Couple of thoughts @ contests. Pet peeve reference at the end is fleeting and sarcasm icon applies
We may want to make a new rule that only one third of the entries ought to go into the finals.With fewer entries now a given there have been times where every other photo or so was in the finals. (We've had only one full set of 30 entries in over a year, I think)I think 10 finalists when there were 20 or so submissions dulls the excitement of the contests.
Host determines how many at the start of the contest, once submissions are closed.
You are discouraged from voting for yourself (honor system, LOL)
yet if you are a photographer, especially one with an entry, you have a moral obligation to cast a vote.
and after your vote
ask Skinner nicely, but in a public message, to make the polls anonymous. Once a month, right after you vote.
And a question to the many photographers who are no longer submitting:
WHY? What is YOUR reason?
And how can we lure you back to join in again.
= new reply since forum marked as read
first ten entries are the contest. No prelims. 
I think I got my first photo in one of those because I was ready and waiting when they posted the thread. They filled up fast but had to be easier to host.
Sometimes there are more entries sometimes less. Lives get busy, people move on. Some of the most active contestants are no longer on DU at all, not just quiet on the contest front. An "easy" theme will get more entries than a "harder" theme even if we might learn more from the so called harder theme.
On the polls, I doubt it is changing any time soon if ever. That is and has been up to the admins of the site. They might miss the contest if we stop holding it, they might not. I always looked at the contest as a way to spread joy and let others know we are here. I got to learn a lot in the meantime so really don't having a problem with it either way. Honestly I tend to forgot you can even look unless it is brought up.
Why haven't I joined many contest. Life has been a roller-coaster of extremes and if I have had the time I haven't really had the energy. What I have taken the time to do is look at the photos others are posting at the end of the day so I can fall a sleep with something good as the last thing I see each night. For that bit of sanity I owe the group a very big, from the heart thank you.
Oh and these days watching a police department trying their hardest to spread rioting nationwide. No one can be that incompetent and still have a job so it has to be on purpose.
Now off to bed because I am stealing an almost 7 year old and riding a steam train train tomorrow so she can escape her life a while before school starts back up.
and thanks for calming me down.
I never knew the first contests were 10 photos and no finals. Interesting. It may well be a way to re-visit doing them if entries continue to dwindle.
Mostly though your words help me put the issue back to bed. I like things to be well oiled, and well handled and I never ever like it when hard working folks like the photographers are ignored, those are only a few of my idiotsyncracies...
We go back to having fun, learning, making the best of things with what we have, and pay attention to what's really important.
year of ups and downs for a lot of people. 
I have here to remind me there really is more good than bad in the world and sometimes I really need the reminder.
.
but summers are a busy time for me, so photo contests get left behind.
I don't agree about the "cannot vote for yourself" rule. I vote for the best photos. If that ends up being mine, that is just a sad commentary on the rest of you! 
While I don't mind the polls not being anonymous, I understand the concerns of others. I am too lazy to look up who the photographers are in the submission posts when voting in the polls. Since it is a photography contest, not a popularity contest, I certainly would not vote for a friend if his/her work was not deserving of the vote.
It is a little disappointing when the contests do not get the full thirty submissions, but that is how it goes sometimes.
