The HP4GU Contest is back!

[hpsmarty]

Note: by request, this is being cross-posted to both the main list 
and to OT-chatter

Yes, it's back! The HP4GU Contest, also known as The Invitational, 
Magical, Exciting, Was-Weekly, All-Smarty's Tournament 
Extraordinaire! This contest was originally started to make HP4GU a 
more fun and exciting home, especially for those of us who have 
absolutely no lives outside of it. Then, well, I got busy, or 
something and there hasn't been a contest for almost a year. But now 
it's back, but with a few changes.

There will no longer be a new contest every week, instead there will 
be TWO contests, run concurrently, every month. As before, there 
will be 3 types of contests: puzzles, creative contests, and 
speculative contests. Puzzles consist of crosswords and other word 
puzzles, anagrams, trivia questions, etc., so if you've written one 
of these please send it to me! Creative contests will consist of 
things like poetry-writing (more fun than you think, really!). 
Speculative contests will consist of asking people to theorize about 
an unknown aspect of the Harry Potter universe. Every month, there 
will be ONE puzzle contest, and ONE contest which is creative or 
speculative (or a combination of both).

This contest is for fun only –– it is non-competitive, so there are 
no 
winners or losers (well, no winners anyway). Actually, there may be 
winners for some of the puzzle contests, and there may even be 
prizes, depending on the state of the HP4GU treasury. (But don't get 
your hopes up –– according to our treasurer, Mundungus Fletcher, the 
HP4GU vault at Gringott's has less gold in it than the Weasley's.) 

Some of the contests will be written or designed by me, but I am 
hoping that the rest of you will contribute puzzles or contest ideas 
as well. All contest ideas should be sent to the contest email 
address, which is hpsmarty at aol.com. [That's hpsmarty AT aol DOT com.] 
So don't forget to send those lists of trivia questions, word search 
puzzles, or other brilliant ideas to me at hpsmarty at aol.com.. Also, 
any questions about the contest should be sent to me at the same 
address, and NOT posted to the list.

The Rules are posted below, and will be repeated each time a new 
contest is posted. I will also file the rules in our files section, 
along with a new contest archives (space permitting). If you want to 
look at some of the old contests, there is a directory of them in the 
files section. The first contest will be posted soon after this 
announcement.

1. Contest responses should be sent by email to the contest email 
address, which is hpsmarty at aol.com. RESPONSES SHOULD NOT BE POSTED 
TO THE LIST. Anyone posting responses, especially puzzle answers, to 
the list will be disqualified from participation in that contest, 
sent a howler, turned into a toad, sent to Azkaban, AND forced to eat 
bubotuber pus. SO DON'T POST RESPONSES TO THE LIST.

2. Contests will be posted at the beginning of each month. 
Responses should be sent by email to hpsmarty at aol.com by midnight EST 
on the last day of each month. For puzzle contests, both the correct 
answers and a list of everyone who submitted a correct solution by 
the deadline will be posted during the first week of the next month. 
For creative and speculative contests, all responses will be posted, 
although I might just post a random sampling if there are a real lot 
of responses to a particular contest.

3. If you have any questions, comment, observations, or complaints 
about the contest, please email me directly at hpsmarty at aol.com. DO 
NOT POST TO THE LIST about the contest. Please, the list is crowded 
enough already.

4. ANSWERS SHOULD NOT BE POSTED TO THE LIST. I know this is also 
rule # 1, but I can not stress it enough.

–– Joywitch M. Curmudgeon