Neither of the current competitions have a rule that the judges must provide detailed comments. People do it as a courtesy, because they like it, and because of peer pressure! Occasionally a judge provides rather skeletal comments, or just for the place-winning entries. For me, that's fine... once in a while. I think we should ease up on entrants from overseas, or people with shaky writing skills, once in a while.

I think the judge's minimum responsibility (picking 1st, 2nd and 3rd place) should be encapsulated in the rules, but that's where it should end. Making more detailed comments should be encouraged, rather than made a requirement IMO. Most people enjoy the challenge of critiquing each shot, and are aware that doing so is well appreciated by entrants, so I think the tradition of doing so will remain, by and large. However it would be nice to be inclusive to the minority of people who don't feel as comfortable with this.

+1 on that Ken.

And, not aimed at anyone in particular of course, I think a person should take a long dispassionate look at his/her own portfolio of gallery pictures before publicly decrying the 'poor photography' that results from using cameraphones.

I have seen some great shots taken on pretty humble camphones, which prove that the photographer's eye is so much more important than the kit he uses. In street photography, in particular, getting the shot is everything; the camera you use is barely relevant. Huge dof can be advantageous as it compressed and juxtaposes elements of the scene.

Senn, the system relies on user honesty / diligence only.

No need to be a douche, Ken. I simply presumed that as the competition has apparently been moved to the gallery, the same system as the weeklies would be adopted. This involves a PM with copy and paste generic text from John. For all I know it's probably automated.

When you win, and are asked to set up a new competition in the Weeklies, John sends a PM with brief instructions what to do. He could easily include a brief resume of the rules to post along with your new subject, or the link to the full rules.

I like the idea of a monthly 'challenge' comp.

Howabout a chance to vote on all the winning entries at the end of the year, winner gets a fabulous prize?

Agreed Mike. They are a bit blurry. I liked the shot of the cyclist though.

With a choice of mobile skins and a facebook app, the other forum is so much more dynamic and user friendly. Yet somehow I still prefer this one, and it's pretty simple so works well enough on mobile devices IMHO.

Definitely agree with that! I haven't taken many shots of fireworks, but I definitely prefer looking at that sort of shot.

You know what, I reckon it might be one of those lenses that performs not-so-well when shooting test charts, but well enough when shooting real-life, three dimensional subjects. Hence the disparity between the reviews and user reports.