Announcing Our First Contest

[[Unknown]]

We're proud to announce the Theme Contest has begun!

In essence, contestants have until October 31st to submit their themes.  In turn, these themes will be judged for quality and style.  The winners will, of course, then be awarded prizes.

If you don't think you could ever develop a theme, (but how can you know until you try?) this means you should keep an eye on the contest.  It might just be that someone enters a theme you would prefer over the one you're using now.  If not, your comments might help nudge a theme to be that much better!  And when November comes around, you can help even more by voting on the entries.

But if you're interested in developing a theme, this means you need to get to work.  Who knows, you might even get the first place prize ($100 and a Charter Membership) or at the least the recognition of a job well done.  And remember, if you need any help... there's nothing in the rules against asking here for help.

More information can be found here:
http://www.simplemachines.org/about/contest.php

And, before submitting any entries, please read these rules - you cannot win unless you read them:
http://www.simplemachines.org/about/contest.php?rules

Thanks for your continued support,
Simple Machines

[fastforum]

Hmmm... i smell SMF 1.0 official release with a kick ass skin...very near

Ok i´ll join... let´s kick some butt...hehehe...

[LostProphecy]

ooooh sounds like a good idea to me *flexes typing fingers to start making a theme*

is there any more definitive marking criteria then the few words that you have listed in the main contest page?

[[Unknown]]

Currently, nothing more definative, but if you have any questions or comments I'm more than willing to ammend the page or provide the information for you .

-[Unknown]

[LostProphecy]

ok *thinks for a moment and reads again*

alright... two questions...

"features in an innovative way"....  in features, i'm not quite sure i understand the meaning *really doesn't want to sound like a blonde* but i thought i better check, cause you don't get answers if you don't ask them right when you refer to features are you refering to innovative use of say the set up of your header and useful links (and example ~ online user list)... is that what is meant by innovative features??

and just one more question... will any competition penalties or like mark downs by given for a template that has a high load time due to images and the like??

that's all i've got for now *grins*

~Jessi

[[Unknown]]

Well, innovativation in features can mean many different things.  For example, presenting the calendar in a different, and more intuitive way, would be something I would consider as innovative.  Innovative just means new, cool, and rethought.  A new way to look at things .

That doesn't mean a theme that looks mostly like other forum software can't win - it just means that if it does things (like mark unread ^_^) in a way no one thought of before, but that makes so much more sense than the current way... well, it will of course do that much better .

But, that's not all that counts.

As to size... well, a theme that has too many graphics, unoptimized, and takes like 15 minutes to load on 56k... might indeed do worse than a comparable theme that loads much faster.  Eye candy is great though, and there's no reason a theme can't be for "high bandwidth people" only .

But.. I wouldn't say there are any penalties for things like that.  Rather, bonuses for it being optimized for lower-end bandwidth users too...

-[Unknown]

[Vinoth]

i am against, i donot design any themes and u must also keep contest for others who cannot design themes well.

one more request, after the submission you must have voting panel so that members can vote and choose the best.

Members with min 25 posts can only vote, in the contest. so that we can avoid fraud voting.

[LostProphecy]

ok unknown thanks for your comments

well i think i may not be "code gifted" enough to make those sort of changes but hey it's worth i try i'll just try and win on my "eye candy"

you never know though... i'll just stuff around with things and you never know what i may come up with

[Elissen]

They have to start somewhere, right? I'm pretty sure they will have more contests in the future and maybe they will be for other things, like best buttonsets, best usage of SSI/SMF_API ect ect.

[Burpee]

Hmm...
Well, $100 and a Charter Membership for something that is potentially 50+ hours of work isn't much... are there any other fun bonusses possible?

Also, I somewhat disagree on the way you guys set this contest up. I don't think you're going to get the best possible theme with this, as this forces people to create a theme as a one man project... If you guys could somehow push people to work together on a project like this I think the outcome of this contest would be of a much higher quality...

Well, innovativation in features can mean many different things. For example, presenting the calendar in a different, and more intuitive way, would be something I would consider as innovative. Innovative just means new, cool, and rethought. A new way to look at things .

I've been thinking up a new calendar but I haven't quite figured out how to do it... One of the problems I would like to work together on with other people...

[Knippy]

Yay another thing I'll enter and be rejected.... again ... jk

It's worth a shot! I got some ideas

[Tomer]

i am against, i donot design any themes and u must also keep contest for others who cannot design themes well.

one more request, after the submission you must have voting panel so that members can vote and choose the best.

Members with min 25 posts can only vote, in the contest. so that we can avoid fraud voting.

