Contests Rules
These are the Official Contests Rules.
First and foremost, no purchase necessary to participate in the contests.
Eligibility
Anyone in the United States over the age of 18 is eligible to join the contest (i.e., legal adult residences of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia).
By participating, entrants agree to be bound by these Official Rules and the decisions of Mark Veldon and Proximal Press, which are binding and final on matters relating to this contest.
Those outside the United States are only eligible in countries where such games of skill are legally allowed and don’t require special requirements from Proximal Press and Mark Veldon to run these contests, such as registration and fees required to conduct contests in those particular countries, or requiring bonding or insurance, taxes paid in advance, or taxes withheld by the sponsor.
Finally, the contests are void where prohibited.
To Enter
To submit an entry for a contest, follow the submission-form link from the Contest Post of the Contest page.
To be eligible for the prize, all directions listed in the submission form must be followed. There is a limit of one entry per person.
Entries in excess of the stated limitation will be void. Your entry should be viewable by those outside of the platform (think YouTube or Vimeo), where voters can see your submission without signing up for the service. If you are submitting from a private account, you may need to set your account to “public” to participate, so that your entry can be viewed by voters.
Entries generated by automated means (e.g., AI assisted or generated entries) or by means that undermine the entry process are void.
Entries should be appropriate for a general audience (avoid the use of offensive or abusive language or images).
Conditions
Your submission must be valid for the contest. You will submit your entry through a submission form, which should be fully completed.
You may only submit one entry to the contest.
Mark Veldon and Proximal Press reserve the right to disqualify any videos that are too similar to another submission (don’t copy others), seem to be gaming the contest in ways that the author feels are detrimental to the contest and community (e.g., multiple entries seeking to crowd out competition) or might be harmful to the community (e.g., using egregiously offensive in language and imagery).
The most impressive entries may be featured by Mark Veldon and Proximal Press. By submitting your entry, you agree that your submission can be used for promotional purposes.
Note: If you win, you will need to provide tax info as awards from contests are considered income.
Prize awards vary based on the contests (and other factors). See the contest page for further details.
Important Dates of Contests
Beginning Date of Submissions: Varies Based on Contest (See Contest Posts)
Closing Date of Submissions: Varies Based on Contest (See Contest Posts)
Beginning of Preliminary Votes (Round of 15): Varies Based on Contest (See Contest Posts)
End of Preliminary Votes: Varies Based on Contest (See Contest Posts)
Beginning of Final Votes: Varies Based on Contest (See Contest Posts)
End of Final Votes: Varies Based on Contest (See Contest Posts)
Announcement of Winners: Varies Based on Contest (See Contest Posts)
Note III: If a contest has received fewer than 10 submissions, the contest will be extended for another month.
Winner Selection
Each contest is separate and distinct. Potential winners will be selected through two rounds of selection and voting, based on the individual opinion of voters on proximalpress.com in relation to the criteria laid out in the Contest Post (see quality of entry clarification in the Contest Post).
During the Preliminary Vote, Mark Veldon will select two entries to proceed to the Final Vote. Those with patron memberships to The Quartermastra (Artisan, Great-House and God-Numen patrons) will select the other thirteen [13] entries by vote (Artisan members votes count as 2, Great House as 4 and God Numen as 6 for this Preliminary Vote as well as the Final Vote).
In cases where there are more than thirty (30) entries to a contest, Mark Veldon may limit the field to thirty (30), selecting two of these thirty (30) entries while those with Patron memberships select the other thirteen (13) entries from the Preliminary Vote; these combined fifteen (15) entries will then move onto the Final Vote.
In the Final Vote, those with community membership or patron membership will vote for the entry that they want to win (Artisan members votes count as two [2], Great House as four [4] and God Numen as six [6] for this Final Vote). The entry that receives the most votes will be selected (adjusted based on the values given to members at the various levels [community members vote counts as one [1], Artisan patrons count as two [2], Great-House patrons vote counts as four [4] and Numen-God patrons vote counts as six [6]).
