Visit MPB Visit MPB Visit MPB

Weekly Competition # 60

  • Edit Lock Enabled - You will not be able to edit/delete your posts in this topic.
George Lazarette
Posted 31/08/2008 - 22:04 Link
johnriley wrote:
Quote:
The majority of fog photographs do not work. This one dose. Also the person in the photo defiantly wanted to be alone!


Probably posted by one of the recent A* English A-Level students.

Two things give it away. One, the execrable English, and 2, the erudition required to quote Cyril Connolly.

G
(In need of a dose of defiance)
Keywords: Charming, polite, and generally agreeable.
R o b
Posted 31/08/2008 - 22:32 Link
I just came to the forum to have a look at the other competition entries before submitting mine (ours actually, a joint effort between my other half and me), to find it has closed early. What a pain.

The current way of doing the competitions has good and bad points. It seems easier to enter, but the software is confusing. Firstly it seems easy to mess the end time and date up. Secondly the comments can be hard to find. More on that below.

So far as I can see there are two ways of leaving comments, either under each photo, or all together under the competition gallery. The former can be ideal, but is more work for the judge. The latter can be hard for people to find subsequently. I've found I've had to click on the winning entry, then follow the "back to gallery" link to find the all in one post comments.

People have said some of the judges are not leaving comments, but I've been able to find them for all the competitions under the new system. Maybe people are not finding the all in one post comments.

Fixing all this could be as simple as changing what happens when a winning picture is clicked on. As an example, clicking on the Contrast competition winner goes to here:

https://www.pentaxuser.com/photo/comp-7/Old-and-New-1001

If it went to here instead I think most people would be happier:

https://www.pentaxuser.com/competitions/Weekly-Competition--59-Contrast-7

That just leaves the closing date issue, and not having set a competition I don't have any suggestions.

Just my long and rambling thoughts...

Robert.
ChrisA
Posted 31/08/2008 - 22:44 Link
George Lazarette wrote:

(In need of a dose of defiance)

No one given you one recently, then, George?
.
Pentax K-3, DA18-135, DA35 F2.4, DA17-70, DA55-300, FA28-200, A50 F1.7, A100 F4 Macro, A400 F5.6, Sigma 10-20 EXDC, 50-500 F4.5-6.3 APO DG OS Samsung flash SEF-54PZF(x2)
.
royd63uk
Posted 31/08/2008 - 23:04 Link
Rob
That would be a great improvement.....
R o b wrote:


Fixing all this could be as simple as changing what happens when a winning picture is clicked on.

Robert.

regards
Roy

Pentax K3 gripped,and some lenses
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pentaxroy/

my pbase gallery
George Lazarette
Posted 01/09/2008 - 10:09 Link
What's this "edit lock"?

Another "community requested" enhancement?

G
Keywords: Charming, polite, and generally agreeable.
George Lazarette
Posted 01/09/2008 - 10:35 Link
Peter B,

I thought I'd just revisit an earlier post of yours.

Peter Bargh wrote:

I think we said this somewhere before but for those who missed it...there are many things you won't see. From our side we now have a fully integrated web site with fully integrated subscription system

Untrue. You have to link your subscription manually. And what is the benefit anyway? You have to pay for a magazine you don't want in order to post more than one picture a day to the gallery. That's an improvement?

Quote:
and a fully integrated content management system

This is a forum. Nothing needed integrating, and no benefits have accrued from integration.

Quote:
and a fully integrated gallery system.

And what precisely is the benefit? And why the silly restrictions on posting to it?

Quote:
We can now develop new features with much greater speed

Six weeks have gone by, and the site is still plagued with errors. Fix those first, please, before introducing any more gimmicky enhancements, like nipple filters.

Quote:
and we have a completely own-brand system that my guys totally understand the code inside out.

If they understand it, why is the site still such a mess? The competition bug has been known about for weeks, promises have been made, and it STILL isn't sorted.


Your inability to recognise that it was the wrong thing to do in the first place, and that it was then badly implemented (and still unsorted) is at the root of the present dissatisfaction.

What we would like is an apology from you for foisting this mess on us in the first place, and a commitment that you will sort it out before making any more worthless "improvements".

A helping of humble pie on your part would go down very well. But whingeing about rudeness, and telling us it will soon be fine, and it's so much better, just won't wash.

G
Keywords: Charming, polite, and generally agreeable.
davidburleson
Posted 01/09/2008 - 11:07 Link
Hi Everyone,

For those who don't know already, I overlook the web development side of things at Magezine Publishing Ltd. I'll be the first to say that with all upgrades/improvements/changes that bugs/errors crop up. And I take full responsibility for these.

