part one
The main work involved in running a Battle is the organization of the two main lists--the prompts and the master fic list. Here's a rough breakdown of the process I used when it was my turn to run things. Also, this is how it worked for Battles 1-4. We made some changes with 5, but it'll be up to the new maintainers if those changes stay.
Day -3 or -2 -- announce the dates of the next Battle, emphatically reminding everyone that they need to follow the prompt guidelines. This bit is pretty easy; we had a standard post we'd cut and paste in and then edit to change the dates. example: here.
Day 1 -- Call for prompts, again reminding people to follow the guidelines. This is also just a matter of editing and then cutting and pasting at standard post. Example: here.
Days 1-3 -- As the prompt comments hit my inbox, I'd take and paste them into a document. At this point, it would just be a jumble of raw prompts. Since I don't have a job, I could spread this out over a day, so it's hard to tell how much time was involved, but it wasn't much. It did require me to be really methodical and even then, I'd still miss things.
Day 3 -- If I remembered, I'd post to the comm, telling people that they had a few hours left to get prompts in. (Example: here.) At the end of my day (which was usually in the middle of the night), I'd edit the prompt post with an ETA announcing that the prompt period was over. I usually backed this up with a comment to the post so people who missed the ETA would see it when they went to add more prompts.
Day 3-4 -- Once the prompt post was closed or the next day, depending on the time, I'd take the prompt document and sort it alphabetically. Then I'd go in and start sectioning off each fandom. This is the point at which I'd weed out prompts that didn't conform to the rules. In the early Battles, we actually reconfigured incorrect prompts, but at the point where we were getting in excess of 1,500 prompts, it just became too much work. This usually took several hours, although it seems like it shouldn't. It's just kind of fussy and tedious. Then I'd check the list I had against the comments in the prompt post to make sure I had everything. Even so, sometimes stuff would slip past me; it happens.
Day 4 -- I'd post the lists of prompts. The first time we ran the Battle, they fit in one post, but somewhere along the line, we had to start splitting them. This is the reason we posted the lists off-site in the last Battle. If we hadn't done so, we'd have had to split the list into three posts. We used a standard header above the prompt list, reminding people of the fic guidelines. Example: here. This was a pretty quick process once the list was created and divided.
Day 4-11 -- I'd just keep an eye as best I could, on the fics that came in, making sure they were all top level comments. Usually if they weren't I'd try to say something to the poster, so they could repost properly. I only had to do that a few times.
Day 10 or 11 -- I'd usually try to make a post reminding people that the deadline was coming up.
Day 11 -- I'd add ETAs to the prompt list posts, telling people that the Battle was closed. I'd also comment on each post, so people who missed my ETA would know the Battle was over.
Day 11 or 12 -- I'd start the Master List of Fics, linking each prompt used to the top level comment that contained the fic. This is where I'd start to hate the process because it's fiddly and really time consuming, particularly because I needed to keep each fandom seperate and in alphabetical order. I honestly don't know how long this part took, but I want to say it was a matter of five or six hours including breaks to read my flist and some of the porn I'd missed.