How to Use the Avatar Arena

[The Admin]

Avatar Arena Rules

We want Avatar Arena to be fun. (indirectly, that means fair)
We want Avatar Arena to have quality avatars.

The goal of avatar arena is to choose the avatars that the most number of people agree on as "that deserves to win". We can't get everyone to agree, but we can get a maximum number of people. We are constantly working to improve the algorithms and system so that the system will get closer to this goal, so be prepared for changes.


How Avatar Arena Works

We want to give everyone as much opportunity as possible to compete. There are many, many really cool avatars on Gaia and by having a cycling system where there's a new competition every week, we hope to give everyone a better chance to win.

To make sure everyone gets the same amount of time to get voted on, we separated Avatar Arena into 'Submission Phase' and 'Voting Phase'. That way, everyone starts out with 7 days of chance to get votes.

Avatar Arena weeks start on Mondays at Midnight PST. Users can submit for the upcoming contest as long as they enter before that time, past midnight the submissions will be entered for the next upcoming contest.

After a week-long voting period, the winners will be calculated at 7pm (again, PST) on Sunday evening, and the top 10 entries, from both the Original and Cosplay arenas, will be archived and put on display for all time. Winners are determined by a computer using an algorithm that uses an average that has been weighted to mitigate downvoting (people who vote maliciously and unfairly).

Note that while the submissions for Contest 1 is in voting phase, a new submission phase for Contest 2 starts concurrently.

While avatars are in submission phase, they are not public for viewing.
When you submit your avatar, Gaia will take a snapshot of your current avatar in a different location. (It's like a photo). Which means you may change your avatar outfits as you like and it will not affect the avatar submitted for competition.

After voting is over and the winners have been decided, the top 10 avatars will be permanently saved (archived), and the rest will be moved to your personal avatar gallery found here: http://www.gaiaonline.com/arena/mystuff/

[The Admin]

Disqualification

• Glitches - Major glitches are not allowed. No nudies, no invisibles, baldies, eyeless avatars.
  
  A major glitch is generally something that would significantly affect the base model (e.g. the effect a Superior Form has on the Grombie, Zurg, and Vampire bases), or reveal something that was not meant to be seen but minor glitches like "this shoe cuts off the pants by 2 pixels" are allowed. If we were to fix the glitch, the minor glitch would probably not be affected too much, whereas a major glitch would be affected greatly.
  
  Note: The system will not stop you from entering a glitched avatar, but you will be removed from the arenas and denied a prize if found to be using a glitch.
  
  
• Offering Compensation for votes - Offering any form of compensation for votes is considered bribing and will result in removal of your entry.
  
  ANY contest that offers a prize, or ANY thread that offers possible financial gain to participants cannot operate in conjunction with an arena advertisement.
  
  This means you cannot host any contest or offer prizes/gold and link to an Arena Advertisement within the same thread/post/signature or ask for votes or comments on your entry. Any kind of financial gain, promised or actual, made in conjunction with requests for votes or comments is strictly forbidden in the Arena as it is usually a form of bribery, whether the prize is guaranteed or not.
  
  
• Inappropriate Content - All arena submissions must comply with the Gaia Terms of Service. That means no nudity, extreme violence, or inappropriate/sexual themes.
  
  
• Copyrighted Material Imitations -
  Entries which imitate a copyrighted character or setting (for example, Edward Scissorhands or the Satellite of Love) will not automatically be disqualified, but if the copyright holder asks us to remove an entry from competition, we will honor their request. Proceed at your own risk!

[The Admin]

Avatar Arena FAQ

How much does it cost?

Submission costs 10,000 gold and is non-refundable!

What can I win?

• 1st Place: 150,000 gold
  
  
• 2nd Place: 100,000 gold
  
  
• 3rd Place:75,000 gold
  
  
• 4th to 10th place: 50,000 gold

How do I submit my avatar?

http://www.gaiaonline.com/arena/entries/gaia/avatar/

Just follow the instructions on the submission page.

How many characters can I use in my Title?

Thirty including spaces.

How many characters in the description box??

The description can be up to 500 characters (characters include spaces).

Background Colors?
Background colors help your avatar stand out better depending on your color scheme. The colors currently available are Black, Gray and White.

How many tags can I have??
You may use up to 5 comma-separated tags (words) to make your entry searchable. Tags must be at least 4 characters long.

Can I change my description?

Once the contest starts you cannot change your avatar, but you can change description. It's on the My Stuff page, under the avatar you want to edit there will be an edit link, next to a delete link.

Can I have a reference image?

If you provide a reference image, it must be under 500,000 bytes in size. Reference Images will be displayed as 160x160 pixels. All reference images are subject to the site Terms of Service and Rules and Guidelines.

Where does my entry go?

• Cosplay - If your avatar is dressed up like a well-known character/object/animal this is the way to go. Cosplay is short for "costume play" and on Gaia it is where users have designed an avatar to specifically look like a certain character from the media. These characters can be from, but not limited to, Anime, cartoons, video games, films, TV, books, comics etc.
  
  
• Original - If it is your own made-up character or themed. If your cosplay has an original twist (ex. Santa at the beach, Peyo as a girl) it belongs in the Original Arena because the theme/idea is not normally associated with the character.

Can I enter more than once?

Yes, you may enter once in each arena. However, if you have two entries going and one and they both end up in the same arena due to one entry being in the wrong arena you will be asked to pick one to remove. If you do not a moderator will choose for you.

Can I enter on a mule/secondary account?

All accounts are allowed. ie. secondary accounts are allowed too.

Can I submit my TekTek?

At this time Gaia only allows users to submit avatars that exist on Gaia.

How does the spotlight work?

The spotlight is random, it was coded so that it is impossible to tell how well anyone avatar is doing.

What is the All tab?

The all tab allows you to see all avatars up for viewing in that section of the arena.

I found a misplaced avatar or rule breaking avatar, what do I do?

If you find a misplaced avatar please click on the "Report this post" button under the entry's description so a moderator will know.

Who can see my rank?

Ranking is only displayed to the owner of the post. Ranking is only done for the top 500 and is updated every hour.

How does voting work?

You can rate each entry 1 to 5 stars by clicking on one of the stars above or below the entry image. You can also take back your vote or change it after your initial vote by going back to the entry and clicking the circle with a slash through it.

To make things fair we took away linear navigation and made the primary mode of navigating to another picture such that the system would bring you to the picture that has not been modified recently. (ie. the post that hasn't been voted on or commented on in a while) This will hopefully lower the chances of people getting left out and not getting any votes/comments at all.

Someone is flaming/abusing me in my entry comments. Help?

If someone is posting abusive comments toward you on an entry click the "Report as spam" button on their comment and let us know.