2010-09-26

Worth1000 General FAQ

  • Worth1000 v3.0 specific
    • I am used to the old site, what is all this new stuff?
    • Where is my Media folder?
    • I am having problems logging in and I didn't on the old site.
    • There are some features missing from the old site in the new version. Are they gone forever?
    • I have a question specific to an Arena, whom do I contact?
    • Where can I find the arena-specific FAQs?

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Worth1000?

Worth1000 is a collection of online arenas where the worlds best artists compete daily in creative competitions. Worth1000 has hosted thousands of daily competitions since it launched and is well known across the web for inadvertently triggering hoaxes, celebrity amusement and even major media scandals when an entry created here is mistaken for real. (Seriously, the Pentagon once issued a statement distancing itself from Worth1000 images).

Who founded Worth1000?

The site was founded by Avi Muchnick (JaxomLOTUS) and Israel Derdik (Iz). Borrowing its name from the expression "A picture is worth a thousand words", it opened to the public on January 1, 2002. A pet project of the two friends at the time, the site has grown with time to a userbase of over half a million members and expanded its contest to cover a range of creative media. The newest reincarnation of Worth1000 (version 3.0) launched on October 1, 2009. The pair have since gone on to found Aviary.com along with Michael Galpert, a suite of powerful online creation tools.

What is the general atmosphere here like?

We're a friendly, yet competitive bunch. For new people this is an atmosphere of learning. You will find some incredible talent here and would be surprised how quickly they will offer tips. The learning and fun come first. The competition and winning come second. As such we strongly frown on negative comments on other peoples' entries, and we do not permit drama of any kind. We prefer a calm, relaxing atmosphere to compete and have fun in.

What are major media companies saying about Worth1000?

  • Worth1000 is a visual feast...breathtaking images - BBC World News
  • Poor martha! - ABC's Good Morning America in response to our Martha Stewart's jailcell contest.
  • The Internet is 99.9% crap. Here's the rest - TechTV
  • The Rolls Royce of contest sites - G4TechTV
  • Visit this site once and you'll never believe photographic evidence again. - PC Magazine

What is an Arena?

Worth1000 is now divided into arenas. Every arena is a self-contained area that revolves around a topic (i.e. Photo Effects) and a skill level. For example, "Advanced Photo Effects" and "Beginner Photo Effects" are two separate arenas.

Every arena has its own contests, forums, hall of fame and more! Most important to note is that some arenas may have their own specific rules regarding voting and entering contests. Arenas can be both public and private. Best of all, we will soon be allowing anyone to create their own self-contained arena! You can join as many arenas as you like and even get a personalized view that shows all the aggregated content from your arenas in one spot! NOTE: Arenas each carry their own Tag with a 3-5 character code and unique color. You can use this tag as a shortcut URL to get to your favorite arenas (i.e. the Advanced Photo Effects arena with the tag of [fx] would be accessed at http://fx.worth1000.com)

Who are the Arena Admins and what do they do?

On the new Worth1000 website, an Arena Admin only has control over their specific arena(s). This means that an Arena Admin who is running the Advanced Multimedia arena can not make changes or moderate the Beginner Text arena (unless they are also Arena Admins there too). An Arena Admin has full power within their arena, including the ability to create new Arena Admins and Arena Moderators.

You can see a list of the Arena admins through a link on the Arena's Home page.

Who are the Arena Moderators?

Arena Moderators are volounteer members of an Arenas community that help out with specific tasks and have limited powers related to those specific tasks. For example, an Arena Moderator might be in charge of giving out official Arena bling, helping keep the forums clean, monitor open contests for off-topic entries or perhaps curating entries into showcasing collections.

Who are the site Council Members, and what do they do?

Council members are a group of nominated Arena Admins who help oversee the entire website as a whole. They are volunteers who help figure out the collective site community policies, mediate disagreements and ensure fairness and contest integrity throughout the entire Worth1000 website. They also are available to help manage arenas where the existing Arena Admins have requested assistance. The Council will be rotated in the future and new members picked via nominations.

What does some of the slang I see on the site mean?

