Voting competition #1 - Cycles

There are plenty of people who are willing to criticise but don't seem willing to offer constructive alternatives.

This was all discussed in another thread. If you really object why did you not read the other thread and contribute to that before this was arranged?

Stefan thought this was a good way to continue with this competition since those who did contribute liked the idea of an anonymous competition.

If you enter your own hosted photo people can see who it is by looking at the URL. Hence the Photobucket account, to make it truly anonymous.

I still think not seeing the photos until voting means people are not influenced or put off by other entries.

Let's give this one a try.
If it doesn't work, fine we'll call it a day.

I shan't bother to enter any more competitions. This is all way too much hassle.

There's no hassle Gwyn, but it does need to be right so people can join in freely and enjoy it, not just a handful of people.

It takes a while for people to notice, think about things and get to a point where they have some thoughts about it.

If this is aimed at me, then I confess that I do take a little exception to it.

I didn't respond to the other thread, since for whatever reason, I hadn't been aware in enough detail of its content. And now I thought I was both attempting to be constructive, and also acknowledging that I might be a little late into the game.

If you think I'm objecting, perhaps if you read what I said again you'll see that I was suggesting and questioning, not 'really objecting'.

Yes, I take this point, although I'm not yet sure if I agree. In particular I'm uncomfortable about having pictures online in an account over which I have no control, but thank you for clarifying.

It would make sense not to want to organise any more competitions due to the amount of hassle.

Declaring that the hassle makes you not even want to enter them smacks of throwing toys out of the pram.

I'm grateful to anyone who's prepared to take up the administrative mantle of organising something of benefit to all. But I find my gratitude wanes somewhat when genuine questions and suggestions, if perhaps not sufficiently researched, are treated in this way.

I'm not sure I'd feel Ok about entering a competition if questions about its organisation are treated so stroppily.

It was not aimed at you.

There was a discussion.

Stefan set it up. I merely posted the thread to start the new competition, and now I seem to be the butt of the complaints.

Sort it out amongst yourselves.
This is my last posting on this subject.

I withdraw totally from it. Let someone else sort it out and set a subject.

I'm done

Good bye

Don't worry about that, if it's 800 pixels on the long end and in JPG it's already good enough.

That's the whole problem you can't add a poll to a thread you need to start a new thread just for the poll so that would mean you end with 3 threads again and I agree with John that that wasn't handy.

The idea of collecting the images is to make sure they all get posted anonymously and also to make it a lower level to enter because it can be quite taunting to try to add an image to the forum for the first time.

I also thought this way of entering makes it easier for everyone to enter, even if you don't have the knowledge needed to post a photo here on the forum which can be quite taunting to do for the first time if you've no idea how it works.

If you aren't happy with the idea of me alone controlling the entries I'm happy to share the login information with certain members here that I trust enough since the accounts are on my name after all, the list off members I trust enough is quite long though so don't worry of me being too selective.

Yes at first it might be a bit taunting but most newcomers won't enter a competition straight away and just sit back for one and she how it works.

I can guarantee that something is happening.
Already have 3 entries, 2 through mail and one via PM.

Sorry to hear that Gwyn, I need to work during the day so couldn't comment.

Please stick around to support your theme at least if any question happens to arrive about that, all the other questions are for me so don't even bother to comment on those.

@Chris, I hope I've answered all your technical questions if you've any other questions I'm happy to answer them all.
I'm not prepared to talk about morals about me or any one though.

This competition was created out off the number off suggestions that some members wanted to have a other sort competition then the fortynight and the weekly and this was created out of the ideas that some gave.
I've put those ideas together to a workable format but this is however still experimental just to see if it works well or not.
I must say I quite enjoyed the previous competition, the anonymous bit with this one might improve things.

Yes you have, and I appreciate your taking the trouble to answer. Of course, Gwyn was right to draw attention to my failure or others', to comment on the earlier thread. It was just a little unfortunate that I happened not to see that, but I did see this one.

I'm not making any comments about anyone's morals, and nor would I expect anyone to do so - as far as I'm concerned, there's no moral issue to answer. Personally I think it's a shame that there's a perceived need for anonymous posting, since accusations of biased judging are IMO entirely without foundation. But I can see that some would think it a good idea, and an anonymous PhotoBucket account would solve that.

