What is the Contest Emporium?
The Contest Emporium is a subsite of ChristinaMultimedia.  It was developed to get people more "involved" with the site and to offer people a good incentive for doing so!  Our main goal with Contest Emporium is to eventually have enough "regulars" contributing their GREAT projects that can be used to benefit the site!  It is meant to be FUN, and fun is good.

After I submitted my entry to a contest, how come I see an option to modify it?
The modify option appears once you submit an entry to a contest so that you can change your entry if you are not satisfied.  This option is only available until the deadline date.  What this means is that you can submit an entry for the contest, and if you happen to find time to improve it, you can then replace your entry with a newly improved version.

Can I cheat so my own entry will win?
Umm.... NO WAY! If you cheat in any way, we WILL know about it. And, then, you will be disqualified from the contest you cheated in AND you will be BANNED FROM THE CONTEST EMPORIUM FOREVER! You will also, possibly, be completely banned from CMM altogether. Is it worth it? Nope, didn't think so...

Hey! I made an entry but it says it isn't accepting anymore! May I still enter it?
I'm sorry, but no.  If the contest is "full," you will have to wait and enter in the next one.

Hey! Where did that one contest go? It was on the main page before.
The main page will feature the most recently added contest as the "featured contest".  All other contests may be found under the "Current Contests" tab.  The same goes for "Featured Voting" and "Results from Contest.  Those feature the most RECENT contests that are in in the voting and finished stages respectively.  Other contests you can vote in are under the "Current Votings" tab, and results of older contests, are under the "Old Contests" tab.  Each month's MAJOR contest will be featured on the main page of Christina Multimedia for the duration of the month.

HEY! Why can't I start a thread in the Contest Lounge??
The Contest Lounge is really just a feedback forum.  It is a tool for moderators to find out what people like/dislike about the Emporium.  Only moderators may create threads there.

How do you determine the winners?
The winner of a contest is the person who has the most votes, which is shown instantly after the end voting date.  In the case of a tie for first place, two things can happen:
a)  For major contests:  A revote will occur between the winning entries and the winner of the revote will be the final winner who obtains the prize.
b)  For minor contests:  The person who submitted their entry FIRST will be the winner.
Note:  When you replace your entry with an updated version, you also modify your date of submission. However, the submission date only changes when you modify your file, not if you just modify the description of your entry (submitting a description along with your entry is only permitted in certain contests).

How does voting work?
Voting works by entering the Entry ID of the candidate that you feel should win. If you happen to vote for the wrong one, or if change your mind after you look over the entries on a future date, you can modify your vote.  Because of the automated nature of the site, you can in fact modify your vote as many times as you wish before the end voting date.

How much time do I have to enter a contest? How much time do I have for voting? And how long until we know who won?
Each contest will have different "rules" involved, but the majority will follow the same duration of entering/voting/results:
Major Contests: Once a month;  you will have the entire month to enter;  after that, 1 week for everyone to vote;  the results will INSTANTANEOUSLY show up on the site at the exact moment that the voting is set to end!
Minor Contests: About every other week;  you will have 2 weeks to submit an entry;  then, everyone will have 1 week to vote;  the results will INSTANTANEOUSLY show up on the site at the exact moment that the voting is set to end!
You will know when it is near the deadline for entering by the countdown timer that will appear in the last 24 hours of the entering stage.  A countdown will also appear when a contest is approaching its voting end date.

* In the beginning stages of the site, and until we have everything flowing perfectly, some contest stages such as entering and voting may be extended to allow for an appropriate amount of entries and votes.

I am a ChristinaMultimedia Manager, may I enter the contests? May I vote?
Yes!  Why not?  The way the site is completely automated, being a manager gives no control over who wins!  So enter and vote away!  Some contests, however, will not allow you to vote if you have submitted an entry (depending on the contest).

I am offended by that entry!
Just like in the forum of CMM, please let a moderator know if you see anything that you find offensive in the entries (or in the Contest Lounge).  We will try to take care of the problem.

I don't know how to make blends but I want to win something!
If you cannot make blends, you can still participate by voting in the contest.  You get 2 membership points JUST FOR VOTING in each contest! You can submit contribution to get prizes. Read more in the Contribution Center.

I don't want these prizes! Don't you have anything ELSE?
The prizes we have were all things donated by our generous members.  If you do not see anything you like, you can always enter a contest and get member points instead (again, prize to point conversion is as follows: 5 points for every dollar of the item's worth).  If that is still something you aren't interested in, you can go into the Contest Lounge and post a suggestion of what you would LIKE to have made a prize or you can bug everyone you know to donate cooler things to the cause.

I have a different question that is NOT listed here in this super long and extensive FAQ... what do I do?
You can go to the Contest Lounge on our forum and post your question there.  A moderator will be able to help you out ASAP.

