POTM Q: Should POTM winners not be allowed to enter the following month?

I think that in a forum structure there is always the chance of favouritism or the opposite.
What might be an idea is to have the entries shown without the photographers name until after voting is concluded.

 

Then how would they post on the forums?

 

I was thinking of a single thread generated each month by a mod, then users submit their entry via PM/email, and the mod updates the thread with the entry.
Once the votes are over the names are revealed, a bit like Scooby Doo

edit: this would of course require the pic to be hosted by bit

edit2: this would have a negative impact on feedback, so may not be a good idea.

 

I think the voting screen just needs remaking a bit. Display all of the photos on one page with nothing but a rating dropdown (or ajax stars or whatever) so that those likely to be influenced by the artists are less likely to have that influence present. If people are so intent on voting for their friends, they will. Big deal.

 

Running out of memory cards?
I think the prize should be offered to those in placing positions and, if they feel it's unnecessary and/or they've won several already, then they can politely decline. However, I do hope the participation by all parties continues to be for the fun, enjoyment, and learning (and kudos of winning) and not merely having the eyes on the prize, so to speak.

Dammit! I won the two months previous to prizes starting and haven't been in the top three since!

QFT! Can has teh momery card?

I seem to remember most people being quite excited in the announcement posts and most saying thank you. Maybe we should all be a bit more verbose?

I was really surprised to read this. Ok, I know a few people have won it more than once but I've never thought it that bad or sensed favouritism or resented anyone for keep winning it.

I trawled through the forum and site archives (as far as I could be arsed) and came up with the following (only showing winners, not all prize positions):
Nov: Green Apple
Dec: cancelled
Jan: Hwulex
Feb: Hwulex
Mar: Nath
Apr: TekMonkey
May: Coorz
Jun: Nath
Jul: Yoda
Aug: Nath
Sep: alastor
Oct: alastor

Yeah there's some repeat winners in there, so well done to them. Their photos have all been carefully considered and excellently executed so they deserve their wins. Do you hate Nath the most for winning three times?

Have you been voting every month? I know I haven't every month for various reasons, but my preferred shot will normally win, and if it's something else I won't feel aggrieved because I didn't use my vote to change things.

In the last ten months, there's been six different winners so I don't think it's that bad. If you widen that scope to all placing finishers I'm sure the ratio of winners:themes will increase, too.

QFT. I'm going to talk to Nath and Rich about perhaps collaborating on something.




Rich, to answer your original question; yes they should be able to enter the month following their win. And I don't think disallowing them will make much of a difference if you look at those stats above. The only people to have back to back wins are alastor for the last two months, and myself way back in Jan/Feb.

 

Thought I'd complete the list

Yeah, definite fix, Nath winning four times

 

I cant see why they shouldn't be allowed to enter in the next months competition, to me it seems to defeat the point of it all if you stop people from entering becuase they might win again. From competiting with people of a higher standard it makes me a better photographer.

Now if the winner decided that they had won the prize too much recently they could always donate it to a person they thought had tried hard but not won

it would be nice if we could make voting anonymous, but i think it would take too much away from the competition. I think its great that i can post my photo on the forum and get feedback and make adjustments before posting it to the POTM site.
I agree with the viewing of images on the POTM site, would be nice if we could have one page with all entries in thunbnail view on it with a drop down box/radio buttons under the photo so you can compare all the photos on one page (have the images clickable to a larger version).

but in general, keep the prizes and dont stop anyone entering

 

Damn, our compo has been running 18 months come December!

Woo - I just wasn't sure if people still were interested in what they were getting/had found them useful etc

 

Thats much more than what it feels.
Still feels 'new' to me!

 

Silly idea to not allow the previous winner to enter again. Simply set the rule that a consecutive win gets no prize but goes to the runner(s) up. We ain't in it just for the goodies are we?

 

Mmm... let's get together on this and work some PHP voodoo. We need a little micro-Flickr so people don't get bored halfway down the list and end up forgetting which ones they like the best and such. TBH, I can't imagine it being much more than an afternoon's worth of work to at least get something into a functional state. Ideally, I think, we'd have an all-entries-up sorted randomly voting screen, though if we start getting tons, we'd have to paginate things. I just don't like the idea of paginated voting since then the front page will likely get bias (hence the randomized sorting).

 

What happened to letting all forum users vote? I think that was a brilliant idea

 

I agree on the voting website. It should show all the entered shots, so that you can compare more easily.
I'm not sure on letting all forum users vote though.

L

wow, 18 months already?

 

We did try it but it fell apart because people got friends to vote etc. I'm willing to try again though if that's what people want? But this time see who's voted for who, so we don't get that.

 

I suppose that's a risk you take by playing the game, but I'd expect that members would be more inclined to try getting their friends to vote for them while there are prizes involved (even if they're small prizes). You also need to consider that a lot of people aren't going to vote (or even know they can) unless you front-page the "voting open" message every month in which case you're then going to get a TON of people voting, many of whom are going to vote only on the pretty factor rather than the technical aspects or how well it fits the theme.

Dunno. It could use a bit of tweaking either way, but there's no perfect solution to this by any stretch of the imagination.

 

Concerning having friends vote for your picture I have a hard time believing this to be so bad? But please enlighten me.

Which is exactly why I think it should be open To me a good photo isn't about technicalities. And I do believe you under-estimate the masses ability to know good from bad.

 

Sorry if it's been suggested but here is my thoughts:

1) Anyone can enter, regardless of previous performance
2) If in the previous month you won a prize, you are excluded for 1 month from prizes only

This should encourage more entries as even though the same group might win the top 3 places, it is still possible to win a prize.

Opinions?

 

I think what Firehed meant (and correct me if I'm wrong) is that he feels like the general community won't really be aware of the thematic element to the PotM contest (or simply won't care). Instead, a member may just pick the pretty photo of leaves, rather than giving thought to how that photo fits within that month's particular theme.

I've always wondered about how people approach their votes. Given two photos, do people put more weight toward the application of the theme. Are the artistic merits more important? Do people first consider the technical aspects, such as exposure and processing?

On a related note, how do people generally go about their submissions? Do people get an idea and attempt to execute it? Do people just sift through snapshots they've taken that month, trying to find one that remotely fits the theme? Do people just pick their favorite photo that month, and twist the theme so that it fits?

These questions are largely rhetorical. I'm not really looking for specific answers, just throwing out food for thought.

-monkey

 

I think it's fine as it is, if it's a good shot and people vote for it then you can't really argue. I think it would be kind of unfair to let someone who works as a semi-pro/pro photographer to win every week as most of us are just amatures doing it for fun.

Maybe if there was another prize for best point and shoot picture, seeing as the lesser experienced people will probably be using them and it's a bit harder to get really good images without manual settings etc.

 

Does anyone know off hand the professions of those who've won. If I recall correctly, the October contest winner was taken with a point-and-shoot camera.

Being a professional photographer won't guarantee a win. I have a 4-year degree in photography, I do photo-related work for a living, and I'm shooting with a Canon 40D. I haven't won any of the contests, and I've only cracked the top 3 once. Art is totally subjective. I might think that my photos are good, but the results speak for themselves.

-monkey