everyone participating in a contest.
DONT SPAM. Don't ever spam. Spamming in the Contests Forum usually includes hosts begging for applicants, double/triple/quadruple posting, people posting replies totally off-topic and unrelated to the contest whatsoever, and general annoyingness or completely unnecessary comments which have no point and just take up space. These types of posts will be deleted, and members may be warned as well.
No useless posts. The "This sounds fun, I'll be back with an application" or "I may enter this contest, but I dunno..." type posts are completely useless and waste space on the contest thread. Reserve type posts and useless posts about coming back with an application will be deleted.
You do not need 20 contestants for a successful contest. Many people close down their contest because there are only a few contestants who enter during the Application Round. As long as you have at least 10 contestants, you still have a good competition.
Try and ask "Where did you get that dress/couch/hairstyle?" questions out of the contest thread itself. Either send the member a PM or ask in the WCIF Forum.
No "reserve" type posts. From now on, if you post an application or round entry with text and no qualifying pictures stating, "Ill be right back with pictures!" that post will be deleted.
Don't be a sore loser. Just because your Sim has not made it through, does not mean you have the right to hurl insults at anyone. We are all here to learn how to improve our Sim-making skills and picture-taking skills. If you need to vent, try PMing a friend about it.
Nudity is NOT tolerated anywhere on MTS. This means absolutely NO topless pictures are allowed, edited or un-edited. The pictures should also have appropriate coverage of any nudity. Cover up any nudity unsuitable for this site. Specifically, no female nipples, and/or crotches or butts of either gender; they need to be covered at least as much as a swimsuit would cover.
Please keep picture sizes within reasonable limits. We don't all have DSL connections so huge connections can take forever to load. The minimum picture size is 800x600 and the maximum size is 1280x1024. OPTIMUM picture size is 1024 x 768. The Contests Forum Moderators will judge larger images on a case by case basis and may request you resize images. Failure to comply when asked will result in your post being removed.
:!!: DO NOT ASK WHEN YOUR CONTEST WILL BE APPROVED. The Moderators cannot give anyone an assured date. However, if you are going to be away ...etc... please make a note at the top of the contest you are submitting indicating the earliest date you would like the contest to be approved. It wont always be approved on that date, but it will never be approved earlier if so noted.
:alarm: If you, as a concerned member of this site, are unsure about any goings-on within the activity of the Sim Contests Forum, please take it upon yourself to PM heaven (http://www.modthesims.info/m/2650007) with your concern!
The Official Rules for this forum are as follows. If you post a contest here, it is understood you have read and agreed to the following rules.
:here: About this Forum - These are a couple things that all contestant hosts, contestants and judges should know about the contest forum.
:!!: DO NOT ASK WHEN YOUR CONTEST WILL BE APPROVED. The Moderators cannot give anyone an assured date. However, if you are going to be away ...etc... please make a note at the top of the contest you are submitting indicating the earliest date you would like the contest to be approved. It wont always be approved on that date, but it will never be approved earlier if so noted.
Hosting
To Be a Host. In order to be able to host a contest on this site, you must qualify. You must have at least 20 posts (in any forum) and have successfully participated in at least one contest as either a judge or a contestant here at MTS or on our old sister-site, Sims 2 Community (http://old.sims-community.com/). Successfully participating in a contest means that you judge for the entire duration of the contest or you compete the entire duration of the contest or until you are eliminated. You must have made it through at least the application, first, and second rounds of a contest if youve chosen to participate as a contestant to be able to meet the requirements for hosting a contest of your own. This does mean that if you participate in a one or two round contest, it will NOT meet the requirements to host.
The threads in this forum are moderated. When you are ready to submit a new thread, it will not be visible in the Contest Forum until it has been reviewed by staff and approved. Approvals can take up to a month depending on your location on the Waiting List. The Waiting List located here will show your position in line. Additionally, all contest approval questions should go directly to heaven (http://www.modthesims.info/member.php?u=2650007) , via PM (Private Message).
There are three different sub-forums in this forum, Sims 2 Contests, Sims 3 Contests, and Sims 2 + Sims 3 Contests. When submitting your contest for approval, please submit it to the general Contest Forum, and your contest will be placed into the appropriate category once it completes the Application Stage. Rules are stricter for joint contests as any rules must be applicable to both games in regards to custom content, limitations, etc so joint contests may be harder to get approved.
Submit only one contest at a time. If you already have a contest listed on the Waiting List, please do not submit another contest to the forum until the aforementioned contest is completely finished. Anyone not following this rule will have their contest rejected from the Moderation Queue, and subsequently it will not be placed on the Waiting List.
Save your contest template. Please make sure, as a contest host, to save a copy of your contest template somewhere safe on your computer. Should your contest be rejected for a specific reason, you can make changes and resubmit. We do not have a way of saving your rejected contests.
