If anyone is ever stumped or unsure of a theme, by all means send me a PM and I will help you with the concepts and give you some general ideas. If anyone has ideas for themes (SFW only), send them to me.
The lack of a solid idea is not the only reason someone won't enter. One of the rule changes I implemented was allowing the contest moderators to enter the Monthly Challenge when there are less than two entries (we are normally excluded from the Monthly Challenge and Photo of the Month). In this case, I had two ideas, but didn't have time to set up something by the time I realized we probably weren't going to make it. Lessons learned - shoot something at the start and hold it aside, just in case.
I will probably keep it bi-monthly for a little while. If the participation is consistent we can go back to monthly, which is my desire.
I will admit--and this is my opinion..but voting could have been more spread out if people took more time to look at composition and lighting first instead of just IQ.
I'm sorry, but I'm not sure of what you mean when you refer to voting. Do you think the voting needs to be longer than 168 hours / seven days?
I'm also not sure why darkblue feels that people are judging solely on IQ. There is no discussion or critique, so really, one would have to be a mind reader to know how people are choosing the photo they want to vote for. As for me, I look at any number of things, including the very intangible, 'How does it hit me?' In general, IQ is fairly low on my list and only enters the equation if it is so poor that it interferes with my enjoyment of the image.
I think that there are a lot of good intentions when the contests are announced, and then as the weeks go by, there's a lot of life that gets in the way. I think one strategy could be to promote/bump the thread more frequently in the first week to catch people when their attention is still on those ideas or intentions, and then again towards the end to light fires under our asses
As for this month, with the holidays coming up, I do believe it's wise to keep it a two-month theme. There's a whole lot more life thrown at us at this time of year, so even with regular bumps right in the head, it may be hard for people to get something together. Then see how it goes.
Now watch, there's going to be a veritable flood of entries before the end of the year