Bleach Multi-Pairing Contest Rules
As per the last post, here is the Big Long Rules and Guidlines for ya'll!
INFORMATION AND RULES .
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1. What is the contest?
Consider this an exercise in flexibility--and believe me, if you are one of the lucky two finalists, the odds are slim that you won't have at least one pairing that's well outside your comfort zone. But hey, that's part of the fun! Everything from time-tested pairings to het and yaoi and yuri (oh my!) is fair game in this contest, so be sure you have a pretty decent handle on your canon.
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2. What kind of stories are accepted?
Only one shots are allowed, no multi-chapters. If you want to make your fic part of a longer chapter story after the round ends, that's fine, but it must stand on it's own as a standalone story.
**Any Word limits/minimums?
-No, but it should be long enough to convey a good story. Don't make it ridiculously short or long (with the time limit, I don't see the latter being too much of a problem, but if your word count resembling a certain 4chan meme...may wanna trim something off).
**Any genre requirements?
-The beauty of this contest is that almost anything goes. Humor or angst, fluffy or sappy, happily ever after or bittersweet goodbyes--whatever! Just so long as the pairing for the prompt exists in some way--a one-sided love is fine, too. The only thing I strongly ask is to avoid character bashing. badfic_quotes is a good staring point on what not to do in that department.
**Ratings and spoilers:
-Any rating so long as you warn for R or NC-17 .
-Spoilers: Fair warning, but there will be some pairings from the HM arc. If you're not even close to being caught up on this admittedly very long series, this probably isn't a good idea to join right now.
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3. What are rounds?
There are three types of rounds: Easy, Medium and Hard. The Easy rounds will feature the common, average, run-of-the-mill pairings, the Medium Rounds feature some not-so-common (but not entirely unheard of) pairings, and the Hard rounds are (you guessed it) full of challenging, almost never seen pairings featuring characters you'd never think could exist as a couple until you're assigned them.
The number of pairings will be decided on how many contestants we can get for sign-up and how many will stay on until the end. I'm aiming for twenty, but this will work with at least 12.
Each round will run about two weeks--ten days for writing, three for voting and one day allowed for the inevitable extensions that some will need.
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4. Judging and Submission
After every story is submitted in the challeneg thread for that week, you'll have three days to vote for a fic in the separate voting post.
**Rules of Submission:
1)You must be a registered member of LJ, because you'll need to post your fics on this comm. You may link to your fic at another archive such as FF.net, but you must have an account here.
NOTE: FF.net does not allow songfics, NC-17 or chatfic to be posted on their archive.
2) No asking other contestant about their ideas. We want as many original stories as possible.
3) On that same token, do not have contestants beta your work. This includes myself, the other mods, and any eliminated posters.
(4) When you post your one shot, place the link in the Stories post, and ONLY in the Stories thread. When X-posting, I'd prefer you didn't link directly to the voting threads. Outsider votes will not count.
(5) You may submit reviews to other contestants’ stories, even if it’s to say a simple good luck. But absolutely NO flaming. Disagreements are one thing, but if it looks too much like a flame, you will be required to explain. Depending or the nature of the flame, you may be disqualified
**Rules of voting:
(1) Absolutely NO voting for yourself.
(2) No PMing or e-mailing another author saying, “I’ll vote for you if you vote for me.” If any of you should receive an e-mail or PM like that, forward it to me via PM with the name of the sender. The sender may or may not be disqualified.
(3) Voting does not start until every story has been submitted, and the link is posted in the Stories thread. Once the final story is submitted, I’ll give you all a few days to vote. I know it’s difficult to read 20+ stories in one day, but it does get easier as the numbers decrease. You'll have three days to vote. If you do not vote before the deadline, your vote does not count.
(4) If you *don’t* vote, one vote will be taken from the total amount of votes for you. So, if you have 5 votes, and you do not vote, you now have 4. And in this contest, you’ll need all the votes you can get.
(5) In the case of Rule Four, if your vote tally reaches negative numbers, you will be eliminated. For example, if you had 0 votes to begin with, and you do not vote, you now have -1, and are therefore eliminated.
(6) In the case of a tie, everyone will vote between the two (or more) stories (except the authors of the tied stories) in a tiebreaker.
(7) The contestant with the lowest number of votes will be eliminated from the contest. If you are eliminated DO NOT badmouth the other contestants, or insult their work. If you’re going to be immature about this, you will be asked to leave permanently (in other words, blocked).
(7b) When you are eliminated, your job is NOT over. Though you cannot submit anymore one shots, you are still required to stick around and vote for the remaining contestants. Failure to do so will result in your permanent expulsion from the contest.
(8) All votes are FINAL and any attempt to change the votes in your favor or in someone else’s will result in disqualification.
(9) If you happen to win the contest, please do not brag incessantly and trash the losers. This contest is to help everyone so everyone is a winner. No one likes a sore loser, and everyone hates a sore winner.
