Website Judging Misinformation

[zim2411]

I skimmed around this forum, and there's a lot of incorrect information regarding when and how websites are judged.

1. There are no 'snapshots' of the site that take place at the submission deadline. The sites are judged live.
2. Since there is no snapshot, you should submit the URL to your site as early as you can. There's no point in waiting and accidentally missing the deadline.
3. A bare minimum of 3 evaluations per site are required, ideally 5+.
4. The main evaluations usually take place 2-3 weeks before the regional. (But can start as early as the URL submission deadline) The absolute deadline for evaluations is the Monday night of the week of the regional.
5. Judges may evaluate at any time in this time window. They may perform a main evaluation a week or two out, and in the last day or two skim the site and see if anything major has changed.
6. The evaluations are not set in stone until midnight on Monday night. (This may differ on some regionals that are offset, not sure)

That being said, here are some do's and don'ts:

• Do NOT count on your website being graded as late as possible.
• Do NOT make huge, major changes to your site in the last possible days. (Don't do a major relaunch or something like that) Chances are, judges have already looked at your site earlier, and will not appreciate the increased work.
• Do update your site with content. If you attended an early regional, absolutely post your results
• Do make sure broken links are fixed, and that the site works well

I hope this helps clear up some of the (incorrect) rumors that have been posted in some of the threads. Let me know if you have questions (here or in PM if you want).