I have heard we should find out this coming Monday.
Certainly!
Yup!!! 
RULES. There HAS to be some form of rules somewhere? No one seems to know whether its acceptable to use UE4 marketplac content or other outside sources to populate your mod, or whether all content entered is expected to be user created and will be judged as such. It’s hard to sit here and put so much time into creating your own content then have someone simply download files elsewhere or resubmit an old mod that won previously and get the placement. If there were a formal layout of the rules it would be known what to expect and what we can or cannot do to build our mods.
I assume downloaded/bought content is ok but don’t take my word for it. About the issue you are raising:
This content is not about how much love or work you put in creation of an asset or how complex and mindblowing your script is. It really is about what you make with whatever you have in ARK. It’s about the end result and how much gameplay value you created and added. I assume you also do not judge a game you buy by how much work hours they put in or which engine they used and how compatible the technology was towards their idea. Instead you judge the end product and the experience that got delivered. Please bear in mind that this is just my interpretation of the issue and Wildcard might see it different. Concerning your thought about previously existing Mods I would assume that they will judge the difference of what happened between the last submission and the current state.
I am not an artist but this sounds like you are creating an asset. My advice would be that you don’t care too much about how insanely epic and next-gen your asset looks but instead focus more on how much it adds to the experience.
If find it quite unfair to everyone using this forum to plaster this everywhere. You made a thread, no need to spam every other thread with this.
I’m just trying my best to get in touch with the devs as ive been emailing and posting for a year to no avail but they only seem to selectively answer certain modders. This time i really need to talk with one caz this bug is not something i can hope to figure out alone and with every delay in getting it fixed, because the people using it are asking and really want it fixed soon caz ultimately the users of the mod suffer.
The accusations you make of almost-elitism, and favouritism by the Dev’s is almost certainly not going to get you anywhere either. I submitted a bug related to UI’s, with EPIC’s fix included, in PM to (the only one who uses the Wildcard account I think) and it took two and a half months before he noticed/realised it was there.
They can’t take that much time out of their work to answer questions here, but if you’d paid attention you’d have known about the Technical Liaison for modders and expansion of support in such things coming within a week or something like that.
-WM
Really? I know they were looking for a guy but hiring is normally nothing that happens within weeks. Hope you are right. 
At least they announced with the last update that the Mod Liason would be introduced this week
Back on topic, I definitely think the mods that rip off modders 1:1 should not be allowed in the contest. Having people that can benefit financially from your original ideas and hard work is a scam, and its pretty sad its being allowed to go on already in the workshop. I would really hate to see a lot of dedicated hardworking modders leave the modding community because others want to take their ideas and benefit.
This is probably the best post i’ve ever seen. Nothing is worse than scrolling through 10 workshop pages of stacking, drop, and level cap mods…
It has gotten to the point where I don’t want to post any more of my code because it is just going to get stolen and ripped off for someone else to take donations COUGH COUGH SPEZZ COUGH COUGH
Yeah its just sad to see those few big mods like Aku Shima, Ark Advance, and more to all have the same if not similar items whenever the other one adds it in just so that they can be comparable… I’ll be the first to admit my mod stemmed out of what Davetiger has to offer in his mod, but he has since completely recreated his mod, and I have taken an entirely different route with mine as well thus they are both “trade” mods, but both model completely different builds and styles.
lol funny how my name’s always coming out ur mouth when i dont say anything to u i didnt steal any of ur ideas nor ur meshes nor ur code i created my own meshes and the code for most of the BPs are in ark and are owned by ARK not u so for u to sit there and state that im stealing ur ideas or mod is pathetic i haven not stolen anyones mod or idea all i have done like all other modder is taking a File that is own by ARK (Wildcard Studios) and modified it which is called modding.
