As a General statement, there will be different sets of ruels for each contest.

In the rules, the contest must have a set amount of things before being initiated.

A limit of entries (if any).
A starting time.
A stopping time.
What's accepted.
What's not accepted.
How many winners there'll be.
How the winners are picked.
How many judges, and who they are-
Or when the voting period will begin.

If in the case of judges, those judges, out of fairness, will not be allowed to enter the contest. If it's done by a vote, then anyone can enter as long as the rules are followed.

The most recent skeleton for a contests, and if someone wants to do a contest they'd have to have at least filled it out before it could be considered, if it's not already underway.

Code:

[u][b]Title[/b][/u] [u][b]Contest Starts[/b][/u] [u][b]Contest Stops[/b][/u] [u][b]Entry Limit[/b][/u] [u][b]Categories[/b][/u] [u][b]Winners[/b][/u] [u][b]Judges[/b][/u] [u][b]Voting Period[/b][/u] [u][b]Accepted[/b][/u] [u][b]Declined[/b][/u]

As an example:

Example :Title
Month Day, Year (mm/dd/yyyy) :Contest Starts
Month Day, Year (mm/dd/yyyy) :Contest Stops
How many times can you enter the contest, or is it unlimited? :Entry Limit
Beginner, Advanced, etc. If none, delete. :Categories
Only one or First, Second, and Third :Winners
So and so :Judges
OR If no judges, the voting.
Month Day, Year (mm/dd/yyyy) :Voting Period

What's accepted to do :Accepted
What's not accepted :Declined

And a real example


Title: Cookies
Contest Starts: 1/1/1111
Contest Stops: 1/2/1111
Entry Limit: 2
Winners: First, second and third. Only First, but the rest are most honorable mentions.
Voting Period: 1/3/1111

Accepted:Works made my the user in full.
Declined: Any copyrighted material that the user didn't make themselves.

Current contests will be stickied to top or shown off as an announcement, depending on the higher priority contest.

They'll be here so people can look back on them for reminiscing purposes