Potential winners will be notified within forty-eight (48) hours of the End of the Final Vote. Potential winners will then have 48 hours to respond to this initial notification. Potential winners may be required to execute and return an affidavit of eligibility, a publicity release (except where prohibited) and a liability release within ten (10) days of date of issuance where applicable to receive a prize. If such documents are not returned within the specified time period or if the potential winner does not respond to the initial notification within the time period specified or if the potential winner is not in compliance with these rules, the prize will be forfeited, leaving it to Proximal Press’s discretion to select an alternative winner for the contest (usually the next highest vote getter).
Prize Award
The prize(s) to be awarded in the contest will be set forth in the Contest Post. Winners are responsible for all applicable federal, state and local taxes (including income and withholding taxes), if any, as well as any other costs and expenses associated with prize acceptance and use not specified in the Contest Post or herein.
Publicity Grant
Except for winners located in the state of Tennessee, each winner by acceptance of a prize, except where legally prohibited, grants permission for Proximal Press to use the winner’s name, social-media platform user name, geographical location provided by social-media platform (city and state / province), photograph (including, without limitation social-media platform profile photo), voice and / or other likeness and prize information for advertising, trade and promotional purposes without further compensation, in all media now known or hereafter discovered, worldwide in perpetuity, without notice or review or approval. This publicity grant is limited to media related to the contest and promotion of Mark Veldon’s stories. In the state of Tennessee, each winner may be asked for consent but is not required to provide a publicity grant to be eligible for a prize.
General Conditions / Limitations of Liability and Release
Released Parties (as defined below) are not responsible for lost, late, incomplete, inaccurate, stolen, misdirected, or undelivered entries; or for lost, interrupted or unavailable network, server, Internet Service Provider (ISP), website, or other connections, availability or accessibility or miscommunications or failed computer, satellite, telephone or cable transmissions, lines, or technical failure or jumbled, scrambled, delayed, or misdirected transmissions or computer hardware or software malfunctions, failures or difficulties, or other errors or difficulties of any kind whether human, mechanical, electronic, computer, network, typographical, printing or otherwise relating to or in connection with any contest, including, without limitation, errors or difficulties which may occur in connection with the administration of a contest, the processing of entries, the announcement of the prize(s) or in any contest-related materials.
Released Parties are not responsible for incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by site users, tampering, hacking, or by any equipment or programming associated with or utilized in a contest. Released Parties are not responsible for injury or damage to participants’ or to any other person’s computer related to or resulting from participating in a contest. Persons who tamper or abuse any aspect of a contest or website or who are in violation of these Official Rules, as solely determined by Proximal Press, will be disqualified and all associated entries will be void.
Proximal Press reserves the right at its sole discretion to suspend, modify or terminate a contest at any time and for any reason. Entrants, by participating, agree that Proximal Press and any related social-media platforms and all of their respective officers, directors, employees, representatives and agents (collectively, “Released Parties”) will have no liability whatsoever for, and shall be held harmless by entrants against, any liability, for any injuries, losses or damages of any kind, including injury or death, to persons, or property resulting in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, from acceptance, possession, misuse or use of any prize or participation in any sweepstakes.
In the event of a dispute regarding entries received from multiple users having the same social-media platform account, the authorized subscriber of the social-media platform account at the time of entry will be deemed to be the entrant and must comply with these rules. Moreover, the authorized account subscriber is the natural person who is assigned the account by the applicable social-media platform.
Privacy Notice
Selected winners are required to share their full name and contact info to facilitate distribution of the prize. Selected winner’s personal information will be used solely for the purpose of prize distribution and will not be sold or shared (except as needed to facilitate prize distribution). Selected winner’s personal information will be retained for the sole purpose of documenting the winner of the contests. Any personal information collected through a contest submission form shall be used solely for the purpose of the contest and as described in these Official Rules.
Protecting the privacy of young children is especially important. Our contests are not directed toward children under the age of 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 18 without obtaining parental consent. If we learn that personal information has been collected from persons under 18 years of age and without verifiable parental consent, then we will take the appropriate steps to delete this information. If you are a parent or guardian and discover that your child under 18 years of age has shared their personal information with Proximal Press, then you may alert us at inquiries@proximalpress.com and request that we delete your child’s personal information from our systems.
Contact Information
Questions about a specific Contest Post and inquiries related to the selected winners for contests may be directed to Proximal Press (inquiries@proximalpress.com).
These contests are not sponsored, endorsed or administered by any social-media platform, including but not limited to Facebook, Snapchat or Instagram.