<bats and blinks big Newbie eyes> Like Iron Chef, only you serve up really strange code, instead of squid ink icecream </bats and blinks big Newbie eyes>
Anyway, I'd be willing to give IM 10 a go if it was clear there was enough modder interest, but it's pretty clear that we'd have to count on a new breed of entrant to make up the numbers, since most of the evergreen IM competitors are ranging from semi-retired to missing entirely.
Anyway, the problem with "battle of the boards" is that I think it's always been implied that, if you were interested in that sort of thing, one could use an IM victory as a "hooray for our side" achievement if so inclined. So I'm really not convinced that it's going to reverse the dire participation trend. Ditto judging gimmickery, because the Dawg-monitored contest didn't attract the extra attention I hoped for.
Is Iron Modder advertised at different forums? Because if it isn't, this would be a good way to entice more participants. They could represent their forum if they wanted too, or participate as individuals. I can see 'Contest Of The Giants' adding a zing to the competition. I think it's a good idea.
NB: Namc is not a community. It is solely a site to access Cliffette's zippily humourous mods. No community-like behaviour occurs there at all.
I think the issues with IM were 1) encouraging the number of people who participated and 2) the shortage of entries that would install and function successfully when the four-hour design period was up.
It's an individual competition. It's about personal Iron Modder glory, not representing a forum of your choice, so when I'm competing, I want to pwn Ghreyfain, Sim, a monkey with a typewriter, *and* John Q. Modder from Forum X. <cue theme from "Backdraft."> Any plan that could restrict willing contestants and not maximize the potential for working entries to judge is probably not the best way to go to achieve invigoration of the modding spirit, raising Iron Modder to the heights of Mt. Fuji once more.