Holiday Contest, All the Rules

Announcing another contest! This one is going to be holiday themed and last till January 12th which hopefully is plenty of time to get some entries in!

I added to the rule sets because I submitted the contest for poll-voting with . With it going pretty public, I had to put on my rules-thinking cap and think like a lawyer. Previous rules were not changed, I only added detailed technicalities, so anything you were working on from before you can continue without worry.


The first part is going to be lengthy technical stuff, so if you're just wanting the general idea, skip it; Judge Dredd's face appears around it as a "LawPlz: icon. If you're serious about entering, to make sure you didn't miss anything, go ahead and read through it.




TERMINOLOGY, TECHNICALITY, AND DISCLAIMERS
All the rules for the contest are listed below in this journal, and are subject to change either by me, Deviant account holder "ColonelMarksman" at any time. Winnings cannot be absolutely guaranteed (heck, I might die tomorrow though the possibility is quite slim, it's still a possibility) but I do promise and pledge to do my best to provide the prize winnings and do what's necessary to keep this contest fair as per the rules I have written.

The term "entry" as listed in this journal refers to any work of art submitted for public viewing through the website Deviant Art, that has been requested to be submitted into the folder gallery: the-chipmunks-mfans.deviantart…

The term "host" as listed in this journal refers to the author of this journal entry, ColonelMarksman.

This contest and the host is not affiliated with Bagdasarian Productions, the company that is the creator and owner to the franchise "Alvin and the Chipmunks" (short form acronym "AATC") which includes the "Chipettes" , or any production company, artist, or employee with any group that has worked with and affiliated with Bagdasarian Productions.

"Alvin and the Chipmunks", and all characters created within the franchise, officially recognized by Bagdasarian Productions, is intellectual property owned by Bagdasarian Productions.

"Contestant" refers to a single person with a Deviant account holder who submits an entry to the group, or will refer to a team of Deviant account holders who have collectively and unanimously agreed to submit a single entry with their artwork.

"Participant/"Artist"/"Writer" refers to any single person who has worked on the artwork being submitted to collectively and unanimously agreed to submit a single entry with their artwork. If the agreement is not unanimous between all those involved with artwork in the entry, it will be considered art theft and not eligible for winnings.

An example of the above two paragraphs would be for a writer who has written a poem and an artist who has drawn a picture within a single entry. The two participants will be referred collectively as a single contestant, and both the artist and the writer must have agreed to submit the entry. Should their entry win a place (1st, 2nd, or 3rd) eligible for a prize, the participants will each receive half of the listed prize. A request for an uneven split will not be recognized or granted.

The host and the group, are not responsible for the actions of any participants, but will do our best to keep the contest as fair as possible by allowing entries to remain in the contest as eligible for voting. I the host reserve the right to remove entries from the contest by deleting them from the contest folder for any reason without consent from the owning participants. This will be done if an entry is found to break any rules listed in this journal; the action will be completed only after there is some proof as determined by me to remove it. This is to ensure quality fairness to all participants who entered.

"Winner(s)" refer to participants that have received the most votes (as well as the second most votes and third most votes where second and third place is recognized with eligibility).

Prize winnings that will be granted to winners will be given in the form of Deviant "points" as a gift of congratulations by ColonelMarksman, the host of the contest. Winners and their entries will not be promised any special privileges of any kind by the host related to official works related to the AATC franchise.

PayPal will be used to give money, in US dollars, to any winner only if they request it. This amount of money will be of equal value to the number of Deviant Art points listed as the prize. The prize winnings will be labeled as a "gift".

The above two paragraphs clarify that, as gifts winners receiving prizes are not paid or commissioned by the host as an art request or work. Please see your government laws for your residence for handling gifts as related to taxation.

No purchase is necessary to enter.

By submitting an entry, you agree that you have and will comply with all of the rules listed in the journal.




Whew, that's done. Now for the actual contest itself:



THEME
You can artistically depict any characters from official Alvin and the Chipmunks canon in any holiday setting between the summer and New Years. So you can dress them in Halloween costumes, have them eating at Thanksgiving, opening gifts at Christmas, observing Hanukkah, partying at New Year's, and anything in-between.

List isn't exclusive, but the celebrated date must be between September 1st and New Year's Day, January 1st (your birthday doesn't count as a holiday ). National recognition days from other countries are included if they are a recognized holiday (i.e. National Day of Vietnam is September 2nd and is a holiday).


