I like the idea of everyone having a crack at the same target, especially if the target is not something everyone is imaging (like M8 at the moment).
But I don't see why it needs to be a competition...?
As a noob myself I think I'd like the challenge of having a set target and seeing how well I could image it with my gear. Of course we all have different gear so I'd be much happier going for a "personal best" each month than "how does mine compare to the people with 10 times more experience and money invested". One thing I love seeing on IIS is how different people treat/process their images, not just interesting NB palettes, with the many small creative choices that go into how the data is finally represented.
