I just don't think the contest is fun anymore if it's forced to be bi-weekly.
Perhaps not for you personally. But I don't think this is true for most people here. Each contest itself is still the same contest, despite being less often.
If I have to wait half an entire month just to see my screenshot, then I'm just going to post my shit in discord since then I don't have to wait 2 weeks to get minimal comments on my screens, I can get my minimal comments in about a day.
There is also the quest screenshot thread. People use it all the time and still submit the same shot (sometimes after a few tweaks) to SotW. It's possible to use those other locations as a starting point and then to use SotW as a sort of final critique if you wish. Sure you have to wait. I know that's not something that a lot of young people in the current age are used to doing much of, but it's part of life.
...the deadline gets me to hurry up and submit something; and I suspect many people are the same way.
Key empasis on "suspect" here. You are assuming that most people are just like you. If they were (at least in this regard), that would be fantastic, and we probably wouldn't be needing this conversation right now. With so many SotW's being delayed, it's clear to me that the weekly deadlines have not motivated people to submit enough. People have their reasons too. Busy with other stuff, lack of progress on their work, lack of confidence in their own screenshots (or at least recent ones), and you name it. Moreover, to some, it's just not important enough to them to hurry up or miss the opportunity, because they know there will be more opportunities in the future when they are finally ready to submit something.
Then you'll just use that as an excuse to kill off the contest entirely, because "clearly there isn't enough activity to sustain a biweekly contest"
Slippery slope fallacy. I'm not saying you're necessarily wrong, but one thing doesn't always lead to another. Sometimes you have to make a change with the hope that it will improve both the quality and the longevity of the contest. If it fails, then I think NoeL's point is made about keeping a dying contest on life support, meaning it wouldn't have been any different if we changed nothing anyway.
If ya'll really wanted to boost activity, why not post consistent reminders of approaching deadlines? That's something that the old method lacked; and it was only the inconsistent reminders that urged me to post something.
How are consistent reminders going to be any different than inconsistent ones? Both intend to get people to submit more, and I think both would fail for the same reason. Again, I don't think that people are as motived by deadlines as you think they are.
This change feels like you're just jumping on something when the contest was just in a bit of a dry spell.
I don't blame you for thinking that, due to our opaqueness on the matter until this thread was created. So guilty as charged there, and sorry for those who would have wanted to see staff thoughts before a decision was made (assuming transparency would include that sort of thing), of which I think a matter like this would have been at least somewhat manageable. It probably would have gone back and forth a lot though, like a city council meeting would. But old habits die hard I guess.
But staff have been discussing the matter for a while in private, and for some others, the writing has been on the wall for quite some time. Once a week of pestering people to submit noticably more often than not needing to do so is a sign that once a week is no longer sustainable as things are. Pestering people even more is just going to annoy people, even if done at consistent intervals. I wouldn't want to see that tireless burden on anybody who hosts SotW, unless they really like to do that sort of thing. Even a Dimentio hosting that arrangement would get tired of it eventually.