The Gold Wyrm is an award for well-designed, well-thought and well-presented RPG content.

Note to site owners: These are not artistic guidelines, but rather a set of minimum requirements. Do not submit your site (for the GW award) until it meets these criteria. Then, please submit it for review by our Editors, who will then look over the content, originality, usefulness, creativity and effort put into the site to make a final determination. Thank you!

Site Content

• Content should be at least 90% original, with explicit attribution of non-original content.
  
• Site must show correct grammar, spelling, and nO teXt liKE ThIS or 133+ ("leet" speak). [Casual use of language is acceptable on boards, comment pages and the like. It is not acceptable for base content.]
  
• Links to pages that say nothing more than "Coming Soon" or "Under Construction" will invalidate the site. [Nothing is more annoying than clicking on a link that promises to have what you want and finding these two words. Don't put links up until the pages have content and make no apologies for partial work.]
  
• If you are running a play-by-post site, realize that we cannot consider that content for the GW. Good writers may come and go from your site and we want to award content that will be there for some time to come. If your site is mainly gameplay, please consider applying for the Amber Quill instead.

Site Design

• There should be a balance between text/images and white space. [If content is crammed into every possible pixel, our Editors will not stop to figure out what's what.]
  
• Graphics should be quick loading and relevant. All graphics support the content rather than overwhelming it. [Content is king -- the graphics are just the icing on the cake.]
  
• Site shall use no blinking text and no more than 2 animated GIFs per page. [Both of which can cause problems for viewers with epilepsy.]
  
• Ease of navigation is crucial; keep link titles short but make sure they clearly indicate the content behind them. Site sections should be easily found from every page. [Our editors will only spend a fixed amount of time evaluating your site. If we can't find it quickly, then as far as we're concerned, it's not there.]
  
• Pages must fit in 800x600 navigation. Pages should be no more than six screens long. Long pages (or, if you prefer, all pages) should have a "Top" link at the bottom. [Digital divide -- not to mention eye strain and the inability to read that much computer text in one sitting.]

Site Coding

• The HTML should validate at http://validator.w3.org/ Any JavaScript should be free of errors.
  
• There should be no music unless the reviewer specifically requests it. [Auto-play of midi and wav files is not only annoying but can crash computers and browsers. Use an embedded audio control or JavaScript to allow visitors to play, pause or stop your music.]
  
• No disabled right click, including photography and fine arts pages, no full screen mode, and no unethical use of JavaScript to keep the visitor on your site.
  
• Pop-up ads will disqualify your site. [There are too many good hosts out there to waste time with pop-up ads.]
  
• Required use of even one plug-in such as Flash or Shockwave automatically disqualifies the site. [It's okay to use plug-ins, but have an alternate path available.]

Final Word

We often see pages that read "this page will have the following really cool stuff." Your site will always be reviewed based on what it has at the time of the review. If it will have cool stuff later, submit it for review then.

A GW is only awarded after three positive posts by Gateway editors. Given that most if not all of our editors have their own websites to tend to, it may take a while to get that consensus. Be patient -- if your site is deserving, you'll make it.

The GW is a prestigious award and it is hard to come by. If you do not succeed at first, you are in very good company. Try, try again. Good luck!

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available. All you need to do is run over to the Reviews Forum and ask.

And remember your Nomex undies.