Reply #6: The rules don't necessarily have to be the same.

[Ms. Toad]

That's pretty much up to the host, but the disclaimer/license kinda needs to be there if there is any possibility that the winners' photos will be gathered and hosted elsewhere (as they were for quite a while on Smugmug). There was at least one person who got really bent out of shape when his/her photo ended up hosted as part of a DU gallery of contest winners.

I don't care about how the top ten are chosen - there are inequities in the current system, but there would also be inequities in the top 3 in each round automatically going into the finals. Sometimes by the luck of the draw the eight "best" photos are in two threads, with the third thread containing not much that is interesting. If the top three in each thread automatically go to the finals, one of the "best" photos gets bumped in favor of one or to not so interesting photos from the third thread.

The only advice I would give is that the host decide (and announce) ahead of time what the rules are going to be. I thinks folks are less bothered by occasional change than by expectations that one set of rules will be followed then finding out halfway through the game that the rules have changed.