Best New Poets, Most Confusing Deadline

I have an undergraduate student this year whose work is playful, lyrical and surprisingly tender, given its edgy nature. So I thought I would nominate him for the Best New Poets Anthology. Apparently, it's not as easy as one would hope.

On their website, they offer the following information:
Best New Poets is an annual anthology of 50 poems from emerging writers. This year's guest editor is Mark Strand, and he will select 50 poems from from nominations made by literary magazines and writing programs, as well as an Open Internet Competition. All poems are submitted online through ManuscriptHub.com. That system will begin taking entries for Best New Poets 2008 between April 15 and June 5, 2008.
Each February, we contact writing programs and literary magazines with instructions on how to nominate their writers. By April 15, we contact the nominated poets and ask them to upload their work. So, if you've just had a poem published in a magazine or are enrolled in a creative writing program, you might consider asking them to nominate you.
However, there's also the Open Internet Competition, which is open to all writers who have not published a book-length collection of poetry, and takes nominations from April 15 to June 5 each spring/summer. Unlike the magazine and program nominations, the Open Competition requires a reading fee of $3.50. Click here for details.
Since I teach in a creative writing program, I figured there'd be some form on the website that would allow me to nominate the student. The form turned out, instead, to be designed to only take entries for the "Open Competition" (meaning: pay customers only). Once I saw that I was using the wrong form, I aborted the operation and wrote an email to Meridian, the magazine which seems to sponsor the anthology.
Well, I didn't receive a response from Meridian, but meanwhile I received a very polite note from somebody named either "James" or "Jeb" at ManuscriptHub.com:

Our system shows you tried to submit work to Best New Poets 2008, but did not quite complete the transaction--it is still unpaid.
We hope this e-mail does not come across the wrong way. If you've decided not to enter, we aren't trying to change your mind.
However, sometimes a writer forgets to pay or their credit card charge does not go through. If this is the case and you want to
submit payment again, do this:
- Log back into manuscripthub.com
- Click on the blue "Unpaid Submissions" link in the upper-left-hand corner
- Click the gray "Pay Now" button.
If you've decided not to enter, you can delete the entry this way:
- Log back into manuscripthub.com
- Click on the blue "Unpaid Submissions" link in the upper-left-hand corner
- Click on the "Cancel" checkbox and then click "Cancel"
(or you can do nothing and we'll delete the entry for you in a few weeks).
J.L.
I wrote back (politely, too, I thought) that I teach in a creative writing program and that I was trying to nominate a student. I received the following response:
I'm sorry, but the deadline for program/magazine nominations was April 15, 2008. I've already solicited all the nominees and provided them with instructions on how to do their free upload.
I went back and looked at their homepage. No where does it say that the deadline for nominations is April 15th. In fact, it says "takes nominations from April 15 to June 5 each spring/summer." Granted, the homepage does say that it contacts nominated poets by April 15th, but that's not quite the same as saying that April 15th is the deadline for nominations. It turns out that that particular bit of information is on a separate page. In order to get to that page, you need to click on a link that says "Writing Programs" (which may not be very intuitive—I ignored that particular link, thinking "I'm not looking for information on Writing Programs"). Maybe the link could have been labeled "Nomination Form" or something that would make it a little clearer. If you click instead on the link called "Eligibility," you'll get the "Open Competition" form (the one that asks you for money). And if you click on the "FAQ" page, you'll get no information to help you make a nomination—the assumption seems to be that only folks interested in the "Open Competition" are the ones who are frequently asking questions.
Poetry competitions are always undergoing scrutiny from various critics. It would be nice if the deadlines and the nomination instructions on this one were made clearer.