How to Use The Entry Management Console
Sounds way more technical than it is. Happily, you will NOT be emailing entries in this year. Any entries you email in will be deleted!
Go to the Entry Managment Console, first off. If you have never made a username before, you will need to click 'register' to make an account on The Bean Stalk. (Sorry, your GoogleID won't work.)
Registration For You
Fill out the form you see when you click 'register'. You will be asked for your Playthings username. Make sure not to mess it up, you will need it for conformation!
You will also be asked for a secret word. The secret word can be anything. You don't have to worry about it being a super strong password, just a word that you can remember. When you hit submit, wait patiently for a PM on Playthings. The PM will ask you what your secret word is.
When you answer the PM correctly, you will be entered in Little Miss Playthings.
Registration For Your Doll
Now, log in to the console. See the purple strip? That's where you're going to be picking what you want to do for the duration of the contest.
Choose "Enter LMPT 2011!"
Now you're filling out a form, just like old times. Take note: if you upload a doll photo larger than 500 pixels on either side, the system will resize your photo to 100 by 100 pixels without telling you. Watch what you upload!
The final blank on the doll's registration is a secret question. You can find the answer to the secret question in the LMPT rules, just like last year. (Remember Addy's tan boots?)
PLEASE NOTE: There are two potential errors you may get. If you hit enter and you get a white screen with an error message talking about bytes, you are not entered. Your picture is not resized, and coincedentally was so huge that it busted the system. Resize the picture and try again. If you get back to the pink/brown/purple of The Bean Stalk, but the system still spits weird text at you, you are probably correctly entered. Like, 99.9% chance you've done it right. Still, check the thread on Playthings, because Bean does intend to post a list of registered dolls.
View the Dolls
Exactly what it sounds like. Click it and see who's entered.
Entering a Round
Go into the Entry Management Console. When Bean opens a round, you'll see "Submit Photos." Click on it.
In the Submit Photos section, you'll see a picture of your doll. You can select your round from the drop down menu -- every round that is open will be avaliable. (Notice that you can enter rounds 2 - 5 early still!) Pick your round, and upload your photo.
If you get the white error screen again, your photo was NOT entered. It was likely way too big and busted the system. Resize your photo and try again.
If all went well, the system will thank you for submitting your photo.
PLEASE NOTE: The Saturday rule is still in effect: Bean will be posting lists of correctly submitted photos on Saturday! If your doll is not on that list, and you do not submit a photo before midnight, you will be out of the round! "I got an error!" won't count as a valid excuse!
Voting
When Bean opens a round for voting, you will see "Vote now!" on the purple strip. Click it.
You can view the dolls here in random order. (Seriously! Hit F5 to shuffle them, it's pretty neat.) Below each doll, you'll see the doll's name, a box with a number in it, and a plus button. If you click the plus sign, you will award the doll one point. (Notice, also, that the minus sign lights up.) You can use the plus and minus signs to toggle the amount of points you want each doll to have.
When you finish, hit "Submit ballot."