I'm slightly troubled by the notion that someone can learn how to operate a dSLR, take pictures good enough to enter in competitions, participate in an internet forum, but still not be bothered to learn how to resize and post their own images, but I suppose they shouldn't be disenfranchised.

I wish the new format well, and as I've said, I'm always grateful to those that are prepared to take the time to organise this sort of thing.

I'm "slightly troubled" that ChrisA, who doesn't find the time to enter normal comps but makes the time to unpick a possible new series of comps and upset another member. For one who sets himself up as a judge of others actions its interesting to watch this negative behaviour.

Can we stop the personal comments please.

If we discuss the issues instead of having the personal sniping it will all go along much better.

Let's draw a line and see how the competition works out. We can have a postmortem after, but if round one is anything to go by we should be ok!

Here is my thought:

We have two wonderful competitions on this forum. The weekly and the fortnight. These competitions are UNLIKE any others, on any other site that I have encountered. The beauty of our comps is that it is a learning experience. The photographer recieves a opinion from another photographer...about what he likes or dislikes about his photo. The photographer whom is the judge, learns to look at, evaluate and express what he precieves in another persons work. Everyone is learning something. There is not any money or prizes offered, but there is the pleasure of having ones photograph favored and recieveing a placement of 1st...2'd or 3'd.
The weekly competion ALWAYS has more enteries...it is easier to post in the weekly and it is easy to find too. Any new member can find it. After one joins and begin looking around the forum, they will find the competition thread. In that thread is the fortnight. It has a few more challenges....you have to take the photo during the comps time....you have to upload your image from somewhere else and then paste it. It is a wonderful opportunity to learn new skills again. Again the competition is a learning tool for both the paticapants and the judge. No money...prizes...not by votes....but just PENTAX Photographers sharing knowlege, the love of thier camera and having fun doing so.
If the forum members want something more....something different...something fun, and want a monthly competition, I cannot see how that can cause newbies a problem. They have two other comps, and this new one will be listed in the Competitions thread too. If someone can't figure out how to post the photo, they can ask! Just because the photos are or aren't visible should not matter....the new members can read, right?

Having shared that, I also want to add that if some members do not like the present comps, and say that they do not enter because of the work involved in judging, and wish that it was run more like other forums do, why not just go to the 'other forums' and participate there? I am one member who truly loves the comps on this forum, and I love the tools for learning that are offered here. Competitions are a dime a dozen on the internet, but you will seach long and hard to find anything that has the opportunities to learn like this Pentax forum.

So lets have a voting comp, all in fun, lets open it to all pentax users, as long as it is listed in the competitions I cannot see that it matters if the photos are visable or not,. New members will catch on. Those whom do not like the new monthly comp...do not enter. Those who do...enter away!

Just for the record I would love to see Gwyn come back on board.

Regards, Judithann

Well said JudithAnn. BTW I like your new avatar.
I wish the new competition every success, it's further encouragement for members to take and show their pictures, but it does seem a little complicated to my simple mind. Perhaps with time it will become more streamlined.
What I like about the weekly and fortnightly competitions is the one thing that seems to put some members off entering; if you win you have to select the next topic and judge it. Judging other people's pictures is a great way to learn more about photography because you really have study the images in detail. Judging by a poll vote means you get no feed back.
David

Like David I wish the new competition well.

Unfortunately, I have been on holiday and very busy for the past few weeks so haven't been around here as much as I would like.

I've ploughed through the various threads and I find the whole thing Byzantine in it's apparent complexity, I'm not sure at all how it works and I cannot imagine how any new member would get to grips with it.

To use a photographic word and a much hackneyed current phrase, it lacks transparency in my opinion.

It's quite simple.

Send photo to the mail address or upload to a imagetank and share the link > photo gets uploaded together with all the other entries and showed here once the start.
That's it really the rest is pretty self explaining like the theme and the voting.

Will send everyone who entered a reply when I've processed their photos so that they know I'm working on them.
I'll try to do that within two days I'm now quite busy so will do the ones that have entered this week this weekend so if you have send me something but you don't get a reply this week something went wrong.

Actually if you see the voting thread you will see some did get some feedback from other members and I'm sure if someone who entered asked a question that those will be answered by other members.
It's the hope that feedback will come from a lot of people so you get views from different angles.