Here's our up-to-date "Worthisms" list:

B2B Back to Basics. This word, appearing in the title of a contest indicates that the contest is a traditional "edit-this-provided-image" contest.
Bling Shiny personal beautification accessories that earn you respect. At Worth, this means special awards for helpful posts or certain accomplishments. Entry stars are a good example.
Chop An image that has been photo-manipulated.
Cliché An overused subject in an entry. Some Arenas have a list of clichés whose use means you risk disqualification.
Disqualification / DQ An entry that breaks the rules will be removed from the contest.
Hall of Fame The vaunted area of each arena, where the best players are listed, based on their stats.
Head to Head / H2H / HxH Normally a one on one competition between 2 players, (Worth1000 HxH's can have up to 8 competitors in a single challenge) instigated by a challenge in the Head to Head forum. Usually listed as HxH where x is the number of players.
Hit List A list of items or ideas that are disallowed in a certain contest. Using any of these items will likely result in a disqualification.
NSFW / Not safe for work Any entry that would get someone fired if the boss walked by while they were viewing it. Posting it is a sure way to get banned.
POTD Picture of the day.
Shoeboxing Entering a contest with a previously created entry. Shoeboxing is forbidden in some contests, and will be stated in the description when not allowed.
Themepost It's either the example image used to kick off a contest or it's the image that is edited during b2b contests.
TG / Training Grounds The area of the site for new players or for easier competitions.
Trifecta When the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winning entries in one contest were all submitted by the same person.
OT / Off theme An entry that has nothing do with the contest theme.
W1K / W3K Short for Worth1000. W3K is shorthand for Worth1000.com v3.0 (our current design). For all you really lazy types.
Entering Contests
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Entering Contests

Do I have to pay if a contest costs credits?

No! Payment is completely optional. You can still enter, be voted on and have comments on your entries if you don't pay. The little mark next to entries on the stats and entry info pages shows you if an entry is paid. Please also note that if you can't afford to pay, some generous users may choose to sponsor you. An unpaid or un-sponsored entry is considered a "Play for fun" entry for all intents and purposes and can not win a trophy or credit prize. If you place 1st, 2nd or 3rd according to score, the next paid or sponsored entry will get the trophy instead of you.

What do the age ratings mean?

You will never encounter any material intended for mature audiences on Worth1000 without warning. Some contests have an age rating associated with them. When the age rating is in place, the thumbnails will be hidden and a user will need to confirm their birth date to view the contest entries.

Here are the ratings:

ALL This is the default. All contests that don't fit into other age-specific categories will get this age rating
13+ VIOLENCE:
NUDITY:		 Images that might make people nauseated (i.e. Gore, zombies, etc...)
Painted nudity (complete), or photo-realistic non-sexual nudity excluding genitalia (i.e. artistic photography that isn't intended to be prurient).
18+ NUDITY: Tasteful, sexual nudity (no genitalia) that may also be prurient in nature (i.e. Pinups).
21+ No restrictions (so long as it's legal). This rating is reserved for use in Private Arenas and will not be found on the public Worth1000 site.

Disclaimer: The way a viewer might perceive your image will also be considered by Arena Admins (and mods) when deciding if your entry does not belong in an age-specific contest. For example, if you show a picture that is sexually suggestive using metaphors instead of actual objects, it still might not be appropriate for a contest with a rating of ALL.

What size should (image) entries be to fit on your page?

In terms of width and height dimensions:

Image entries should be a minimum of 400 pixels in width is recommended (unless otherwise requested by the contest rules), in order to be big enough to see the image. A maximum of 2000 pixels width is also advised. In general, 625 pixels or 1000 pixels width are good sizes, both to work with and to view on screen.

In terms of file size:

Files should not be bigger than necessary, so use the JPEG-format to its fullest. Less than 200KB usually works for a 625 pixel image, and less than 400KB for a 1000 pixel image, but these are only recommendations. For larger images try to stay under 1 MB.

What happens if my entry is disqualified?

The administrators will site message you with an explanation why. You will then have the opportunity to swap it with a fixed version until voting starts on the contest. There will be no entries reinstated once voting opens on a contest. Our admins are volunteers. If they don't see your entry in time to give you a chance to make changes, that is out of our control. Giving you that opportunity is a courtesy, not a privilege.

