Weekly Flag Challenge - Guide for Winners

Weekly Flag Challenge - Guide for Winners

Congratulations on winning the Weekly Flag Challenge! This easy guide will take you through the steps of what to do next.

The Weekly Flag Challenge works like the Eurovision Song Contest. The winner of a round has the privilege of choosing the theme for the next round and setting it up.

1.) Choose the theme for the next challenge

If you tied with someone else as the winner, negotiate the next challenge theme.

Restrictions on challenge themes:

Challenges CANNOT require entrants to make anything other than flags and explanations. For example, you cannot require entrants to make maps or photographs.
Challenges CANNOT limit the eligibility of entrants. For example, you cannot say “only the first 4 entrants will be considered”.

If you really can't think of an idea, look here, or message one of the Volunteers and they will reuse an old one.
If you really can't run the next round, message one of the Volunteers and they will do it for you.

2.) Announce the next challenge

If you tied with someone else as the winner, negotiate who is responsible for making the new posts.

Click here to make a new post on the “New Challenges & Previous Winners” thread.
Copy the contents of the the following template and paste into the new post form:

[size=4][b]FLAG CHALLENGE #NUMBER: [color=green]TITLE[/color][/b][/size]

DESCRIPTION OF CHALLENGE

[b]Submissions Open:[/b] Now
[b]Submissions Close:[/b] DEADLINE

Replace NUMBER with the number of the round. It's one more than the previous one ;)
Replace TITLE with the title of the theme.
Replace DESCRIPTION OF CHALLENGE with the full description of the challenge.
Replace DEADLINE with the deadline of the round, including date, time and time zone. From previous experience, four days works well, but you can adjust this if you want. If you're fine with four days, here's an automatic way to calculate it:
- Click |here.
- Move your mouse cursor over the section entitled “Result” (it should be the second box) and some orange icons will pop up just underneath.
- Click on the one labeled “Plaintext”.
- Copy all text in that box and paste it into the template.
- Round it up to the nearest hour.
- If the time is “12:00 am” or “12:00 pm”, replace with “12:00 midnight” or “12:00 noon”. Different regions have different conventions over whether 12 am means noon or midnight, so we need to eliminate the ambiguity.
Make a personal note of the deadline so you know when it passes.

3.) What happens if not enough people enter?

Once the challenge deadline has passed, check the entries for your round on this thread.
If there are less than two entries, you can extend the round by up to seven more days.
If seven days has passed and there are still less than two entries, you are obligated to cancel the current round and start another one.

4.) Set up the poll thread

Once the challenge deadline has passed, click here to post a new topic in the Alternate History Flags & Graphics subforum.
In the title field, name the topic “Weekly Flag Challenge #NUMBER voting”. Replace NUMBER with the number of the round.
Copy in the following template:

  [Quote=Entry 1]
  [/quote]
  
  [Quote=Entry 2]
  [/quote]
  
  [Quote=Entry 3]
  [/quote]

Go through the entry posts for your round on this thread.
- Copy in the contents of each entry into a quote box in the template. Entries MUST BE ANONYMOUS so leave the names as “Entry 1”, “Entry 2”, etc.
- Make as many quote boxes as you need. Remember to update the entry numbers.
- Disqualify anyone on the banned list
- Disqualify any entries that go over the size limit
- If a member has submitted multiple entries, the most recent design is considered their entry.
- If a member has posted anything other than a flag and explanation (e.g. map or photograph), remove it.
Set up the poll
- Near the bottom, tick the option named “Yes, post a poll with this thread”.
- In the text field next to “Number of poll options:”, type in the number of entries.
- Click “Submit New Thread”.
- Set the poll to close in three days. You can adjust this figure if you feel it is necessary.
Make a personal note of the voting deadline so you know when it passes.

5.) Results

When the deadline passes, go to your voting thread and look at the results. The entry with the most votes is the winner. Ties are allowed.
Click here to make a new post on the New Challenges & Previous Winners thread. Announce the winner and post their entry.
Message the winning member and link to this guide.

Table of Contents