So, yeah, the infamous wheelbarrow picture from Friday gave a lot of you premature 'shopulation. I figure this is as good a time as any to try something I've been saving for a rainy day: the wild card weekend.
In the more than 18 months we've had the 'Shop Contest I've refrained from making Kotaku staffers the main subject, because I don't want this to seem like we're rigging it for our vanity. That hasn't stopped all-stars from including us, typically Crecente, from time to time. My review of the Selk'Bag 4G Lite on Friday is a bit of a different case. That is a funny photo of me with the wheelbarrow, and I'll give you the original to fool around with.
In addition to that, I'll give you two more: Mr. Shady Shades unboxing the Battlefield 3 Limited Edition, and Fahey wielding the Doomhammer at Blizzcon.
Source Image: Battlefield 3 Unboxing
Source Image: The Doomhammer
Source Image: The Wheelbarrow Pic
Much as I'd like to say "Use anything from the past week," we have agreements that govern what we can manipulate and publish, so let's not go there. These three are good enough.
You know the rules: The 20 best will get rounded up and published at the end of next Saturday. Meantime, I and the rest of the starred commentariat will approve and promote as many as we can so folks can see them and pass judgment.
This is your no-frills step-by-step procedure to participation in the Kotaku 'Shop Contest.
1. Create your 'Shop.
2. Upload it to a free image hosting service. I suggest imgur. It's stupid simple. No account is necessary.
3. This is very important: You must use the URL of the image itself. In imgur, this is the second URL it gives you after you upload the image. It's under "Direct Link (email & IM)"
4. At the beginning of the comments roll, click "Start a New Thread"
5. To the right of your name, select "Image."
6. Paste the imgur URL in the image URL field. It's the field that says "Image URL."
7. You can add editorial commentary if you want, but then just hit submit and your image will load. If it doesn't, paste the image URL as a comment.
8. This is important: Keep your image size under 1 MB. It will not upload to comments if it is over that size. What's more, we're getting reports that if your 'Shop is more than 1000px tall (vertical), it won't upload. If you're getting the broken-image icon, try resizing to a smaller dimension.
Now, Gentlemen, start your 'shopping!