I’d first like to thank everyone who has been promoting the competition. More on that just below. Also, there have been progress on tying up the few remaining loose ends in regards to the competition policy and procedures.
While I made every effort to lay the best possible framework for this competition, a few tweaks had to be expected.
First of all, judges now will view designs at a secured website. Each will receive a unique user name and password to access the site. There they will view the designs and use a style sheet switcher to move between designs. This allows designs to be anonymous, ie, no “Oh, this is my pal so-and-so’s design.” A link to an edited (to remove designer bio info) readme.txt for each submission will be accessible.
Next, the dummy blog content is now available. This is the same content that powers Sandbox Live Preview. The ZIP file is available on The Judging information page.
Also, I’m happy to announce I have another sponsor lined up. A really great one. Which means that the awards will likely increase, but that is pending confirmation. Additionally we now have three judges confirmed. Also excellent. That information will be made available this weekend.
And that’s the update. Now on to give credit where credit is due. 
Friends of the SDC update
And I should mention that we’ve had some encouraging posts about the competition so far. (Parlez-vous français?) The response has been overwhelming positive. I think this is just what the WordPress community needed. (My apologies if I went overboard with the links. Share and share alike. I know I missed some posts. Again, apologies.)
My favorite bit I’ve read about the competition comes from a comical forum smackdown. And a fun little Sandbox graphic has popped up. There are also a few graphic buttons on the Promotion Tools page. I’d love to add some more, though I’d rather everyone focus on their designs.
5 Comments
Somehow you found my site…it’s about a week old and hasn’t had any content until today. Either I’m amazing at SEO, or you are amazing at googling :).
Anyways, just wanted to let you know that plaintxt.org is one of my favorite sites (it’s so perfectly simple!) and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye one this one too.
Good luck!
@jesswa I think it technorati’s magic or google blog search. Anyway I decided to join in.
I am confused with this part .. does that mean When I design a theme for the competition I am not supposed to publicize it and show it to anyone ????
Actually that part hadn’t changed. The reason the judges will view the designs on a secured site is so that that process is controlled and exclusive to the judges.
You may publicize your work, but you should not ‘release’ it until the day submissions close. Since this site will be directing people to yours to download the design, it’s not what you think: it’s for the protection of the designers.
Of course this is impossible to monitor. So if two people submit very, very similar designs, it’s going to be extremely hard to determine whose it is. Screenshots, etc., would be best.
I would terribly disappointed if someone did that. However, I remember in the last competition (failed) someone submitted a siterip of Joshuaink. Tsk, tsk.
The onus is really on the designers.
Be thoughtful, stick to the Submission Procedures and you’ll do great.
Ok thanks for the clarification. I get your point I was thinking of releasing it to a few selected friends(Bloggers) so that I can get them to check for bugs,feedback etc.
That is an excellent idea, Aprit. Always good to have another set of eyes for feedback.
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