Welcome to CYS! You seem wholesome and enthusiastic and are able to form sentences in English, I don't foresee you having any trouble here.
I think Zake pretty much covered your questions, we do try to space out the contests a little, people get burned out on them etc and some members find them a distraction from their own projects. But smaller unofficial events can occur and will be posted in the Creative Corner if so.
As for Family Friendly...that's a good question actually, that could probably be a whole topic on its own.
Creatures of the Snow and
The Butter Bear were obviously written for very different audiences for instance.
A lot of it boils down to how the material is presented, but it's my opinion that avid readers by age ten or so can handle more mature or complex themes just fine. But obviously there are those who feel differently, and then a whole nother layer of liability and ass covering that must be considered, if for instance someone was a teacher trying to select material for other people's kids, or similar.
We try to stay away from hard rules and stick to guidelines and common sense whenever possible though.