Please note that if you paid for an entry, or had it sponsored, and your entry was subsequently disqualified the credits will not be refunded. We have the huge headache of sorting through entries and many of them simply don't follow the rules because the creator didn't read them carefully. You can imagine what a headache it would be for us to refund people who could have prevented the mistake on their own, so it's kind of our way of encouraging people to quality control themselves (i.e. make sure it's perfect *before* you submit).

If voting has not yet begun, the user can still fix their entry and it can then be reinstated as a paid entry. The user can click the entry's name from his or her Stats page, and then the Edit link under the entry to upload the revised version. If the user chooses not to, the only way to access their entry will be from their stats page. This symbol: indicates that an entry was disqualified.

Voting

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Voting

How does voting work at this site?

Each registered member on the site has the ability to rate an entry on a scale of 1 - 10. The better the entry, the higher the number you should award. Giving a score that is highly deviant from the entry's average score (i.e. giving a friends' crappy image a 10 and it's competitors 1s) is considered deceptive practice and will reduce your Voting Karma - the impact your vote has on an image's average score in the future - considerably.

What is "Voting Karma" and how does it affect me?

Voting Karma is your voting power in each arena. Your karma is what determines how much weight your vote will carry toward the overall weighted average of the entries you have rated. To illustrate: If you have Voting Karma worth 100 in one arena and rate an entry in that arena a 6, it's as if 100 people (each with a karma of 1), have rated that entry a 6.

Users begin in each arena with a Voting Karma worth 1 point. Users advance their Voting Karma by voting fairly according to the voting scale and by voting on as many entries as possible.If you vote fairly on all the entries in a contest you will receive 3 Karma points. If you vote in a deliberately deceptive way which the system can detect you can lose up to 100 points.

If you have zero karma your votes do not count until you have raised your karma back into positive numbers. Karma bottoms out at 0.

Regular members voting power will max out at 175 points.

Do I have to vote on each image?

Ideally, yes, but we recognize it's not always possible. It is considered good citizenship to rate all of the entries in any contest that you have entered. The new voting system at Worth1000 will increase the impact your vote has (your karma) if you rate as many of the entries in a contest as possible. If you do not rate the entries in a contest that you yourself have entered, your username will be available to potential sponsors, who will take that into consideration when deciding whether or not to sponsor your entries.

Rating Entries

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How do I rate entries?

Most Arenas in a Topic will use the standardized ten point scale that is prevalent across the site. The scale translates your opinion of an entry to numbers in the 1-10 range, where 1 is "Terrible" and probably needs reporting, and a "10" is an outstanding entry. Each Arena's FAQ will offer guides on what to look for and consider when voting in that Arena, as well as offering examples on what sorts of entries deserve what score.

The second voting system used on occasion is the "like!" system. In these contests you simply "like!" as many entries as you think are worthy of your praise, and they get a boost to their stats. The entry with the most "like!"'s wins.

Please note that the Arena voting guidelines are mandatory. Don't make up your own system (e.g. awarding bonus points for humor). Also, note that if you think an entry is off-theme, the proper action is to report the entry, then vote on it as if it were on-theme.

Do others know who made my entry during voting?

No, your identity remains hidden until the contest has ended. Voters will not know whose image they are seeing when they are voting. Some people may choose to reveal their identities, but aside from that there are no indications as to the author until the contest has ended. Keep in mind that while the system is really only intended to be pseudo-anonymous, since you are allowed to reveal yourself as the author if you choose, you are *not* allowed to post another author's name revealing his or her entry while the contest is active. In other words, if you know who did what, that's fine, but keep it to yourself, please.

Please note though that you must not reveal your identity in Head to Head (HxH) contests, where revealing your own identity would also unmask the other competitor by default.

Can I ask my Facebook / MySpace / Twitter friends to vote on my entry?

You can direct them to the contest and request they vote on all entries. If possible, don't even tell them which entry is yours. Please note that Worth1000 is not a popularity contest though - we don't want your friends to come in and give you a 10 just because they like you. Part of what makes this site special is that we take great care to ensure good sportsmanship; getting friends to vote you up is considerd extremely bad form and will not be tolerated.

Am I allowed to use two different accounts?

No. Never. Under no circumstances. Don't. Seriously.

Behavior

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Hall Of Fame

What is the Hall of Fame and how do I get on it?

The Hall of Fame is a ranking of the best of the best on Worth1000.com

There are many factors that go into calculating the HoF (Hall of Fame). There are two parts to your total Worth: your Community total, and your Competitive total.