Would never work, anyone could bribe a few users $5 to vote for them.

Hmm...
Well, $100 and a Charter Membership for something that is potentially 50+ hours of work isn't much... are there any other fun bonusses possible?

Also, I somewhat disagree on the way you guys set this contest up. I don't think you're going to get the best possible theme with this, as this forces people to create a theme as a one man project... If you guys could somehow push people to work together on a project like this I think the outcome of this contest would be of a much higher quality...

Well, innovativation in features can mean many different things. For example, presenting the calendar in a different, and more intuitive way, would be something I would consider as innovative. Innovative just means new, cool, and rethought. A new way to look at things .

I've been thinking up a new calendar but I haven't quite figured out how to do it... One of the problems I would like to work together on with other people...

Don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure groups are allowed. But lets wait for [Unknown].

The contest wasn't made for the prizes, it was created for users to officially 'showoff' their work, and the prize is like 'sweet candy' at the end.

Another thing, I'm pretty sure it doesn't take anyone 50+ full hours to complete a nice theme.

Yay another thing I'll enter and be rejected.... again ... jk

It's worth a shot! I got some ideas

Thats the spirit.

[Burpee]

Another thing, I'm pretty sure it doesn't take anyone 50+ full hours to complete a nice theme.

I thought the idea was to make a great theme

[Tony Reid]

It certainly took the dev team more than 50 hours to create this wonderful forum, and you dont see the dev team moaning about about giving it away for free.

Hmm...
Well, $100 and a Charter Membership for something that is potentially 50+ hours of work isn't much...

frankly I think your taking the p*ss

[bostasp]

I think $100 and a Charter Membership for first prize is actually quite generous.

It's a way to get more involved in the project, to show us your creative side, and to give us something to look at . Quite frankly, if you create a theme purely thinking about how many hours size up to the prize, then you shouldn't be participating in the contest.

I believe you can work in groups on a design.

[[MiNX]Tek]

One man can make a good theme, with group work, there is a higher change of some of the members leaking info and code to another group. This happened to me with a Halo 2 mod I am workign on, grrr. Anyway, I have a kick ass idea.. but... I will have to do TONS of research on here on how they came up with that speech bubble theme, cause, it's conna completely change the look.

[roboter88]

I like to see an ANSI oldschool pcBoard style SMF Theme
images
http://images.google.de/images?q=ansi%20art&hl=de&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
http://images.google.de/imgres?imgurl=http://ansiart.org.ua/pics/sda/1992/pm-frozn.png&imgrefurl=http://ansiart.org.ua/gallery.php%3Fpicture%3D271&h=400&w=640&sz=5&tbnid=ydwP5w81n7EJ:&tbnh=84&tbnw=134&start=16&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dansi%2Bart%26hl%3Dde%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DN
pcboard related
http://archives.thebbs.org/ra107c.htm
http://www.all-science-fair-projects.com/science_fair_projects_encyclopedia/Bulletin_board_system
http://software.bbsdocumentary.com/IBM/DOS/PCBOARD/

[fastforum]

One man can make a good theme, with group work, there is a higher change of some of the members leaking info and code to another group. This happened to me with a Halo 2 mod I am workign on, grrr. Anyway, I have a kick ass idea.. but... I will have to do TONS of research on here on how they came up with that speech bubble theme, cause, it's conna completely change the look.

Speaking of chat/speech bubble theme,... they removed the signatures .... i tried that in my forum.... people liked it but they were complaining about their signatures being removed.... ii had no choice but to put back the default theme...hehehe

chat/speech bubble theme + the signatues would be great...


Dear Mr. Unknown... is there any judging criteria we should be looking at?

like: loading time, color harmony, design, functionality, Usability, new features, standards compliance, Originality, No bug theme, People´s Response and the percentage for each criteria....

Just a suggestion...we should have a Theme Hall of Fame and an "SMF BLOOD, SWEAT and CODE" shirt (something like that) ...hehehe

[[MiNX]Tek]

Hmm... ::writes note:: must keep sigs.

[Tomer]

Dear Mr. Unknown... is there any judging criteria we should be looking at?

like: loading time, color harmony, design, functionality, Usability, new features, standards compliance, Originality, No bug theme, People´s Response and the percentage for each criteria....

Just a suggestion...we should have a Theme Hall of Fame and an "SMF BLOOD, SWEAT and CODE" shirt (something like that) ...hehehe

Don't think there are any official guidelines, but try to put yourself in the judge's shows, would you give good marks to a theme that takes 30 seconds to load, doesn't work proerly in IE, and is just a color change of the default theme?