Montifax Blog-Off 2010 rules

Neil wanted me to post a few comments on this year’s rules. So here you are, the first version of this year’s rules.

In last year’s Montifax Blog-Off I was kind enough to give Neil 5 points for every post while I only received 1. After much consideration I have decided that as reigning champion Neil needs to step up his game if he wants to win again, so this year I am going to give him 3 points for each post while I will still get only 1 point per post. The goals of this system are to handicap me and to make Neil work for the win (and he is going to have to work hard if he expects to win two years in a row).

Like last year, to qualify for inclusion in the competition a post had to be at least 30 words long (excluding the title). I think I would like them to be at least 100, but I am pretty sure that Neil talked me down from 100 to 30 last year and I am willing to let him keep this concession.

Also, the updated score must be included in text of the post (though it does not count towards the aforementioned 30 word minimum). While this should be done with the original post, when this component of the post has been omitted through genuine oversight the participant will be allowed to amend the post after the fact to include the updated score. If this becomes a problem we may have to re-evaluate the implementation of this rule and implement a less lenient version.

All posts should be 'tagged.' As one of us is more familiar with the terms that are presently in use I expect that there will be slightly different approaches to this matter in its application.

While I would like to give extra points for things like embedded photos or videos I don’t see how this can be done in a way that isn’t open for abuse (meaning that I don’t want either of us just posting funny YouTube videos or pictures as posts).

If you can think of anything else that should be included please let one or both of us know.

Oh, and the competition will run for the month of February (meaning midnight to midnight).