December Photo Challenge - Comments

[Photo Challenge]

Post your comments on the December Photo Challenge Entries (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?p=531356#post531356) here.

:)

[supernova1965]

This will be a Tough one my brain is hurting :sadeyes:

[Esseth]

Ditto, but i am looking forward to thinking about it.... Damn it if anyone went to the V8 Supercars and got some good shots lol

[supernova1965]

Hey Ian did you do the Crocodile Dundee thing:gday:

[lacad01]

Al's image is quite a poignant reminder to stay safe these holidays and in fact any time we're on the road.

[firstlight]

Have to get my finger out and pick my entry... didn't really get anything spectacular (but whats new? :D)

Good entries so far.

[Shep]

All of the entries are great but I LOVE Humayun's - I'm a sucker for those colours, how fantastic are they!

[firstlight]

As I said there are some pretty cool entries this month.

When Anne-Louise and I went on our first road trip to the NACAA in Sydney in 1998, we were very impressed with the massive cuttings into the rock walls as you came in from the north. I have no idea of the locality of these features... nor where the photos we took are as well.

[supernova1965]

18 entries good turnout should be a good comp this month lovely entries this month

[firstlight]

:D Great piece of art RB

[mithrandir]

It's on a roundabout on Hickson Rd, outside the Wharf Theatre.

At least it was still there the last time we went to the Wharf.

It was even better the first time we saw it. There were barricades around like it was an accident scene.

[Octane]

Can the person in charge of the challenges please explain why these aren't anonymous anymore?

It really takes it out of the voting. People will always have favourites.

I, personally, feel that these would have more merit if all the entries were anonymous like they used to be.

H

[Photo Challenge]

The Photo Challenge is not a competition with major prizes as such.

It's a friendly challenge to encourage all our members to submit their entires on the topic of the month.
Through this we get to know each other and each other's character, style and creativeness.

After running the challenge in "Anonymous mode" for a while, we found that participation declined dramatically, to the point that only one or two entries were submitted each month.
In other words it was hardly a challenge at all.

Following discussions amongst the Admin team and from feedback from our members it was realised that the best and easiest way to conduct the challenge was to revert back to it's original format where everyone just posted their work.

As for 'having favourites', I think people that participate in the voting care enough and have honour enough to judge each photo on it's merits and not on whether it's been submitted by a mate of their's.

:)

[bloodhound31]

I agree, entries should be anon. until after the winner is picked. I also think entrants should not be allowed to vote at all. Just MO.:shrug:


...which just as easily be achieved after the winner has been picked.:rolleyes:



People in general will nearly always favor their friends. It's human nature. That's why you can't have relatives on the jury at your own trial.:hi:

Baz.

[Photo Challenge]

There's no need to roll your eyes at me Baz, the reason I said that is because people indicated to us that they prefer to know the entrants during the Challenge, not at the end.

The general consensus was that it was more pleasurable to run it this way than having it anonymously.

We were also asked to allow the voting progress to be viewable during the voting period, people didn't want to see the poll results only at the end, they preferred to watch the 'race' as it unfolded, in their words "it added excitement to the Challenge."

As I said we ran the Challenge in anonymous mode and the entries dwindled to one or two entries per month, this and the feedback we were getting indicated to us that the majority preferred the original format back so it was changed back to what it is now.

This is a friendly Challenge (not a trial) and I can't for the life of me understand the attitude that has been expressed here for such a basic thing as this.

[Octane]

My own view is that we can get to know each other in various ways through this forum. The general forum, for example. It's not just restricted to the terrestrial photography challenges.

People post their work often, whether it be their macros, or landscapes, or events, etc. and can get to know each other through their normal postings. I don't see how the fun and getting to know each other is restricted to the challenges. I just don't see it.

It would be really nice to see a return to the anonymous entry system as it just adds a little excitement and makes the challenge (bearing in mind that it is a fun little thing -- no prizes) a bit more credible. Not knowing who submitted what also ensures that one votes without prejudice.

I agree with Barry, though, that with the way things are people will vote for their friends. It's just the way it is.

I also would have figured that if the challenges were anonymous, it would encourage more people to enter as they have nothing to be afraid of. I know of other forums where they have a "picture a day" sub-forum and the entrants literally get torn new ones if their images look like snapshots and/or have absolutely no meaning whatsoever. Interestingly, though, the entrants generally smarten up and start submitting works of art quite quickly, which is pleasing, as the criticism actually works. It's not like that, here; on the whole, we're all pretty much a friendly happy bunch.

Just my two cents. I know these thoughts won't get anywhere as it seems the previous feedback has formed a consensus with no avenue for review. It's not an attack on anyone, and, not sour grapes, at all; just airing my own thoughts. However, at the same time, it is assuring to know I'm not alone as at least one other person seems to agree.

