Contest Rules
Learn about the requirements and the judging criteria for the Theme Jam contest so you have the best chance to win!
Who can participate?
You must be 18 or older to participate in this contest. No purchase is necessary. The contest is global, so submissions will be accepted from all regions.
What are the prizes?
Two winners will be chosen to receive travel, lodging, and food (up to $5,000 USD) for a trip to a Gatsby Days of their choosing (the next Gatsby Days is in London). This prize cannot be substituted for cash. Once the winners identify which Gatsby Days they want to attend, Gatsby will book the flight and hotel for them. Food costs must be submitted and reimbursed separately. The total reimbursed cost for flight, hotel, and food cannot exceed $5,000 USD for each winner.
In addition, everyone with a valid contest submission (see How are submissions judged? below for information on what constitutes a valid submission) will receive an exclusive piece of swag, which is chosen at the time of submission. This swag will feature the Theme Jam illustration done by the incredible Maggie Appleton.
What is the deadline to submit?
The deadline for Gatsby Theme Jam contest submissions is July 31, 2019 at 11:59PM Pacific time. Winners will be announced on the Theme Jam website by August 7, 2019. Prizes will be received/travel booked once the winners determine which Gatsby Days they want to attend. All submissions may be referenced publicly.
How are submissions judged?
All submissions will be judged on the following qualities. For a full example and submission checklist, see the Theme Jam example submission repo.
Code quality and legibility
While largely subjective, code quality and legibility are critical to the success of open source software — it's how the community is able to peek under the hood and learn how things work. Gatsby themes should be understandable by other developers, with clearly written code, obviously named variables, and a general effort made to produce clean, maintainable, understandable code.
Accessibility
Gatsby is fully committed to making the web a welcoming place for everyone, so ensuring that Gatsby themes are accessible is a high priority. Make sure to run your theme through an accessibility audit before submitting to ensure everyone will benefit from your theme!
Performance
Gatsby’s most prominent selling point is its performance. Make sure your theme is as blazingly blazing fast as possible — Gatsby should start you at 100 — to make sure you’re delivering high performance.
Live demo available
Choosing themes is hard. It’s important to be able to try themes out, so make sure to set up a demo site so the community can see your theme in action!
Documentation in the README
Without docs, using new software can be extremely frustrating. Make sure your theme comes with a README that includes installation instructions and details all theme options and any other included features.
Accurate metadata
In order to show up in searches, themes need to use the keywords “gatsby”, “gatsby-theme”, and “gatsby-plugin” in their package.json, along with an author and repository field. This will ensure your theme shows up in the Gatsby showcase and npm searches!
Creativity
We’re consistently blown away by the ingenuity and creativity of the community. We want to see that shine through in your themes! This could be visual aspects, code, or something else entirely. Show us what you can do!