The Competitive total is weighted as twice as important as the Community total. Each of these is calculated from a number of factors you can see in the tables below.

Each factor has a weight associated with it, to recognize that some are more important than others. For example, Total Voted Score x 0.01 x contest power

Contest power is based on the specific contest and can range from 0 to 5. Advanced Contests are typically 5; Beginner 3; and Head to Head 1.

The following Arenas are not included in the site wide HoF: Logo, General Stuff, Tech Support, Critics Corner, Battle of the Strippers, Sugar Shack

Contests designated "Just for Fun" are excluded from the Hall of Fame.

The following stats are taken into account:

Competitive

  • 1st place finishes x 9 x contest power
  • 2nd place finishes x 3 x contest power
  • 3rd place finishes x 1.5 x contest power
  • 4th place finishes x .5 x contest power
  • 5th place finishes x .1 x contest power
  • Total Voted Score x .01 x contest power

Community

  • Voted On All x .1 (each contest you voted on)
  • Bling Given x .05 (each Bling you give counts towards this total)
  • Bling Received x .05 (each Bling you receive is tallied here)
  • Hearts x .01 (additionally, the Hearts you get on your posts are counted)
  • Legacy Stars x 1 (these are the old "Juror stars" from W2K)
  • Mod Award x 1 (these are the new stars in W3K)
  • Sponsored Entries x 1 (the number of entries you've sponsored)
  • Sponsored Wins x 5 (a bonus score for having the sponsored entry win!)

Site Worth = (Competitive Worth x 2) + Community Worth

Only the top 100 + you (at the bottom of the page) will be displayed in the HoF.

To have an entry average calculated you must have at least 10 entries.

Not all the variables included in the calculations show up as a column in the HoF, for layout reasons.

The Hall of Fame is updated nightly.

Behavior

What is inappropriate behavior in the forums?

You will find Worth's forums to be slightly different than many online communities. No drama whatsoever will be tolerated. We trust that you are grown up enough to recognize when you are acting disruptive or counterproductive to someone else's enjoyment of the site.

Please note that database space isn't cheap and isn't infinite. While we encourage you to voice your opinions, note that we're hypersensitive to people deliberately posting comments that are intentionally wasteful like "First comment!"

Worth1000 is a place for people to escape from daily stress, not argue about it. To that end we have a rather unusual rule that has served us well:

Do not discuss religion or politics (unless an Arena specifically allows it). We just found that those threads always triggered flame wars and hurt feelings. Not the vibe we are going for.

The rest should be obvious, but we'll post it here anyway

  • Do not post anything bigoted, racist or sexist.
  • Do not post anything that will get someone in trouble at work / school, etc... without warning them).
  • Do not post inflammatory comments about the Arena staff or website.
  • Do not harass another user with creepy messages.
  • Do not complain about negative scores you got on your entry.
  • Do not discuss contest entries that are open for voting, even in an indirect way.
  • Do not use Worth1000 as a dating service or to conduct public flirtations. Please. It's creepy.
  • Do not post dramatic "suicide notes" that imply that you are never returning to the site.

In an effort to keep the forum clear of spam (even helpful spam) you may not plug your own website or any website you yourself help to update without prior permission of the site admins, no matter how much interest it might be of to others.

Also, please don't sign your posts. We can tell who wrote it by the avatar on the left, and it just clutters the forum. Thanks :)

What kind of feedback is forbidden on entries?

Purely negative feedback is inappropriate and will not be tolerated. Users here like advice as long as they have requested it. If they have requested constructive feedback, you must be polite and clearly not antagonistic. Remember that there are human feelings that will read every word you write.

Accusations of "stealing" an idea and/or an image from another website, links to a similar image, or any other slur are also inappropriate comments that should be *privately* directed to the moderators via site message or by reporting the entry, rather than posted in public.

How do I include formatting in my comments and text entries?

