So,
Basically dA has taught be how to NOT run a contest. They've been wholly inconsistent in the rules, they have no mechanic for feedback, they were expecting 500 entries and got 3800, (thats right, more than 7 times the number they were expecting) and did not extend the judging period. They were unforgiving in their own interpretation of ambiguous rules and did were inconsistent in their clarifications (no this is not allowed, but then it is, then many pieces were disqualified for it, then some of the semi-finalists broke the rules, then one of the semi-finalists was booted out of the line up for breaking the rule). Furthermore, they entirely ignored another rule of their own, or at least had some arcane interpretation of it. Apparently "Suitable for inclusion in Eve online" did not mean that designs had to conform to the established motif - I, personally, cannot think of another interpretation of that phrase.
I'm never joining another deviantArt contest, I urge you all to do the same.