DearDiary.Net Theme Competition


A bone of contention on the site, and a personal pet hate of mine ever since we started the place in 1999 (but never a pet peeve enough for me to do much about it) is the absolute lack of nice themes available for beginner users to use. With that in mind we have decided to hold a Theme Competition.

In order to enter the competition you must design a diary layout, complete with colours and graphics buttons. When you configure your Theme you should note that items in your menu will appear on your theme – so either make them very generic and/or useful to newbies, or don’t put any items on the menus. Index Text and Welcome Text, along with Entry Headers and Footers will not appear on the theme.

The Prizes:

  • 1st prize will be One Years Plus Account Subscription
  • 2nd prize will be 6 Months Plus Account Subscription
  • A number of 1 Months Plus Account Subscriptions up for grabs for runners up
  • All Winners will be credited with the theme creation in the Customizer


The Rules:

  • Theme diaries must have usernames that start theme – so you could use themeFinndel if your normal name is Finndel – when you submit your entry, please include the username you would like the theme attributed to.
  • All theme entries must be original – including graphic artwork. No artwork that is under 3rd party copyright will be allowed (which rules out buttons that have ‘Simpsons’ characters for example) and this will result in the entire theme’s disqualification. You may use images that are copyright free (ie, where the author has explicitly stated the images are available with no copyright restrictions) but we will need to see evidence of this.
  • The judge’s decision will be final.
  • You agree that DearDiary.Net can use your theme for an indefinite period, for as many users as we wish because your theme will be published as a public theme in the Customizer. You may not revoke DearDiary.Nets rights to use your theme at any time, although you will retain copyright control of your theme and may choose to use it yourself elsewhere.
  • We are not bound to use your theme for any defined period. We may cease to use your theme as a public theme in the customizer at any time, without notice to you.
  • You agree that we may create derivative works of your theme, but only for the purposes of providing extra themes on the DearDiary.Net website. We may use your theme in any publicity on the site.
  • Competition closes January 15th 2005. Winners will be listed on an entry on this diary (deardiary1).
  • You may submit as many themes as you wish. Entrants who submit more than one theme will be eligible for more than one prize, if their themes are chosen for prizes.
  • Themes must be created in a diary on DearDiary.Net and must be available for transferrance into the ‘Theme System’ on 15th and 16th January 2005. After this date the theme diary may be deleted, or modified.
  • Winners who already hold Plus accounts will simply have the prize subscription appended to their existing subscription.

sxc.hu has, apparently, a decent library of copyright free images. If you’re using images from that site though, be sure to check the ones you’ve chosen are definitely copyright free.

Above all – have fun! Let your creativity flow 🙂

Update: One question tho, so I understand right… Do I need to create a new diary called “theme02012000” and set up the design in there for the judges to see? – it can be whatever you like so long as it starts with theme. We just didn’t want a whole slew of diary names taken up, so if it starts with theme I can just delete them all after the compo 🙂
2nd Update: It’s been pointed out to me that I don’t actually say how to submit your entries.. Send an email to [email protected] and give us the URL to your theme diary, and let us know which username you’d like the theme attributed to if you win!

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11 Comments

  1. yesssssssss! now you’re talking. this one’s gonna be fun! woohoooo! am not sure if i can come up with an entry though as am not really a graphics designer but i’ll try.

    way to go steve.

    ori:D

  2. Oh, I may try my hand at this! Cool! One question tho, so I understand right… Do I need to create a new diary called "theme02012000" and set up the design in there for the judges to see?

  3. Am I allowed to enter? *wink*

    You know I already have about 20 old themes!

    Although I guess my young ones theme would be out… and my current Escher theme would be out, damned copyright!!

  4. If we utilize an image in our entry header will that be included in the theme or is it restricted to background panels and buttons only in terms of images used?

  5. ^ JanuaryGirl: Did you read the entry?

    "Index Text and Welcome Text, along with Entry Headers and Footers will not appear on the theme."

  6. Yes, Musik, I read the entry several times, but was unclear from the wording whether it meant just text or images too.. I thought it better to clarify than assume. Apparently that was foolhardy of me. So I apologize for wasting anybody’s time. Sorry Steve and company.

  7. ahh yes, sorry if my comment came across as rude. You are very right, it is much better to ask than to assume. My apologies JanuaryGirl.

  8. I had a question I just thought up today, of course.. When you say "must be available for transference into the ‘Theme System’" What do you mean exactly? Are we supposed to go to each theme diary and take the graphics out of "private" mode by then? I just wanted to check about that.

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