I don't want anyone to feel discouraged from participating or from using their creative engines to produce art of something that they enjoy. People of all skill levels should be free to express themselves and receive recognition and positive feedback of their hard work and effort.

I've been doing this for a long time, this is how I put bread on the table. But it's taken me a lot of hours to get to that point. I'm comfortable with not winning, because I'm at the point where I do this for a living anyways. However, If you've pursued a creative medium before then you've been at that starting line, and being directly compared to others can be uplifting, but it can also be equally as damaging to be reminded that you're not at that level yet.

It's a difficult situation. I feel like when there's competition and placing involved then this debate of objective/subjective criteria follows close behind. Especially when prizes are involved. I'm almost curious to see what people would think about shifting focus to something more akin of a "Community Spotlight", still having it be open ended, but choosing a number of participants and distributing rewards equally amongst them to avoid this sort of hierarchy.

Could also say don't put too much stake in the results and just do it to have fun, but it's hard to satisfy everyone.

Just my 2 cents.