Home > Guidelines for the OurStory "Good, Bad, & Ugly" Vacation Story Contest

Guidelines for the OurStory "Good, Bad, & Ugly" Vacation Story Contest

REGISTER as an OurStory member (it’s free!).

If you’re new to OurStory.com, just follow these steps to sign on to our service (and, welcome, by the way!). If you’re already using OurStory, just skip ahead to Step 2, “CONNECT to our Good Bad and Ugly story profile,” which you’ll see below.

• Go to www.ourstory.com
• Press: “Try it Now for Free” or “Click Here to Sign Up for Free”
• On the next screen, press: “Choose a FREE Account”
• Enter your basic Registration information, upload a Profile photo (follow the prompts to upload a photo from your computer during registration, or skip this step and upload a photo later. Please note that uploading a Profile photo is required to qualify you as a contest entrant). After you have completed the Registration form, press “I accept, create my account”
• Next, press “Continue to My FREE Account”
• Select if you would like to receive a “Starter Question Set” set and press “Continue” (a Starter Question Set will provide you with questions that you can answer to build your ongoing story within OurStory.com).
• Finally, you will be given the option of inviting others to join OurStory. This is a great way for you to share, and build, your stories within OurStory.com, so we encourage you to invite your friends to join. Enter their email addresses and press “Invite” or press “Skip” if you’d like to wait ‘til later to invite your friends.

2. "CONNECT" to our "Good Bad and Ugly" story profile.

• Once you’ve completed the Registration process, you will be taken to your “My Story” page (this is your “home base” on OurStory.com).
• Press the “Search” link, located at the top of your MyStory page, just to the left of your Profile image.
• Next, type in these words, with no punctuation as illustrated here:

…and press “Go”.

• Place your cursor over the “Sun Stroke” image (yellow with a black sun) that you see under the “Search Results” window, and click “Connect” under the image.
• On the next screen, under “Edit Relationship” check the “Friends and Family” box and press “Save” (“Save” is found in the lower right part of your screen.
• Congratulations! You have now established yourself as a contest entrant. The next screen you see is your “People” area. This is where OurStory users manage all of their connections within our service. For now, though, just move your cursor to the top of the OurStory window and click on “My Story”.

3. WRITE, ILLUSTRATE, and PUBLISH your entry.

• Now it’s time to write, illustrate, and submit your contest entry!
• Near the top of your screen, you’ll see a place to “Compose” the story that will become your contest entry. In the “Compose” space, enter a “Title,” a “Timeline Date” (date of your vacation story) and compose your story. Have fun! Tell us about a vacation adventure that was good, bad, or ugly (or all of the above).
• Add the following line to the end of your story: 

And that is my entry to your vacation story contest.

• When complete, press “Preview.”
• On the “Preview” screen, press “edit” if you need to make any changes to your entry.
• Now it’s time to illustrate your story! Press the “Media” button located on the right.
• You can “Upload” an image from your desktop, add images from your “Flickr” account, use “Yahoo! Image Search” to find the right image or use the “Video” option to upload a small video clip of your adventure! (you can add up to three images or one video clip (up to 5 minutes long) and two images)
• Once you’ve selected your media, press “Continue”
• You will be directed back to the “Preview” page. Select your “Access” levels (who can view your entry). For this contest, select  “Public.”
• Select “Yes” for email notifications. (This will send us an email letting us know you’ve written your story!)
• Finally, press “Publish."

You’re done! Go ahead and create another entry, and see how that helps you build your “Timeline.”

Like it? Do it again. You can enter as often as you wish. Just keep adding stories within your OurStory account. Since you’re already “connected” to the contest, we’ll be able to see all of your entries, so just keep writing.

Only one prize per author, though, just to keep things fun for all.

Helpful hints and suggestions:

• You can add to, enhance, or edit any story you’ve written simply by returning to your “My Story” page and pressing “View” and “Edit.”
• Check in and read other contest stories. Just sign in, and click your “People” link, located at the top. Click the “Good Bad and Ugly” icon.  Click that pages’ “People” link to view other contestants. Click a profile image and have fun reading!
• At anytime you can add comments to your own story or to other people’s stories. After viewing a story press “Comments.”
• You can also let others know you read their story by pressing the “Guestbook” link (where the blue writing says, “Click to add your photo”) at the bottom of each story you visit.

To summarize:

• By entering this contest you agree to all of our Rules and Regulations.
• You may enter this contest any time between Thursday, July 13, 2006 and noon P.S.T. on Thursday, July 27, 2006. Entries to this contest will be officially complete and closed at 12:00 pm P.S.T., on July 27.
• You must add a line indicating that your entry is an official contest entry in order for your submission to be “official.” Place this line at the end of your story:

And that is my entry to your vacation story contest.

This is a required step!

• Winners will be announced on Saturday, July 29, 2006 at the BlogHer Conference in San Jose, CA. In addition, we will contact all winners via email by Monday, July 31…so stay tuned!

Thanks for your interest, and congratulations on your entry