Simple Machines Theme Contest

[Gary]

Simple Machines would like to announce today the opening of our second Theme Contest, to give our community members the challenge to create some new and exiting themes to show how nice and perhaps, exotic SMF can be.

To enter the contest, all you have to do is create a theme for the 1.1 line. You can edit as many template files as you need. A submitted theme should not be just a color edit, but should show what SMF is capable of. Team members are exempt from participating to aid in preventing bias, SMF Friends however are welcome to enter.

A winning theme will be decided based on two criteria; Originality and Overall Look. Try to create something with both of those in mind and make sure to keep an even balance. First the team will vote for finalists, then those finalists will be placed in a public vote where an overall winner will be determined.

You will have exactly two months from the timestamp of this post to register your interest in this topic and then produce the theme. If you're new to creating themes, don't be discouraged, new themes can sometimes be the best! Web Standards and testing in popular browsers will be helpful to your submission. And don't forget we may provide helpful hints and coding tricks as well.

To enter the contest as a participant, just submit your theme to the theme site like normal. All themes posted during the duration of this contest will be entered into the contest, so you are allowed to submit as many themes as you wish.

Overall Contest Rules:

• Must be your own work
  
• Must be compatible with SMF 1.1
  
• Must comply with all current Theme Approval Guidelines (view this topic for links to localized translations)
  
• Be cross-browser compatible
  
• Cannot be a simple color change
  
• Cannot have any PHP, XHTML or Javascript Errors
  
• Team Members are ineligible of winning, SMF Friends are welcome to enter however.
  
  
  
  Prizes:
  The Grand Prize winner will receive a free one year Charter Member Subscription or one year extension to an existing charter subscription, the theme will be added to the Featured Theme rotation and their choice of book from O'Reilly.
  
  The first runner up will also have their themes added into the Featured Theme Rotation, and also a book from O'Reilly as well.
  
  The second runner up will also receive a book from O'Reilly.
  
  Happy Designing!
  Simple Machines

[Dragooon]

Can this be done in partnerships?
Like one person does the coding and other does the graphics?

[Deaks]

If you mention on description then yes, however if you get placed third then you are both welcome to fight over whom gets the book

[Gary]

Yes, it'll amuse us greatly.

[Dragooon]

What if someone in partnerships win the first prize, what will happen with the Charter memberships?

[Gary]

The same. You guys split the prizes amongst yourselves.

[karlbenson]

The same. You guys split the prizes amongst yourselves.

Bagsy the odd pages in the book

[Thantos]

Note:  We will not be arbitrating disputes if you submit a theme as a partnership and win.

[codenaught]

Good luck all. I look forward to seeing submissions! Hopefully this will give for a bit of a boost of nice quality themes!

[Minare]

Good luck bros,

This will help us finding new more qualified themes, This is the best side of theme contest I guess 

[zwaldowski]

May we submit themes that we've already created?

[SleePy]

Simple Machines would like to announce today the opening of our second Theme Contest, to give our community members the challenge to create some new and exiting themes to show how nice and perhaps, exotic SMF can be.

Per the quoted part you can see it should be new theme.

[Gary]

Indeed. The themes submitted must be entirely new ones. Updated themes do not count.

[shadow82x]

Great another fun contest. I hope a lot of people come around and partipate.

[Jpg]

When will the contest end? And can we submit more than 1 theme?

[Gary]

Both questions are answered in the first post. The contest will end in two months (18th April) and you can submit as many themes as you like.

[erlend_sh]

If someone's out of ideas of what to make, I'd be happy to tell you what I'd like to have made for my website, hrhrhr.

Idea: Wouldn't it be kinda cool if the winners could also be rewarded with 'medals'? See example here (On TDR's profile, the fish and the critter, further down on Mc !, the chimaera). I'm sure anyone who won such a contest wouldn't mind letting it show on their profile.

[metallica48423]

Best of luck to all!

[Deaks]

we have 3 confirmed on our list of approved so far and many awaiting user response, please understand that we will be checking everything in the theme, just as if it was not a competition.  I am also sorry but ports from other softwares do not count.

I would also like to add that Default Variations are not allowed as per the rules.

[Gary]

Indeed. 100% original works only.