Fordman, I definitely respect your choice to abstain from entering. I'd probably do the same in your shoes.
I fully agree with you about that Lobo. Though I support any Contest Moderator entering a 'vote-selected' contest, I too, would not participate. No different from the last Story Contest when I had thought of submitting a story I had already sent to Gromet (though it had not yet been published) until Fordman posted rules stating that it was not allowed. This posting had not been aimed at me as I had not mentioned that that was my intention. Later, he retracted that rule but I still wrote a different story to fall within the original posted rules.
Besides, if Mods hadn't been allowed to enter the last contest, the votes might have been hard to tally to select a winner from the remaining ONE story. Here's hoping there'll be more to choose from this time around.
Oh, that is so true, so funny, and, tragically sad.
However, my initial point was about 'Contest Moderator's' being able to enter the contest. Being that they are the ones essentially
running the contest. It was never a question of whether Admins or Mods or Owner's of the Plaza, for that matter, in question as being able to enter. Or, like you said; oh too sadly; the counts of the votes would have been much harder to determine (he says with jest).