The Name-Our-Chat-Room Contest

Notice: About is no longer hosting chat rooms for its guides.

The contest is long over; all links have been removed from the feature below.

 

 

Dateline: 11/02/99

Note: Phase One of our contest has now passed, and your Guide is selecting the finalists. Please return to the site Monday, November 22nd, for the results of Phase One and an opportunity to win by voting for the best name in Phase Two.

 

You can win a book or a Borders.com gift certificate just by suggesting a name for our chat room!

We're Always Open Even when there are no scheduled chats, our chat room is accessible, and everyone is welcome!   Chat Schedule Our regular chat schedule is posted on our log-in page and changes to suit the schedules of our most frequent chatters     Chat Profiles Find other chatters and help them find you! Fill in a profile, and the information you submit will be posted on our profiles page     Make it YOUR Chatroom! Use some simple commands to make the chat window easier to read, and turn on the "beep" to let you know when new chatters join you. Get the how-to's at our All About Chat page.     Host a Chat Would you like to host a discussion in our chat room? Contact me!

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Perhaps it should come as no surprise that so many people enjoy having a friendly, intelligent conversation about the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, I've been heartened, gratified, and at times downright amazed at the turnout our scheduled chats have received. I know I've certainly enjoyed talking with chatters about a wide variety of medieval and Renaissance topics, and I hope the same could be said for our visitors. Our chat room is just as much yours as it is mine (even moreso!), and I'd like to make sure it's a place where we all can gather to talk about medieval history and feel comfortable doing it. To that end, I've decided the first thing we need is a name. And I want you to help me choose it! How could I tempt my visitors to help me out? By offering a potential bribe, of course! Just suggesting a name for the chat room gets you a chance in our random drawing. If your suggestion is good enough to be chosen as a finalist, you're guaranteed a prize. So if you don't want to rely on luck, rely on your creativity instead! Plus, you can get more chances to win by dropping in to our chat room and talking with your Guide! How it Works Our contest will be held in two phases. In Phase One, suggestions for the name will be submitted, and in Phase Two the best three suggestions, as chosen by your Guide, will be put up for a vote. Each suggestion for a room name counts as an entry in the contest. Entries must not only include a name for the chat room but a brief rationale for why the name is a good one. Entries will be accepted until Midnight Eastern time (11:00 p.m. Central time), Thursday, November 18th. Your Guide will then choose three names that she likes as finalists in the contest. One entry will be drawn at random from those not chosen as finalists.

What is the criteria for a good chat room name? Any name that is imaginative, amusing, descriptive or appealing will be seriously considered. Rude or obscene entries will be deleted. If two or more entrants submit the same name, and that name is deemed good enough to be a finalist, the suggestion that is accompanied by the most imaginative, amusing, descriptive or appealing rationale will be chosen. The final determination will be made by your Guide.

The winner of the random drawing and the three finalists will be contacted by email Friday, November 19th, and must reply to the Guide for the win to be official. If I receive no response by Midnight Eastern time (11:00 p.m. Central Time) on Saturday, November 20th, I will draw another name (or choose another finalist) and the first random winner or finalist will lose out.

The finalists and the winner of the random drawing will be announced here at the site as soon as they are confirmed, on or about Monday, November 22nd. At that point, Phase Two will begin.

In Phase Two, the three finalist names will be posted here at the site for visitors to vote on. A vote is also an entry for the next random drawing! Votes will be accepted until Midnight Eastern time (11:00 p.m. Central Time) on Friday, December 3rd. At that time one name will be drawn at random from the vote-entries.

The finalist whose name receives the most votes will take the Grand Prize.

The winner of the second random drawing and the Grand Prize winner will be announced as soon as they are confirmed, on or about Monday, December 6th. From then on, the new name will be displayed to all chatters upon entering our Parachat room and will be used to refer to the room whenever it's mentioned in our newsletter or here at the site.

The Prizes

The winners of the random drawings and the two runner-up finalists will each receive their choice of one of the books listed below or a $15 Borders.com gift certificate.

Choose from:

Fortune is a River by Roger Masters

The Last Apocalypse by James Reston, Jr.

Uppity Women of Medieval Times by Vicki León

All books are in paperback. Click the links above to go to a review of the book by your Guide. Borders.com Gift Certificates are redeemable online for any of the millions of books, videos and CDs they offer, and the winner is of course free to spend it any way he chooses (although I'd be tickled pink if he chose a medieval history book!).

The Grand Prize winner will receive any three books from our bookstore or a $50 Borders.com gift certificate. Instead of a Borders.com certificate, the winner may choose a paper certificate to be used at his local Borders bookstore if he so desires.

All prizes are provided by your Guide. Once you are confirmed as a winner, you can provide your mailing address to your Guide so she may send you your prize. It is not necessary to provide an address in order to enter the contest.

How to Enter Visit our entry page and provide your suggestion for a room name, the reason you think it suits our chat room, and your email address. Your address is necessary so I can notify you if you win. Only serious suggestions will be accepted! Your Guide reserves the right to delete any entry that is obscene or insulting in any way. In addition to, or instead of, submitting a name suggestion, you can enter the random drawing by chatting! Simply drop by the chat room while your Guide is there and get the day's password before you leave. Then proceed to our Chatter entry page and enter the password, your email address and the handle you used in chat. Check our main chat page to see when the Guide will be in the chat room.

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When I first thought it would be a good idea to give our chat room a name, I came up with several ideas... "The Tavern" "The Castle of Chat" the "Medieval Maison"? History Buff's Hut? "House of Middle Ages" Middle-aged chatroom? "Fun chatting place"???   As you can see, your Guide desperately needs your help in choosing a suitable chat room name!

Whether you enter by submitting a suggestion or by chatting, a valid email address is required to enter the contest. If you don't have your own email address, get a free online address now at About.com. If you're an About.com member, an email address is already reserved in your name. If you're not a member, join now for free!

If you haven't been to our chat room yet, that's okay! Visit it now, or stop by our All About Chat page to pick up some tips for chatting, including how to surf, the "beep enter on" command, and customizing the chat window.

Official rules are at our entry page.

 

What are you waiting for?
Enter now!

  

The URL for this contest announcement is: http://historymedren.about.com/library/weekly/aa110299.htm

 

 

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