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How to hold a contest on 
Sooner or later we all want to run a contest, but it seems a daunting task. How do I do it? How do I ‘judge’ it? What about points..and so on.
This guide attempts to acquaint the reader with the mechanics, and some of the considerations, of holding a contest on AP
Contests are a great way of stimulating Poets to compose and a good way to read a cross-section of poetry from authors of varying abilities.
The Mechanics
1 In order to hold a contest you need to have 300 points (or more) in order to finance the first prize. Points prizes are discussed later.
2 Once you have 300 points (or more) click on ‘Contests’, then
‘Start a contest ’.
3 The blank contest page will open. It resembles the add-a-poem page.
4 Enter the title you have chosen into the top box.
5 Check the date in the ‘It will be judged around:’ box and change it if necessary. The box uses American format dating, ie the month first (sigh)
The ‘It will be judged around:’ box: Considerations
A This box will contain a date. Be careful! It may not actually be two weeks away!
B The maximum date you can specify is two weeks in advance. This is not an absolute. At any time during the two weeks (but before it expires) you can re-enter ‘edit’ mode on your contest and shift the date two weeks into the future. Many people move the date a few times to account for personal circumstances.
C Beware of extending it too many times or entrants will become disgruntled.
D Once the contest has closed it can be re-opened by you, provided that the judging has not taken place. This is the box to do it in. Open the contest in 'edit' mode and change the date to one in the future. To close a contest put today's date in.
E Once judging has been completed only a manager may re-open a contest. Use the ‘Inappropriate content on this page? Please let us know which rule this page is breaking’ box at the bottom of your AP home page to notify the Moderators of your wish to re-open the contest. The more detail you can give, the easier it will be for them to act.
6 The ‘close this contest after’ box is self-explanatory, but only available to preferred members or better, who are now known as ‘silver’ and ‘gold’ members.
7 I will discuss ‘points’ and other issues raised in the top part of the page later in this guide.
8 Select up to three categories for your Contest
9 Enter the number of points you wish the First prize winner to collect into the ‘This contest should be for’ box. Once this page is completed and you press the ‘Add Contest’ button, the points will be deducted from your personal points score. More on points later.
10 The ‘Allow users to submit pre-written poems to this contest’ box should be ticked if you want pre-writes. Pre-writes are those poems, stories and columns already posted here on AP. It does NOT refer to poems written but not posted here.
NB Allowing pre-writes is a matter of personal taste. Many will have their own views. One view is that poets can dust off any old past winner and thus have a decent chance of winning again. Another is that a lot of poems are great but have never won a prize, why not give them a second chance? You must make your own mind up. Ways to prevent mass entries of pre-writes are discussed later.
11 Enter people you wish to share the judging of the contest in the ‘Collaborate on this with the users’ box. These people will have equal rights with you as contest judges and editors, so pick your co-hosts with care. It is YOUR points at stake here! If you have more than one co-host separate them with a comma thus: topaz135, A N Other, GoodBloke
12 The ‘would you like to upload a new image’ box will load a graphic to the poem header. Graphics in the body of the contest must be loaded from the main text box and are only available to Silver or Gold members. See allpoetry.com/Column/1208897 for more on that.
13 Fill your contest requirements into the text box.
14 Add a short description into the smaller box. This is the text that appears below the main box when you browse through the contests. Often it serves as a ‘hook’ to lure entrants to YOUR contest. (see below)
15 Press the ‘Add Contest’ button and you have a contest running!
16 If you need to edit or add additional information, the ‘edit’ button at the top of the contest page will allow you to do this.
17 During the contest you will receive a system message every time an entry is posted
18 When your contest has closed you have a grace period to read, comment and, finally, judge the entries. Allpoetry would like all contests judged within a fortnight (two weeks) of closing but recognise that life doesn’t always allow this. A note edited into the contest page will tell entrants of any delay, if they read it and a short note to any Moderator will allow them to grant you extended time. If you know in advance that you will encounter problems the easiest way is to extend the contest deadline. (Discussed earlier in The ‘It will be judged around:’ box: Considerations
19 Once you have decided on the order of the poems you can then judge.
20 Press the ‘judge entries’ link
21 This will take you to this page:
22 Using the drop-down arrows to the right of each position, scroll through the entries and select the previously chosen entries.
Do this for First, Second and Third Place.
23 Once the boxes are full type in a 'Final message' into the ‘Closing Message box’. The easiest way is to prepare this beforehand in Notepad or a word processor then cut and paste it in.
24 Press the ‘Judge Contest’ button and the contest is over!
25 All entrants will receive a message similar to that below:
26 Once you have completed the judging and pressed the ‘Judge Contest’ button you will soon receive a system message which will give you points. The current scale is: 75 points for holding a poem contest and 150 points for a story contest!
