Jams are community hosted events and challenges that come in many different flavors. A jam could be an unranked inspirational event that accepts multiple content types based on a common theme. They can also be ranked friendly competitions centered around a comparable content type, rated by criteria with a final leader board with trophies!

Jam hosts have control over the jam kind, who judges, what content is accepted, deadlines and criteria. In addition, they have advanced profile customization to further promote the theme and make each jam unique.

Overall, jams are meant to help the community push our creativity.

Browse current jams to get a better idea of what jams are and see if any inspire you!

Once you've found a jam of interest, you can join from the jam profile page. You don't have to enter every jam you join.

A few reasons to join a jam

• Keep track of the jams you have interest in. You can filter joined on the main jams page.
• Receive notifications for important changes like when it's open to submissions or results are ready.
• See the jam wall posts in your feed.

Once a jam is open to submissions, publish your entry and visit the jam profile page to click "ENTER".

A dialog will open presenting your content that is accepted by the jam. This only checks the publish date, content type and modifiers. You're responsible for reading about the jam and whether or not your entry satisfies the theme or any other specifications of the jam.



Select your desired entry or entries and click "Save Selection".

You can manage your entry the same way. In addition, you can check and change your entry status from the content page itself.

Once a ranked or finalist jam enters the voting phase, its entries are rated based on the criteria defined by the host.

Jam hosts choose who can rate the entries from the following:

• Judges - Only members of the jam assigned with judging permission can vote.
• Participants - Submission uploader can vote on other entries.
• Participants & Contributors - Submission uploader and contributors can vote on other entries.
• Members - All members level 5+ can vote.

Cast Ratings

If you are allowed to cast ratings, you'll find the star rating panel on the entry pages themselves. Simply visit the jam, view it's entries and select one to begin.

Progress & Review

You'll be able to easily submit ratings, see your overall progress and review or make changes up until the voting period ends. When you submit a rating, the system will automatically get the next available entry that you are eligible to rate.

Do I have to rate all the entries?

No but you should rate as many as you can. The final scoring system adjusts an entry's raw score based on the median number of ratings per entry in the jam. This means, unless an entry gets the mean number of ratings or more, than it's score is adjusted.

Some jams are going to get too many entries to reasonably expect judges to vote on them all. In addition, everyone has varying interest and free time in rating entries and the jam needs to end at some point. A jam can't be stuck waiting for one or more judges to finish casting their ratings. Life must go on.

When you're level 5 or greater, use the following jam creation form to get started with hosting your own jam.

You'll be able to define the jam kind, who judges, entry dates, content types, criteria and more. After submitting the form, you can customize the jam profile page, recruit optional help from other members and choose when to launch!

Continue reading our FAQ to learn more about all of the elements of jams.

Jams come in three main flavors.

Unranked

This is an open event that is primarily meant to inspire creativity and bring the community together around a common theme.

• Entries are not ranked.
• Can accept multiple content types.
  
• Can accept up to 5 entries per participant.
  
• All participants receive a trophy.

Ranked

Recommended for the majority of competitive jams. Entries are ranked by criteria and with a median balanced scoring system. Ranked jams are friendly competitions in which entries are rated, a leader board is calculated and winners are determined.

• All entries can be ranked.
• Only accepts one content type.
• Only accepts one entry per participant.
• Final results page with overall score determining who gets 1st, 2nd, 3rd trophies.
• All participants receive a participation trophy.

Finalists

Recommended for jams with an unusually high volume of entries. Entries are narrowed down to finalists before rating begins. Finalists jams are like ranked jams, except there is a review period between accepting submissions and narrowing them down to finalists. Not all entries will have a chance to be rated but by having less entries to rate, there is a higher chance that judges can get through them.

• Host chooses whether 5 - 50% of entries move onto become finalists.
• Review period of 1 - 7 days after entries closed and finalists are calculated.
• Entries are narrowed down based on an content activity algorithm that weighs upvotes, favorites, views, etc. Upvotes from the host and members of the jam with the judge permission are weighted heavier than general member upvotes.
• Only finalist entries can be ranked.
• Only accepts one content type.
• Only accepts one entry per participant.
• Final results page with overall score determining who gets 1st, 2nd, 3rd trophies.
• Finalists receive a finalists trophy.
• All participants receive a participation trophy.

