The Prefects' Bathroom Dilemma, Guidelines and FAQ Options

[evlpez]

In which Harry Potter investigates the Mystery of the Missing Mermaid.



Guidelines:

This is a fan fiction contest in three rounds. The winning submission for round one will become Chapter One, and the mission for round two will continue the story from that point.

Round One: Submissions - noon Thurs. Sept. 9 - noon Tues. Sept. 14, voting until 10am Sept. 16
Round Two: Submissions - noon Thurs. Sept. 16 - noon Tues. Sept. 21, voting until 10am Sept. 23
Round Three: Submissions - noon Thurs. Sept. 23 - noon Tues. Sept. 28, voting until 10am Sept. 30

*Submit early for the best chance to get enough ratings to compete!*

"Ferret Points" will be awarded to the top three stories of each round, according to their ratings from the Project Ferret Voting Booth. The writers with the most Ferret Points at the end of the contest will win 1st and 2nd Place Prizes. Here's how it works:

• The Round Winning writers will get 10 Ferret Points
• The 2nd place writer per round will earn 8 Ferret Points
• The 3rd place writer per round will earn 6 Ferret Points

Earn more points by submitting for each round! Ferrets may submit as many stories per round as they like, but only their top rated submissions will earn them Ferret Points. (If a writer has subs in 1st and 2nd place of a round, Ferret Points will only be awarded for their 1st place submission, and 2nd place Ferret Points will be awarded to the 3rd place submission, etc...)

In the event of a tie, the winner will be decided by the writers competing in a special "Tie-Breaker". More details about this will be revealed in the event of a tie.

Here's a new twist on submitting and rating:

All submissions posted in the submission topics will be anonymous. The identities of the writers will only be revealed after voting has concluded and prizes and Ferret Points are awarded. You won't have to do anything special to post anonymously, it will be automatic.




In the Voting Booth:

Voters will rate each submission on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the best. The criteria may be different for each voter, but overall you're looking for a winning submission which is:

• creative and engaging
• plausible in the Potterverse
• includes Mission elements
• adheres to the usual rules of spelling, punctuation and grammar
• follows the exisiting story (in the case of 2nd & 3rd round submissions)

Voters may leave comments for the writers in the voting booth and while the ratings are anonymous, the comments are not.

How ratings are calculated:

The Project Ferret Voting Booth software uses a "vote factor" to even the playing field. This factor is equal to the number of votes a story gets divided by the number of votes cast on the most-voted-on story. The average score of each submission is multiplied by this "voting factor" to produce the score. (This way, a submission who has a rating of 10, but only got one voter cannot win over another submission who has a rating of 8 with 5 voters.) For this reason, it is very important that if you vote at all, you should try to vote on each submission entered.

You will have two extra days to catch up on your voting between the end of the subs period and the end of the voting period. It is expected that everyone who makes a submission should rate all the others; it's only fair.



Feeling Funny?

Parody submissions will be accepted, but not be eligible as Chapter Selections. Parody submissions are granted some leeway with regards to following the mission and being plausible in the Potterverse. They'll be accepted in the Bubblehead Charms topic throughout the contest (all rounds/missions, any time), and a separate voting booth will be open for the duration of the contest. The submission with the highest rating will earn the Bubblehead Charm award.

[evlpez]

~ ANNOUNCEMENT ~

Your Formidible Ferrets have discovered a possible glitch in the way the new software could tabulate votes. This possible problem hasn't thus far affected any winners, thank goodness, so we're eliminating the 'vote factor' now to avoid later headaches. Sorry for any confusion.

We're also changing the voting booth so that you may only see comments on a submission after you've voted on it.