H

[Photo Challenge]

You may like to know that I and some of the other members of the admin team first suggested the anonymous format to see if it would work.
We went to a lot of trouble and had to devise a way to submit the entries anonymously and I came up with the idea of sending them in via email and then the Photo Moderator would post each one.
It was more work for us but we were very happy to do it.
I also made it so that the votes were not viewable until the poll closed in case anyone suspected favoritism.
That was quickly rejected by the members as they preferred to see the progress as it added excitement.

The Challenge dwindled and at the end we were getting only a couple of entires. This went on for a long while but we were in the hope that things would improve.
Finally after discussions and listening to the feedback from members we reverted back to this format and the Monthly Challenge was once again well received by our members and has continued to attract good participation rates.

As I've said, people have told us they prefer it like this so we have changed it to what it is now.

[bloodhound31]

No worries peeps. I'll compete either way if I have a decent enough and relevant photo. I didn't mean the rool eyes thing to be taken personally mod and I apologise if it seemed that way.

Good luck everyone.

Cheers,

Baz.

[RB]

My heartfelt congratulations to Tony and Anne-Louise.
Well done on your deserved win and well done to Barry too.

I think at this point it would be nice to see others offer their congrats too.

Well done to all who participated.
:)

[bloodhound31]

Yep, right on RB, congrats earthlight and firstlight. Well done.

Baz.

[supernova1965]

Yes congrats I voted for both the winners WELL DONE:thumbsup:

[firstlight]

For my 2 cents...

I have been interested in the Monthly Challenge since Anne-Louise pointed it out to me several years ago. In that time I have not had much success in the comp, although Anne-Louise has had several wins... Prejudiced as I am, I believe they were all deserved wins.

Just a couple of points about some comments posted:

1. If competitors were ruled out of the vote, the comp would be decided by 10 or so people, not a fair or realistic outcome I would think.

2. Rules state that competitors should not vote for themselves, so there should be no conflict of interest anyway.

3. I have no problem how the comp is conducted, but as has been stated before, there were only 2 or 3 entries in the alternative format, again not a fair or realistic outcome.

4. My final observation is that even if you vote for your mate/s, you often have 3 or 4 votes... surely one of those other votes are for a deserving entry?

I like interpreting the theme and taking images, but I can't help admiring and voting for the other talented people who enter the comp, be they friend or stranger if their entry enrich the competition.

[firstlight]

Oh yeah I forgot to mention that I had a tough time to narrow the field to only 4 votes. Most of them were crackers and I had expected Baz to take the honors with his clever though somewhat risky image :eyepop:.
Other special mentions in my opinion were RB's car that rocked, Tricks entry, and Humayun's as well.

[RB]

Well said Tony.

And if we do assume that people vote only for their mates we can surmise from these results that H and I have the same number of friends and poor old Al Sheeny has none. :sadeyes:

Now of course that's not true, Al is a good friend of mine as he very well knows and so are others that entered, but like Tony, I vote each month for the images that appeal to me, it's a friendly challenge, what benefit is it to me if I vote for my friends only, as if I'd get a kick seeing them in the Hall of Fame or that I can brag that I'm friends with a 'real photographer' that has won x amount of times in the monthly challenge ?

Yeah right.

There's only a hand full of entries each month anyway and basically it's the usual crowd that enters.

It's just for fun and deep down we know each others capabilities so really it's just a simple Challenge to see what clever photos we all can come up with for this month's theme, big deal.

Just enjoy.

:)

[Octane]

No-one mentioned anything about hanging out with a "real photographer" or anything like that, at all.

I thought the suggestions that I made were quite valid with regards to fun and excitement. I figure that's how it works elsewhere.

The system I proposed won't/doesn't work here, that's quite OK. They won't be mentioned again. Understood.

I have some really nifty ideas for challenges that I'd love to share (accessible to all), but, ah well.

Congratulations Tony and Anne-Louise. And, well done, Baz -- close runner-up.

H

[Photo Challenge]

The suggestions you made were not unreasonable and as I mentioned had already been discussed by the admin team a long time ago.

What was 'puzzling' was your timing.
Bringing up the matter soon after the poll opened when votes were starting to come in, when some entries had already received some votes and some notables had not.
I don't know what prompted the questioning of the voting process at that particular point, when there was so many other times this matter could have been brought up during the month.



It really wasn't the time to question the validity of the voting process then.
It would have been more appropriate to either wait till the voting finished or discussed the matter privately so as not to detract from the voting process itself.

As for your ideas for themes for the Challenge, you'll get to choose a topic when you win just like everyone else does.

This is all I would like to say on this matter, I don't wish to continue this discussion any further here.
If we see that Anonymous voting would be a benefit, rest assured we will give the matter our fullest consideration again.