The review period is important in a finalist jam because it allows late entries to receive attention including upvotes or be disqualified prior to calculating the finalists.

Applies to Ranked & Finalists Jam Kinds

Jam hosts choose who can rate the entries from a more formal team of assigned judges to more open but less formal members option.
In all cases, the host and any members of the jam with the judge permission can rate the entries.

Judges

Only members of the jam assigned with judging permission can vote. Jam hosts can create roles with a judge permission to invite members to be judges. See groups FAQs to learn about managing roles.

Jam members with the judge permission can vote on entries, help review community reports and disqualify entries. Even if you choose the other rating options below, you can have judges help with managing the jam entries.

Participants

Submission uploader can vote on other entries. This means, all participants in the jam have the opportunity to rate other entries during the voting phase except their own. This is a great option for hosts that don't have or want a formal judge team while establishing a team with the great deal of interest in the content type being submitted into the jam.

Participants & Contributors

Submission uploader and contributors can vote on other entries. Same as Participants option above except now if the content has collaborators, they can also rate other entries in the jam.

Members

All members level 5+ can vote. This is the least formal judging option but also the most engaging for the larger community. Because of it's open format, you should be aware that it has more possibilities to be abused. We do have basic checks and logs to help prevent and look into cheating attempts.

Jams can be short or longer depending on the kind, type of challenge, content type and host choices. It's important to choose date ranges that allow your jam to get noticed, give reasonable time to create entries while also not so long as to die out or lose interest.

Jams can be in the following statuses for varying amounts of time.

Draft

In this status, only the jam host and members they've formally invited to help can see the jam page. This gives them time to setup the jam profile page, produce promotional graphics, review details and prepare to launch publicly.

Upcoming

If you choose to set your jam to start at some point in the future than members can discover, join and plan for it. If allowing members to plan for the jam is against the spirit of your jam, then consider shortening the phase in which it is public before starting.

Live

This is the period of time between when the jam starts accepting entries and is closed to them. A jam can be as short as one day long and up to 3 months. Be sure to give members a reasonable amount of time to produce quality content for your jam. This will vary greatly depending on the challenge presented, the content type and expectations. In general, we recommend at least 3 to 7 days and usually not longer than one month.

Reviewing

This phase only applies to Finalists jams. This is a period of time, 1 - 7 days, after a jam is closed to new entries. During the review phase, judges and the community are checking late and overall entries to give upvotes or potentially disqualify prior to calculating the finalists.

Voting

This phase applies to Ranked and Finalists jams. During this period of time, 1 to 14 days, members/judges with the permission to vote are rating the entries based on the criteria defined by the jam host.

Pending Results

This phase only applies to jams that choose to "Hide Results" typically because the host wants to prepare a formal post or announcement before revealing the results. If a jam is left in pending results phase for over 1 month, the results are automatically released.

Completed

Jam successfully completed with at least one or more entries! If it's a Ranked or Finalists jam then the results are revealed and sort-able by overall score and individual criteria. Trophies are awarded and everyone celebrates, packs up and moves on to live the high life. Great job.

Canceled

Jam was canceled for one reason or another. Sometimes things don't go as planned.

Failed

Jam wasn't canceled but unfortunately didn't receive any entries. If you're the host of one of these jams, please don't be discouraged. A lot of dynamic factors contribute to whether members discover your jam or have time to participate. Niche short jams with little to no promotion are more likely to fail than jams with longer promotional, entry and subject types.

Moderated

Jam was moderated by the site for one reason or another. We can't predict every use case but we can predict that there will be some that are either inappropriate or mismanaged enough that moderators will need to step in.

Jams can accept different content types and some content types have modifiers which further limit what is acceptable.

Supported content types

• Maps with modifier for requiring downloadable
• Data Packs
• Player Skins with modifier for acceptable resolutions
• Mob Skins with modifiers for acceptable models and resolutions
• Texture Packs with modifier for acceptable resolutions
• Mods
• Blogs

Ranked and Finalists jams only accept one content type.
Unranked jams can accept multiple content types since the entries are not being rated or compared.

Applies to Finalists and Ranked jams

Jam hosts can define 1 to 5 criteria for entries to be rated on. Participants should keep these criteria in mind while creating their entries.

Each criteria is defined by a

1. Title

Should be concisely defined criteria that makes sense for the content type & jam theme.

