Hello Lostwordsmith !

I am your local and frolicking SB here. I'm reviewing today on behalf of the Simply Positive group. I hope this review gives you a little bit of sunshine for your day.

Below is my review of your item beginning with Corrections:

Corrections/Suggestions
First impression- So, this is is a helpful and a very cool contest to have out there where newbies take control and get to judge some of the 'oldbie' cases out there. Hello there, I'm an oldie and sometimes feel like a newbie since I've come back. This is a great way for newer members to meet older ones and to take charge of the judging.

I didn't find any typos/grammar issues to be fixed.

My main suggestion is to maybe put the 'an unpleasant surprise' higher up within this layout.

Rules/Guidelines/Your Layout

The rules of this contest are listed easy to find, this isn't a prompt based contest but mainly is about getting stuff out there and written with the word limit of short stories being 1,000 words and 40 lines max for poetry. I would maybe put the prompt higher up so it's easier to see right from the start? Having it positioned within near where the rules are because it reads more like this is an open prompt with the rules just stating the limits. Just a suggestion for you to play with if you wanted to.

Things Which I Enjoyed

I love that you are giving newbies the say within this contest since it can be quite confusing being a newbie. I've been on this site for many years and I remember being a little thrown off by 'mods' and not feeling comfortable reviewing them. Of course, I was younger back then so that didn't help anything either. I enjoyed your layout and you didn't use any clashing colors within here that made it hard to read or follow.

Overall Comments
Overall, I think this contest is a helpful one to make newbies feel like they have the say and can be the judges. My main suggestion is maybe putting the prompt of unpleasant surprise higher up on the list? Right within the rules area? But this is just a suggestion for you to play with if you wanted. I hope this little review of mine is helpful. Thank you for sharing and good luck with your judging!