I have an idea for a contest... who do I tell?
We have set up a spot in the CMM forum called the Contest Lounge for you to give us your feedback and ideas ... you can go there and let us know what your contest idea is!

I KNOW I entered this contest but my entry disappeared? What's up with THAT?
Did you use profanity or nudity?  Did you accidentally put your screen name on your entry?  Did you not follow the guidelines?
You could have entered something that was disqualified.  If you are still concerned, please send a specific query about this (including the contest entered, and your screen name) to the management, and we will clear it up for you.

I missed the deadline for submitting my entry to a contest. What can I do?
All deadline cut-off dates for submissions are specified to the exact second, and there's nothing we can do if you are late.  One of the disadvantages of automation is that deadlines are not flexible (something that is 5 minutes late is LATE and will not be able to enter the contest), so be sure to submit your entry at least half an hour in advance before the specified deadline.

I would REALLY love to win this prize... do you guys have it available?
Please post any ideas for contests and prizes in the Contest Lounge of our forum.  We are definetely interested to know what type of prizes you would work hard for!  Let us know, and we'll see if we can give you what you want!

If I am a winner, do I need to pay for the shipping of my prize?
No, this will be covered by the management.  This means: you guys better make good entries!  We are putting our finances out on the line for you! 

If I won last week, can I enter this week?
We had noticed that there are a few people that have won a ton of contests over the past few months. First off, congratulations to them! They do AMAZING work! We are happy that they are super talented, and choose to share that with us here at CE and CMM! Unfortunately, we have had some sad people that work very hard as well, but who have not had the chance to win any prizes yet. So, anyway, we have come up with a "semi" solution that should aid in "spreading out" the prizes to as many people as possible! Starting today, if you are a winner here at CE, you will have to skip the next 2 contests before you can enter again. That does NOT exactly keep people from winning 2 in a row (because we always will have had 2 other contests running BEFORE they won the contest), but, once this has been implemented for a little while, it should filter it out so that it doesn't happen as often 
So, for example, wunstaboi won the most recently ended contest. That means  that they cannot enter the "Halloween" contest, OR the one that will start next week. They MAY HAVE already entered the "Food Product" or the 'Non-Smoking Campaign" Contest, though. I hope that all makes sense! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them in the Contest Emporium Lounge HERE.

May I vote/enter if I am not a member?
Nope!  You must sign up to your free account on the ChristinaMultimedia forum in order to enter and/or vote.  Becoming a public member is free and has other benefits such as having access to other sites and features available on ChristinaMultimedia.

Oooh! What a pretty graphic you have on the main page! Who made that?
The lovely graphic was courtesy of Jazmine Trisha (AwesomeGenie).  Feel free to let her know how much you love it!

What is considered cheating here at CE?
Cheating is telling people to vote for your entry. Cheating, actually, is telling ANYONE which entry is your own. Also, voting for your own entry, OR voting more than once in any contest is cheating. Entering more than once in one contest is cheating as well. Cheating will NOT be tolerated. If you are found to be cheating at CE, you will be banned from the site FOREVER. Also, you will receive a 2 week temp ban from CMM. No exceptions!

What's so cool about the Contest Emporium? Why should i submit entries or vote here, instead of other places?
Well, there are a lot of reasons:
1) We have everything automated... no waiting around wondering when results will be up!
2) You get REAL prizes that you can choose yourself from the Prize Bin.
3) You have the entire duration of the "entering" stage to change your entry if you make it better.
4) Even if you are not an artist, you can be rewarded JUST FOR VOTING!
5) Did we mention you get REAL prizes???

Who has the final say here at the Contest Emporium?
Well, that is simple. The CMM Management Team does. If you make an entry that we deem inappropriate, even if it does not break any SPECIFIC rules... it will be disqualified. Don't try to argue, either. It won't help your cause. Please remember that there are 12 year old children that come to this site. We are trying to make CMM, as a whole, a quality site that is appropriate for ALL of it's visitors.

Whooooooaaaaaa.... what a site, what program do you use to make it all automated?
The coding of this site was done by Hmers, the administrator of ChristinaMultimedia.  Contest Emporium was designed starting from scratch, and all back-end automation features of it are based on proprietary code.  To build such a site, you will need to have knowledge of PHP, understand basic database development techniques, and be able to develop various data manipulation algorithms.

Why can't I vote for a contest that I entered in?
This "rule" will be determined before each contest is set up.  Some will allow voting for contests that you entered and some will not.  We want to avoid any "favoritism" and voting that is too "divided."  Since you may only pick one, it wouldn't do any good if everyone just voted for him or herself.  The contest would become an ongoing tie-breaker!  The contests that do allow submitters to vote perform validity checks to make sure that people can't vote for themselves.