This site is completely based on volunteer work. Same goes for the competition, which is why dates and years depend very much on staff availability. We are understaffed in general, which is part of the reason why the competition was extended to the full month this year. I for instance just returned here today after a couple of weeks offline.
Last year the site was offline until the very end of July, so the competition wasn't even announced (other than on the intro screen which is a permanent entry). There was no time for preparation. The very reason for why it was down was because, again, there was no staff available to maintain the site at that level and to react to issues.
Besides, contributions are usually sent by email using the online form found on the competition site. They are not disclosed that way.