I propose a rule:
Post processing is allowed but you have to say what you did.

So people are free to include the information in their voting decision and even have the possibility to learn good techniques.

+1 for that

Forgot to ask: is cropping then aloud too?

Of course cropping is and has always been allowed.

One other thing came to my mind in connection with Macros' suggestion - maybe it would be also useful to upload the original (I mean: the picture that was taken with the software itself) photo - a sort of before-after thingy... I'm not sure about this but maybe.. perhaps it would draw off attention from the original topic itself...

Hep

There is allready quite open rule:

"Users must name the phone they used (and sofware if not stock) "

...which i understand that everything with stock-software is allowed; cropping etc... ofcource there could be one line more "Post processing is allowed but you have to say what you did." <- and with what software? I think the software should be on camera?

"What say You?"

Silence means acceptance - rules edited...

Given that there's (usually) no tangible prize for these competitions and the whole point is to share and enjoy our cameraphone experiences with others, I don't think we need to be too uptight. Especially if one's shooting on a 10(!!!) year old N900 and needs to offload a little post-processing work that might be done automatically with the latest iphone camera s/w.

Sorry if I seem to sound too uptight about being uptight, I'd just like for everyone to have some fun sharing stuff that's fun to share.l

For me only thing needed with N900 is crop and brightnes/contrast. I think those will help a lot. And not being too serious and going only after win is my mindset.

Not necessarily. I can do it in total silence.

Depends on what you're cropping; if it happens to be your pinky while slicing veggies I doubt you can remain silent