New Competition

I was wondering if anyone would be interested in a new forum competition. I understand that many people are unhappy with the way the original has gone since the re-organisation of the website in July. Although this appears to have improved of late (at least recent judges have been giving feedback), some former regulars have sadly given up on it entirely. Rather than replacing the existing competition what I envisage would simply augment it. Hopefully it might also tempt back some of the old competition regulars.

It seems the existing competition mostly draws entries from users’ archives. While this was/is often true with my own entries (especially when I have a particularly relevant photo, or when I haven’t had the time or inspiration to shoot something that week), I have always found the competition much more interesting when I made the effort to go out a get a picture on the week’s theme. So my idea is this – to have an alternate competition which would only be open to entries taken in the week after the theme was set. Clearly potential entrants would not always be able to obtain relevant photos (same with this week’s competition theme for me – never much sign of autumn in evergreen Ethiopia!), or even have the time to go out looking for them (or pp-ing them), in a particular week - but it strikes me that this would be a useful way of exercising our photographic imaginations (and testing technique). The number of entries might be significantly smaller than the main comp, but then so what – and in any case the judge might welcome this!

Regarding practicalities. Could this simply be set up as a thread in the competitions section, along the lines of the old comp? Meanwhile, the rules would remain the same as the other comp – theme set by previous week’s winner; deadline of 12 midnight GMT on Sunday; judge provides feedback on all entries; awards places 1-3 and HCs if so desired.

Anybody else interested in initiating this?

Change is as good as a rest as they say, might give the entry to the competitions a lift
Something else I can not understand, some other forums ( Canon to name one ) when you add a new post or topic you can load a photo into it there and then useing a button at the bottom etc, why is this not used here::

Admin can say if I'm steppng on their toes, but;
the other forums I use (car clubs mostly) are the same as this, where you need to use a third party, such as photobucket, to host your pictures. This is to limit bandwidth useage and storage requirements of the site.

Although, notably, the comeptions part of this site does allow for direct up-loading of the image.

One of the main advantages of the competition section is that you can upload directly. The reason you can't into the forum itself is to do with bandwidth as suggested. Hence use of Photobucket or similar is necessary. The disadvantage to this with competitions is that some people don't maintain the image and it eventually disappears from the thread. Have a look at some of the older competitions and see how they have been decimated by this.

You can start a competition in the competitions section by clicking on "Start a Competition". More than one can run at once. But the really simple answer is to win the weekly competition and then set the new one as "new pictures taken this week".....

The entries to the competitions have actually been better than the old style and although one or two old names have dropped out, equally many many more new ones have come on board!

I hope you mean to say; I find..........etc, as this must be a your personal opinion, and could of course be disagreed by others.

Martin.

not that I was in any real peril of winning, but real or imagined, I'd dread having to judge, so I haven't entered lately.
But I do agree those entries are pretty impressive!

This week's especially. But if I don't enter, it's not because I've been scared off...honestly.

No, I didn't mean that at all! What I meant to say was that there had been a better turnout - more entries, that is. I must have been doing too many things at once when I typed that post....

Just not enough hours in one day, right?

I like the idea. As.... most of the time I tried to shoot specially for the comp. But to be honest.......To do this right I think a time span of one week seems to narrow. And running another alternative competition along side the present one is likely to draw more confusion as gaining profit. I'll guess there is still a lot "getting used" going on.

And although I sympathize with your thoughts on the "new" comp, I see myself losing interest more and more the last couple of weeks. Reasons for this have already been mentioned by me in previous posts about this subject.( and I don't feel the need to bring it all up again.)

Considering myself as one of the members John refers to as "dropped out", (almost that is) I am still of the opinion that "The New Style Comp",has lost it's magic. And because of that loss, I just don't get the right "feel" to enter regularly, as I used to. (Strictly my personal view on things, obviously.)

Martin.

Ok I have flickr as my host, so how do I get my photos into the thread if needed please I do know how to do a link etc

Just open your image on Flickr ,tabbing the option" all sizes" above your picture, and copy -paste the lowest link beneath your picture using the image button found under the "add a comment field" in the thread you want to join. Thats all.

Martin.

I nearly started an unofficial comp today just for fun.
I have noticed the different entrants but that's cool, I haven't noticed any difference in quality, last week's was excellent, but my comp was a bit lame, you win some, you loose some.

A whole different bunch of people use the gallery section (only), but 'we', because we talk, also use it. So it seems a good and inclusive solution to me.
My only gripe about the new gallery is the fact that the images are re-jpeged and re-sized for the display, and clearly suffer from this (you have to click on the image to see the original - I hope it's the original)

Forgot to say, I love the idea of forcing people to take pictures that week, which I strive to do, usually unsuccessfully!

Thanks Martin, I know once I have done it I will remember it.

Personally I think running another competition would only serve to dilute the participation in both.

Whilst when the 'new' competition got of to a shakey start, it does seam to be getting better and better. The last couple have had individual comments posted under each image with a summary on the main page, which I feel is much better than in the previous competition and you can see the winner proudly displayed on the front page. All of which I also feel is an improvement over the previous style.

I also think think that everyone tries to enter pictures that have been taken in the week and then only resort to archive shots if they struggle to get one they are happy with, I know I do.

I do sympathise with you Mhuni as over here in Australia its spring, so getting a "Colours of Autum" picture is going to be a bit tricky, but it just means I have to be more creative.

Regards
PaulM

I agree with some comments re taking the actual picture during the week of the competition. Not only should it stimulate us constantly in our hobby and add to the enjoyment of gathering images, it will also show an exact snapshot at any given time within our world. Pentaxian days on the other Pentax forum is a good example. Under this guide Ihave only a slight problem with our current copetition, Autumn Colours. Autumn has not arrived fully in my neck of the woods. Maybe up North ?