Editing after submitting. When you submit a contest to the Contests Forum, you will not be able to edit it until the day it is approved. That's just the way the system works. If you feel edits have to be made, you can opt to resubmit (and always save your current template). Remember though... your old template will be deleted from the Moderation Queue and the approval position you had saved on the Waiting List will be changed. Therefore please try your best to submit contests when you know you won't have to change much. If things have to be changed, you can edit your contest thread when it is approved.
The Sims Contest Forum. All contests which are viewable in the general Sims Contest Forum area are in the Application Stage and should be appropriately labeled with the "Application" tab. Once the contest is finished accepting applications, please remember to edit your thread to display the "In Progress" tab. From there, the contest thread will be moved to its appropriate subforum (ie Beauty, Houses or Other).
Multiple Cycles of Contests - As most of you know, there are some members who host contests for more than one cycle (i.e. Miss Beautiful Sim Cycle 3). There will now be a limit on the number of cycles allowed for a contest. Any host can choose to run up to three cycles of their contest. This way, not only can the host take their successful contest idea and run with it up to three times, but it will also encourage contest hosts to come up with creative and unique ideas instead of running the same basic template a zillion times.
RP and Strategy Type Contests are NOT allowed here. If you would like to run an RP-based contest or a strategy-type contest, please post your contest thread in the Roleplaying Forum. If you try and submit one here, it will be rejected from the Moderation Queue.
Contests started here, stay here. There has been an increasing number of contests that are run here and at least in part on another "secret" board away from the eyes of Moderators. This causes a lot of trouble because we cannot 1) see that the rules are being followed or 2) prevent members from being abused. The Contests Forum is here in order that you all may run contests on this site. We expect contests that are run here to be run on the site for everything they entail. Group PM's can easily take the place of secret boards. There is no acceptable reason that a contest cannot be run completely on this site. Contests ignoring this rule will be deleted or locked without warning. If you have a contest waiting in the Moderation Queue that you were planning on doing this with, please re-think your strategy. Group PMs, where everyone can talk to each other (and the host) privately at the same time, will suffice.
Abandoned Contests.Contest hosts who abandon contests at any stage in the competition will no longer be able to run contests on this site. If you have a contest in waiting and feel you may not be able to run it, PM heaven (http://www.modthesims.info/m/2650007), and she will remove your contest from waiting or make arrangements for dates. DO NOT JUST WALK AWAY. If a contest is abandoned in the application round, it will be deleted. Contests will only be allowed to be taken over once they have begun round 1 or more. If a contest is abandoned or mismanaged, members of MTS's staff will step in and vote on an appropriate winner.
Appropriate Application Time. Contests remaining in the Application stage for up to 2 weeks will be deleted. If you, the contest holder, cannot accumulate enough entries for a successful contest (10 entries) in a 2 week time, your contest thread will be deleted.
Eliminations and Entrant Limits. If a host would like to limit the number of participants, this must be stated in the MAIN POST. All contestants must be aware ahead of time that there is a limit. This means that the first X number of people to enter properly (no place holders) will be the contestants. Additionally, there will be NO more elimination contests . Eliminations are contrary to what contests are supposed to be about: having fun, learning, and getting to know other MTS members. If you, as a host, are concerned about large numbers of entries, set a contestant limit from the beginning. If a contestant cannot meet the basic requirements of the contest (number of pictures, picture size, required text, theme, deadline, etc.), then they can be disqualified from participation, but cannot be eliminated for low scoring or some other qualitative criteria.
Round Times and Extensions. Due to the decreased amount of contests, contest time limits will no longer be limited to just a month. However, they WILL be monitored to make sure they are being completed and scored in a timely manner. Additionally, hosts are permitted to allow extensions. An extension is exactly that: extending the round to last longer than intended. Typical extensions can be anywhere from a few hours to a week. However, all rounds following this should have their timelines adjusted as well. At no point, should an extended round be due later than a round that comes after it.
Bonus Rounds. Hosts are allowed to host "bonus tasks" or rounds, which contestants need not participate in unless they wish to earn extra/bonus points. The extra points earned by bonus rounds should exceed the required maximum points for that round. The bonus points should not be included in the round scores, they should be extra points (like extra credit points in school). Do not take off points from any contestant who does not participate in bonus tasks.
For example:
Round One is worth 50 points, and there is a bonus round worth an extra 10 points. As the host, you should be adding on the extra points onto the score total (i.e. 60/50 points not 50/50 points) for those contestants who chose to participate in the bonus rounds/tasks.
Judging
3+ judges are required. To keep this forum running in a fair, unbiased format, ALL contests require 3 or more judges. These judges must be used in ALL rounds (with the exception of a judge dropping out). Judges can NOT be your mother, sister, cat or remote control. You must have 3 members of this site help you. Judges cannot be secret. You must list your judges' forum names before the first round of judging. This ensures no favoritism and will help contests run smoother.
Commit to judging. If you chose to be a judge, you must follow through for the entire duration of the contests you chose to judge. Do not sign on to judge if you can not be prompt with your voting when each round is over. Be courteous to those who put time and effort into making entries and judge quickly and effectively. Any judge known to have abandoned their position as a judge may not be able to judge a future contest.
