Short Story Contest 2017 Rules and Theme

[FOXX]

Short Story Contest 2017 Rules and Theme

The theme this year is, “Community, Discovery and the Unintended Uses of Technology”, and the vibe is retrofuturist - think maxed-out 8-bit grafx in a dark arcade, lovingly defaced websites in Netscape Navigator. A world where adventurous digital misfits are building a new world out of the pixels and info the Powers that Be leave behind.

We've come a long way together, from the obscurity of BBS life to Runner-Up for Time's Person of the Year. From 20 people at the CON to 20,000. From media scapegoat to – well, it's a work in progress.

Now. DA RULES.

The contest is now open and will close Thursday, June 15th, 2017, 11:59:59 (midnight) LOCAL LAS VEGAS, NV, TIME ZONE.

People's Choice poll will be opened on June 16th and it will close June 30th, 2017 11:59:59 (midnight) LOCAL LAS VEGAS, NV, TIME ZONE (7 days total voting time). This will be a "public" poll, with results viewable by all.

All winners will be announced on the forum, July 1st, 2017.

WHAT WE WANT:

Please submit to DCshortstory[at]gmail.com.

Please submit ONLY in a .txt file, all other formats will be REJECTED. You may include line breaks, specific formatting you feel is important to the tone of your story. "Bad" language is not proscribed, but do remember, your winning story will be published for all ages to read.

Please keep your short stories an actual SHORT story. That means a submission no less than 1,000 words and no more than 20,000. If you feel you have a story worthy of, and requiring, additional length (or works just fine as a haiku), include your plea in your submission email.
Leave the manuscripts and 404 page novels to your publisher and agents.

Please keep your stories in tune with our community. We want stories about hackers hacking, science, technology, nerdy things, geeky things, zombie things, making things work the way they were never intended to work, you all know the drill. Story must include the DEFCON convention in some way, either located at it, or influenced by it, or populated by characters connected to it, as a few examples.

One entry per author. Please do not spam us with the "thousands of resumes sent out is sure to get me an interview!" technique. Write one GREAT story, not lots of MEH stories.

Illustrations and graphics are not accepted. This contest is about the beauty of the written word. We don't want graphic novels. Show us a picture in my head that is painted with your vocabulary.

Please remember when submitting to include the TITLE OF YOUR PIECE and the AUTHOR NAME you wish to have published. Real or handle, that is up to you but include it in your .txt file. We can't be chasing you down for titles and names. It will go in as "Untitled" or "Author Unknown" if you do not.

After submission you will receive a confirmation email within 48 hours. If you do not receive a confirmation email then your submission has not been received and will be ineligible. Please contact us at the provided email if your submission is not going through.

WHAT YOU GET:

We will be putting ALL of the short story entries on the Conference media and we will be listing the winners in the online Conference program in a short blurb, letting everyone know they can check the forums and media to read more.

The winners will get recognition in the online program. Time permitting, the winners will walk the stage and/ or be recognized at Contest Closing Ceremony.

PRIZES:

First place winner will receive two (2) human badges, received at con, onsite.
Second place winner will receive one (1) human badge, received at con, onsite.
People's Choice winner (voted by the community) will receive one (1) human badge, received at con, onsite.
All entrants will get their story in the DEFCON media.

Tips for winning:

Spell check, grammar check, watch your tenses and your "voice." Double check your dates, your math, your facts. We are paying attention. If you misspell on purpose, make sure the reader can tell it's on purpose! Follow the rules as mentioned above. Write a good story.

*IMPORTANT: Communication/Updates/Contact at Con will be done through the Twitter account @DCShortstory. Follow it or you will miss things that are relevant to the contest.*

Best of luck to all of you! Now get writing!

[Nikita]

Hey just a quick update, we're not going to have a DEF CON CD this year, so the stories will be published on the media server and in the tor that goes out. Still, recognized in the program, etc. We've just decided not to have a physical CD this year and post a tor, media server, and perhaps an .iso online. A lot of people are coming to con w/o a cd drive anyway. This new plan doesn't restrict us by cd size, plus HOPEFULLY gives us more time to make potential updates to slides before they go public.

[FOXX]

Hey just a quick update, we're not going to have a DEF CON CD this year, so the stories will be published on the media server and in the tor that goes out. Still, recognized in the program, etc. We've just decided not to have a physical CD this year and post a tor, media server, and perhaps an .iso online. A lot of people are coming to con w/o a cd drive anyway. This new plan doesn't restrict us by cd size, plus HOPEFULLY gives us more time to make potential updates to slides before they go public.

Thanks much for the update, I've updated the original post accordingly.

[technogizmo]

Dumb question, but when I discovered even StackExchange didn't have a definitive answer (https://english.stackexchange.com/qu...be-interpreted), decided I had to ask. Is the deadline the midnight that starts June 15 or ends June 15th? In other words, is it Wed night at midnight or Thursday at midnight?

[TheCotMan]

I would expect it to follow the date system used in computer systems, spreadsheets, billing, due dates for billing, and the phone company:
0 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds of any given wall clock is the begin of that day.
00:00:00.0000.... Thursday as a deadline would mean all times up to and including Wednesday 23:59:59.999999999999... with decimal continuing to repeat , approaching 00:00:00.0000.... Thursday.

Another way to visualize this: there are a finite number of seconds in any one day, and the counting of seconds in any one day starts at 0.

0 Seconds into Thursday is 00:00:00.0000....

Mathematically, Wednesday 23:59:59.999999 (repeating decimal) is *EQUAL* to Thursday 00:00:00.000.0000.... (unlimited precision, exact value) , and this can be proven with algebra.

Because of this, for any given day, time the valid "range" for the domain of 1 day can be described as:
Greater-than-or-equal-to 00:00:00.00000..... but less than 23:59:59.999999... (repeating)

I do not run this contest. Nothing I write is authoritative for rules on this contest.

[SweetGrrl]

The contest is officially over on Thursday, June 15, 11:59:59 pm Las Vegas Time. Foxx is updating original post.

[technogizmo]

WHOOHOO! i was hoping I'd have until Thursday! Thanks!!!

[FOXX]

Thank you for the submissions everyone, the contest is now CLOSED! We will be posting the community choice polls and the stories to vote on later in the day.