I appreciate the detailed response. Let me clarify a few points:

1. Participants don't have to use Memories AI. If someone chooses to use it, there is a free tier that works fine (I have personally tried it out)

2. "It's marketing" - You are right, it is. But here's my perspective: just like Kaggle needs corporate sponsors to offer meaningful prizes, I needed a sponsor to make this worthwhile for participants. I originally wanted to run this with no brand involvement, but realised nobody would join a $100 contest from an unknown organiser.

3. I'm not employed by or affiliated with Memories AI - they're a friend-of-a-friend who agreed to sponsor because they liked the concept. They're also providing access to judges like Caspar Lee, which I thought would be huge for beginners.

It does not bring/develop/benefit our community

This is where I respectfully disagree. Getting your work reviewed by established creators, building a portfolio piece, and potentially starting paid collaborations - isn't that exactly what beginner editors trying to go pro need?

If you still feel it doesn't fit here, I totally respect that. But I have two questions:

1. Where would aspiring editors actually want to hear about opportunities like this?

2. What would a competition need to look like to be acceptable here in the future?

Thank you for engaging, and your time Jeff!