We have looked into the issue with the competition section and believe it or not the past couple of times, where the competitions have ended early, have been for 2 separate reasons. First time, we had coded it to close early (its really hard to test this kind of stuff as it would take a week just to see the results and if there was a bug, you fix it then wait another week to see the results of that fix). We believe that the last competition actually closed early because the it was judged too early (around 7am on Sunday). However, not the judge's fault as we provided the ability for them to judge. Because of this, we have made changes to the code again to prevent early judging.

There may be lack of response from us, but that's because we are in the background keeping an eye on things. Us web developers are not very chatty . We occasionally check the forum, but always check the reports.

So yes, I would be the first to apologise for the bugs and unfortunately, with these sort of bugs that are time based, it takes time to test as well and wait for results.

HOPEFULLY, we have resolved all the issues with the time problems in the competitions (we shall see come sunday). Just need the winner of the previous competition to start the new competition.

David
Having problems? We're here to help! Contact PU Support.
Hyram
Posted 01/09/2008 - 11:50 Link
I still think that the best place for our weekly competition is back in its original location, where we can retain total control (manually) on when we start it, when we judge it etc. etc.

I have a natural aversion to automation, particularly when there is no manual override.
Hyram

Bodies: K20D (2), K10D, Super A, ME Super, Auto 110 SLR, X70, Optio P70
Pentax Glass: DA* 300, DA* 60-250, DA* 50-135, DA* 16-50, DA 70 Ltd, FA 31 Ltd, DA 35 Ltd, DA 18-55 (2), DA 12-24, DA 10-17, M 200, A 35-70, M 40, M 28, Converter-A 2X-S, 1.4X-S, AF 1.7, Pentax-110 50, Pentax-110 24
Other Glass: Sigma 105 macro, Sigma-A APO 75-300
Flash: Metz 58 AF-1 P, Pentax AF160FC ringflash, Pentax AF280T
George Lazarette
Posted 01/09/2008 - 12:06 Link
I have PM'd David and mentioned that automatic closing isn't actually necessary, and that sometimes we wish to be able to change the closing time/date - for instance when the site goes down.

G
Keywords: Charming, polite, and generally agreeable.
Nimitz
Posted 01/09/2008 - 12:31 Link
At first I liked the new competition style. It seemed that we had new persons joining the competitions. Only thig missing - the comments.....and that is killing the competition completely. Thats is my purpose by entering.

Lets bring it back the way it was so we people who join will know how we do this competition...

It is just to sad to log in monday morning to find the competition ended with no result (comments) and close to 15-20 entries.....
George Lazarette
Posted 01/09/2008 - 12:39 Link
Nimitz wrote:
It is just to sad to log in monday morning to find the competition ended with no result (comments) and close to 15-20 entries.....

In fairness, this is about educating the judges.

G
Keywords: Charming, polite, and generally agreeable.
johnriley
Posted 01/09/2008 - 12:44 Link
Quote:
What's this "edit lock"?

That was me as I wanted to make sure all our comments were preserved accurately in this thread. If anything got changed then it could be very misleading.
Best regards, John
gartmore
Posted 01/09/2008 - 14:29 Link
Hyram wrote:
I still think that the best place for our weekly competition is back in its original location, where we can retain total control (manually) on when we start it, when we judge it etc. etc.

I have a natural aversion to automation, particularly when there is no manual override.

I cant see that there is anything to stop us doing just that. Now we just have to agree to do it...

Ken
Ken
“We must avoid however, snapping away, shooting quickly and without thought, overloading ourselves with unnecessary images that clutter our memory and diminish the clarity of the whole.” - Henri Cartier-Bresson -
Nimitz
Posted 01/09/2008 - 14:52 Link
George Lazarette wrote:
Nimitz wrote:
It is just to sad to log in monday morning to find the competition ended with no result (comments) and close to 15-20 entries.....

In fairness, this is about educating the judges.

G

I quite agree. It just seems that those popping in do not take the time to visit the forum as well.

If we had the competition in the forum - the new persons would probably have a higher chance of actually reading what had happend before here. Or that is my hope.
George Lazarette
Posted 01/09/2008 - 15:00 Link
I would prefer to keep the competition in the gallery section, so as to have the advantages of direct uploading and comments under photos.

But somehow we have to make it work, and that I think should be the focus.

G
Keywords: Charming, polite, and generally agreeable.

Add Comment

To leave a comment - Log in to Pentax User or create a new account.