This Contest Is Now Closed! Wait for the announcement of the winners!


A friend and I are currently developing our own social networking/reputation network site tentatively called the Reputation Forge. Our planned features are the following:

- Each user will be able to create his own user identity and participate in one or more so-called networks available on the site. Networks planned for the initial stage include "General", "Politics", "Role-Playing Games", and "Art", but eventually each user will be able to create his or her own networks.
- Users of a particular network will be able to vote on each other's posts, websites, artworks, and other Internet activities. This will be possible through provided HTML code which users can embed in their websites, blog posts, forum signatures, or anywhere else on the Internet where they are active and can use hyperlinks (in their DeviantArt gallery entries, for example...). This will establish the general "ranking" of the users in a specific network community.
- Depending on the network in question and a user's ranking, the user will be sorted into one of several "categories" within the network, which will be represented by small icons. For example, a user with an "excellent" ranking will have a different icon than an "average" ranking. It will be possible to embed those icons on other websites.


So far, so good. Right now it looks like we might soon be able to start with an open beta test of the site - possibly sometime next month. However, what we are still missing right now are appropriate icons for the networks we want to start with - and trying to create all of them by ourselves would take up too much time, especially since neither of us has any significant experience with creating icons.

For this reason I am announcing a contest. To participate, submit a set of icons for one of the above networks. We will choose the best entry for the Reputation Forge, and the winners in each category will win a 12 Month Subscription to DeviantArt. The rules are as follows:

- Publish all your icons for a particular network as a single DeviantArt submission. Each icon should be clearly spatially separated from other icons so that it will be easy for us to cut the individual icons out and use them.

- The deadline for submissions is July 1st, 2008. This deadline may be extended at our discretion if there are insufficient submissions, but don't count on it - we want to get this show on the road soon.

- In the description of the submission, post a link to this Journal entry, and mention for which network your submission is intended. Furthermore, either post a link to your submission as a reply to this Journal entry or message me with the link to notify me of your submission.

- Each icon submission must be 100x100 pixels in size, but it should still be clearly recognizable when scaled down to 50x50 pixels. The icons should not be animated - at least in the beginning, we want to keep everything as simple as possible.

- Multiple submissions are perfectly acceptable. If you should win in more than one category, you will get multiple subscriptions in exchange.

- In case you win for a particular category - and only if you win (and get the associated DA subscription) - you automatically grant us the right to use your submitted icons for the Reputation Forge.

- Submissions should follow the following specifications for the individual networks:


General network: All users of the Reputation Forge will automatically join this network, and thus it represents a "general" online reputation. Submit at least ten icons for this network, representing a scale from poor to excellent rankings. Given the name of the site, icons using forge or smithing symbology might be appropriate, but don't feel constrained by that - as long as other users can clearly see who has a good reputation and who hasn't, the specifics aren't too important. Note: Since this will be the single most important network on the site, the deadline is very unlikely to be extended for this network unless there are truly no viable contenders.

Politics network: This network has two components - the overall political leaning of the user on a "Progressive" - "Conservative" scale, and a general "reputation" rating that is independent of the user's political leaning (either both Conservatives and Progressives can end up with both high and low reputations). Submit icons with at least three categories on the "political leaning" scale (i.e., at least "Progressive" - "Independent" - "Conservative", but if you feel up to it, don't hesitate to add intermediate steps between those), and at least five categories on the "reputation" scale, for a minimum of 3x5 = 15 icons. Note: Since the Reputation Forge is supposed to be an international site, try to avoid classical American-only political imagery (like "Donkey"-"Elephant", or the red-blue divide between Republicans and Democrats).

Role-Playing Games network: This network is intended for players of pen & paper roleplaying games, and should use "dice" imagery - the bigger the dice, the better the reputation of the users. At minimum, you should provide icons for the following dice: 1d4, 1d6, 1d8, 1d10, 1d12, 1d20, and 1d100 (in other words, seven categories). Adding more dice types (as well as multiple dice) will be left as an exercise to the artist, but is strongly encouraged.

Art Network: This is a network for fellow DeviantArtists. Create at least seven icons that represent a progression from beginners to the best of the best artists around.



A final note: Given the short time and limited prices for this contest, we don't expect high art for the contest. But that's okay - our primary goal is to have sufficient numbers of icons at all. Of course, we will take the best art we can get, but don't think that you don't have a chance to win if you are inexperienced.

And even if you don't win, don't be disheartened - once the Reputation Forge becomes established, there may be future contests with more time and more prizes...


Entries

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Politics:

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Role-Playing Games:

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Art:

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