Auctiva Template Competiton Comments

Hi,

Where in auctiva is this competion posted ? the only info I see about it is from you ? is this a joke ? or for real ?

Hi Melanie.

I just noticed that you have "Auctiva" next to your user name.

The fact that you are a "Newbie" threw me off. Sorry. I thought that you were a auctiva user and not working for auctiva.

Maybe, it would be a good idea for ALL auctiva staff to have their name highlighted in Red so that we can see at a glance that you are offical auctiva staff.

Hi carolelliott,

Yes, we really are running a template competition. I edited my first post on this thread with a link to the details on the community board.

I agree with your comment about highlighting official staff so that everyone knows we really are from Auctiva.

-Melanie

Oooh $100! Is this contest open to Auctiva employees?!

quote:

Originally posted by Auctiva Tom T.:
Below our name it says "Auctiva Support." Just had to add that to Melanies account since her first post was today.

Tom,

Yes I can just barely see that it says Auctiva Support under your names, but it is small, and not very defined. I made a suggestion that ALL Auctiva Staff have thier names highlighted, simple enough to do I'm sure, and would help NEW users to see that you are offical.

You have women-folk on board. Let the estrogen begin to flow! <smile>

Majorly kewl! A contest!

HTML-challenged in FL,
Donna

quote:

Originally posted by Auctiva Melanie:
Yes, we really are running a template competition.-Melanie

Arrr! The capn's on the bridge.
This announcement's just about made up my fertile mind for me: I think I'll see if me womern will let me go commercial, and open up my own template fixin' shop, like Carolelliot's been after me t'do. Say, ten samolians to take yer template an' make it work, like I has been a-doin'? About the same amount to fix yer auction on eBay in real-time. Could probably view your ads in IE, Netscape an' FireFox @ 8, 16, and 32-bit colors for ye, fer a mere pittance, say, $4.95? Eventually, I s'pose if ye theatened t'make me walk the plank, I could take yer idears and make 'em into a custom template fer ye. All by PayPal, of course! With service after the sale, it'd be a good deal fer ye.

What does ya' think? Now don't flame me

BTW, I don't plan to enter the contest. With all the smart and buxom lasses on 'ere, this ole cap'm wouldn't stand a chance!

quote:

Originally posted by me pal, Suthnjewl:
You have women-folk on board. Let the estrogen begin to flow!

Yes! An' the cash, too!

CB
"Livin' on a ol' pirate's pension."

Wow, guys this is great!

I do have a few questions if I may . . .

I take it the winners will be added to the selection of templates provided by Auctiva?

This being the case we do not need to add custom tags like Shipping and payment, store window, or even custom picture layouts?

Also this would mean we don't need the extra links that I use at the bottom of my templates for email, auctions, feedback and so on?

By copyright free this would also included sites that require a link back to them if you use their graphics?

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions I'm sure I'll prolly have more!

~LOL~

Off to work I go

quote:

Originally posted by wahm922:
I take it the winners will be added to the selection of templates provided by Auctiva?

Yes, all of the winning templates will be added to the selection of templates provided by Auctiva.

quote:

This being the case we do not need to add custom tags like Shipping and payment, store window, or even custom picture layouts?

You don't need to include any custom tags. But you can include artwork for the "Description" and "Payment & Shipping" tags. Just make sure that text in those images says "Description" or "Payment & Shipping".

quote:

Also this would mean we don't need the extra links that I use at the bottom of my templates for email, auctions, feedback and so on?

Correct. The extra links are not needed.

quote:

By copyright free this would also included sites that require a link back to them if you use their graphics?

We prefer copyright free artwork that does not require a link. If you use copyright free artwork that requires a link back to another site, you will need to include that link with the image.

Have fun making those templates!

quote:

Originally posted by Auctiva David:
Oooh $100! Is this contest open to Auctiva employees?!

Unfortunately, this contest in not open to Auctiva employees.

Hi,

If the templates submitted for the competion are to be used for auctiva templates later, wouldn't it be better to include image tags ?

At the present time I notice that auctiva only carries templates for 1 center picture.

I was thinking of designing a template for the competion with thumbnails (size of aprox 160 or 180 pix pictures). Would this kind of template be allowed ?

I would have to use html and not auctivas image tags to create this kind of template.

Or are you just looking for templates with unique borders ~ shipping ~ descriptions and layout designs etc?

I am a little confused by this statement in your competion rules:

" Optimize images to the smallest file size while retaining image quality " ??

can you expand on that a little for me,

Thanks.

Hello again,

I just remembered something else I was going to ask you. lol ....will be plenty more questions I'm sure before I'm done...

If someone submitted a template for the competion, and it didn't comply with all your rules, ie: page expanding vertically etc

Will the template be destroyed ? sent back to the creator, or just left in to be judged at the end ?

