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| Introduction | Privacy Policy | Submission Categories | Content Rules | Registration and Accounts | Submission Management | Voting Procedures |
A registered participant is a named entity with an account on the X-Day web site that is empowered to make visible changes to it. You need to have a registered participant account ("account") in order to submit work to the showcase or competition, or to vote, or to leave feedback on submissions; each account also has a public name and descriptive profile, akin to an "about me" page. The web site provides automated forms to create an account, to login to it (using a password), and to do the other change-making activities while you are logged in. You do not need an account to simply browse the web site or to see other peoples' submissions.
The multi-screen form for creating a new account is on the registration page. Setting up an account should only take a few minutes, and it should be as easy as getting a YahooGroups account.
The first step on that form is to provide a working email address of your own that will be associated with the new account; it also serves as your login name for the account. Every account must have a different email than every other account (one exception is given further below). This email address will be used by the X-Day staff when they need to send you any important messages concerning X-Day, or when they need to ask you a question, or when they require you to do something. It is also used to help you login if you forget your account password. The email address is also used to enforce part of the X-Day web site's security policy.
The email addresses / login names must be unique and are case-insensitive (but case preserving).
Also on the first screen is an option list where you choose whether you want to make just an "individual" participant account, or both that and a "named group" account (the options are "make an individual only" and "make an individual and a group"); the default option is "individual", which is most likely what you need; this account type can submit works, leave feedback, and vote. By contrast, a "named group" is soley for submitting works that are to be credited to the named group rather than to one or more individuals; this account type can not leave feedback or vote. If you are the official representative of a named group (such as its founder or leader or owner), then you may create one account for that group in addition to an individual's account for you personally. For simplicity, you create both accounts at the same time, and they share the same email address / login name and password (this is the sole exception to the unique email requirement). The same person may only represent a single named group with respect to X-Day. See the Content Rules page for more details on named group account elligibility; it is quite restrictive.
When you submit the first screen of the registration form, that just contains your email address, then the web site will automatically send you an email message which contains a randomly generated number; you then enter this number on the second screen of the registration form, in order to confirm that the email address you entered is real and that it is your address. You can not create an account for an email address which is fake or which belongs to someone else.
This measure helps prevent identity theft, where one person pretends to be another. It also helps prevent a common form of cheating, where one person creates many accounts, usually with fake names or emails, in order to get around several limitations. (While it is true that someone could still cheat if they have multiple valid email addresses, this is still quite a bit more work than if they could fake the emails.)
When you submit the second screen of the registration form, that contains the random number you copied in, the resulting third screen will request the following details that you must create; 'MA' means mandatory (these details are specific to an individual's account):
If you earlier chose to create a group account at the same time, you will see these additional details, which are specific to a group's account:
Passwords are case-sensitive, can contain just letters and digits (a-z, A-Z, 0-9), must be 6-20 characters long, and not all characters can be the same. The public names must be unique, are case-insensitive (but case preserving), can contain the characters (a-z, A-Z, 0-9, _, ', ", <space>, ., -, &), must be 3-50 characters long, and must start with a letter. Real names are the same as public names except that they don't have to be unique. The web site url is limited to 250 characters and must start with "http[s]://".
When you submit the third screen of the registration form, you should get a read-only confirmation screen that tells you the registration(s) succeeded. You should also get another email that contains the details of your account(s), except for the password, for your records.
You should be able to log into your individual's account immediately. If you also created a named group's account, then you may have to wait up to a day for an X-Day staff member to approve the group account so that you can log in; you will receive an email when the group account is approved or not approved; if it is not approved, the email will say why (you can appeal if necessary).
Note: It is expected that you will invent a password for the X-Day web site which is different than ones you made for other web sites or password protected forums (especially important things like bank accounts), so no one can use this information elsewhere if they discover it here.
Only one X-Day individual's account (plus, rarely, one named group's account) is allowed per person, and you may not share an account with someone else. If you forget your password or account name then you can just provide your email address to receive help in recalling it. If you forgot that you even had an account then you will be reminded when you enter the same email address. Do not try to create multiple accounts for yourself on purpose (such as, for example, by using multiple working email addresses) as doing so will disqualify you from participating in X-Day.
The Login screen will display a small form prompting you to enter your email address (login name) and password. There is also an option list where you pick which of your two accounts to log in to (if you have two), "individual" or "group", both of which share the same email address and password; "individual" is chosen by default, and is the only one that will work if you never created a group's account.
If your email address or password is incorrect, then the form will say so and prompt you to enter them again. See also "Forgot Password".
If your email address and password are correct but your account is disabled, the Login screen will say so when you submit the form. This is normal if you have created a new named group account that wasn't approved yet; just wait for a day, or contact the X-Day Manager if you have heard nothing after a day. If an individual's account is disabled, that is a more exceptional circumstance. One time this can happen is if the previously-working email address that you registered with becomes non-working, such as due to a full mailbox; if you can't login, then make sure your email address is still working, and contact the X-Day Manager to say so, so the account can be re-activated; the X-Day Manager will confirm this by sending you a special message at the registered address which you must reply to prior to re-activation.
The login screen also provides a "Forgot Password" hyperlink which, when clicked, will take you to the Forgot Password screen. This screen is used when you have forgotten how to login to your account.
This screen has a form in which you can enter your email address / login name for the account. When you submit that form, an automatic email message will be sent to your registered email address with instructions on how you can change your account password. The email message contains a new randomly generated number, which you must enter into the second screen that appears. (Make certain your email box is not full, etc, so you can receive the message.) If you enter this correctly, then a third screen will appear that lets you enter a new password for your account (twice).
After submitting the third screen correctly, your account password will have changed. If you do not submit the third screen correctly, or you cancel any time prior to that, then your old password will continue to be the current one. The randomly generated number is also good for only 24 hours; after that time, entering it will not let you change your password. Similarly, if you receive a password change email without requesting it, you can ignore the email and your old password will continue to work.
Note that, for security reasons, the Forgot Password screen will not simply send a copy of your old password to your email address, as a reminder. This is due partly to the fact that the email system is insecure and someone could see that password in transit.
(If you think that you did everything right, and you still can't log in, then try contacting the X-Day Manager.
Last Updated: 2006 March 4.
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This site is not affiliated with Marvel Entertainment Group, who are the trademark and copyright holders of the 'X-Men' and associated characters. Any references made on this site to said property constitutes fair use.
This web site displays and/or incorporates creative works by a wide variety of people; each work is Copyright (c) by its contributor, and they are credited in each place where their work is displayed in full or in part.
Portions of this web site that do not have explicit credits are hereby credited as follows: The main web site structure, written instructions, database design, and server-side program code are Copyright (c) Darren Duncan. Portions of the web site CSS are Copyright (c) each of: Shannon Pipik, survivorx, Darren Duncan. The X-Day logo graphics and banners for linking are Copyright (c) UX-Gal.