Here's how the "almost daily" contests (ADC's) work now that I've had a chance to see what I can expect.

Almost daily means that I don't have the time or the energy to come up with and grade entries every 24 hours. Also, if a contest only lasts one day, the number of entries will fall rapidly. Not may people come to these boards daily, even fewer have time to create an entry on such short notice. A weekly contest is too long for the simple tasks I'm planning on, so the timeframe of the "almost daily" contests will be between 2 and 4 days.

There will be three difficulty levels when I can manage it, but possibly not. A fourth skill level may be thrown in just for giggles too. The four levels will be thus:

Beginner: You've started learning C/C++, written a few programs, but for the most part see yourself as a newbie. You ask more questions than you answer.

Intermediate: You know your way around C/C++'s more commonly used features, have written a couple of nontrivial programs and don't ask as many question as you answer because you can either find the answer, or already know it.

Advanced: You consider yourself an expert in the language syntax and are comfortable with the idioms and tricks. You're most likely a professional or a talented amateur. You rarely ask questions and when you do, they typically only have one or maybe two replies because not many people know the answer.

l33t: You're a 1337 haX0r that can do anything and everything. Or you're anybody else that wants an odd challenge.

You aren't required to only submit entries for your skill level because that wouldn't be fun.

Entries will be graded on four categories unless explicitly stated otherwise:

Correctness: 0-10
Speed: 0-10
Elegance: 0-10
Portability: 0-10

The first ADC will be graded on these four even though I said otherwise in the task descriptions. My mistake, I was still getting a feel for grading entries.

In the event that there are two winning entries, the one that was submitted first will take the prize. In extraordinary cases, a category may be given a score higher than 10. This indicates a truly wonderful entry, whether it be far faster than expected, or a work of art in elegance.

All entries will be posted for everyone to see and reviewed by the judge or judges. If you don't like your code shredded to ribbons, it's recommended that you get a program like lint or don't participate. However, having harsh code reviews can be very beneficial, so I hope that everyone can tolerate my pedanticism.

ADC's will not overlap. This saves me the confusion. So the next ADC will come out a short time after the previous one, depending on how long it takes me to develop the tasks.

Finally, suggestions are most welcome. If you have a task suggestion, PM me with it.

[Note]
This post will be edited as I solidify what the ADC is and does.
[/Note]