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5. What will we be judged on?
Officially, there are no specific requirements, but I would like people to keep in mind:
-Originality: How original is the story? Does it reflect the couple's dynamic well?
-Characterization: Do they resemble the same characters from the show? There's room for different interpretations of canon, but I'm sure we can all agree neither Renji nor Orihime's not likely to blow up the Kurosaki clinic out of jealousy, yes? If you think the answer's no,then kindly GTFO and lurk moar, plzkthnx.
-Writing style: Makes good use of descriptions, very clear sense of writing, ect.
-Entertainment factor: Does it stick out in a good way?
-Grammar and punctuation: No1 wantz 2 reed a ficcy that haz every other sentence looking leik a post @ icanhaz cheezeburger.com LOLOMGWTFBBQ!!!11!!!one Seriously, it's pretty hard to get votes when no one understands a word you're typed.
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6. LATE SUBMISSIONS
All stories *must* be submitted before the ten day deadline is up, unless the following happens.
* Family emergencies (Injuries, death in the family)
* School (Finals, competition, etc.)
* Personal Health (Surgery, sick as a DOG)
* Trips (Vacation, reunions)
* Other, but you must be specific on what it is, and I'll decide whether to give you time or not.
* Lack of inspiration, or you're working on it (halfway done, or something) and you need more time. In this case, you will need to give a status report about how far along you are, and how much time you think you'll need.
Seeing how the folks at the Yuugioh contest almost always needed an extra three days to the week deadline over there, I've just tacked on the extra three days into the writing with a one-day extension as needed. This, IMO, is a pretty fair trade-off. If it's not done within eleven days, I'm afraid we'll have no choice but to eliminate by default.
And no, "This pairing's too hard to write for" is not an excuse for an extension. Boldy going where no Bleach writer has gone before is par for the course.
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7. When do we start?
Whenever we 1) Have 20 contestants or 2) The pre-determined starting date arrives.
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8. Where do I sign up?
In the Sign Up thread.
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9. Questions?
As the host, I am allowed to PM you, and likewise, you are allowed to PM me, should you have any questions. I receive comments in my email, so you may also ask them here.
---------------------------------------------------
Failure to follow these rules and/or the previously established forum rules will result in disqualification from the contest. We want to have fun here, but we also want this to run as smoothly as possible.
If you are willing to follow these rules and want to join, go to the Sign Up thread.
Welcome to the Contest!
INFORMATION AND RULES .
---------------------------------------------------
1. What is the contest?
Consider this an exercise in flexibility--and believe me, if you are one of the lucky two finalists, the odds are slim that you won't have at least one pairing that's well outside your comfort zone. But hey, that's part of the fun! Everything from time-tested pairings to het and yaoi and yuri (oh my!) is fair game in this contest, so be sure you have a pretty decent handle on your canon.
---------------------------------------------------
2. What kind of stories are accepted?
Only one shots are allowed, no multi-chapters. If you want to make your fic part of a longer chapter story after the round ends, that's fine, but it must stand on it's own as a standalone story.
**Any Word limits/minimums?
-No, but it should be long enough to convey a good story. Don't make it ridiculously short or long (with the time limit, I don't see the latter being too much of a problem, but if your word count resembling a certain 4chan meme...may wanna trim something off).
**Any genre requirements?
-The beauty of this contest is that almost anything goes. Humor or angst, fluffy or sappy, happily ever after or bittersweet goodbyes--whatever! Just so long as the pairing for the prompt exists in some way--a one-sided love is fine, too. The only thing I strongly ask is to avoid character bashing. badfic_quotes is a good staring point on what not to do in that department.
**Ratings and spoilers:
-Any rating so long as you warn for R or NC-17 .
-Spoilers: Fair warning, but there will be some pairings from the HM arc. If you're not even close to being caught up on this admittedly very long series, this probably isn't a good idea to join right now.
---------------------------------------------------
3. What are rounds?
There are three types of rounds: Easy, Medium and Hard. The Easy rounds will feature the common, average, run-of-the-mill pairings, the Medium Rounds feature some not-so-common (but not entirely unheard of) pairings, and the Hard rounds are (you guessed it) full of challenging, almost never seen pairings featuring characters you'd never think could exist as a couple until you're assigned them.
The number of pairings will be decided on how many contestants we can get for sign-up and how many will stay on until the end. I'm aiming for twenty, but this will work with at least 12.
Each round will run about two weeks--ten days for writing, three for voting and one day allowed for the inevitable extensions that some will need.
---------------------------------------------------
4. Judging and Submission
After every story is submitted in the challeneg thread for that week, you'll have three days to vote for a fic in the separate voting post.
**Rules of Submission:
1)You must be a registered member of LJ, because you'll need to post your fics on this comm. You may link to your fic at another archive such as FF.net, but you must have an account here.
NOTE: FF.net does not allow songfics, NC-17 or chatfic to be posted on their archive.
