Required Information
Below you will find some things that you should include in contest templates. Your contest WILL NOT be approved if you do not include the following items.

Qualifications to Host:
Do you meet MTS hosting qualifications? Please link to your previous contests.

Concept:
Overall idea behind your contest. You do not need to explain, in detail, each round but you should make your contest concept apparent.

Rules:

• What type of contest (TS2 or TS3)?
• Include whether there will be eliminations.
• Is CC allowed? If so, what kind?
• Is photoshop allowed? If so, how much/what kind?
• Any/all other rules you will expect contestants to adhere to for the duration of the contest (all rounds).

Requirements:
Applications/First rounds typically set the tone for the remainder of the contest. Do not ask for a 10x10 house or 1 beauty shot for the first round and then ask for a 64x64 lot or 8 photo spread with paragraphs for the second with the same amount of time. Try to be consistent.

• Skill level: how skilled should contestants be to participate? Noob, Casual Gamer, Veteran. The more skills required to complete tasks and the higher the amount of tasks for one round, the higher the skill level.
• Judging requirements: Make sure to be clear with judges on how fast you expect their responses. Be reasonable in your requirements though. EXAMPLE: Judges should expect to complete round judging in 48 hours. However, if I have more than X amount of participants, judging time will be increased.

Timeline
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.

• State how long each round will be.
• State approximate timeline/dates for contest, pending approval.

Judging:

• List of judges: If you do not have all your judges, please note how many you still need.
• Emergency Judges: Make sure to have at least 1 emergency judge. It can be yourself or someone else as long as you meet the other judging requirements.
• Parameters: Explain, in detail, how entries will be scored. How will scores be broken down? Will they be averaged together or added together? What are the maximum points? Will there be bonus round(s)?

Thread Set-Up:

• Basic set-up should be done before you submit a template. It saves time and makes thing easier when you start getting contestants. They can easily find links that they need and you and your judges can easily find the entries you need to review.
• Things should be neat and organized with sections easily found. Bold or headers work nicely for this.
• You may use banners if you wish; however it is not required.
• You should have a clear area with links to each round (if there will be rounds) along with a timer and, when the round is over, a link to the posted scores.
  
  Round 1 - Name of Round(link) - Timer(link) - Scores(link)
  
  
• You should also have a clear area with contestants linked to each of their rounds. There are 2 different ways to do this.
  
  Contestant A - Round 1(link) - Round 2(link) - Round 3(link) - etc
  OR
  

  	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3
  Contestant A	link	link	link
  Contestant B	link	link	link
  Contestant C	link	link	link

Helpful Tools
Now, on to the things that do not HAVE to be included but can be helpful to both you and your contestants.

1. A timer. It is imperative that you are clear about timelines. Don't just say January 1st. Don't just say 8:00 pm. Your time is different than others so linking to a countdown or timer can be very useful and help your contestants stay on task. Countdown Timer is my preferred counter.

2. Word Counter. Sometimes you may require written words. If so, and if you choose to put a limit on them, you will need a way to count them. From a contest I previously held, it was discovered that not all counters are the same. However, Microsoft Word and Word Counter Tool give the same approximate number of words so these 2 are best.

3. Table codes. Want to know how to do the fancy table code above? There are 2 ways.

• Way 1: Start with [table]. Then put in all the information you want. Each item you want in its own box needs to be separated by a comma, as seen below. When you have all the information place a [table] again, this time with a / in front of table to close the tag. For example above it would be:
  
  [table]
  ,Round 1, Round 2, Round 3
  Contestant A, link, link, link
  [table] <-- Remember to do /table instead to close!!!
  
  
• Way 2: You can open an excel document and create a table in there. When you are done, save as a CSV (comma separated values). When it is saved, open in Notepad, select all, then cut and paste inside table tags (shown in Way 1).

EXAMPLES
Missroxor's Make Me a Model Contest.
LadyAwesome's Miss World Contest.
Heaven's Story Time Contest.
- Some requirements have been added since then, however, these are good examples of a neat, organized template with appropriate links.

Last edited by heaven : 5th Jan 2012 at 12:05 AM.