Template Competition Rules
We are holding a new $300,000+ 2-month competition (4 Feb 2019 - 4 April 2019) to create Instant View Templates for news websites and blogs, $100 per template. Everyone is welcome to participate!
Goal
The goal of the competition is to use Telegram's Instant View Editor to create perfect Instant View templates for as many websites as possible from our suggested domains list.
Starting on February, 4, we will be adding 500 new domains to our list of targets approximately every 10 days. The contest will end when all of the 3000+ target domains get a winning template. We expect this to take 2 months.
Prizes
The first person to submit a fully valid and working template for one of the websites on our list gets $100 for each website they conquered ahead of the others.*
The winner will be the person who creates the greatest number of perfect templates (without valid issues) that cover the largest number of domains from our targets list. The winner will be awarded $10,000 in addition to the payout from their individual templates. For the second place, we will award a $5,000 prize on top of the payouts for the individual templates.
How to submit?
You can submit your template to the contest as soon as it covers a sufficient number of articles. Make sure you've enabled Track Changes for at least 10-15 different pages on the target website and all IV pages are generated correctly.
When ready, simply tap Submit to Contest next to a template in My Templates section:
Submit to Contest from My Templates
We strongly recommend that you make sure that your template satisfies all the criteria for a perfect template before you submit. If you revoke your template to make any adjustments and resubmit it later, the template will lose its place at the top of the list. You could still win in case all the templates that were submitted before your fix also have valid issues, but it's better not to take chances.
For the same reason, if you see that your template has some issues, it is best to fix them and resubmit as soon as possible.
Finding issues
Anyone can check the results (but not the code) of any templates that were submitted for the contest. This means you can take a couple of links and see if a template processes them correctly into perfect Instant View pages (see detailed criteria here).
If you see any issues, report them using the Report Issue button. Click to select and highlight incorrectly parsed blocks in the source page or in the Instant View result and provide a detailed explanation of what is wrong (check the general criteria and detailed rules). The author of the template will be able to see all issues, fix and resubmit their work. Note that it is the date of the latest resubmission that counts for the purposes of determining the winner.
Determining winners
The contest for each individual domain from the list of targets begins when the first corresponding IV template is published. The earliest submitted template is considered the winning candidate and participants get three days (72 hours) to find valid issues with that template.
Telegram arbiters will check all issues, accept valid ones and decline non-issues and duplicates. If the winning candidate is rejected, the second-earliest submitted template takes its place.
If the reporting period ends with no valid issues accepted on the leading template, participants may no longer create new issues for that template. They still can – and should – create issues on any other templates which were submitted less than 72 hours ago.
Arbiters will perform a final check on all remaining issues for the domain – they may also create and accept new issues of their own. If arbiters find no valid issues with the template, it is declared the winner.
Fallen leaders
If the leading template is rejected as a result of the final check, the contest is reopened and participants may submit issues again.
Note that the 72-hour reporting period is always calculated from the moment when the template was submitted. This means that if there are two templates for a domain submitted at the same time, and the leading one falls, the second one has the potential to win instantly, if the arbiters find no issues with it. It is important to submit issues for all templates, not just the currently winning one.
If as a result of this process all templates are rejected because none of them was able to achieve perfection, the contest for the domain starts again as soon as a new template is submitted. In some circumstances, Telegram may decide that the domain is unsuitable for IV and remove it from the contest.
Share the work — share the prize
When a template wins the competition for a particular domain, the users who helped the author to identify and fix issues will get a share of the prize at the end of the contest. We will award $2 per each of the 25 most recently submitted valid issues. This money (up to $50 per winning template) will be deducted from the template author's reward.
This way, if a template wins after other users found many issues with it, the author may get only $50 and the rest will be distributed among their helpers. Authors who submitted perfect templates right away will get the entire $100 for each of their templates when they win.
Receiving rewards
Rewards will be paid out after the contest ends – when all target domains are either declared unsuitable for IV or get a perfect template. We aim at completing the contest within approximately 2 months.
For operational purposes, payouts to both template makers and their helpers who identified issues start at $200. Note that rewards below $200 earned in the First Instant View Contest count towards the minimum limit in this Second Contest.
Criteria for a good template
For more info on templates, see our Introduction and Sample Templates.
To be considered in the competition, the template must fulfil at least these five basic requirements:
1. IVs must only be generated for pages that need them
Instant View pages work best with relatively static articles. Dynamic pages, such as the main page of a news site that contains ever-changing lists of links to new articles, would hardly benefit from the IV treatment.
You must make sure that your template only generates IV pages for articles and does not affect service areas of the website, as well as any other sections unsuitable for IV. You must also make sure that IV pages are not generated for articles that have content that is not supported in IV. If such a page were generated, it would result in unacceptable loss of information (e.g., IV pages don‘t support dynamic maps — if you generate an IV page for a wiki article that consists of a dynamic map, the user won’t see any useful info from the article).
Your template must have successfully passed automatic checks on at least 10-15 URLs from the target domain. Read more about automatic checks and tracking changes.
2. All essential content must be represented
Your IV page should show the entire text of the article, along with all the headings and subheadings, quotes, cover and other photos, videos, and other kinds of embedded content from the source page.
3. Unnecessary elements must be eliminated
Your IV page must display the pure content of the source. Remove any bits of interface, ads, and any irrelevant embedded content.
4. Template must process any of the pages it covers
Check whether pages with irregular elements are processed correctly. Pay special attention that various types of media, embedded elements, quotes, and separators are all displayed nicely. Check at least 10-15 different links before submitting your template to the competition.
5. No extraneous info may be added
Any attempts to add content that is not present on the original page will lead to the rejection of the template.
It is allowed to assign the username of the official channel of the website that published the article to the channel property. To be considered official, the channel must be named as such by the relevant company or person (on the website itself or on social media).
Perfect Templates
What's listed above are the general guidelines. If you're looking for more precise information on what a perfect template is (and is not), see the Perfect Template Checklist.