Users can also use the following code:

BOLD[B] text goes here [/B]
ITALICS[I] text goes here [/I]
UNDERLINE[U] text goes here [/U]
IMAGE EMBED[IMAGE] [/IMAGE]
WEB ADDRESS[URL=http://www.worth1000.com] link text goes here [/URL]
VIDEO EMBED[VIDEO] [/VIDEO]
Works with both YouTube and Vimeo links
LIST[LI] text1 goes here [/LI]
[LI] text2 goes here [/LI]
[LI] etc... [/LI]
To make a numbered list enclose the above list tags in between [OL] and [/OL] tags.
To make a bulleted list enclose the above LI tags in between [UL] and [/UL] tags.
QUOTE[QUOTE] text goes here [/QUOTE]
SARCASM[SARCASM] text goes here [/SARCASM]
SPOILER[SPOILER] text goes here [/SPOILER]
STRIKETHROUGH[STRIKE] text goes here [/STRIKE]
ARSI[ARSI] text goes here [/ARSI]

Worth also has a number of regular smileys you can use:

:):(:D:P;):/:S:O:|>:(
B]:'(:*<3:star::nerd::eyeroll::crazy::zombie::puke:

Legal Questions

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Legal Questions

What are my privacy rights at Worth1000?

Worth1000 will not sell, loan or otherwise give your information over to anybody without a proper legal subpoena. All information remains completely private. We may collect information in aggregate for statistical purposes, but your personal information will never be tied to it in any way shape or form.

Who owns the copyright to all content submitted to the site?

Whomever submitted the content. The submitter maintains the copyright to all of his or her submitted entries on Worth1000. Worth1000 reserves the right to store, modify, and display all images uploaded to the site permanently, without restriction. We also reserve the right to allow submitted entries for Worth1000-related promotions to be used in the future (i.e. newspaper articles on us).

Worth1000 acts as an aggregate copyright holder, with an interest in the collection and display of submitted entries on our site.

You may not take even a single copyrighted image off of the Worth1000 website without our and our copyright holders' consent. Forward all requests here and we will reply promptly.

Does Worth1000 retain any legal rights against me and my entries?

Worth1000 reserves the right to store and display your entry and resized versions of it permanently and to use it for publicity purposes where it benefits Worth1000 (i.e. a story in a newspaper about a Worth1000 competition) We don't take any of your own rights in the entry away from you, nor do we own your entry.

Worth1000 reserves the right to take legal action against you (and to share your personal information with the proper authorities should it be legally requested by them) due to your involvement in illegal activity via the Worth1000 website or properties (i.e. hacking, sharing sensitive military information, copyright violations for monetary gain, libel, slander, etc...).

We're pretty relaxed though... Be good and we'll treat you good. :)

Can I take images from Worth1000's website?

We are currently adding a method to embed Worth1000 slideshows in external websites. You'll be able to use those shortly.

Does Worth1000 have to take an image I uploaded down if I simply don't want them to store it anymore for personal reasons?

No, and for many reasons:

1. Every image is an integral record of what took place in a past completed contest. Unless we discover use of your image to be illegal, we do not modify these records as the stats of all involved in these contests would then become incomplete. The only time we will remove an entry by request is when the contest it was entered into has not had voting begin and we are given a valid reason. 2. It's a physical burden for us to clean up your dozens of images after you. If you don't want to participate here, please decide that in advance. 3. You granted us permission to store your entry indefinitely in the site Terms of Use.

Someone else illegally uploaded material that was my intellectual property? Who do I contact and what will be the response? Contact us and please provide some proof (i.e. a URL of your image) that the material in question is your intellectual property. If we find your allegations to be correct we will remove the material in question as quickly as is reasonably possible and take appropriate internal action. We respect artists' rights and take these requests very seriously.

I have found another site on the web using mine or other images from worth1000. What do I do?

Let us know.

Piracy and theft are an unfortunate fact of life but we have had a 100% success rate in getting them to remove the images. One of the benefits of your image being uploaded here is that the site's reputation precedes it. There will not be any question of original authorship when you have the themed contest and timestamp to back you up.

Using Credits

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Using Credits

What is a credit?

A credit is the online currency at Worth1000. Think of it as a series of tokens that you purchase when you enter an amusement park, to gain access to different rides. Your credit account is completely secure, but subject to certain rules.

How do I use credits?

Credits are a form of online tokens that can be purchased on Worth1000 and then used to gain entry into the contests, sponsor and bid on other player's entries, as well as other areas of the site.

How quickly until my account is updated with the credits after I've paid for them?

Immediately.

