I wanted to suggest that Contest Threads be locked when they reach their deadline. It would be ideal if this were automated but I'm not sure if this is possible.

I'm not sure it's fair to leave the Contest open for entries - people are putting time and effort into something which no longer counts. Though, on this note, I do also feel it is more important than this that deadlines should be firm. I know in the past entries have been allowed to slide when they've been posted after the deadline. This isn't fair on people who have taken the time to make sure they have something turned in by the admin-set date.

If there is a reason that Contest Threads are left open after their deadline, I do feel this should be shared. As it stands people are entering contests that have closed and we have no guarantee that admins will respect the deadlines given, which is certainly an uncomfortable feeling for the many of us who were pushed for time to ensure things were finished. Had we known we would have had several more days to edit/adjust I'm sure we'd have taken time. Automating threads locks would remove all these issues.

Alternatively if this is all too much work with so much going on I would like to suggest that you lock the design thread and respect the deadline before more users spend their time on designs, thank you!

I agree; having the thread lock after the deadline would reduce confusion (and make things easier for Fai and Krin, who won't have to be constantly checking the posted date/edit date to make sure things still fall within the contest deadline).

I do agree, it wouldn't really be fair to those of us who submitted the designs by or before the deadline and it would be nice for all plus less confusing

I always lock it after the contest ends...if there was an entry that was reward and let slide at one point there is a reason for it.

The Fall Festival Design thread is still up and running, people are still putting time and effort into designs to post, the deadline was four days ago? Not sure if this is an oversight or not but this was the point of my post.

If it hasn't been locked because the deadline has been extended, we'd like to be told so we can put more work in, too.

I think this was posted because the 'Design General Themed' is still up and running, and no extension was released; i know of several people who have wanted to tinker with designs but have respected the posted deadline. If this was for an extension, could you pretty please post it?

If you're referring to the themed design contest, we don't really consider this a true contest... it's entire purpose is just to aid us. Additionally, its due date is more of a "please submit your ideas by this date because we probably will decide on the final designs around that time... so if you submit late we won't be able to use it."

But if there's a design posted after the due date that we like, we will use it anyway. For competitive contests, we are more firm to the due dates barring any other circumstances.

I understand that. I don't consider the design themed is really a real contest either. Many users don't know that; could I perhaps recommend rewording it to "Recommended date to have these in by" or something similar? I know of several users who rushed to get their entries in last minute and that might have been able to prevent them! Although, from what I remember in the past, these design threads never had a due date at all because there was always the second set of themed. Maybe just remove the due date? Especially if there will be a second set of themed! That might remove the problem <3

I would also request that if you're not planning on having a deadline, please don't set one. Just be open with us and say you're probably deciding around x date and so for best results have designs in by then. You could have saved a lot of people who missed out on sleep from a lot of stress because they were running around trying to make sure they had everything sorted. I understand it's not considered a competition and there are no winners - but there are prizes, and those prizes are very highly sought after so this is a pretty huge deal for the userbase, regardless of it not being a true contest. :)

Um, from my viewpoint, if there are prizes (even if the prize is just seeing your design picked, which for many people is kind of a huge prize) then this still seems like a contest to me. Just sayin... semantics I know, but where prizes are given, people tend to get rather uptight about things.

I think the suggestion to re-word it though, if this is a more loosely defined event, is a good one. Indicating that designs for the site are chosen around a certain date and entries made after that date are not likely to be used but still welcome is a good way of dealing with this issue.