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2009 Rules:
Eligibility
You must live within the UK or Ireland, and be relatively close to the region you wish to represent.
Sign-ups
Your ML will provide a "Word War Sign Up” thread on your local forum to track word count. Participants will post ONCE in the Word War Sign Up thread by 8pm on 10th November stating that they wish to participate. There is a minimum team size of five participants. If less than five people sign-up to take part, your ML has the option of joining forces with another region in order to increase the team size. If your ML is unwilling or unable to do so and you still wish to take part, you may go direct to another region and ask to join their team, but please give your ML time to arrange for the entire team to join another one before you do this.
The Regional Word War
You must update your word count every two days, on the even numbered days of the month, by 8pm. If you are unable to update your count, contact your ML. During the last partial week (26th –– 29th Nov), you must update your word count daily, by 8pm. If this isn't possible, contact your ML immediately.
If you do not update your word count on four consecutive occasions (8 days) it will be assumed that you have given up and you will be removed from the war (unless you already have more than 50k). If you know that you’re going to be away and won’t be able to update, let your ML know so that we can prevent this automatic removal. (The final date that non-updaters will be removed is the 24th Nov, after this date, all surviving participants will remain in the competition.)
You must input your final (verified) word count by midnight on 30th November. After midnight, you will no longer be able to update your count.
Scoring
You may drop out of the Regional Word War at any time up to 8pm on 20th November without affecting your region's count. If you do not drop out by messaging either myself or your ML, you will be in for the remainder of the competition, NO MATTER WHAT!
If, as a result of automatic elimination or voluntary removal, your team falls below five members, your ML will be given 48 hours to arrange to join another team (this may be extended slightly on negotiation with myself, this is the first time we've had this rule and I'm not sure how it's going to work yet) after which the team will be disqualified. Up to 8pm on the 24th of November, any remaining team members who wish to continue to take part can join one of the other teams (with that team's permission). After this deadline all teams will be fixed.
During the Regional Word War there will be a regularly updated leader board on an external web site. I'll post a link to this board to each competing region as soon as I've confirmed it.
Only the official word count from the "Word War Sign Up" threads on the NaNoWriMo web site will be considered when computing the final score.
After midnight on 30th November, I will ask the other MLs from competing regions (or their designated representatives) to verify the figures before declaring a winner.
Results
There will be two prizes:
The city/region with the highest average word count.
The city/region with the highest proportion of winners from the starting participants.
The MLs will compare results, and when all regions agree, the results will be posted on the NaNo boards.
Banter
Participants are encouraged to engage in good-natured banter with participants from other regions in the various Word War Banter threads. Banter should remain good-natured and within the bounds of good-sportsmanship. The use of 'smileys' in messages is actively encouraged.
Our God-like powers
MLs decide what "good-sportsmanship" means.
We reserve the right to remove folks from the competition for any violation of the rules and guidelines listed above.
MLs are the final authority in any dispute or question about the rules.
Trophies
Each team member receives a personalised winner's certificate, plus goodies to be determined...
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