The Neutral Zone

Community Info
The Neutral Zone is an icon challenge community for the various Star Trek series and films. The moderators are the_haunt and celestialwillow, and only they are allowed posting access. New challenges are posted on Fridays; submissions are due on Thursdays by 4pm CST (10pm GMT); winners are announced on Mondays. All entries are submitted through e-mail or screened posts to preserve anonymity. To participate, email your icon to nz_submissions @ yahoo.com (remove spaces) or submit your entries as a response to the challenge post before the due date. Be sure to include your LJ username and put neutral_zone in the subject line if you submit via email.

We offer five kinds of challenges here:

1. Photo. We provide a picture (or pictures). You can add text and effects as you will. Animation is fine, but the image(s) we provide should be the only one(s) used. Extra text frames can be on a solid color or texture background.
2. Concept. In this challenge, we give you a simple concept (like 'love') to icon. You are free and clear to use any image and text you like.
3. Quote. We provide a quotation from one of the shows or movies. You are free to design your icon using the Trek image(s) of your choice. Please note that it isn't necessary to use the quotation in your icon design.
4. Hush. The hush challenge is a variation of one of the other three challenges (photo, concept, quote), except that no text is allowed in the icon entries.
5. Lyrical. We provide a set of lyrics; you use the words as inspiration for your entries. The lyrics you chose must be a visible and readable part of your icons.

Please do join us even if you are not an icon maker – all members of this community are welcome to cast their votes! And those who belong to this community automatically become crew members of neutral_zone's flagship, the USS Icon! Scroll further down for more information...

Neutral Zone Honor Roll

SEE WHO ELSE MADE THE HONOR ROLL: 2008 2007 2006

Neutral Zone Hall of Fame


neutral_zone turned two years old on March 29th, 2006!


Thank you, firheruwen for the cool b-day banner!

Rules For Participation
1. To help your entries remain anonymous, please do not post any icons done for neutral_zone until after that week's winners are named.
2. All icons must fit within Livejournal's requirements: no larger than 100x100 pixels and 40K. GIFs and JPGs only, please: no PNGs.
3. NO HATE ICONS. I realize there's a lot of disagreement over some aspects of Star Trek, but I will not condone outright hate of ANY aspect of the fandom. There is some leeway - mild snark is just fine. But if you're not sure, ask me before you create anything.
4. Use only images related to Star Trek, the only exception being generic things like planets/stars. No cross-fandom unless we implicitly include it. (And we may.)
5. Do not use fan art without the artist's permission.
6. This is not an icon sharing community; you must receive the artist's permission before taking any icons to use on your journals.
7. Do not vote for your own icon, or your best friend's icon. Vote for the icon you like best. If the icon you like best is your own entry, then choose the icon you like second-best. Give props.
8. Advertising neutral_zone contest polls on your personal LJs or web sites is cool. Advertising which contest icon is yours, and asking for people to vote for you is not acceptable. This creates an unfair advantage that will not be tolerated.
9. No resubmitting icons that have been made for previous challenges! All entries should be new and original.

Please be aware that if there is a problem with your submission (i.e. improper format, corrupted attachment, or broken links) that is not discovered until after the deadline, the vote must go up on time. That means that your entry may not make that week's cut. The moderators make every effort to collect submissions and correspond with entrants in a timely manner, but sometimes the universe conspires against us. :(

Welcome to the USS Icon!
This icon challenge community has its own flagship, the USS Icon. It's a Challenger-class vessel with a very talented and enthusiastic crew! Everyone who joins this comm becomes a crew member, and there is opportunity for you to advance through the ranks by participating in the weekly icon challenges. The first three levels of rank on board are Recruit, Crewman, and Petty Officer. You are free to take and display the following insignias if you have attained one of these ranks:



Those who attain the rank of Chief Petty Officer (or higher) will receive personalized insignias to display! For more information on the USS Icon's ranking system and how to earn rank points, please refer to this post. Be sure to check out the U.S.S. Icon's Official Crew Roster. Welcome aboard!

Resources
Looking for webspace for your entries? Check out these image hosting sites:


Imagehost (this is a paid hosting service)
LiveJournal ScrapBook (paid users only)
GreatestJournal (you must have a journal account to use this service)

Having trouble finding pictures/caps for your entries? Try these screen cap resources:


_cankerblossom's caps (TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY)
Ezri Dax's caps (DS9)
Terry's Digital Art (TOS)
Daisy Down Under's caps (TOS)
Star Trek: Enterprise Screen Caps
Mark's Gates McFadden Page (TNG – Beverly Crusher caps)
Ariane's Star Trek Gallery (TNG, ENT, and films at present...looks like there will be more coming soon)
Janeway and Seven Screen Caps (VOY)
TOS Screencaps by cimness
myoosikal (DS9 – for specific cap requests, contact via the email on this user's info page)
ENT/Capt. Archer screencaps by seshat0120
Star Trek Bilder - Episodengalerie (TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY) In German.
Star Trek HQ (TOS, TAS, DS9, VOY, ENT)
Strekonline (TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT, films)
Treknation (TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT)
titC's Trekkin' Place (TOS)
Star Trek Sickbay (TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT, and films) *This is a Czech site – scroll down to your series of choice and click on "Seznam epizod" for a list of episodes (including caps). These are not large caps, but they are good quality.

Affiliates & Other Trek Communities
This community was greatly influenced by the nifty Star Wars icon challenge site, kessel_run, now defunct, unfortunately. In fact, the rules and other information used for this community were borrowed, with permission, from there.

Affiliates*
kessel_run Star Wars Icon Challenge
golden_wood Lord of the Rings Icon Challenge
trekicontest Star Trek Icon Challenge
scifi_stillness Science Fiction Icontest Community
voycons Voyager Icon Challenge
scifihush Science Fiction Hush Community
startrek_still Star Trek Stillness Icon Challenge
ginny_challenge A Ginny Weasley Icontest
resourcelove Graphics Resource Community
voy_stillness Star Trek Voyager Icon Stillness
ds9_stillness Deep Space Nine Stillness Icon Challenge Community
ds9icons Deep Space Nine Icons

*Here on neutral_zone, affiliation is a two-way street. We're happy to advertise your icon comm here, but anyone who doesn't extend the same courtesy to us will be removed from our affiliates list.

For more Star Trek icons, check out: startrekicons, trekikons, trekicons, nx01_icons, icons4trekkies.

Other Star Trek-related Communities: trek_xi, klingon, alphaquadrant, deltaquadrant, deep_space_nine, star_trekking, startrek, tngfans, enterprisefans, nx_01, trekkies, voyager_fans, startrek_tos, the_enterprise, the_bridge, trek100, voyagercomm, ourmanbashir, leonard_nimoy, katemulgrew, chekovs_realm, patrickstewart, spiner.

Credits & Disclaimers
The banner templates used on neutral_zone were created by celestialwillow, tinnny, and the_haunt. Banner animation graciously provided by lemonrocket. In addition, some of the textures and pictures used in these banner templates are from inxsomniax (website: Hybrid-Genesis) and NASA. Rank insignia design was borrowed in part from the USS Terra Nova.

Paramount owns all Star Trek characters and the universe in which they exist. No copyright © infringement is intended.