2. Description

An optional description to help participants and judges clearly understand the criteria.

3. Max Rating

Between 2 and 10. The overall score is the cumulative value of all criteria, so varying max ratings means one criteria is weighted more heavily than another.

Reordering Criteria

Jam hosts and admin can order the criteria by clicking and dragging them on the jam form.

Formal judges are members that are invited by the host of the jam into a role that has the "judge" permission enabled.

If the jam is set to be judged by "Judges" then only the host and members they've invited as judges can rate the entries. Depending on the kind and popularity of the jam, hosts should consider inviting members to help manage it.

Judge permission grants ability to

• Rate entries in the jam
• View and handle community disqualification reports on entries in the jam.
• Disqualify entries.
• Ban members that repeatedly ignore the rules of the jam.

All reports, disqualifications and bans are viewable by the host, judges and site moderators.

Hosts and Admin permission only

Inviting Members to be Judges

After setting up a role and it's permissions, you can invite members into them. See group FAQs for details on setting up roles. Ideally, you've already established a prior connection or relationship in some capacity so they are more likely to accept your invitation.

1. Open your jam profile page.
2. Click "Jam" on the profile bar.
3. Create or select the role you intend to invite members to.
4. Enable the "Judge" permission.
5. Enter a member's username into the "Assign Member" input
6. Select their username to send an invitation via the notification system.
   

Invitation Status

Please be patient as the member may not be online or may need time to consider the role. When they accept or decline, your jam will receive a notification.

You can also check on the status by viewing the role. Steps 1-3 above.

If they accept, they will gain the permissions of the role!
If they decline, that's it. Respect their decision.

Managing existing members in roles

All members can leave the jam on their own but sometimes they need to be manually removed.

1. Open your jam profile page.
2. Click "Jam" on the profile bar.
3. Select the role with the member you want to remove.
4. In the "ASSIGNED" list of members, click the remove_circle remove icon

Remember members can be assigned to multiple roles.

For hosts and judges of the jam.

When the jam is live and accepting entries, the host and judges of the jam will naturally review incoming entries. In addition, the community might report entries that they think are invalid for the jam. In any case, hosts, judges and site moderators are able to access a "Jam Moderation" page to review their activities.

PENDING Reports

If a member of the community reports an entry for a disqualification reason, the report will appear on the jam's "Jam Moderation" page.

DISQUALIFIED Entries

The tab labeled "DISQUALIFIED" will show a list of all disqualified entries, reports on those entries, who disqualified, when and the reason.

BANNED Members

The tab labeled "BANNED" will present a list of all banned members, the entry the were banned for, who banned, when and the reason.
Only hosts of the jam can lift bans.
In addition to the manually banned members, any members on the hosts block list will not be eligible to enter their jam.

DISMISSED Reports

The tab labeled "DISMISSED" will present a list of all dismissed community reports. Not all reports will be valid. It is up to the host and judges to verify whether the entry should be disqualified or perhaps message the author to make any necessary changes.

Inevitability there will be entries that do not meet the jam requirements and need to be disqualified and removed from the jam.

Hosts and judges can disqualify entries from the entry page by clicking "DISQUALIFY"



A dialog will open allowing judges to enter a reason for the disqualification.



In addition, there is an option to ban and prevent the member from entering the jam again.

Finalists Jams

If the disqualified entry is a finalist, the finalist will be replaced by the next entry that would have made the finalists. While this at least gives that entry a chance to be rated, it's important for hosts and judges to disqualify invalid entries sooner than later and ideally before finalists are calculated. Depending on how much time there is to rate and who is rating, it can be challenging for the replaced entry to receive ratings.

Reversing a Disqualification

There isn't an automated method for hosts or judges of a jam to reverse a disqualification. However, hosts and judges could message the author of the content inviting them to reenter their entry into the jam. It is the authors choice whether to reenter or not.

Jam profile banners are unique in a few ways compared to member or group profile banners.

Homepage Banner

On the jam homepage, the profile banner will display up to 1070px in height! This gives hosts the option of promoting the jam with custom graphics. Get creative!

Horizontal scaling
If the width of the banner is greater than 1070px, it will scale down to fit 1070px on Desktop.
If the width of the banner is less than 1070px, it will not scale up.

So, when designing a jam banner it's best to stay within 1070px in width and height.