I have just posted the first competition template and wanted some feedback from Miss Melanie or Tom. Was I suppose to add image placeholders and mock up text so that it looks just like an auction? Did I forget to add a tag? I was also wondering if it was okay to give credit to my buddy for his artwork, he gave his permission to use some of his work as long as I gave him credit. Thank you in advance.

quote:

Originally posted by carolelliott:

Hi,

I was thinking of designing a template for the competion with thumbnails (size of aprox 160 or 180 pix pictures). Would this kind of template be allowed ?

I would have to use html and not auctivas image tags to create this kind of template.

I am a little confused by this statement in your competion rules:

" Optimize images to the smallest file size while retaining image quality " ??

can you expand on that a little for me,

Thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by carolelliott:
I was thinking of designing a template for the competion with thumbnails (size of aprox 160 or 180 pix pictures). Would this kind of template be allowed ?

All of the Auctiva templates work with our Image Selector. This allows that user of the template to choose from a variety of image layouts. You can check this out by going to a listing and selecting a template.

You can put in placeholder images help your template design look more like an actual listing. We'll strip that stuff all out on our end at the end of the competition.

quote:

Originally posted by carolelliott:
I would have to use html and not auctivas image tags to create this kind of template.

Yes, you would need to do it in HTML to display it in your competition entry.

quote:

Originally posted by carolelliott:
I am a little confused by this statement in your competion rules:

" Optimize images to the smallest file size while retaining image quality " ??

This just means, try to optimize the images so they are as small as possible but still look good. If you over optimize, you artwork can start looking fuzzy.

Just to be clear...you are not required to add the Auctiva Tags to your entry.

After the competition ends, we will be recoding your templates to make sure that they work as an Auctiva Template.

We are mainly look for your template to look good through colors, borders, layout, images..etc.

quote:

Originally posted by bz4shez:
I have just posted the first competition template and wanted some feedback from Miss Melanie or Tom.

Congrats on being the first person to submit an entry!

quote:

Originally posted by bz4shez:Was I suppose to add image placeholders and mock up text so that it looks just like an auction?

You definitely can add placeholder images and text to mkae your entry look more like it would in an eBay listing.

quote:

Originally posted by bz4shez:
Did I forget to add a tag?

You don't need to add any of the "Custom Template" tags to your entry. Your first entry actually works better than your second. In the first one, the design elements display better without the tags.

You could play with the alignment of the images that you provided for different listing areas. Also, you can add some text to show what color the text should be.

quote:

Originally posted by bz4shez:
I was also wondering if it was okay to give credit to my buddy for his artwork, he gave his permission to use some of his work as long as I gave him credit. Thank you in advance.

Sure as long as the image is considered copyright free and fits within the competition rules.

Another question:

I have several templates I myself currently use, I have shared these with friends and also some have been added to the Template Wharehouse which is only available to SD members. This is not a paid site and my work was done for free.

Can I enter these or no because they are already being used elsewhere?

The way I read it anything submitted becomes the property of Auctiva so I'm guessing this would not be allowed?

Thanks again!

Back to work, I have some cute ideas I'm working on

I never thought of that either. I submitted one that others from SD are using as well.

quote:

Originally posted by wahm922:
Can I enter these or no because they are already being used elsewhere?

You can enter all templates created by you and posted elsewhere as long as you are the rightful owner of the template. So bring them on!

My stuff starts to look fuzzy because Auctiva converts them to a jpeg instead of leaving it a gif and I also loose the transparancy too.

I guess to do some of these templates the right way I'm going to need to host the graphics elsewhere.

Or after you aquire them to use as part of your service I can give you the gif to use. I did notice the ones you have are made with gif's.

Either way, just know anything posted here that shows a jpeg I also have a copy in gif format as well

quote:

Originally posted by wahm922:
My stuff starts to look fuzzy because Auctiva converts them to a jpeg instead of leaving it a gif and I also loose the transparancy too.

Interesting.
Did you upload those images today? If so, would you mind telling me which way you loaded them (HTML, Java, Drag & Drop)?

You could try uploading them again. The image loaders are set up to keep your gifs, well...gifs.

quote:

Originally posted by wahm922:
I guess to do some of these templates the right way I'm going to need to host the graphics elsewhere.

If reloading the images doesn't fix it, then hosting the images elsewhere for the competition would be a good work around.

You can host the images anywhere for your contest entries. It is not required that you host them on Auctiva.

It exciting to see all of the entries!

You are all so creative and template saavy! I can't wait to see all of the new entries on Monday.

Oh wow, that must be new!

When did the gif ability become available. I knew it was in the works but hadn't heard anything. I just uploaded some gifs and yup they are still gifs.

Thank you once again!

No best for last here, they are just coming out wiht no real plan really.

I wish I had the ability to make my own artwork but I'm lucky I have gotten this far since I just started using PhotoShop less then a month ago.

I'm having alot of fun doing this and learning as I go!

Thanks again to everyone who submitted templates to the template competition. The winners are posted on the main template competition thread.

We have now added the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place templates to the Auctiva Templates.

They are called:

Watermelon Picnic
Autumn Leaves
Happy Holidays

Happy New Years!