2) No asking other contestant about their ideas. We want as many original stories as possible.
3) On that same token, do not have contestants beta your work. This includes myself, the other mods, and any eliminated posters.
(4) When you post your one shot, place the link in the Stories post, and ONLY in the Stories thread. When X-posting, I'd prefer you didn't link directly to the voting threads. Outsider votes will not count.
(5) You may submit reviews to other contestants’ stories, even if it’s to say a simple good luck. But absolutely NO flaming. Disagreements are one thing, but if it looks too much like a flame, you will be required to explain. Depending or the nature of the flame, you may be disqualified
**Rules of voting:
(1) Absolutely NO voting for yourself.
(2) No PMing or e-mailing another author saying, “I’ll vote for you if you vote for me.” If any of you should receive an e-mail or PM like that, forward it to me via PM with the name of the sender. The sender may or may not be disqualified.
(3) Voting does not start until every story has been submitted, and the link is posted in the Stories thread. Once the final story is submitted, I’ll give you all a few days to vote. I know it’s difficult to read 20+ stories in one day, but it does get easier as the numbers decrease. You'll have three days to vote. If you do not vote before the deadline, your vote does not count.
(4) If you *don’t* vote, one vote will be taken from the total amount of votes for you. So, if you have 5 votes, and you do not vote, you now have 4. And in this contest, you’ll need all the votes you can get.
(5) In the case of Rule Four, if your vote tally reaches negative numbers, you will be eliminated. For example, if you had 0 votes to begin with, and you do not vote, you now have -1, and are therefore eliminated.
(6) In the case of a tie, everyone will vote between the two (or more) stories (except the authors of the tied stories) in a tiebreaker.
(7) The contestant with the lowest number of votes will be eliminated from the contest. If you are eliminated DO NOT badmouth the other contestants, or insult their work. If you’re going to be immature about this, you will be asked to leave permanently (in other words, blocked).
(7b) When you are eliminated, your job is NOT over. Though you cannot submit anymore one shots, you are still required to stick around and vote for the remaining contestants. Failure to do so will result in your permanent expulsion from the contest.
(8) All votes are FINAL and any attempt to change the votes in your favor or in someone else’s will result in disqualification.
(9) If you happen to win the contest, please do not brag incessantly and trash the losers. This contest is to help everyone so everyone is a winner. No one likes a sore loser, and everyone hates a sore winner.
---------------------------------------------------
5. What will we be judged on?
Officially, there are no specific requirements, but I would like people to keep in mind:
-Originality: How original is the story? Does it reflect the couple's dynamic well?
-Characterization: Do they resemble the same characters from the show? There's room for different interpretations of canon, but I'm sure we can all agree neither Renji nor Orihime's not likely to blow up the Kurosaki clinic out of jealousy, yes? If you think the answer's no,then kindly GTFO and lurk moar, plzkthnx.
-Writing style: Makes good use of descriptions, very clear sense of writing, ect.
-Entertainment factor: Does it stick out in a good way?
-Grammar and punctuation: No1 wantz 2 reed a ficcy that haz every other sentence looking leik a post @ icanhaz cheezeburger.com LOLOMGWTFBBQ!!!11!!!one Seriously, it's pretty hard to get votes when no one understands a word you're typed.
---------------------------------------------------
6. LATE SUBMISSIONS
All stories *must* be submitted before the ten day deadline is up, unless the following happens.
* Family emergencies (Injuries, death in the family)
* School (Finals, competition, etc.)
* Personal Health (Surgery, sick as a DOG)
* Trips (Vacation, reunions)
* Other, but you must be specific on what it is, and I'll decide whether to give you time or not.
* Lack of inspiration, or you're working on it (halfway done, or something) and you need more time. In this case, you will need to give a status report about how far along you are, and how much time you think you'll need.
Seeing how the folks at the Yuugioh contest almost always needed an extra three days to the week deadline over there, I've just tacked on the extra three days into the writing with a one-day extension as needed. This, IMO, is a pretty fair trade-off. If it's not done within eleven days, I'm afraid we'll have no choice but to eliminate by default.
And no, "This pairing's too hard to write for" is not an excuse for an extension. Boldy going where no Bleach writer has gone before is par for the course.
---------------------------------------------------
7. When do we start?
Whenever we 1) Have 20 contestants or 2) The pre-determined starting date arrives.
---------------------------------------------------
8. Where do I sign up?
In the Sign Up thread.
---------------------------------------------------
9. Questions?
As the host, I am allowed to PM you, and likewise, you are allowed to PM me, should you have any questions. I receive comments in my email, so you may also ask them here.
---------------------------------------------------
Failure to follow these rules and/or the previously established forum rules will result in disqualification from the contest. We want to have fun here, but we also want this to run as smoothly as possible.
If you are willing to follow these rules and want to join, go to the Sign Up thread.
Welcome to the Contest!