drawponies

We have been blown away by the amazing response to our polls - Most polls get over 500 votes and more than 50 comments!  Wow! We wanted to give you the opportunity to help us write new polls for the site, to win both fame and awesome prizes.  

You want to win your share of $100 by creating an awesome poll!  Interested?  Please read the following contest rules thoroughly.  May the best polls win!

If you do not follow these, your submission will be disqualified.

1. Ideas must be your own work.  Don't copy an idea from someone else.

2. Absolutely no mention of NSFW, gore, or profanity.  

3. Canon characters only.  "My OC" ideas are not allowed.  Exceptions to this rule:

    a. Equestria Girls, Rainbow Rocks and Friendship Games

    b. Little Pip, Blackjack, and associated characters from the fics Fallout: Equestria and Project Horizons. Also Nyx from Past Sins, Pink Eye from the FoE story of the same name, and other big names fan fiction.

4. You MAY ask your friends to vote for your submission in the community voting process.  You may NOT use voting bots or other unfair tactics.

5. Don’t write anything political, unless you’re making up Equestrian politics.

6. Don’t write anything religious, unless you’re making up Equestrian religion.

7. Don’t write anything that is offensive to someone’s politics, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, sex, nationality, disability, and so on. You guys know should know this.

8. Polls cannot be blatantly self-promoting.  We are going to credit you with the poll that you made.

9. The poll ideas must be written in English.

Submission deadline is April 30th at midnight, Eastern Standard Time.  Semi-finalists will then be chosen and the community voting period will continue for the next week.

So here are some things to keep in mind when you’re making your poll ideas:

1. Short prompts are preferred, and there is a maximum length for submissions.  Here is the exact amount of space, in words, you have to write a premise that will be displayed to people:

Finally, it’s possible. You have a one-way ticket to Equestria. Five others can go with you. But you have to go now. They aren’t nearby. They don’t get to choose, but you can’t go alone. You have one minute to decide…

This is the MAXIMUM amount.  Generally, a short prompt like “What is your favorite Equestrian city?” will be best.

2. You may submit 2 to 10 poll options. Personally, with some polls, I like to add an “Other” option as number 10, but you can do whatever you want. Those 10 spaces have the exact amount of writing space that the title does, but unless you have a deep or complex poll, I wouldn’t recommend making a poll that has that many words.  

3. You can add character icons in your polls.  Example: : iconrainbowdashplz: . You see us use these a lot of with the shipping polls, like this: x (OTP)  You can find hundreds of these icons at this link: mlp-fim-plz.deviantart.com/

4. You can add deviantART thumbnails to your polls.  By looking at a deviantART image’s page and selecting the thumbnail code on the bottom-right side of the page below the image stats. They’ll look like this: which is represented as code like this (but without the spaces) : thumb336979871 : Keep in mind that thumbnails will usually look mismatched in size when you include them and adding too much text to them can throw off the look of the poll. It can still be done, though.

5. You can include links in your polls. But please shorten the links using the bitly website located here: bitly.com/

6. You can include gifs in your polls. They can be really fun.

Post your poll idea on Deviantart, Tumblr, or Google Docs and link to it in the comments of this contest post.  Use the formatting guide in the next section.

It's necessary for there to be a link to each submission so I can link to the semifinalists in the polls.  

To post a comment will require a Deviantart account.  You can create one here if needed.  Please watch Drawponies on Deviantart if you haven't yet

If you post to Google Docs, make sure that you set the sharing settings to public.

Submission deadline is April 30th, 2015 at midnight, Eastern Standard Time.  You may enter as many times as you like, within reason.  Post a separate link for each submission so that it is clear how many you have submitted.

I will choose 10 or more of my favorite ideas for evaluation, and create one or more polls to let the fans decide which is their favorite.  

When you are preparing your script for submission, use the following formatting so that it is easy for me to understand and evaluate it.  

Prompt: Who is Best Pony?

Option 1: Twilight Sparkle

Option 2: Pinkie Pie

Option 3: Applejack

Option 4: Rainbow Dash

Option 5: Rarity

Option 6: Fluttershy

Option 7: Princess Luna

Option 8: Derpy Hooves

Option 9: Vinyl Scratch

Option 10: Other (Add your own idea in comments!)

Poll idea for the contest on drawponies.com

Enter your own ideas for the chance to win $100!  

Author name - example.tumblrordeviantart.com

The 5 polls that win in the community voting portion will be posted with credit to the author.  The authors will receive $20 via either Paypal or an Amazon gift card via email.

If you win and cannot get access to Paypal or Amazon, just message me and we can work something out.  You also have the option for me to donate the funds to a charity, such as Bronies for Good.

I will notify the semifinalists and the winner via Deviantart private message.  The overall winner will have up to two weeks to claim their prize.  If the prize is not claimed, the runner up will be notified.

Runners up will be chosen by me to also be posted as polls.  This means that, by submitting an entry, you give me permission to post your idea, even if you are not the overall winner.   Authors will receive credit in the prompt.

By submitting an entry, you also give me permission to edit your idea if I deem it necessary.  Even if the idea is edited, you will still receive full credit for the idea.

Suggestions for coming up with ideas:

Here are some examples of our most popular polls, to give you some ideas:

The first is a simple, but profound, choice between two options.  I paired it with thumbnails for added interest.  See this poll here: bit.ly/1DFVL1p

The second is a difficult choice that BGB wrote - it asks for an emotional response.  See this poll here: bit.ly/1atEP2n

This poll by BGB tells a story - this is a great opportunity to do a “Choose Your Own Adventure,” if you like.  See this poll here: bit.ly/1zeKCza

And finally, a poll that deals with something that is important to many bronies - relationships.  See this poll here: bit.ly/1ECw0jf

Every entry is valued and appreciated!  Remember, it's not about winning, it's about having fun and expressing your creativity

If you have questions, feel free to ask in the comments below, or ask me on Skype - my username is neilthenerd1  I will do my best to respond to everyone.