The Amber Quill is designed to recognize quality creative writing, rather than factual, resource-based content. In English, it recognizes exciting, involved and fluid game play rather than rules and background. Only actual game play logs (or archives) are considered for the AQ award.

Note to site owners: These are not artistic guidelines, but rather a set of minimum requirements. Do not submit your site (for the AQ 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

- Site must show correct grammar, spelling, and nO teXt liKE ThIS or 133+ ("leet" speak). Occasional gaffs are to be expected in game play; few in email play, more in posts and still more in chat, yet, users should strive for correct use of the language in which they are trying to communicate.

- To qualify, you must have sufficient logs, archives or other backward-reaching content publicly available at your site. Please do not ask us to 'just drop by your chat' or login to read the gaming forums. Post your game where we can read it at leisure.

Site Design

- 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.

The AQ 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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