Ended Official BYC Article Writing Contest - #20

[casportpony]

Come check out the contest here!
Official BYC Article Writing Contest - #21​

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Winners announced here!​

This contest is brought to you by our BYC Sponsors
(click to view & support them)

Official BYC Article Writing Contest - #20
Contest End Date: December 23rd, 2023, at 11:59 pm Pacific Time​

Short Version:
Write a great article and you could win a great prize & have your article featured on the homepage of BYC!

Detailed Version:
We are constantly amazed at how knowledgeable and helpful our community members are! The BYC forum provides a wonderful opportunity for members to post questions and reply with answers. Unfortunately, a lot of really amazing information can get lost in the super activity on the forum.

Over the years we’ve received a ton of requests to add more articles & FAQs to our Learning Center. Our BYC Coop Page Contests have been super successful and now we have over 3000 chicken coop articles in our Chicken Coops section! Hopefully, we can have similar success with this BYC Article Contest!!

This contest is not for coop articles. If you have a coop article, please enter the coop article contest here.

Suggested reading:

• Tips on Writing A Good BYC Article
• Writing an Award-Winning BYC Article

The Process:

1. You write an article.
2. Entries accepted until December 23rd, 2023, at 11:59 pm Pacific Time
3. Judging starts on December 25th, 2023
4. Judging ends December 29th, 2023
5. Winners are announced on December 30th, 2023

Prizes if we get 20 or more entries:

Place	Prize
First	A $100 Brinsea Gift Certificate, or a $120 BYC Store Gift Certificate, or two 12-month PFMs ($120 value) for themselves or a friend
Second	A $50 Brinsea Gift Certificate, or a $50 BYC Store Gift Certificate, or a 12-month PFM ($60 value) for themselves or a friend
Third	$30 BYC Store Gift Certificate or a 6-month PFM ($35 value) for themselves or a friend.
Fourth	$15 BYC Store Gift Certificate or a 3-month PFM ($20 value) for themselves or a friend.
Fifth	$15 BYC Store Gift Certificate or a 3-month PFM ($20 value) for themselves or a friend.

How To Enter:

1. Pick a poultry-related topic. We suggest writing an article that is not already covered in our Learning Center, but is a topic that would be a good addition to one of the sections in the Learning Center.
2. See here for article/member page/coop page writing tutorial.
3. Create a well-worded & detailed title. Example: “How To Raise & Process Chickens for Meat - Tips & Pictures” is much better than: “Meat Chickens”
4. Write a unique high-quality article with around 750 words (more is fine as long as it is good/helpful info). It must have at least one picture relative to the subject. Bonus points if you add more pictures.
5. Post a reply to this thread with a link to your completed article(s) - A maximum of Two article submissions per member will be allowed.

Rules:

1. All articles must be written by you and must be unique (do not copy from other sources).
2. Absolutely NO COPYRIGHTED content allowed!
3. Only original pictures, taken by you, or someone you know (with their permission) may be used. No screenshots from the web, books, or magazines are allowed.
4. All drawings and/or illustrations must be created by you. No screenshots from the web, books, or magazines are allowed.
5. ALL pictures MUST be uploaded to BYC and not hosted on other image sites, personal websites, etc.
6. Sorry, articles and pages submitted to our previous contests will not count for this contest.
7. All articles must contain accurate information, must be a minimum of 500 words (shoot for 750+), and should contain pictures relative to the subject matter.
8. Please spell-check and grammar-check your article(s).
9. BYC retains full license of articles submitted.
10. ALL pictures MUST be uploaded to BYC and not hosted on other image sites, personal websites, etc.
11. For bonus points, try to include at least one link at the end of your article to another related BYC article, thread, or post.
12. Prizes are limited to one per person per contest.
13. All BYC rules apply: Terms of Service (Rules).
14. Entries accepted through December 23rd, 2023, at 11:59 pm Pacific Time

Here are some great examples of existing BYC articles:

• Feeding Ducklings Medicated Feed - The Myths and the Truth
• Incubation Humidity
• The Beginner's Guide to Incubation
• Reasons for Tossing Out Your Indoor Brooder and Start Raising Your Chicks Outdoors
• How Much Room Do Chickens Need?
• Cleaning and storing fresh eggs
• Ten Reasons You Should Spend Ten Extra Minutes With Your Flock Every Day

Here are some article ideas to get you started:

• Raising and Processing Ducks for Meat
• How to Use Permethrin Spray and Dust on Birds and Coops
• Blackhead Disease in Turkeys
• When Can Chicks Go Outside?

