Smiley "Snake Story" Contest

**Joni Garcia** · 02-14-07, 11:41 PM

Hi everyone! Are you up for a contest? I hope so. I thought it would be fun to have a contest using the awesome smilies Caroline has added to the site. So... get creative and let's have a fun Smiley "Snake Story" Contest.

Here are the rules:

1. One story per person. The story should be snake related.

2. Send your story to me by private message with a subject of "Smiley Snake Story Contest."

3. Please preview your private message before sending it to make sure all the smilies work.

4. Each story can use up to 50 smilies.

5. All stories must be submitted to me by Sunday, February 25th at 6:00 pm Pacific Time.

6. Lastly (I probably don't have to say this)... please keep it clean, nice, and up to the standards of The Source.

I will post the stories in my forum with a poll for voting. There may be heats depending on how many stories I receive. If there are heats, the top 2-3 stories in each heat will be put in a thread with a poll for final voting. Voting will begin on Monday, February 26th and probably end on Sunday, March 3rd. The end date may or may not change if heats are needed. So, please watch this thread for details about when the heat voting will be over and the final voting will begin etc.

Right now, the smiley limit per post is 10. However, Caroline has given her approval for this contest and will change the per post smiley limit when it's time for me to put up the stories and poll. Thanks Caroline!!! The limit of 10 smilies doesn't apply to PMs, so you should be able to send me your entries with no problems. Just remember to preview them before hitting send, please.

Okay, enough of the rules. Well, you can't have a contest without prizes.

I wanted to provide prizes that could be used by everyone, no matter where in the world you live. So, I'm including PayPal prizes along with the % off 2007 Joni Garcia hatchling prizes.

Here are the prizes I will provide for the top three stories:

1st Place
$25 PayPal
50% off 2007 Joni Garcia Hatchlings Gift Certificate

2nd Place
$15 PayPal
25% off 2007 Joni Garcia Hatchlings Gift Certificate

3rd Place
$10 PayPal
15% off 2007 Joni Garcia Hatchlings Gift Certificate

Okay... are you ready to get creative? Hmmm... so many possibilities. Maybe the story is about you and your snake, maybe it's about him and his friends or whatever. Here's a little example of how to use smilies in your story:

Once upon a time there were three friends... a

named Zip, a

named Spot, and a

named Fred. Zip and Spot wanted to plan a birthday

for Fred. So, they decided to look around the house and see what they could find.... etc. etc.

Thanks for stopping by, I look forward to reading your stories, and have fun!

**Joni Garcia** · 02-15-07, 12:05 AM

Yea! Looks like Caroline has added a "Contest Section," so I'll have her move this thread from my forum to this new section. Nice idea, Caroline!

DNA Snakes · 02-15-07, 06:14 PM

Awww....

I get to be creative. I love to write. Muahaha

Youll be getting my entry soon....

Thanks for the great contest!!

**Joni Garcia** · 02-17-07, 12:18 AM

Okay, I've had people ask a few questions about the contest. Thought I'd answer them here too... in case any of you were wondering about the same things.

1. There is no age limit for the contest. The Smiley "Snake Story" can be done by anyone in your family or it can be a combined effort. It's a great chance to get the kids involved, if you'd like.

2. No, it doesn't have to be a true story. It can be true or you can just make something up, then insert smilies in place of some words. The story can be serious, funny, or whatever you'd like.

3. Someone asked which smilies to use. You are welcome to use any of them. In PM, they are the same smilies you can use for a post. So... just click on the [More] link in the Smilies box and a new window will open that allows you to see all of the smilies available. Just click on the one you want, type more of the story, click on another smiley... and you're on your way. When you're all done, click on preview message. If all the smilies are working, just hit submit message and you're done.

If you'd like to see what morphs I'm hoping to produce this year, check out the 2007 Breeding Plans thread in my forum.

If you have any more questions, just let me know. Thanks.

**Joni Garcia** · 02-23-07, 01:55 PM

Only a couple days left to enter! Just a reminder that the contest deadline is this Sunday, February 25th at 6:00 pm Pacific Time.

Remember that anyone in the family can write the story... you, you and the kids or whatever. Just have fun using the awesome smilies Caroline's added to the site.

Your odds of winning a prize are good. So far, I've only received three stories. I'd love to get a bunch more, so I hope you'll enter the contest.

**Joni Garcia** · 02-25-07, 01:49 PM

Just a little reminder that the contest deadline for submitting your stories is tonight at 6 pm Pacific Time. Thanks to all who have participated. The poll for voting will be up before tomorrow morning here in the "Contests Section" (instead of in my forum, as stated my original post). Thanks!

**Joni Garcia** · 02-26-07, 04:22 AM

Thanks to everyone who entered and submitted such fun stories. For some reason, it won't allow me to post a new thread with poll in the "Active Contests" section. So, I tried the exact same thing in my personal forum and it worked fine. I have since deleted the thread and poll in my forum, though, because it should really be here.

I've sent a PM to Caroline, and maybe she can figure out what the bug is. After I hear back from her, I will get the poll posted for voting.

**Joni Garcia** · 02-26-07, 11:24 AM

Okay, it's all figured out. The forum is moderated, so my thread needed approval from Caroline before it would show up. Thanks Caroline!

The poll will close on on 03-05-07 at 06:39 AM. I hope you'll check out the fun stories and vote. A BIG thank you to all the participants for submitting such fun stories!!!

Smiley Snake Stories and Poll