I'm afraid it really does depend on who's hosting it. There's a lot of nasty politics out there -- in Lit, too -- and often I think 'there's no point in entering that,' because I'm not one of "the old lot" as you call them!

(I've had totally (and I mean totally) unprovoked nastiness (and I really do mean nastiness) from ^GeneratingHype for example (hard to believe, but true), for commenting on a very old thread of his -- just because it was a very old thread. I feel like, if you end up with one Lit senior against you, you're screwed in this community... : ( Therefore, I enter very few Lit contests : ( )