Judges giving criticism. As a judge, you are to ONLY provide CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. Judges who are found to have provided mean or hurtful comments will be given a warning and may not be able to judge future contests. If you, the contest holder, are sent a PM from a judge and find something you think may not be constructive criticism, its your responsibility to forward the PM to heaven.
Participating
Commit to participating. If you as a contestant sign on to a contest, you must commit to participating in the contest until either the contest is complete or until you are eliminated. If you MUST drop out, please PM the contest host with a specific reason as to why its imperative for you to leave the contest. In addition, members who are noticed to continually drop out of contests, reason or not, may not be able to participate in future contests. As a contest host, you are urged to bring this problem to the attention of heaven (http://www.modthesims.info/m/2650007) to be dealt with accordingly.
No Sim-stealing. It has come to our attention that more and more people are using others' Sims and trying to pass them off as their own. Please note that creators have put their Sims up for download at MTS in the spirit of sharing and kindness. This ALSO includes Sims you have won in certain contests. If you are proven to have used a Sim created by someone else, you will be taken out of the contests you are currently in and may not be able to participate in future contests.
No Sim-tweaking. Simply tweaking the Sim a bit and trying to pass it of as your own is odd because making a good Sim is not difficult if you have bodyshop, or at the very least, Create-A-Sim in game. If you have downloaded a Sim, changing the skintone/eyes does NOT make it your Sim.If you are proven to have used a Sim created by someone else (tweaked or not), you will be taken out of the contests you are currently in and may not be able to participate in future contests.
Abandoned Contest. If you are participating in a contest that seems to have been abandoned by the contest holder, do not hesitate to either report the thread or PM heaven (http://www.modthesims.info/m/2650007) explaining your concern.
Beauty Contests
Beauty Contest Submission - There has been an astounding number of beauty contests submitted for approval, and most of them do not have a particularly interesting concept. In fact, most of them are loosely based off the idea of "enter a hot female, and we will see who wins" with a twist or two. Therefore, contest templates falling within the "Beauty" section will need to be much more evolved in order to be approved.
Beauty Contest Approval - In conjunction with the above change, there will only be a few beauty contests approved per month. Only the most interesting ideas for beauty contests will be considered for approval, so work hard on making a really solid template before you submit it. This will encourage members to either create really unique and special ideas for beauty contests or stick to creating contests which fall into the "House" or "Other" categories. The actual number of beauty contests approved per month is subject to change in the future depending on the quality and uniqueness of beauty contest templates submitted.
Rules and Guidelines - These are the Contests Forum Rules which apply to everyone participating in a contest.
DONT SPAM. Don't ever spam. Spamming in the Contests Forum usually includes hosts begging for applicants, double/triple/quadruple posting, people posting replies totally off-topic and unrelated to the contest whatsoever, and general annoyingness or completely unnecessary comments which have no point and just take up space. These types of posts will be deleted, and members may be warned as well.
No useless posts. The "This sounds fun, I'll be back with an application" or "I may enter this contest, but I dunno..." type posts are completely useless and waste space on the contest thread. Reserve type posts and useless posts about coming back with an application will be deleted.
You do not need 20 contestants for a successful contest. Many people close down their contest because there are only a few contestants who enter during the Application Round. As long as you have at least 10 contestants, you still have a good competition.
Try and ask "Where did you get that dress/couch/hairstyle?" questions out of the contest thread itself. Either send the member a PM or ask in the WCIF Forum.
No "reserve" type posts. From now on, if you post an application or round entry with text and no qualifying pictures stating, "Ill be right back with pictures!" that post will be deleted.
Don't be a sore loser. Just because your Sim has not made it through, does not mean you have the right to hurl insults at anyone. We are all here to learn how to improve our Sim-making skills and picture-taking skills. If you need to vent, try PMing a friend about it.
Nudity is NOT tolerated anywhere on MTS. This means absolutely NO topless pictures are allowed, edited or un-edited. The pictures should also have appropriate coverage of any nudity. Cover up any nudity unsuitable for this site. Specifically, no female nipples, and/or crotches or butts of either gender; they need to be covered at least as much as a swimsuit would cover.
Please keep picture sizes within reasonable limits. We don't all have DSL connections so huge connections can take forever to load. The minimum picture size is 800x600 and the maximum size is 1280x1024. OPTIMUM picture size is 1024 x 768. The Contests Forum Moderators will judge larger images on a case by case basis and may request you resize images. Failure to comply when asked will result in your post being removed.
:!!: DO NOT ASK WHEN YOUR CONTEST WILL BE APPROVED. The Moderators cannot give anyone an assured date. However, if you are going to be away ...etc... please make a note at the top of the contest you are submitting indicating the earliest date you would like the contest to be approved. It wont always be approved on that date, but it will never be approved earlier if so noted.
:alarm: If you, as a concerned member of this site, are unsure about any goings-on within the activity of the Sim Contests Forum, please take it upon yourself to PM heaven (http://www.modthesims.info/m/2650007) with your concern!