Why a competition has no Entries or Leaderboard tab yet

Where is the Entries tab on this competition? Another competition has one and this one does not.

The Entries and Leaderboard links are not missing, and nothing is broken. They are drawn only once a competition reaches the point in its own schedule where entries become public, so for most of a competition's life neither one exists. Another competition showing them means that one is further along, not that it is set up differently.

Two conditions have to be met before either link appears:

  1. The competition has at least one entry. A competition with none never shows either link, including after it has closed.
  2. Its shortlist date or its results date has passed. The shortlist date is read first, and whenever it has not passed, including when there is no shortlist date at all, the results date is read as well. Either one being behind you is enough.

Both, not either. Until then the links are absent from the left sidebar on a wide screen and from the tab strip on a narrow one.

The rule runs off the competition's own dates

This is not a switch an organizer flips, and it is not a decision made per competition. It reads the dates published on the competition itself, so you can work out when the links will appear by reading its schedule. Open the competition and find its timeline: whichever of the Shortlist and Result dates passes first is the one that brings the links out.

A competition still taking entries is therefore always going to look like this. Keeping entries closed during the submission window is what keeps judging fair, so it is deliberate.

A few competitions open their entries early

UNI can open the entries list on a competition before its shortlist date. Where that has been done, the Entries link appears in the left sidebar as soon as the competition has entries. It is arranged with UNI rather than being something an organizer can turn on, and it is uncommon.

The Leaderboard link has no early option and always waits for the date. On a narrow screen, where the sections run as tabs across the top rather than as a sidebar, both follow the dates.

The address still resolves

If you saved the entries address for a competition, it still opens. The tabs are a navigation rule rather than a lock on the page, so an old bookmark will not fail. What is actually listed on it follows the entry visibility rules, which is a separate question covered in Entry not showing publicly.

Where to look at your own entry meanwhile

You do not have to wait for the public list to check your own work.

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