Essay Contest Rules
- By accepting participation in this essay contest, the participants confirm that their primary, main, and maybe the only reason for applying to this contest is the love for writing essays, the love for calling tings by the right name, and the love for truth and freedom.
- The participants must be undergraduate, graduate or postgraduate college students.
- The essays must be submitted in correct English, French, German, Italian or Spanish.
- In the essay, the author's identity must not be revealed in any way. Each essay will receive its unique label - code.
- The organizer will protect the data collected in this contest and will not use them for any purpose other than the one described in these rules. The collected data will not be shared with third parties.
- The participants will pay a symbolic participation fee of $ 7 for covering administrative expenses and accept to lose it if the essay they have submitted will be eliminated from the contest.
- The participants can submit their essay from (TBA) until (TBA) or until we reach XZ submissions.
- The prize for the best essay will range from $1,000 to $5,000.
- The best essay will be the one that will have the highest score after the third evaluation round as per rule 16.
- The prize for the best essay evaluator will range from $500 to $2,500.
- The best essay evaluator will be the essay author/evaluator whose scores for other essays will most closely correspond to the final scores of essays after the third evaluation round as per rule 16.
- What about $1,000,000 (1) and $500,000 (2)?
- The criteria by which we will decide on the total amount of prize money are: total number of essays received (participation fees), total amount collected from the public (voting fees and donations), and total number of essay readings.
- Essays must fulfil the criteria presented HERE. The criteria list a specific number of theses that the author will address in their essay. Some theses will be mandatory, while others will be optional. THIS RULE IS CURRENTLY NOT IN USE.
- The contest will be supported by AI - ChatGPT functionality. Before the start of the essay evaluation phase by the authors themselves, AI will, in the first evaluation round, eliminate all essays that are not in line with the contest's topic and significantly deviate from what a reasonable organizer would want to publish on their website. We believe that this will reduce interest in "trolling" this contest.
- After essay submission and first, AI supported evaluation round, the essays will be evaluated in the second and third round: in the second round the authors will rate each other's essays; in the third round the public will vote for the best essay.
- In the second essay evaluation round, authors will evaluate each other's essays by giving a rating of 1 to 5 points for multiple criteria. Each essay will be evaluated by up to ten authors/evaluators. Each author/evaluator will evaluate up to ten essays.
- The evaluator, other than providing a rating of the essay, must provide a 100-character comment on the essay they are evaluating. The comments left by the evaluators will be available to the author immediately, and to the public during the third phase of the essay evaluation.
- The authors/evaluators must complete the evaluation of their assigned essays or they/their essays will be eliminated from the contest.
- The XY-number of essays with the best ratings will have passed the second round of contest, and will be announced on (TBA).
- Essays that have passed the second round will participate in the third round of the contest where the public will be voting for the best essay.
- Essays must be submitted as plain text in a form on the web page of the contest.
- Essay authors i.e., the contest participants, agree that the organizer may freely and without any obstacles or compensation publicly publish the content of the submitted essay, the essay evaluations, the 100-character comments on the essay, along with the author's nickname and all other author information except for their name, email address, and phone number. Therefore, the real name, email address, and phone number are used solely for award distribution and participant authentication and will not be published by the organizer in any case.
- The contest participant agrees that the exception to publishing the essay author's name is only for the purpose of awarding cash prizes, in which case the author of the winning essay allows the organizer to publish only their name, country and university name.
- The prize winner agrees to participate in the public award ceremony if requested by the organizer before the actual award presentation.
- The contest organizer expects attempts to compromise this contest by individuals and institutions who would not like this matter to be discussed publicly.
- The essay authors i.e., the contest participants, accept that the only interest of the organizer is to fulfill the purpose of this contest, and will accept the interpretations of these rules that the contest organizer may give, if necessary.
- The participants of this contest will carefully read these rules before submitting his/her essay, and only if they consider them sufficiently clear and well-intentioned, will they participate in the contest as an author and evaluator.
- Any questions and requests for clarification from authors and evaluators submitted through the form on the contest's website will be reasonably considered by the organizer and responded to within the time and scope available to the organizer.
- In this regard, the essay authors i.e., the contest participants, waive any appeals and complaints to third parties. Any interpretation or change of the rules and anything relevant to the contest given by the organizer shall be considered as final.
- The participant of this contest accepts that the rules for this contest could have been different, maybe even better, but that these are the best rules that the organizer could come up with and write, and that the contest is being conducted according to these rules. The participants in this contest also acknowledge the possibility of these rules changing at any time during the contest, which will be duly announced on the contest's webpage.
- By accepting participation in this contest, the participant acknowledges that the organizer will not be liable for any harmful consequences on the part of the contest participants.
- Any potential participant who has reason to believe that there is a chance of experiencing any harm due to participating in this contest, by agreeing to these rules, will either not participate in the contest or will immediately withdraw upon the emergence of the aforementioned reasons.
- The organizer of this contest is a one-time organizer of such a “best essay contest” and after the purpose of this essay writing contest has been achieved will not further engage in the activity of organizing essay writing contests. The only exception to this rule is provided below under paragraphs (1) and (2).
- The organizer of this contest does not have the organization and logistics to facilitate extensive communication with those considering participating in the contest or with those who are participating in the contest.
- After reading all of these rules, the potential participant in this contest will take into account that the organizer of this contest is an ordinary person who is not usually engaged in organizing essay writing contests, and that this contest is solely organized for the protection of his human rights from immorality and supremacy.
(1) After the completion of the Decoding the Dilemma (DtD) essay writing contest, the organizer will host a related essay writing contest titled What Would Goethe Say? (WWGS?). The prize for the best essay in the WWGS? contest will be up to $1,000,000. Participants in the WWGS? contest who have previously participated in the DtD contest will receive additional points in the contest for the aforementioned $1,000,000 best essay prize.
(2) After the completion of the Decoding the Dilemma (DtD) essay writing contest, the organizer will host a related essay writing contest titled What Would Goethe Say? (WWGS?). The prize for the best essay evaluator in the WWGS? contest will be up to $500,000. Participants in the WWGS? contest who have previously participated in the DtD contest will receive additional points in the contest for the aforementioned $500,000 best essay evaluator prize.
