Contest Rules
OurStory.com has established the following contest rules to ensure fair and equal participation, and chances of winning, in our “Good, Bad, & Ugly” contest.
No purchase is necessary for participation, although you must use a computer with Internet access in order to enter. Purchase will not improve your chances of winning.
All entrants must be 18 years of age or older.
1. Entering our contest.
Entrants participate by becoming an OurStory member; completing the registration process at www.OurStory.com; connecting to the “Good, Bad, & Ugly” page on our service; and creating an online “entry “or “post” that becomes their contest entry. Read the detailed steps here.
2. Selection and contact of Winners.
Winners will be selected by a panel of judges including:
Andy Halliday, CEO, OurStory.com
Lisa Stone, CEO, BlogHer
Firoozeh Dumas, Author, “Funny in Farsi”
Judging will be based upon compliance with the rules of this contest, including guidelines for submission and illustration of stories, and the writing and content of the entry. Specifically:
1. Qualifying entrants must register as members of OurStory.com and upload a “Profile” picture or image to their OurStory account.
2. Qualifying entrants must connect to the “Good, Bad, & Ugly” profile within the OurStory service.
3. Qualifying entrants must write, illustrate, and publish a story within their account on OurStory.com.
4. Qualifying entrants must add the following phrase to the end of their story in order for it to be recognized as a contest entry:
And that is my entry to the OurStory vacation story contest.
5. Qualifying entries must be published on OurStory.com between Thursday, July 13 and Thursday, July 27, 2006. Entries will be closed at noon P.S.T. on Thursday, July 27, 2006 and no entry published on OurStory after that time can be considered as a qualifying entry in this contest.
One Grand Prize winner will be chosen from all of the stories. Our judges will also select three First Prize winners: one from each of the “Good,” “Bad,” and “Ugly” submissions. Ten winners chosen from the remaining entries will also be awarded Honorable Mentions.
Winners will be announced on July 29, 2006, at approximately 1:30 in the afternoon, at the BlogHer Conference in San Jose, CA. We will post all winners’ names and entries to BlogHer during the week of July 31, 2006, and will also announce winners on the OurStory site. Winners will also be contacted via email using the email address associated with their OurStory account. The person receiving and replying to the winner announcement email will be considered the winner unless they specify another person within the reply email as the winner.
Only one entry per OurStory member will be considered for contest judging, and no person may be awarded more than one prize in this contest.
3. Delivery of prizes.
Prizes will be shipped by OurStory to the prize winners during the week of August 14, 2006, provided that the winners have provided prize acceptance and delivery information. Travel prizes will be confirmed via email during the week of August 14, 2006, and travel will be arranged according to the guidelines in that email.
Prizes are detailed at the end of this page.
Claiming of prizes requires an email response to OurStory.com from the winning sender email address within 15 days of being notified of winning at the email address used to enter. Failure to respond shall mean that the winner forfeits the prize. OurStory is not required to award elsewhere any prizes forfeited by the chosen winner(s).
4. Submission of content and images.
Entries selected for display and to win this contest and any other contests requiring photo, text or other content from the entrants will be judged entirely at the discretion of OurStory.com and the selected judges.
By submitting any photo or information to OurStory for this contest, you hereby grant to OurStory and our affiliates, subsidiaries, licensees and assigns, an irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual and royalty-free right to use, reproduce, edit, display, transmit, modify, publish, make derivative works and otherwise make use of the submitted photo or other information in any and all media, in the sole discretion of OurStory and in any setting and for any purpose without any attribution to you or attributed to you by name as OurStory may determine without your prior permission. The rights granted to OurStory include but are not limited to the right to resize, crop, censor, compress, edit, feature, caption, affix logos to, and to otherwise alter or make use of the submitted images, text, or other content.
