PnQ Contests 101

A new member asked about contests and I felt it may be good for all new members to read about them. There are two contests currently running (18 April 2017). A “site wide” and “the weekly.”

The "1970s Song Title Contest" is called a "site wide" or “site” contest. It is open to anyone to enter just by following the criteria set out by the person who starts the thread and runs the contest (the "host," generally a senior member or moderator). The poems are sent by PM to the host anonymously and when the entry period is over the poems are posted into a new thread by the host. The voting is done by all members by PM to the host who compiles the votes and announces the winners along with revealing the authors of each poem. At that point everyone can post their own poem to their profile. Winners get bragging rights and recognition. Site contests are generally run in both the Members Message Forum (this forum) and the Poetry Websites and Contests forum (http://www.poems-and-quotes.com/discussion/40).

The weekly contest is the official one run by the site itself. Senior members are able to nominate poems which show up at the "contest nominations” page (http://www.poems-and-quotes.com/contests/nominations). Beginning on Friday night Eastern Time Zone US [also known as PnQ time] 5 anonymous judges vote 10, 7 or 4 points for their favorite 3 poems nominated that week and send comments on each of these three poems to the PNQ account. The moderators rotate turns hosting the weekly contest; the host compiles the judges' votes and comments and publishes the results on the following Monday after the site has automatically published the top three poems in the results page at 9:00 AM PnQ time (http://www.poems-and-quotes.com/contests/winners). The next weekly contest begins each Monday morning.