27 Awarding points to the second and third placed poems is optional. Poems of particular note can be awarded an ‘Honourable Mention’ and may be awarded points too. The first place automatically receives the points you placed when you opened the contest. The rest have to be manually transferred by you. You must use either the ‘Chatterbox’ text entry box, the IM text entry box OR the boxes available on the ‘Help’ page. I prefer to use the help page as it is sectioned off already
Note the format requires spaces but not the word 'points'
Other considerations
Commenting tactics
You have 75 points (minimum) and you are thirsting to hold another contest. Here is where tactics pay off. Avoid commenting on the entry poems until you are ready to do so. The first of your comments gets the points. Subsequent ones that you add get nothing, zilch, nada.
AP likes you to leave meaningful comments, here is your chance! It is polite to comment on every entry, a bonus is that you will earn points in doing so. If you have 20 entries, that’s 20 x 8 for 100-word comments or 1
60 points total. So now you have 235 points and another contest is no longer a million miles away. If you happen to comment on a poem whilst it is being featured, you get an additional 4 points. Sweet!
See allpoetry.com/Column/886070 for more on commenting.
Entries and Rules and options et al
Sooner or later you will have rules and possibly options. These are a refinement of YOUR requirements. Remember that it is YOUR contest, not the entrants. If they don’t like the conditions, they can enter elsewhere. If they raise a valid point and you agree, amend the rules or options.
There are two types of rules.
Negative rules detailing what the contestant CANNOT do
Typical Negative rules:
1 No STiCkY CaPs
2 No chat lingo
3 No pre-writes
4 No profanity/abuse
5 No erotica
6 No cutting/dark poetry
7 No haiku
8 No form poetry
9 No freeform poetry
10 No more than one poem per contestant
And Positive rules that detail what the contestant MUST do
Typical Positive rules:
11 Entries must rhyme/use free form
12 Entries must be spellchecked
13 I like good punctuation and grammar
14 Entries must put ‘ a random quote by me’ in their Author’s comments to prove they have read the rules
15 Entries must place the option they chose in the Author’s comments
This list is not exhaustive, nor are any of them mandatory. Your contest, your rules. Remember to be aware of the AP policies and to abide by them. Having a contest deleted or amended for infringement is frustrating and ALWAYS your fault.
Note that the positive rules usually draw more attention in the form of comments than the negative.
The negative rules are a matter of personal taste. The positive ones extend this and set the conditions you expect an entrant to conform to.
Rules 11, 13 and 16 are reasonable. Rules 11 and 13 help both the author and the judge. The judge is detailing his preferences and letting the contestants know his biases so that he may maximise his chance of winning.
Rule 16 helps the judge by shortening his time searching the choices.
Rule 15 is a matter of choice, often prompted by the fact that the contest rules are often infringed.
Ultimately, the Rules are there to set conditions and to enable the judge to filter the poems. They form a basis whereby the astute judge can prune the number of entries by disqualification. Not a problem with only a few entries (20 or less), but if you receive 200+ entries, do you really have the time and memory to weigh them all with impartiality?
Options
Here lies a vast area where you can detail what type of subject and form of poem you would like. This usually forms the bulk of the text on a contest page. Maybe you only want poems on Love (a very popular subject) but perhaps you want to read a spread of subjects and styles. This is the place to detail it
The Introduction
Whenever you produce a piece of work the title is the ‘eyecatcher’ and the introduction is your chance to expand upon it. In other words it is the justification, or the ‘Why’ of the contest. This is optional but often is the most neglected area on the page.
A lot of contests tell of ‘which’ contest it is. ‘This is my first contest!’ etc. This is fine, but not necessary as the reader will not care how many contest you have held. It does, however, break the ice and get your creative juices flowing. A short piece can catch the interest of the reader. There are many contests and you will want yours to be well patronised.
Final Notes
This is your chance to have a final say and to put the contest to bed. Along with your comments, this is the place where you show just how good a contest host you are.
Usual practice.
The poems which were awarded a trophy will have that trophy showing next to the title. However, it is normal practice to annotate those winners in the ‘Final Notes’ section. If you feel that other poems were worth mentioning, here is the place to do it. The poems of particular note are awarded an ‘Honourable Mention’. A short note thanking the entrants for their participation is usual. If you have awarded points to the other placed poems (2nd and 3rd) and the ‘Honourable Mentions’, this is the place to detail it.
Contests are a way of interacting with your fellow poets. This in turn pays dividends in that they are aware of you and are more likely to comment on your work and chat to you. Like much else in life, what you put in determines what you get out. Good luck and maybe I'll see you in your contest 
Adding your comment:
Your column needs some update editing. I've been giving the link to new contest holders and thought I'd better check if it were up to date on the latest changes.