By submitting any photo or information to this OurStory contest, you hereby represent and warrant that the submitted photo or information does not and shall not infringe on any copyright, any rights of privacy or publicity of any person, or any other right of any third party, and you have the right to grant any and all rights and licenses granted to OurStory herein, including but not limited to all necessary rights under copyright, free and clear of any claims or encumbrances.
You acknowledge and agree that OurStory shall have no obligation to post, display or otherwise make publicly available any photo or information submitted by you, and may, in its sole and unfettered discretion, remove, edit, modify or delete any photo or information that you submit to OurStory.
You understand and intend that any photo or information submitted by you to OurStory may be available for viewing, rating, review and comment on by the public, and understand that comments or ratings with which you disagree or are unhappy about may be published or otherwise become associated with any photo or information you submit to OurStory. By submitting any photo or information to OurStory, you hereby waive any privacy expectations that you may have with respect to any such photo or information submitted by you to OurStory.
You hereby agree to hold OurStory and its affiliates, subsidiaries, licensees sponsors and assigns harmless from and against, and hereby waive any right to pursue, any claims of any nature arising in connection with the inclusion in, publication via or display on any OurStory site, or any other use authorized under these rules, of any photo or information submitted to OurStory by you;
Images or information submitted by you to OurStory for this contest shall be the sole property of OurStory, and OurStory shall have no obligation to preserve, return or otherwise make available to you or others any images or information so submitted.
5. Awarding Prizes.
All winners are required to verify proper and legal picture identification and Social Security number within 30 days of notification of winning the prize. Winner may forfeit any and all winnings if verification cannot or has not been made within 30 days. Upon proper verification, winnings will be awarded and mailed to winner's mailing address within seven (7) business days.
Each prizewinner must supply OurStory with his/her legal name, mailing address, birth date, daytime and nighttime telephone numbers. In the case of a cash winner, winner must also supply social security number, certified on IRS Form W-9.
Winners may not request substitutions of prize winnings. All winners are solely responsible for any and all taxes and/or fees, and all such additional costs that may be incurred.
Neither OurStory, OurStory sponsors, nor employees of OurStory or sponsors may be held liable for any warranty, costs, damage, injury, or any other claims incurred as a result of usage of any winners of a prize once possession has been taken of the product by winner. OurStory is not liable for any loss arising out of or in connection with or resulting from any contest promoted by OurStory.
If the specified prize becomes unavailable due to unforeseen circumstances, OurStory may substitute a prize of like or equal value.
Management, employees and families of OurStory are prohibited from winning any prizes awarded by OurStory.
OurStory reserves the right to alter any rules of any contest at anytime. If you have any questions or complaints about a OurStory contest, please contact support@wisdomark.com.
PRIZES
One GRAND PRIZE: awarded to the story our judges choose as “Best of the Good, Bad, & Ugly”
An all-expense-paid trip to the 2007 BlogHer Conference, including continental U.S. airfare and accommodations, $250 in spending money, and OurStory luggage tags for all of the bags you pack, plus…
A Canon PowerShot 5-Megapixel Digital Elph Camera (Model SD450) to help you illustrate all of your favorite vacation stories (and more), plus…
Premium Membership in OurStory for one year and a chic OurStory “Winner” Baby T.
Three FIRST PRIZES: one each for the top “Good,” “Bad” and “Ugly” tales…chosen from our judges’ Top Twenty stories.
A Canon PowerShot 5-Megapixel Digital Elph Camera (Model SD450) to help you illustrate all of your favorite vacation stories (and more!) This is a very cool little camera with a suggested retail price of $299.99! Also…
Premium Membership in OurStory.com for one year and a chic OurStory “Winner” Baby T.
Ten HONORABLE MENTIONS: chosen from our judges’ Top Twenty favorite stories.
Premium Membership in OurStory.com for one year and a chic OurStory “Winner” Baby T.
All winners also receive an autographed copy of “Funny in Farsi,” by Firoozeh Dumas…author of one of our favorite looks at the “Good, Bad, & Ugly” of travel and adventure.