With the Sandbox, you can do a lot of stuff with just CSS. Mark over at the weblogtoolscollection.com has posted links to two blogs outlining how to make pure CSS asides for your blog. Great for regular link posts using del.icio.us or ma.gnolia.com.
These types of techniques (or tricks) utilizing the dynamic classes in the Sandbox will really be an important factor within the competition, I predict. 
Anyone else have any Sandbox tricks they’d like to share?
Today marks the one-day-less-than-two-weeks point in the competition. Submissions are still due by 12:00 AM (UTC) on July 29, 2007. Lots of Sandbox-related questions have been answered over in the Sandbox Forums and I have received several submissions already, as you can see from the Participants page.
So stop reading this and get back to designing.
The best news that I have to offer is that PressHarbor has kicked in US$300 for the competition, raising the current total of cash prizes to US$1950.00. The first-place winner will now receive a more than reasonable US$850 (More at The Details). The total for prizes is now US$1950.00.
If you’re a WordPress user like me who finds himself often explaining how to get started blogging to friends and family, you might want to bookmark PressHarbor. Here’s the info from their site:
Born out of a vision to help bring web publishing to an even greater audience, we’ve developed a platform to make it easy to get started on the world class WordPress publishing tool. Our installation service makes it a breeze to get started with your own WordPress blog and your own domain name, and our automated updater keeps your WordPress software current and secure.
The final bit of news is that the judges have hopefully been finalized. The goal of ten judges has been met and I think everyone can be assured that we have a qualified panel of designers, bloggers, and blog designers to ensure solid final results. These individuals have been kind enough to volunteer their time so let’s be sure to give them our thanks.
One judge, Sadish, stepped aside from the competition due to some controversy related to some accusations related to the Theme Viewer. I would like to point out that I emailed Sadish for his side of the story and he handled the situation very graciously and chose to step aside. Thanks, Sadish.
I’d also like to thank all the sponsors who have provided the financial backing to reward the hard-earned efforts of all the participants. With everyone’s eye on the real prize, these folks are the ones who providing the backing for the SDC to move forward. They also all agreed to simply provide the money and step aside with absolutely no influence on the competition policies and/or procedures.
This competition will have set the standard for future WP-related competitions with its thoughtful rules. And all those future competitions can be happy because all the policies and procedures used here are licensed with the GNU Free Documentation license. 
So I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of the designs continue to come in and happy that the community is really going to have some exceptional new work to spice up their blogs with. 
By the time you read this, though, you’ll probably just have nineteen days left to polish your design and submit for a chance to win some cash (a total of US$1650 hangs in the balance) and, possibly, massive recognition (see the previous post). Put those together and you have more than substantial bragging rights.
I hope all those working with the Sandbox are enjoying it. I’ve seen a lot of appreciated feedback in the Sandbox Forums and I also recently saw a great post on how to do “Asides” with just CSS for the Sandbox. Since the dummy content provides lots to work with, techniques utilizing the dynamic classes could separate the boys from the men, so to speak.
Remember, submissions are due by 12:00 AM (UTC) on July 29, 2007. Be sure to review the submissions procedures before firing off your email, since revisions will not be accepted.
Also, we now have eleven judges and would happily accept more (more info for those interested in judging).
What should surely be of great interest to all participants is the news that the Sandbox theme is slated for moving in to the WordPress core at version 2.3. Check out ticket #4517 on the WordPress trac for more info.
While not carved in stone, this has been discussed for about a year now (see Sandbox thread on wp-hackers for more info). Bundling the Sandbox with WordPress benefits the base user as well as the community at-large in that it will provide an effective example of how to customize a theme (viewing and constrating the very different style sheets for the same markup) as well as an excellent base for developing a custom theme for public release.
This is an especially pleasant enchancement in that it avoids any real controversy. Most will agree that the Sandbox accomplishes being the best ‘blank slate,’ but its inclusion is also possible because it avoids the aesthetics debate—for which consesus would be difficult in the trac’s open forum.
So what does this mean for the beloved Sandbox Designs Competition participants? I can’t speak for the inclusion of submissions (winning or not) in the bundled Sandbox. But the real benefit is that the audience for your design will have increased from those interested in the Sandbox to those download WordPress (not to mention the WordPress.com folks). At the very least, information on the SDC winners and participants will be included with the Sandbox.
And this is probably more valuable than any of the cash prizes.
On another note, I would like to open up the The Participants page to all those intending on submimtting a design to the SDC. I see that I will need to get as much done as possible before submissions begin flodding in.
All those planning on submmitting to the SDC, please submit your ‘bio’ information to submissions@sndbx.org. More info.
There are six weeks left before submissions close for the SDC, so I hope that every one is getting their designs nice and polished and hopefully getting a firm-grasp on how to utilize the countless dynamic classes in the Sandbox. I think a key feature to the best Sandbox designs I’ve seen so far is the thoughtful use of display:none; and also the use of the varying body classes.
But I’m not judge, so it’s really not for me to say much else. I hope you’ve noticed that so far I’ve confirmed nine judges. I had a goal of ten, which looks reachable. I’ll continue trying to confirm more judges since, well, you never know. Plus the more the merrier, right?
There is a little more than six weeks left until submissions close at 12:00 AM (UTC) on July 29, 2007. The Sandbox Forums have been active with discussions about procedures, CSS tips, and general chatter about theme development and design. Head that way for more.
I’ve really been pleased that the word has been spreading through the non-English speaking world. Or rather, outside of the USA. The comp has been written up by WordPress Francophone, the German BlogPimp, and a number of other international blogs. So danke, gracias, etc. Oh, and one long-time supporter from India as well: Sandbox Enticing.
I’d also like to specifically point out a few of engtech’s posts: Design Sandbox in a sandbox and CSS Design. Engtech has been a big supporter of the Sandbox since it was first launched—and on WordPress.com no less. She’s put together some nice resources that might be useful for participants, so head over to //engtech.
I also should thank everyone who has continued supporting the design competition. You’ll note that currently the total amount of awards stands at US$1650 with first place winning US$750. Not bad for some CSS.
One more thing to point out: I’ve already received one submission. So we now have our first designer in The Participants section. It’s Stephen James Broughton, UK resident, and slick logo creator apparently. Mums the word otherwise.
When you submit a design, you may include (separately from the submission ZIP) a 50px by 50px PNG image along with a ~25 word blurb about your “mad credz.” I look forward to seeing that page very, very full in the next six weeks.
Friends of the SDC