The Quick and Easy BC Guide

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I. Terminology

Like all neoboards, the Art Chat has its own list of terms. Knowing these will help you know what people are referring to in their topics.

Anthro – A pet drawn with human-like characteristics, such as being bipedal and wearing clothes.

BC – Beauty Contest.

Competition – The other entries in the same species category as you.

Digital Art – Art that was completed on the computer using programs such as Photoshop or MS Paint.

First Come, First Serve – The topic's original poster will vote for whoever comes to their board.

Free Votes – Similar to first come, first serve. The topic's original poster has unused votes that they want to use.

Goldban – The four month ban your pet receives if it wins a first place trophy.

MV – Manual vote, meaning that the user went through each category and voted for their favorite; can be used as MVing or MVed.

NSV – Non-silent vote, meaning that the user will reveal if you got their vote; can be used as NSVing.

Traditional Art – Any art that was completed without using computer programs; sometimes referred to as "hand-drawn art".

Quad – Animal-like, usually meaning the pet was drawn on all four legs.

SV – Silent vote, meaning that the user does not wish to disclose who received their votes; can be used as SVing.

WIP – Work In Progress, meaning that the artist has taken a screenshot of their unfinished work and uploaded it to Neopets. Normally they post it because they seek feedback and possibly critiques.

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II. Entering

Different species categories have different difficulties. If it is your first contest, it is wise to enter a species that is more unpopular and therefore easier to place. The Beauty Contest's most popular categories tend to be Aisha, Cybunny, Draik, Krawk, Kougra, Lupe, Uni, and Xweetok. This is subject to change and although all categories seem to have their slow weeks, you should probably refrain from entering these categories until you are more familiar with the contest. It might be a good idea to lurk through the Art Boards to see what categories are advertised the most and which ones you rarely see.

It is imperative that you submit your own art. If you try and get away with stealing or tracing other people's art, you are bound to get caught. Entrants and voters are always on the lookout for stolen art. It is also not recommended to enter a drawing of your pet in the same style and pose as the official art, traced or not. Although this is an advertising contest, creativity may be able to win over some of the manual voters.

Your drawing needs to be a recognizable species in order to have a successful contest. The contest judge will look over your entry after you have submitted it and will ultimately determine if your drawing can go through. You will get a neomail if your entry is rejected and sometimes this can happen after the new contest has already started. Your entry could be deleted if the drawing you submitted looks more like a different species. You can still be creative with your design, but the species must resemble the pet category you are entering. However, it is perfectly fine if you draw your pet a completely different color.

The most common reason for deletion happens with anthro entries. More often than not, the shape of your anthropomorphized pet's nose is where the line is drawn. If they have a human-like nose you could be kicked out, so keep that in mind when drawing your pet.

Your entry needs to be submitted as a .JPEG or .GIF and have a file size of under 75KB.

Lastly, keep in mind that Beauty Contest entries and Art Gallery entries must be separate.

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III. Advertising

The key to winning a Beauty Contest trophy is advertising as much as you can. The more users that see your entry, the more votes you could get. Advertising often is even more important when you enter more popular categories because there is a higher chance your competition will be advertising as well. The Art Boards are always the busiest on Fridays, when everyone is hyped up about the end of the contest and the beginning of the next one. Many people like to wait until later on in the week to vote, after the stolen art has been removed, but there are just as many users who spend their votes at the beginning of the contest. Make sure you set aside some time to advertise on Friday before your competition steals all of your potential voters. Saturday is somewhat busy as well, but the Art Board does slow down over the weekend.

You must advertise your entry with the account that the entered pet resides on. If you entered your pet on a side, you need to advertise that entry from that side account. However, you can still only vote from your main account. If you enter pets on separate accounts, you have to advertise them individually from each account. This is why entrants tend to avoid entering more than one pet, although seeing the same person advertise pets from multiple accounts is not rare. You also cannot advertise your friends' entries.

Advertising should be kept to the Art Boards. If you post on other boards with your Beauty Contest entry link as your signature, you run the risk of being reported for spamming. If you play it safe and follow the rules, then you will have nothing to worry about. There will always be entrants that advertise on other boards anyways, but it is definitely still possible for you to place by just advertising in the Art Boards.

Speaking of spam, try to keep it to a minimum. Yes, this is more of an advertising contest rather than an art contest, but users will be less likely to give you their vote if you spam their boards. Try to keep on topic when posting on their boards, perhaps commenting on their own entry if they have one. Having an annoying signature that screams "vote for my pet" five times over can also scare away potential voters. Remember that vote trading ("I'll vote for you if you vote for me!") is not allowed.

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IV. Winning

Unfortunately for those who are seeking for ways to earn some extra neopoints, neopoint prizes are no longer given out in the Beauty Contest. The only prizes you will receive from are pet trophies. Gold trophies are given for first place, silver for second, and bronze for third.

All of the votes are tallied and the results are posted at the end of the week. Trophies are given to the top three entries from each category depending on their vote count. Trophies are also given to the top three entries over-all. This means that it is possible to win two trophies in one go, although that should not be an immediate goal for a first-time BCer.

If you win a trophy, congratulations are in order! As soon as that contest ends, the tallies are posted and your pet will immediately receive their trophy. The next contest starts immediately after; there is no break time in-between. If you win a gold trophy, that pet is now goldbanned and cannot be entered for four months. If you had submitted another entry for that pet for the next week, that entry would be deleted in order to prevent your goldbanned pet from entering too soon. Don't fret though, you are still free to enter any of your other pets. If you place first in species and first over-all, receiving two gold trophies, your goldban is not doubled and will remain four months long.

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V. Conclusion

Hopefully you will come to learn that although most of us enter to win, the Beauty Contest is about a lot more than earning trophies. The Art Board is a great place to meet new artists and make friends while you share your works amongst each other. You never know, you could meet your new best neofriend there!

Now, will you please spare a vote? :)