ETA: Also, Dust to Dust is back as a mainlister and is rated positively now.

SCP-3000 - Knowing / 3000conteststerbai, SCP-3000 is the designation for an effect or entity/entities of unknown nature, which currently is believed to reside or originate from somewhere in the upper atmosphere levels of the Earth. The existence of the effect/being(s) is only known from a few singular incidents, the most prominent one involving the International Space Station. More information about this incident, designated SCP-3000/1, is found below. Other incidents involved isolated shuttles and other off-earth missions, -13 and three staff votes.

Dated 12 April

SCP-3000: Starstruck / scp3000contestinhumanyhoughts, SCP-3000-A is comprised of nine (9) meteorites, when an SCP-3000-A instance is heated up to ten (10) Celsius it will begin to generate an orange fluid, the fluid is mostly comprised of stem-cells, human blood, spinal fluid, and stomach acid. Testing has shown that the fluids contains biologically impossible genetic sequences, such as A-C and G-T, -16 and three staff votes.

Dated 13 April

SCP-3000: Dust to Dust / 3000contestthebillith, SCP-3000 is a dilapidated two (2) story house located approximately █ miles outside of ██████ █████, Oregon. No known records of the construction or ownership of 3000 exist at this time (See Addendum 3000-1-A). Despite the degrading architecture, the house is sealed completely, and all attempts to break or peer through the windows have failed, -15 and three staff votes.

Dated 13 April

• Newer user posts undercooked article as contest entry
• Recieves negative votes, is in deletion range
• Article remains after posting period ends as major edits would disqualify the entry
• Article is left up anyway and reaches below -50 or even -100 in downvotes, garnering more unneeded attention and comments from other users:
  • "Wow, truly the most downvoted work I've ever seen. Well done author."

I thought the inclusion of standard deletion in this contest was a response to that, actually. Regular members will already delete their own article if it drops past a threshold, so I think we should do the same for contest entries.

It's unfair to delete things the authors can't edit, even if it's part of the rules.

True, but leaving up the entries that fell in the negatives ended up creating some messy downvote dogpiles for a few 2000 contest entries, if I recall correctly. Given that it's been made clear that a contest entry cannot be edited past a certain date, I think it's fair to apply standard deletion if it means preventing build-up of shitposts/overtly harsh critique aiming for an easy target.

I mean, the current rules are rather vague on that front.

Q: Can entries in the negatives be deleted before the contest is up?

By "the contest is up", does that mean the end of the posting period or the overall end of the contest?

You can note entries here if you want, or not. Hell save the source and post it on the contest discussion page if you want, but they should be going through the normal deletion process (and, I should note, several entries already have went through the process and are gone already).

I have since been informed that contest entries are not subject to deletion votes until the conclusion of the contest.

This strikes me as off, since there have been many 3000 entries that were in deletion range and were deleted during the period where entries are posted. Looking at the contest rules,

Q: Can entries in the negatives be deleted before the contest is up?
A: Yes, entries can and will be deleted as normal. Staff will delete any that have been up for 24 hours and have fallen to -10. Staff will intervene in cases of suspicious downvoting.

It seems to suggest that contest entries will still be deleted as per normal. That being said, it can just be that the normal deletion process is applicable during the posting period and deletion does not occur during the voting period.