And to be honest i think your just jealous u need to keep to yourself and keep my name out of conversations especially on these forums and Steam forums i already reported your for harrassing me on Steam after i told you to stop and you didnt, don’t make me report you on here for harrassing me on here too
Thank you and have a nice day
lol, jealous? of what? making mods that crash servers? nah im good. Ill stick with my quality mods. Go ahead and report me. I didn’t come looking for you in this thread, you just responded. You have brought yourself into this. Posting to let people know not to support a thief is not harassment, its a public announcement to avoid people like you. Id love to see who wins that battle. Every item that I even come close to replicating an idea, and still put my own twist on, I give CREDIT back to the original developer with the idea, and I sure as hell don’t take donations for it. I havent even taken donations for ORP, which I challenge you to reproduce.
let me make a list for you and everyone else on stuff you have stolen
Reusable Vertical, Straight, Intersection, Incline Cables and Outlet/Juction box
Reusable Refrigerator
Kibble Cooker
Reusable Vault (250 Slot)
Reusable Wall-Mount Valt(100 slot)
X-Dart (Dose 2150 with Regular Primitive long neck rifle.
Behemoth Wood, Stone, Metal Walls
Glass Wall, Pillar, Foundation, Doorway, Door, Ceiling, Stairs, Slope Roof, Straight and Slanted Railings
Electric Smoker (This is one of my ideas you supposedly didn’t steal, just cause you call it something different doesn’t mean it isnt the same thing)
Electric Stove!
Advance Armor Storage
Advance Weapon Storage
Advance Feeding Trough (Refrigerated)
Reinforce Wood Tier (Wall, Fondation, Ceiling, Doorway, Door, Window Frame, Window, Hatch Frame, Hatch Door, Slope Wall, Slope Roof, Ramp)
Reinforced wood left Curve Stairs
Reinforced wood right Curve Stairs
Reinforced wood Half Stairs
Reinforced wood Full Stairs
Better Wooden Fence (NC ripoff)
Better Wooden Fence Doorframe (NC ripoff)
Better Wooden Fence Door (NC ripoff)
Better Stone Fence (NC ripoff)
Better Metal Fence(NC ripoff)
Better Metal Fence Spikes(NC ripoff)
Advance Impact Crusher (Makes Sparkpowder, Cementing Paste, & GunPowder x10. Stimulant, Narcotics, & Bug Repellant 5x. Turn Prime Raw Meat into Raw Meat 10x.)
X-Dart 30cc (takes 4 shots to take down level 150 T-Rex dose Zero Damage) HOW CUTE! you didnt even change the cc ratings! BUT ITS NOT STOLEN?>
X-Dart 10cc (takes 8 shots to take down level 150 T-Rex dose Zero Damage Half the materials Cost) HOW CUTE! you didnt even change the cc ratings! BUT ITS NOT STOLEN?
This is the majority of your mod, which is going into the contest, which is absolutely disrespectful to the original modders, and REAL modders in general.
PLEASE PLEASE, I would love to hear your come back as to how these are your original ideas. I think the forums would love the laugh as well. Everyone here knows who has unique work here, and you are not one of those persons.
Im done with you dude. If this doesn’t bring to light the **** you are pulling, i dont know what will, and i have enough on my plate to deal with. Its just sad that people like you are the reason why a lot of us don’t post our code anymore. Good job.
NC ripp off i was giving the files from better fences mods i even have a email stating he gave me his files as well as anything else that from another mod again u dont own anything which u have modified i came on here and point u out cause u keep on writing my name all over these forum accusing me of stealing ur stuff like i told u before and i im telling u again leave me alone i already reported for harassment have a good one loser
well spezz though its unavoidable some ideas are bound to be similar, at least you shouldnt advertise and be making false claims on another’s mod that its broken or worse than yours, that kind of behaviour wont win you any approvals surely.
I have never made any false claims about anything nor did I advertise on anyone’s mod page saying there mod is broken
You both get a room or use PM. People will steal or iterate on others ideas. There is no way to prevent that. And I mean that by not even judging about it in any form. Yes I don’t like pure copying but taking an idea and making something better out of it? **** yeah, progress is always good. Having that said I dont know a single Mod you guys talking about. And tbh: A mod that is easily copyable is probably not winning anyway. Just in case you argument was just triggered by the contest. Non of the last winners/nominated could get just copied.
The only way to protect your stuff is to be better than the copycats. So be the **** better! 
P.S.: For real EPIC? Language filter?! …