New Year New You Picture Contest

Announcing the New Year, New You! Picture Contest.

An Image is Worth a 1000 Words - and sometimes it can be worth L$5000 too! Out with the old and in with the new - show off your dramatic Second Life makeovers with a before and after picture that highlights a new look you will be rocking this year in Second Life. There will be one grand prize winner (L$5000) and three runners up (L$1000 each). Think of all the shopping you can do with that kind of allowance!

We’re excited to bring this new contest feature to the Second Life community, and hope you enjoy it!

How to participate: Take a before and after image of your virtual makeover. It’s as easy as taking your before snapshot and placing it on a prim, then stand in front of it with your new look and take another snapshot. Save to your computer so you can upload your submission for the contest. Keep an eye out for the contest to go live in the People forum.

How to vote: Entries will be posted from January 11 through January 18, 2012. You can vote at any time for your favorite, but you only get one vote. To vote for your favorite, simply hit the Kudo button on the page of your choice.

For some tips on how to take good pictures in Second Life, take a look at the Knowledge Base article.

Good Luck! May the best “New You” win!

Submission Rules:

• Community voting on the best image begins on January 11, 2012, at 12:00 p.m. PST and ends at 12:00 p.m. PST January 18, 2012
• Contest participants may enter only once - once an entry has been uploaded, you will be unable to change or modify your entry
• Community participants may only vote/Kudo one entry
• Images must be free of text and logo, and no larger than 500x500 pixels in size
• Images should be unaltered by any external photo editing tool except to put side by side images of before and after looks together in a single image.
• The image with the most Kudos wins the grand prize of L$5,000 - if there is a tie, Linden Lab will select the final winner
• An additional 3 images will win L$1,000 each as runners up - in case of any tie, Linden Lab will select the runners up
• The winners will be notified on January 19 via in-world chat
• The L$ prize will be deposited into the winner’s Second Life account by end of day January 20, 2012
• Entries that violate any of these guidelines will be disqualified

Legal Fine Print:

• Eligibility. Contest is open to all Second Life® Residents ("Residents") in good standing, 16 and older as of the start of the Contest. Residents of embargoed countries, countries where such contests are not legal or where access to the Second Life world has been blocked or disabled, as well as Employees and affiliates of Linden Research, Inc. ("Linden Lab"), and their families are not eligible to participate. Contest void where prohibited. Subject to all international, federal, state and local laws. No purchase is necessary to enter and win.

• How to Enter. Between the hours of 12:00 p.m. PST on January 11, 2012 and 12:00 pm PST, January 18, 2012 take a picture that fits the contest theme. Upload your image in jpeg or png format to the contest.

• Prizes. Total Linden Dollars (L$) awarded as prizes: L$5,000 to be awarded to one (1) Resident as top winner and three (3) awards in the amount of L$1000 for runners up. There is no promise or guarantee of redemption of any or all L$ awarded. Only one prize per Resident is allowed.

• Prize distribution: Gifts will be awarded by Linden Lab via email, inworld or by mail. Linden Lab will notify winners by mail, in-world or e-mail of procedures for redeeming prize. The prizes must be accepted as awarded and cannot be exchanged for cash or credit. Winners who do not wish to accept the prize as offered may opt to forfeit the prize. There will be no substitutions. Linden Lab reserves that right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any entry that does not comply with the Second Life Community Standards or Community Participation Guidelines.

• All applicable federal, state, and local tax laws apply, and winners are responsible for paying their own taxes. For winners who are legal residents of the United States, the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") requires Form 1099-MISC to be issued and filed with the IRS for each recipient of a prize who is a resident of the United States if the value of that prize is at least $600. Reporting and payment of any applicable federal, state, and local taxes is the sole responsibility of prize winner.

• By submitting an entry, entrant grants Linden Lab a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free license to use his/her name, avatar, voice, and likeness, and any materials submitted by entrant to Linden Lab, in connection with this contest, and entrants waive any and all claims and/or rights to receive any royalties or other compensation for the Linden Lab's use thereof, unless prohibited by law. Winners may be required to complete, sign, notarize and return an affidavit of eligibility/liability release and a publicity release, which must be returned, properly executed, within five (5) days of issuance of prize notification.

• All prizes are subject to the Second Life Terms of Service and Second Life Community Standards. Any violation of the Second Life Terms of Service or Second Life Community Standards may result in the forfeiture of the prize, at any time.