Past Article Writing Contests:

• Official BYC Article Writing Contest - #19
• Official BYC Article Writing Contest - #18
• Official BYC Article Writing Contest - #17
• Official BYC Article Writing Contest - #16
• Official BYC Article Writing Contest - #15
• Official BYC Article Writing Contest #14
• Official BYC Article Writing Contest #13
• Official BYC Article Writing Contest #12
• Official BYC Article Writing Contest #11
• Official BYC Article Writing Contest #10
• Official BYC Article Writing Contest #9 - Write and Win!
• Official BYC Article Writing Contest #8 - Write and Win!
• Official BYC Article Writing Contest #7 - Write and Win!
• Official BYC Article Writing Contest #5 - Write & Win!
• Official BYC Article Writing Contest #4
• Official BYC Article Writing Contest #3
• Official BYC Article Writing Contest #2
• Official BYC Article Writing Contest #1
• Official BYC "OTHER POULTRY" Article Writing Contest #1
• 2020 Home-Made Feeder, Waterer, Incubator, & Brooder Contest - Win Brinsea Brooder!
• Official BYC DIY Contest #2 - Show us Your Project and Win!
• Official BYC DIY Contest #1 - Show us Your Project and Win!

We look forward to your submissions!!
(Wait, you’re not the writing type? If you have an idea for an article that you’d like to see someone write, please reply to this thread with an idea for a title and a quick description of what you’d like to see contained in the article.)

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Replying to get this off the unanswered thread list.

 

[casportpony]

Replying to get this off the unanswered thread list.

Thanks.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

For the next contest, we might change the rules to allow images from other BYC members, though that can be tricky, 'cause lots of members posted web images.

Was there any discussion re changing rule #3 to allow photos posted by BYC members on BYC threads without their permission? I've seen unique and unusual photos on old BYC threads where the members who posted the photos are no longer active. Several of those threads go back as far as 2011. I've attempted to contact some members who were active as late as 2021, and no response from them either. The photos are of rare and unique birds, otherwise I would ask permission from current active members.

 

[nuthatched]

Not sure where else to ask this so I'll ask it here as it may be useful for someone.
In general article writing, the pictures must be taken or created by the writer, does that also include AI created images using the writers prompts? I've seen a few articles by the byc team that had AI images but I wasn't sure.
Thanks!

 

[casportpony]

Was there any discussion re changing rule #3 to allow photos posted by BYC members on BYC threads without their permission? I've seen unique and unusual photos on old BYC threads where the members who posted the photos are no longer active. Several of those threads go back as far as 2011. I've attempted to contact some members who were active as late as 2021, and no response from them either. The photos are of rare and unique birds, otherwise I would ask permission from current active members.

Sorry for the delay. I would like to find a way to let you all use BYC images, but my concern is that not all images posted by BYC members were taken by BYC members. Any suggestions on how to handle that?

 

[casportpony]

Not sure where else to ask this so I'll ask it here as it may be useful for someone.
In general article writing, the pictures must be taken or created by the writer, does that also include AI created images using the writers prompts? I've seen a few articles by the byc team that had AI images but I wasn't sure.
Thanks!

That is a great question. Let us look into this.

 

[nuthatched]

Sorry for the delay. I would like to find a way to let you all use BYC images, but my concern is that not all images posted by BYC members were taken by BYC members. Any suggestions on how to handle that?

There's a website called tineye that searches for matches of images on the web, though it might prove tedious.

 

[casportpony]

There's a website called tineye that searches for matches of images on the web, though it might prove tedious.

Thanks. Yes, there is that, and there are also the Google & Bing reverse image searches.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Sorry for the delay. I would like to find a way to let you all use BYC images, but my concern is that not all images posted by BYC members were taken by BYC members. Any suggestions on how to handle that?

The specific photos on BYC threads I'm referring to were clearly taken by the bird's actual owners, specifically because they are either asking for a gender i.d., have a bird with unusual coloring, or similiar questions. Some threads Do show photos of birds taken from the internet, but those are obvious due to statements made on those threads. I could always provide links to specific BYC threads that include a relevant photo, but that's not nearly as effective as having an actual photo visible within an article.

My question isn't just about "me". One article that quickly comes to mind is the Ameraucana article from contest #13, written by @EmmaRainboe .
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...s-and-ameraucanas-with-review-optional.76220/

It is an excellent article and includes pictures of recognized colors of Ameraucanas that Emma Rainboe either had herself, or photos taken by BYC members that she had permission to include. But since she didn't have personal photos of all the colors or permission to use, some some colors werent pictured, even though there are photos of all the recognized Ameraucana colors somewhere within BYC threads. Her inability to post pictures of all the colors due to rule #3 really stood out to me. It seems that the quality of articles submitted to the writing contest could become even better if there is a way to adjust rule #3. I know for sure it would improve the quality of an article I intend to write.