It may take approximately 24 hours for your account to be updated, but it's usually within a couple of seconds. If it takes longer than 24 hours, let us know at once by site-messageing user Corporate.

If you pay by e-check then your account won't be updated until after the e-check clears.

Please note that the credit amount in the top left hand corner of most screens is cached, and may not automatically update when you buy new credits. If you log off and back on it should refresh itself and show the correct amount. In any case, your settings page will ALWAYS show the correct amount.

Can I get my money back if I don't use up all my credits and never play again?

Because the site has thousands of users, all sales have to be final. When you purchase credits you should do so with the intention of using all of them up. If you no longer participate on the site for whatever reason (e.g. are banned), your credits will not be refunded.

How much does a credit cost?

10 credits = $1 USD

Can I transfer my credits to another user?

No, sorry.

Can I buy credits if I don't have a paypal account or credit card?

No, sorry. :(

Personal Settings

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Personal Settings

Can I change my username once it's been set up?

No. Please choose your username carefully.

Can I reset my account and wipe away my stats?

No.

Should a valid reason arise you can request to close your old account and open a new one. However the old account will still be a part of the system - it will just be inactive. Please note that "I scored badly" or "I have many disqualifications" is not a valid reason.

Signatures

Do not post anything bigoted, racist, sexist, political or religious. Signatures will be removed at the administrators discretion.

In an effort to keep the forum clear of spam (even helpful spam) you may not add a URL to your signature.

Sponsorship

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Sponsorship

What is the point of user sponsorship?

Some users cannot afford to pay the contest entrance fees. Some users are generous. Sponsoring effectively allows the two of them team up to submit a paid entry. The first place winnings get split 50 / 50 between the sponsor and the player and the trophy goes to the player.

How exactly does it work?

During the submission period of contests when a user attempts to submit their entry in contests with entrance fees, they are presented with an option to pay the entrance fee. If they choose not to, then their entry is listed for sponsorship.

Interested sponsors can then choose to sponsor you if they like (but they can't see your entry).

If your entry wins, you get the trophy and half of the credits in the jackpot. Your sponsor gets the other half.

Chat Rooms

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Chat Rooms

How can I participate in chat?

Chat is a fun way to meet your fellow users and get to know the community here, and we encourage all new users to drop in and say hi. Worth has three chatrooms, one for all members, and two for staff only. All can be connected via an irc client such as mIRC or Trillian (Snak or ircLE for mac users) on any server from irc.darkmyst.org. You can also use Mibbit chat, or the built-in site chat applet.

The channel for members is #worth1000.

There are tabs in most chat clients that will display private-message windows or additional channels you're connected to. To private-message a fellow chatter, you usually double-click their username from the list on the right of your chat window. A private message or PM is a special chat window just for the two of you, seperate from the main chat. Unless you know the person or it's an Admin or Moderator that you're asking a site question, it's polite to first ask if you can private-message them.

What are the rules for participating in chat?

The most important rule here is to treat others with respect, even those not present in the chat channel. If a more experienced user tells you that you are out of line, accept it gracefully and adjust your behavior accordingly.

  • No discussing live contests or your entry in a live contest. You can private message a staff member for a specific question or help with an entry.
  • No porn. Any link which might be "not safe for work" should be proceeded by a "NSFW" warning
  • No links to sites you are affiliated with, without admin permission.
  • No links to sites with warez, malicious scripts, or other illegal pages.
  • No soliciting of work.
  • No public fighting or posting antagonistic comments designed to get a response.
  • No hate speech.
  • No soliciting for sex/romance in open chat.
  • No annoying chat scripts or ascii art

Worth1000 v3.0 Specific

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Worth1000 v3.0 Specific

I am used to the old site, what is all this new stuff?

The tour explains it all.

Where is my Media folder?

Go to the Tools tab and look under the Aviary apps for Your Private Files.

I am having problems logging in and I didn't on the old site.

Try clearing your cookies, closing your browser and relogging in again.

There are some features missing from the old site in the new version. Are they gone forever?

Nope! Read this thread to see what is returning.

I have a question specific to an Arena, whom do I contact?

Use the 'Contact Us' link at the Arena's Home page.

Where can I find the arena-specific FAQs?

Can I shoot a man in Reno just to watch him die?

No. That's still not allowed. Sorry.

via worth1000.com

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