Sub page banner treatment

To allow focus to remain on the content of the page, the jam profile banner will be center cropped down to 175px in height and scaled up in width if it's less than 1070px on Desktop.

It won't always look great but it's more about the content now. No one wants to scroll past the same poster to see multiple pages of entries. Well, there's probably someone out there that does. Sorry. Decisions were made.

Jam hosts, admin and any roles with profile permission can modify the profile base theme color!

On the jam profile, click JAM and then the JAM PROFILE THEME tab.



The theme base color affects

• Profile site background
• Profile buttons and interface elements.
• Slightly show through the widgets

Avoid choosing white or light colors since the button elements use white for text & icons.

Jam hosts, admin and any roles with profile permission can modify the profile base theme color!

On the jam profile, click JAM and then the JAM PROFILE THEME tab.



You can choose from a number of default seamless tiled backgrounds or upload your own custom design.

The profile background image affects

• Profile site background
• Slightly shows through widgets and profile content background.

Tips for custom designs

1. Backgrounds repeat horizontally and vertically. Seamless tile textures work well.
2. Large background images will horizontally center
3. Desktop page content width is 1070px.
4. Avoid putting vital information in the background. It is not guaranteed to be seen due to different display sizes.
5. We sourced defaults from dinpattern.com & patterncooler.com

Jam hosts, admin and any roles with profile permission can modify the avatar and it's visibility.

On the jam profile, click JAM and then the AVATAR & STATUS tab.



By default the Jam avatar is not visible on the profile page, jams listing card or potential popular reel feature. This allows the jam banner to be unobstructed.

Different trophies are awarded dependent on the kind of jam hosted.

Unranked Jams give out participation trophies.
Ranked Jams give out 1st, 2nd, 3rd and participation trophies.
Finalists Jams give out 1st, 2nd, 3rd, Finalist and participation trophies.

Jam host and members with profile permission can leave the defaults, download and modify them or upload custom artwork!

Here are the defaults:



In addition, the host can choose when to reveal the trophies. This gives jam hosts more time to customize them or if ready for launch, the ability to show them off for incentive to participate.

Unfortunately competition and awards can motivate some people to try cheat to give themselves an advantage. We have some automated prevention, detection and logging to mitigate, flag and investigate.

Depending on the case, if you're conclusively found to have cheated in a jam, you may be banned from entering all future jams. You may also lose site privileges from your account. Jams are meant to be friendly competitions and can take considerable time and effort of many to successfully organize, enter and conclude. Disrupting that goes against the spirit of the jam and the platform itself.

Suspected cheating

If you suspect or have evidence of someone cheating, open a ticket rather than accuse them.

Judge & Rating Manipulation

If you have evidence of a host, judge or member unfairly casting ratings or actively manipulating the jam itself, open a ticket. For the most part, jams are run by the host and we understand that not everyone is going to like the final results. Please do not report jams because you don't personally agree with the results.

For the most part, jams are friendly competitions with the creativity, prestige and digital trophies ideally being enough award and motivation for participation or hosting one.

If you're hoping to add to the award or offer prizes, you should have them approved by site admin or your jam may be moderated.

Generally acceptable award ideas

• Shout outs or social promotion
• Digital exchange of trade or skill such as graphic design, fan art, coding, etc
• Free creative compilation, trans-formative work or promotional material of their entr(ies)
• ??? Have fun without crossing the lines below.

Not allowed without admin review

• No Monetary Prizes
  Besides limited Steam credit, monetary prizes are generally not allowed.
  
  
• No Physical Prizes
  This requires requesting personal information from our members to award. Our members are from all around the globe and of all ages.
  
  
• No Sponsorship & Corporate Promotion
  If your hosting a jam to promote a product or service, your jam should seek prior approval using our contact page.
  
  
• No Ownership Rights or Commercial License
  By hosting a jam, you do not gain any ownership or commercial rights to entries.

While jams have limited posting capabilities, it's still possible for them to break the rules in particular with theme, profile graphics or social behaviors.

If a jam is breaking any site rules, you can report it the same way that you report members or groups.

File report to moderators

1. Visit the profile page.
2. On the jam bar below the banner, click more actions ( 3 vertical dots )
3. Click "Report Jam"
4. Select a reason and provide details.

A site+ moderator will review your report and take any appropriate action(s).