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Interesting ideas there.

One I have is to take the standard mandelbrot and do something with it e.g. tweak it in some way.  You could make a plugin or formula for an existing program (Fractal eXtreme, FractInt, UltraFractal, etc.) and until the deadline when the competition ends you have to keep the code secret, but as soon as possible afterwards you have to add a comment which shows your code.  Therefore, it can then be shown that you did indeed start off with the mandelbrot, but your formula doesn't become an inspiration to others until after the competition closes.

I guess this would be quite difficult to implement.

Another option is to generate the unzoomed mandelbrot on any possible medium, electronic or otherwise.

This could become very creative - an old dot matrix printer, a ZX Spectrum and print the output to a thermal printer, display it on a photo keyring, build it out of lego, make it from carpet tiles, create one using dominoes stood on end and set them off toppling, look in the sky and find it in a cloud formation, etc., etc., etc.

- create a fractal given baseshapes (triangle+quad arrange any way you like )

Huh? Explain

How about Fractal Hats?





This has possibilities for Fractal Footwear! How do you like my new Sandalbrots?



I guess maybe I am suggesting a Fractal Humor category where any form of Fractal Silliness is the idea.

Those sandalbrots do not look comfy at all. 

-Deep mandelbrot renders as a challenge would get my vote probably because that's what I like.
-Coloring pre-defined location sounds fun to do and it wil probably wake up some creativity just by the constraint of having to use some location. However, I think the constraint would be too strong for a competition. All that could possibly be done is to use coloring algorithms and gradients that affect the iteration bands in some way. I reckon there exist awesome coloring methods and they matter a lot to what a fractal looks like, but still... I would prefer something more general. A participant could even not like the location.
-We have done axolotl resemblance before, other than that I do like the idea of resemblance but I would now vote for something else.
-Creating a fractal with baseshapes: nice idea. We could judge the entries by several aspects: interestingness, beauty, the way the base shapes were put to use. This sets a theme but allows a lot of freedom. I assume the final renders count, thereby including use of various visualisation techniques, and not just the bare algorithms?

I don't understand your question.

The 2015 section does not exist at this point, so nobody can post anything there yet!

You can't mean my Fractal Hats and Sandalbrot images since they were posted after you asked - plus, they were mostly joke images anyhow, despite my willingness to have them become real categories!)

Please link to the posts which are causing you confusion instead of just saying they exist.  Then we can better explain where the misunderstanding comes from.