PRIZES
FIRST PLACE -- 4,000 points (or) cash equivalent with PayPal
*SECOND PLACE -- 2,000 points (or) cash equivalent with PayPal
**THIRD PLACE -- 1,000 points (or) cash equivalent with PayPal

(* At least 6 entries required. ** At least 10 entries required.)



YOUR ORIGINAL CHARACTERS
You can have up to 1 and only 1 of your OCs in the entry, and they must have at least 1 other canon singing chipmunk character with them (Alvin, Simon, Theodore, Brittany, Jeanette, Eleanor, and I'll go ahead and throw Charlene in there).



ENTRY RULES
Open to any written OR visual entries! Any kind of art from any art style (60s, 80s, CGI, your own) is accepted. Poems with visual art, comics, clothes, even a cake decoration will be accepted; virtually anything you make.

Only 1 entry is allowed per contestant, but if you are trying out as a team (i.e. a line artist, a colorist, effect specialist, etc. or a writer making a poem with someone else's art) note that the prizes are going to be awarded only to the entries of place, and prize winnings will be split evenly among those who collaborated. I'm not made of money, so I'm not dishing out 12,000 points to three first-place winners. And no, don't collaborate with a group on one entry, and then submit your own, stand-alone entry.

Entries submitted before the contest announcement will be allowed provided they have not won another contest of any kind in the past or been nominated as runner-ups or special mentions.

No edited screen caps, no bases (base: pre-set line art you didn't draw where all you do is fill in color), and certainly no art theft from another d eviant is going to be allowed. Entries may not break the law, include nudity or strong profanity as per the group rules; PG-13 or comparable 12-year-age and under equivalent movie rating from your country.

While I normally wouldn't mind allowing very well done photo-manipulations (of official works made by Bagdasarian Productions or other artists who cannot be contacted), because there's money involved, I can't allow it. If you photo-manipulate something, it's got to be wholly your work or at least work from the free public domain.

You do not have to be a member of the group to enter. If you send me a message with a link to your work, I can submit it to the contest folder.

DEADLINE: Entries will close on 11:59 pm on January 12th. If you submitted a request like 1-2 minutes before, your entry might not show up till later, but you must have at least submitted a request to the folder before 11:59 pm on the 12th. Don't worry about missing votes, voting won't start till a few days later, see below.


SUBMITTING
You can begin submitting your entries now. Put them in this folder: the-chipmunks-mfans.deviantart… or send me a note with a link to your entry and I will put it in there for you. When you submit, you will have to wait for approval so it won't show up immediately.

Remember, if you submit an entry, you adhere to the rules.



VOTING
If you enter you must vote (no holding back to give yourself a better chance!), you may not vote for yourself, and all votes will remain anonymous.

Voting begins Monday 14th of January, and will end 11:59 pm of the 19th. If I feel there should be more votes or all participants haven't voted, then the deadline for voting eligibility will be extended.

There will be no ties! Tie-breaker votes may be called into action where eligible, or an extension

One vote per person, not Deviant accounts!

Votes will be submitted as a private message to me and I will count them up. Please try not to tell the artist that you have/not voted for them. A suggestion: try to refrain from public criticizing comments on their work. It's a suggestion because there's no way for me to enforce that, I'm not DA staff. (Art theft is free game though, and as soon as you spot any, show me the original and I'll remove it from the contest!)


"Why are your voting rules so weird?"
I can't submit polls in this group, it's not a super And eleven years of Internet groups has told me through experience that anonymous voting is the best, least-conflicted route. I don't want to create any unnecessary biased nature for the underdog (because in a poll you can see who has how many entries and then vote for someone lacking in votes rather than voting for the most-favored entry).

It also makes it difficult for contestants track their progress, make comments to others during the voting period, or try to recruit more people to vote for them unnecessarily. It also allows me to cross-examine those who voted to confirm they're real people and not fake accounts.

Further, since voters remain anonymous, it prevents those who didn't place as expected to know who did not vote for them, which can create a lot of nasty, unnecessary problems. It also prevents people from knowing how big any gaps were.

I don't judge or pick winning entries! Winners are chosen through popular vote by the people! So don't blame me if you or someone out of your favor loses. I just collect and tally the votes.




Any questions? Participants? If you want to participate please comment below!