What is the purpose of choosing symbols? Each country has its own official national symbols, such as a flag, an anthem and a coat of arms, by which it is known to the rest of the world. Even the series of letters which form the name of a country are a symbol of sorts, although a country's name is not usually perceived in this way. The unofficial symbols for each country are fairly well known, however they are not well organized. The purpose of this project is to allow people to have a say in which of these unofficial symbols can be named as THE symbol of a particular country.
What can serve as a symbol? A symbol can be an image of any object that is associated with a particular country. It can be a plant, an animal, a building, a person or any other similar object. The main idea is this symbol should be associated with the country.
I was not able to find a symbol suitable for my country on this website. What can I do? You can register and create a group of your own that will contain the symbol that you deem appropriate. Once the group is created you can upload the symbol itself.
Who is able to vote for the symbols and what is the procedure? All users, registered or not registered, are able to vote for symbols. Users can vote once a day for one symbol per country. So if there are 240 countries, then the user can vote 240 times (one vote per country) in any given 24 hour period. The website is set to the EST time zone.
When will the results be made known? If all goes according to plan, the final results will be known on Jan 1st 2011. Since the contest is divided into stages, there will be 5 interim results. For details please see the Contest Rules.
Can I vote for symbols of countries other than my own? Yes, you can vote for any symbol of any country participating in the contest.
Can I upload symbols for countries other then my own? Yes, you can upload any symbol you deem appropriate for any country participating in the contest. The symbol can be uploaded to the existing group or you can create a new group if the existing groups are not suitable.
What can I do to help my symbol win this contest and become the symbol representative of my country? In order to help your symbol win you can do the following: - upload a symbol that truly represents this country - create a very good description and explanation about why this is the best symbol - provide additional images that support your claim - provide historical data that supports your claim - provide videos that support your symbol - read and answer comments - vote for your symbol every day - encourage your friends to support you and vote for your symbol - encourage your friends to get their friends to support your symbol
