Announcing the Gnorb.NET New Year’s CD Giveaway!

The headline is pretty self-explanatory. Read the rest for all the details.

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Important message at the bottom! Please read! (Dec 21, 2006 @ 12:17am)

What would be better than reading great content on your favorite website (and while you’re at it, on Gnorb.NET, too)? Why, reading great content while listening to great music, of course!

This has been an incredible year for Gnorb.NET. (It would be an even better year if the folks at 9Rules decided to include this site in their pantheon of great blogs, but that’s neither here nor there.) To celebrate a successful 2006, I’m holding a contest, the first (and not last, hopefully) annual “Gnorb.NET New Year’s CD Giveaway!” The grand prize winner for this contest will receive a copy of Weird Al Yankovick’s newest CD, Straight Outta Lynwood!

What better way to start the new year than to win a free Weird Al CD? I mean, sure, I can think of a few ways, but getting a free CD and winning a contest are definitelly up there.

How to Participate
There are two ways to participate: by linking to this blog (best choice for webmasters and bloggers), or by writing a blog post for publication on this website (best choice for people who don’t own a website or blog).

If you’re a Webmaster…
How you participate is simple: All you have to do is link to this site via your blog or website, up to five times, on five separate days, then leave me a message here telling me where the link is. For every time you enter, I’ll put your name in a hat or bowl. When the contest ends I’ll choose a winner at random by a draw, so the more times you enter, the greater your chances to win! That’s pretty much it. Still, just to make sure we’re all clear on this, here are the details:

Rules

1. To enter the contest, you just have to put a link on your website (I’m presuming most people doing this will be bloggers, so from now on I’ll refer to blog posts).
   • The link must be to http://www.gnorb.net, not to any individual post within Gnorb.NET,
   • cannot be parsed through a script,
   • cannot be blocked from being read by spiders via the use of the robots.txt file or any other website configuration file,
   • cannot be accompanied by text such as “Do not click here” or any other form of deterrent text,
   • and cannot use the “rel=’nofollow'” attribute.

   After the link is up on your site. you must leave a comment on this post with your name, email address, and the URL in which the link is located, otherwise the link won’t count.

   (A note on the name and email address: All comments require an email address in order to be posted, so you don’t need to put your email address on the post itself. While I almost never check this address to verify its validity, this time it will be necessary in order for me to communicate with the winner. It is important that you use the same email address for all of your posts.)

2. You can enter up to five times. Actually, you can enter as many times as you want, but I’ll only count up to five times. Each link is a separate entry, so the more links you provide, the better your chances to win. However, note that you can only enter once per day, so your posts with links can’t all be from the same day. Only one link per day will count, and all links must be mentioned as a comment in this post in order to count towards your totals.
3. Links only count once per post, so putting five links on one post won’t help you out any. In order for your entries to count, each link must be on an individual post, and only one link per day will count.
4. You cannot be in the Google Sandbox, or banned by Google. I will presume that any sites still in the sandbox or banned (those with a PR of 0, since most sites have at least a PR of 1) have been set up specifically to enter this contest, are splogs, or link farms, and will therefore be immediately disqualified. (By “site” I mean the root domain, not the post in which the link is located.) By the way, splogs and link farms need not enter.
5. Only five links per person. I don’t care if you have 3 websites, you only get 5 links, not 15. I will be cross-checking email addresses and IP addresses in order to verify this, but that’s about as far as I can go. If you have 3 sites, 3 separate email addresses, 3 aliases, and use 3 different computers then I can’t stop you, so I’m relying on your honesty here.

If You Don’t Own a Website…
For you, the contest requirements are different, but simpler:

1. Write an article for publication on Gnorb.NET on one or more of the following topics:
   • Futurism and/or Science Fiction
   • Technology (Includes news about the industry, observations, tips for bloggers or webmasters, Linux and open source, or Search Engine Optimization
   • Cultural Trends in the Comic Book/Manga/Anime worlds
   • Personal Development
   • Business Development and/or Finance
   • An Experience in or Observation About Florida
   • A Funny Observation About Your Own Life
   • Music and/or Movies

   The article should be at least 500 words and should be fairly well written. (I’m not expecting Hemingway here, but it shouldn’t take me longer to edit it than it would have taken me to write it.)

2. Email the article, to gnorbx at gmail’s mail service (gmail.com). The article should be the body of the email, or if it includes pictures, should be sent as either a DOC, SWX, ABW, or HTML file. The email should also include the name you wish to use for credit.

Here are your rules:

• The article should not include any profanity and should be suitable for general audiences.
• All articles of a length between 500 and 1000 words will count as one entry in the contest, and articles greater than 1000 words will count as two entries.
• You may only enter two articles, for a maximum total of four entries.
• The article must be original and cannot have been published anywhere else previously.
• If the article requires a ton of editing, I will not accept it. Again, it doesn’t have to be great — the average high-schooler could easily write something which qualifies.

Some articles received will be republished, under your name, on Gnorb.NET. You can republish the articles later, but I ask that you wait at least one month after the article is published here before you publish it anywhere else. (Unless I get a tremendous response — not likely — all articles will be published in the month of January, 2007.) By submitting an article, you agree to grant Gnorb.NET perpetual publication rights to the article on this website only. Queries about the article will be sent directly to you.

Note that you can enter in both methods for a total of up to five entries: one thousand-word article and three links will get you 5 entries, for example. Just make sure all your information matches.

The End of the Contest
This contest will run until January 6, 2007, so you have plenty of time to enter. (January 6th is “Three Kings Day”, or Orthodox Christmas. It signals the end of the Christmas season for some of us in the Hispanic community, and its when I’ll be back from my vacation. More on that second part later). On January 7, 2007, I will enter all of the entries — up to 5 per person — into a hat or a bowl and pick out a winner at random. I will then announce the winner on the site, and communicate with the winner in order to find out where I can send this package.

Important
Note that the winner is responsible for paying any tariffs or import taxes arising from the receipt of this item. (Value: US$19.98.) While this contest is void where prohibited, I’m not limiting it to any continent, so whether you’re in the US, Canada, the UK, Japan, India, or even Pakistan, you can enter!

Also note that while the rules probably won’t change, there may be slight changes to make the contest more fair (mostly if I noticed I left an exploitable loophole), so keep your eyes on this page. Just remember to keep it honest and you should be fine.

Finally, this is the first time I run something like this here. If it ends up working out, I’ll start including more of this sort of thing. If it doesn’t — well, happy new year to the winner. If I end up getting a much bigger response than I anticipate, I’ll add a second and third prize yet to be determined.

With that, start your engines! Questions regarding the contest can be sent to “gnorbx” at google’s mail service (gmail.com).

IMPORTANT: I’ve been getting complaints that the comment posting isn’t working. If you have tried to post a comment and have been unable, please send me a message at my email address (mentioned above). I’ve tested the issue and comments seem to work fine, but I would like to verify this. Thank you. — G