Fortnightly Competition - Do we want it?

Thanks John,

I'll give them a go.

Regards
Carl

--Lowers periscope, Returns to lurk mode.--

I’ll try to piece together a run down for the pilot in July aimed at new people to the Forum/Competitions. Can people point out any errors or omissions?


Monthly Competition rules:

This monthly competition is designed to encourage forum members to go out and capture new images relating to a set theme. The following rules apply:

1. Each monthly competition will start from the time and date that the theme is posted by the previous winner. (In ideal circumstances the first day of the calendar month)
2. Deadline for submission of entries is 24.00 (midnight) on the last day of the calendar month. GMT and BST will be allowed for.
3. All entries must be images taken within the running time of the current competition using Pentax related equipment.
4. Full Exif data should be supplied with each image, including date/time of capture.
5. The competition will be held in the Gallery> Competitions section
6. Images cannot be replaced or altered after initial posting.
7. A discussion thread on the competition will be started in the "Competitions" forum. Images should not be discussed in the Gallery
8. The competition winner will select winning entries 1-3 (and award ‘Highly Commended’s, if so desired), and post the results as soon as possible after the finishing deadline (though this will partly depend on time zone).
9. The latest winner will select the next theme taking into consideration its practicality for all potential entrants (e.g. don’t select ‘Winter’ when it’s summer down under), and will initiate the new competition as soon as possible after the previous results have been posted.

Background Information
Pentax related equipment indicates a Pentax camera of any format plus Samsung cameras considered as rebadged Pentax models.(sorry I don’t have a list) Third party lenses and accessories are allowed. At this time Ricoh cameras are not allowed.
Exif Data is normally transferred with the image when it is uploaded into the gallery. However on occasion’s image editing software may prevent this. In which case the data can be typed into the Description of the image. As well as date and time of capture, camera body, lens model, focal length, f stop, Shutter speed, ISO are of interest. This will also apply to Scanned film images.
Rule 6 It should be noted that this is not allowed by the forum software. You are only allowed one upload per competition hence even if you delete an image you can not reload it.
Discussion thread normally started by the judge and for general discussion about the theme and entries. By convention, judges have normally excluded themselves from the thread once the first entry has been posted.
Judging there are no rules for judging, apart from selecting 1, 2 and3. The basis for making a selection is down to personal preference. However it has become common practise to offer a short comment on each of the entries.




How to enter
From the “Gallery” drop menu down select “Competitions”
Under “Current Competition” select the required competition by clicking on the appropriate red title.
Click on “Enter Competition”
Click on “Browse”. Follow the path to your Image. Select and click Open.
Enter Photo Information.
Click on “Upload Photo”

Well done Barrie, can't spot anything on a read through.

Thanks!

That's clearer now and looks to have covered everything. Well done.

John

I have followed this with interest as I used to enter the fortnightly from its inception.

With a month only the very foolhardy would submit in the first two or three weeks - in case a better shot/opportunity came along. Therefore, there is the risk that you procrastinate and leave it all just for a few days more and towards the end of the month realise that the deadline is racing towards you, you have nothing and there is a dearth of opportunity.

This may also lead to a total lack of images for 3 weeks which will make it look like the competition is a flop to any drive by viewers.

With a fortnightly deadline you daren't think that way and need to get thinking from the very start and also you get more topics so you can miss one that doesn't suit - for example for me wildlife I would simply ignore.

That said I wish you every luck with the new format.

Mike

All you say is possible. However I think the starting point was a Fortnightly Competition generating very low interest and something different is worth trying.

Do your good wishes imply that you would not consider an entry with the new format?

I barely post here any more although I lurk to get valuable snippets of info. So, no I doubt that I would enter and I don't like the gallery anyway although I couldn't tell you why! I thought I would just offer some thoughts based on experience. I think to be successful you need it to be ideally exciting, at least interesting and I fear a monthly format like this will lead to nothing seeming to happen for a long time which won't engender interest in non regulars.

Mike

What do you think would add some excitement or interest to get you personally entering.

Barrie,
You said in Rule 6 that the site software prevented a deletion and then a re-upload, but I think I did that on the last weekly comp. I inadvertently uploaded a picture of a seagull when I meant to upload a tanker. Spotted my mistake right away and deleted one and uploaded the other. Perhaps John could confirm that Rule 6 does operate as you say.

Frankie
Unless you were very quick or very lucky, but normally the system would not allow that. I remember some newcomers falling foul and asking about it.

Nothing will induce me to enter personally as it's something I did, enjoyed and sort shuffled away from.

The exciting bit for me is seeing the other entrant's images as they are posted and my fear is that with a month that will only happen towards the last week for the reasons I gave above.

One way round this might be to create a forum thread where you put up your candidate entries to show how you're thinking and perhaps to inspire others.

But, no I doubt I will enter again - BTDT.

I don't think anything is ever planned but not done because of the fear it might not work. The current fortnightly isn't working spectacularly well, so what is there to lose? In any event, that could even continue when the monthly one starts, although that seems unlikely.

It seems a bold effort and I'll post the initial guidelines soon, with full credit to Barrie of course who has done all the detailed thinking.

In the meantime, please support the currrent weekly and fortnightly competitions!

To answer Frankie, you would need to be very quick to replace an entry in the Gallery. Once it's there. it's there.

I did this too last week with my 'Towers' picture. I accidently posted the wrong version, deleted that, and re-posted the correct one. There was, at the very least, several hours between the original post and the re-post and possibly as much as 12 hours or so.

There is still a 'delete' option on the picture now, though obviously I couldn't re-post now that the competition has been judged/closed. Up until the point that the competition closed I can't see that anything would have prevented me from doing this.

I'm not sure it's worth losing any sleep over rule 6, but if it is important, I don't think it's correct.

We will make sure there's no glitch in the system in due course, but a few minutes is the most that should be expected. If this wasn't the case, someone could change their image in the light of something better having come along and that would hardly be a fair competition tactic.

Are these open to all members or only those who pay?

Will