FAQ

Below you will find help with navigating the website, contest rules and entry instructions, and the rules for using this website. If you have questions after referring to the information below, please feel free to send me, Theresa Happe, a private message or ask one of our moderators:  Deah, Linda Wolff,  Katy Nott, June Kowalczyk or Goreti.

RULES:

SPAM

We will not tolerate spammers on this site. That means you may not solicit other members through email by friending them or messaging them through groups on the site. You may not solicit other members on their profile pages.  Forum posts must be productive contributions. You may comment about a product or service but blatant advertisement is considered spam. You will not monopolize the home page by adding events for long durations of time.

Spammers will receive a warning following the first occurrence. They will be removed from the site upon the second occurrence.

Your profile page is where you can place any advertisement about your company. You may also promote yourself in a group you create.

If you are looking for increased visibility on this site, advertising is available.

BEHAVIOR:

I expect everyone here to treat others with respect. No bullying or foul language. Constructive criticism is acceptable but I will not tolerate members berating other members. You will receive a warning upon the first occurrence. You will be removed from the site upon the 2nd occurrence.

Do not bash other websites or companies on CakesWeBake.com. I am not concerned whether same occurs on other sites regarding this site. Two wrongs don't make a right.

CONTESTS:

How to Enter

Upload the photo to your profile. For each contest, we will give you a unique tag to add to the photo. One (1) entry per person. Please create a title that fits your cake; do not leave the title as a file name.

In the description field, indicate how the cake was made including techniques and materials. Please try to submit a clear photo. Judges cannot judge what they cannot see.

If your photo was already on the website prior to the contest and it has already been favorited by other members, you will need to add that photo again. This is to ensure each entrant is on a level playing field.

All of the entries will be featured. Only 5 featured photos appear at the top of the photos page, in no particular order. To see all of the entries, click on "view all" located at the bottom right of the featured photos. Here is the direct link to that page: Click here

Voting:

Everyone will have an opportunity to vote. To vote, view all the featured photos at the link above. When you see a cake you want to vote for, click on that picture. Scroll down the page and look underneath the photo. You will see the Favorite button.  Click it to vote. Do not vote using the rating stars or by leaving comments. Comments are still welcome, but nasty comments are not.

I will post a time period for voting. After that time period elapses, only the top 10 cakes will remain featured. At that time, the judges will select the winning cakes.

It takes a long time to go through all of the cakes and count votes, so after the top 10 are selected, there will be a few days before the winner will be announced.

Please allow 24 hours after entering a cake for your entry to be featured. This is all done by hand by our team.

Please do not solicit votes from other websites. Winning a contest on Cakes We Bake will be based on merit. If we discover that you have solicited votes, your entry will be removed from the contest. I assure you, we are very good at figuring out when someone does.

Photos:

Adult Photos:
This is a family friendly site. Please do not add photos depicting nude  bodies or body parts. They will be deleted. Photos that depict scantily clad bodies or body parts and/or are sexually suggestive may also be removed, subject to our discretion.

Title -

To help others find your photos easily, please give your photos proper titles such as “pink baby shower cake”. Using the word “cake” in your title helps more people find your picture. Adding a title to your photo allows others to find your cake using the search tool.

Tags -

If you add the appropriate category to your tag, your photo will appear in the correct category. So, if you have a photo of a soccer ball cake, just add sports to the tag. The choices are: anniversary, baby shower, cartoon, graduation, holiday, misc, sports and wedding. Right now, only the photos that were labeled with these words are showing in the categories. You can edit any of your photos.

If you are having trouble uploading your profile picture or cake photos, the trouble is usually the file size or the file type. Pictures coming off your camera are huge and need to be shrunk. If you do not have a photo editing tool, you can download Irfanview for free at www.irfanview.com. Also, the acceptable file formats are .jpg, .gif and .png. If your picture is not in this format, rename the picture so it does have one of these file extensions.

Profile Page:

Appearance -

32 different apps are available to customize your profile page. The link is available in the left hand box of your page. You'll be taken to a list of different apps you can choose from. Or, if you prefer, you can upload a photo to create a background for your profile page.

Settings -

Privacy: You have the option of making your profile public or viewable only by your friends on this site. If you are concerned with being found in the search engines, then opt to make your profile private.

Other Website Features:

Groups -

Anyone can create a group and it doesn't necessarily have to be a location.

Chat -

Located in the footer of every page, you can send private instant messages or public messages. You will need to click on the speaker icon to hear when other people are posting messages.

If you are not able to view the videos, you may need to download flash. Here is a link to the download.

If you find your emails are getting out of hand, go to your profile, click on profile settings, and adjust your notifications.

Blog Posts -

Blog posts should add value to the website. If they are created merely for the purpose of adding an outgoing link, that's not adding value. Quality, by definition, should be a minimum of 300 words. Low quality blog posts will be removed. Pending blog posts of low quality will not be published.