Contest rules
The same for every contest, in two minutes
How it works
How you enter
There is nothing to sign up for. Anything you publish in the contest room, in its language and within its dates, is in. If you had already published something inside that range, that competes too. You do not need an account: you can take part anonymously.
Send as many pieces as you like: each one competes on its own, so the more you bring, the better your odds. What does not fly is sending the same thing over and over to take up more of the list.
Who decides
The mushrooms people give decide it, not us. Anyone who drops by can rate each piece from 1 to 5, one vote per device, and change their mind whenever they like. Our internal rating counts for nothing here.
The list does not sort by the bare average, because then one person giving five mushrooms would beat forty giving four and a half. It sorts by the average WEIGHTED by how many people voted: with few votes a piece waits below until more people hear it, and with many it settles where it belongs. With no votes yet, it sits at the bottom.
When it closes
The moment the end date passes, the result is sealed: the places and the numbers are stored exactly as they stood, and they stop moving.
Mushrooms stay open afterwards, because the pieces are still alive and people keep rating them — but those votes no longer change the record. Whoever won, won.
What you should know
What does not get in
Out goes anything that hurts: racism, sexism, homophobia and any other form of hate; real violence or threats; harassment of a specific person; explicit sexual content; and somebody else’s details (their full name, their phone, where they live).
Swearing is not a problem and neither is dark humour: people talk here the way they talk in the street. What gets removed, with no warning and no argument, is the list above. And if a competing piece is removed, it drops off the list and the rest close ranks.
The prize
Each contest states its own on its page. It goes to whoever finishes first in the ranking when the contest closes.
And to win you need an account. Taking part anonymously is fine, but if we do not know who you are there is no way to hand you the prize, however first you finish: create it with your email or with Google before the contest closes.