Who can enter?
Entrants can be of any nationality, as long as FieldReport is not prohibited by local law, but must be at least 18 years of age. Employees and directors of FieldReport and their immediate families may enter site contests, but are not eligible to win prizes.
What are the FieldReport contests?
The FieldReport beta has two prize contests:
Special Prize: The $20,000 FieldReport Prize for Experiential Writing will be awarded at noon (Pacific Standard Time) on July 1, to the highest-ranking eligible FieldReport.
Category Prizes: These prizes of either $1000 or $2000 will be awarded to the highest ranking FieldReport in each of the FieldReport beta categories, as follows:
Animal Beings — Interactions with non-humans, wild or tame: $1000
Brush with Fame — Close encounters of the celebrity kind: $2000
College Life — What goes on in and out of class: $1000
Crisis + Change — Tumultuous events and their aftermath: $1000
Food + Drink — The life of the palate: $1000
Friends + Family — The joys and trials of close friends and relations: $1000
Home + Garden + Auto — Stories from where you live: $1000
Life + Me — What it feels like to be you, today or yesterday: $1000
Love + Hate — Your romantic experiences; good, bad, and ugly: $1000
Music + Arts — Creation, appreciation, and repudiation: $1000
Oddball Events — Wild, crazy, and uncategorizable: $1000
On the Job — What goes down in the work day: $1000
Parenting + Pregnancy — Chronicles of children and childbirth: $1000
Spirituality + Religion — Forces greater than ourselves: $1000
Sport + Challenge — Stories of the physical self: $1000
Style + Beauty + Body — Appearances can be…interesting: $1000
Travel + Nature — Experiences far away or in the wild: $2000
Witness to History — Historical events when you were there: $1000
Can a FieldReport compete in multiple categories?
No, and if a FieldReport is entered in an inappropriate category, it will likely be re-categorized during the community review process, according to a consensus of reviewers.
How long is each FieldReport eligible to compete?
Each entered FieldReport remains in the running for two cycles of each prize. A FieldReport can win each prize only once, but may win several different prizes, for example, one FieldReport could win a bronze best-in-category prize one month, and then win the Gold Prize a few months later.
How are prizewinners chosen?
Prizewinners are chosen by the FieldReport community through FieldReport's patent-pending Objective Community Ranking Engine.
How are winners verified?
As part of the submission process, authors agree to cooperate with FieldReport staff in fact checking to verify their stories and profile information. FieldReport's policy is to verify every winner. Because of this policy, authors know that that their fieldreports and profiles need to be true, or they will likely forfeit their chances to win. Obviously, this doesn't mean you need to prove every single fact in a story, but if you say you were in Italy during an important news event, your credit card statements or passport shouldn't say otherwise.
Do I have to reveal my true identity to win a prize?
No. But you will have to interact with FieldReport staff to verify your FieldReport and profile information and do paperwork required by the Contest Rules and Submission Agreement. If you want to remain anonymous, we will do our best to protect your privacy during this process.
How do I enter?
Just hit the write button and paste your fieldreport in the edit window. Fill in the other Fields and click the ENTER button. If you have less than five review credits, you may need to save your fieldreport as a draft and do some reviews before you can enter. This requirement ensures that FieldReport always has enough reviewers to fairly rank the content on our site, and also makes sure our writers fully understand how their fieldreports will be judged.
As a Reviewer, what should I consider when rating a FieldReport?
According to the Official Contest Rules, reviewers are asked to "rate each FieldReport based on their judgment of the value it would bring to a larger collection of fieldreports, considering its usefulness, originality, insight and narrative voice; its ability to evoke a vivid scene or feeling; and its overall quality as entertainment." Reviews are performed on a scale of 0 through 10, with the meaning of each numerical rating shown on the scale.
