Competition Format Going Forward

[Tim Mayo]

There's been a lot of discussion around our monthly competitions so from next month there will be some changes.

The changes planned so far are as follows:

1. The Free Members and Site Supporters Competitions will be merged into one.

2. The first prize will be reduced to $30 for the winner and a $20 prize for the runner-up will be introduced. Please note that there is no money tree here and the membership fees I receive don't even cover the running costs of the forum. It get's subsidised from income from ads and affiliate links on the blog which receives a lot more traffic.

3. The winner will select the theme for the next month from a list of approved themes chosen by the community (see this thread).

The changes I'm still deciding on are:

1. Entry Period. From your comments it seems not many like being limited to only two months, so extending this to three months (current month + previous two) will hopefully allow for more flexibility but still encourage members to get out and shoot rather than relying on older shots from the archives.

2. Modifying entries. We never had a rule about changing your entries before and unless the majority of members would like to see this enforced then we might as well leave it as it was, meaning if you wish to change your entry before entries are closed then that's fine.

Any further suggestions?

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

Thinking out loud: should there be a limitation on themes to say the theme shouldn't repeat immediately? so if I win this month with Macro as the chosen them, I cannot choose Macro again for the next month, but 2 months later its fair game again. This would keep the theme rotating.

 

[Unframed Dave]

I personally think modifying entries is fine. I have uploaded perfectly reasonable images to here and occasionally they turn to extremely poor in the process.

 

[Clix Pix]

Why even have cash prizes for the winners? I doubt that many people enter just to win the money! Many competitions run without any awards except the honor of having won at all. Most times winners seem to be quite happy with the recognition of their image being liked well enough to have earned first or second place.....

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

I personally think modifying entries is fine. I have uploaded perfectly reasonable images to here and occasionally they turn to extremely poor in the process.

In the past, we had an issue where voting was open early and so viewers would come in early, vote, and forget about the thread rather than see all entrants. This would lead to voting only being open up once entries were closed. In the spirit of that decision, I don't see a problem with entrants changing their submission up to the deadline.

 

[Clix Pix]

I do think it would be helpful for the person making the change to state that he or she has swapped out one image for another and state the reason why: found a better shooting opportunity and better "fit" for the theme, or whatever.....

Three or four months maximum for the period during which a competition entry has been shot is definitely more appealing than just two months.

 

[Deleted Member 5003]

There's been a lot of discussion around our monthly competitions so from next month there will be some changes.

The changes planned so far are as follows:

1. The Free Members and Site Supporters Competitions will be merged into one.

2. The first prize will be reduced to $30 for the winner and a $20 prize for the runner-up will be introduced. Please note that there is no money tree here and the membership fees I receive don't even cover the running costs of the forum. It get's subsidised from income from ads and affiliate links on the blog which receives a lot more traffic.

3. The winner will select the theme for the next month from a list of approved themes chosen by the community (see this thread).

The changes I'm still deciding on are:

1. Entry Period. From your comments it seems not many like being limited to only two months, so extending this to three months (current month + previous two) will hopefully allow for more flexibility but still encourage members to get out and shoot rather than relying on older shots from the archives.

2. Modifying entries. We never had a rule about changing your entries before and unless the majority of members would like to see this enforced then we might as well leave it as it was, meaning if you wish to change your entry before entries are closed then that's fine.

Any further suggestions?

Seems like a positive move forward Tim. Maybe just needs a word on scoring limited to entrants multiple votes (excepting their own)
and others multiple voting.

Don't see a particular need for changing to 3 months submitted image validity when we are starting a new year and maybe limit to 2024 photos and see how it goes.....with restiction tp 3 months if necessary, at a later date

It may be in your best interests to incorporate some sort of membership growth incentive for references by existing supporters leading to new memberships and a resulting related growth to competition awards at your discretion....just a thought

 

[Deleted Member 5003]

There's been a lot of discussion around our monthly competitions so from next month there will be some changes.

The changes planned so far are as follows:

1. The Free Members and Site Supporters Competitions will be merged into one.

2. The first prize will be reduced to $30 for the winner and a $20 prize for the runner-up will be introduced. Please note that there is no money tree here and the membership fees I receive don't even cover the running costs of the forum. It get's subsidised from income from ads and affiliate links on the blog which receives a lot more traffic.

3. The winner will select the theme for the next month from a list of approved themes chosen by the community (see this thread).

The changes I'm still deciding on are:

1. Entry Period. From your comments it seems not many like being limited to only two months, so extending this to three months (current month + previous two) will hopefully allow for more flexibility but still encourage members to get out and shoot rather than relying on older shots from the archives.

2. Modifying entries. We never had a rule about changing your entries before and unless the majority of members would like to see this enforced then we might as well leave it as it was, meaning if you wish to change your entry before entries are closed then that's fine.

Any further suggestions?

Agree their needs to be a lot of thought/concensus in listing the themes. We all have our individual genres/specialist photography areas and
the forum competition offers an opportunity for people to showcase their best images and hence the themes should not be so restrictive
to eliminate peoples opportuntiy to do so over a lengthy period of time.......lack of opportunity to do so will be a significant enthusiasm
damper for some...

 

[-ST-]

Hi, Tim,
Thank you for all you do to provide this forum for us.

There's been a lot of discussion around our monthly competitions so from next month there will be some changes.

The changes planned so far are as follows:

1. The Free Members and Site Supporters Competitions will be merged into one.

I liked that there were some special privileges afforded Site Supporters. If I remember correctly, a year ago, there was a monthly competition for Site Supporters only. Being able to enter that competition was an incentive to become a Site Supporter. Yes, it took me nearly a year to make my first entry, but there are other reasons for that.

If the idea of creating the Free Members Competition was to increase participation in the community - did that work? How about making the Competition open to Site Supporters only, again?

2. The first prize will be reduced to $30 for the winner and a $20 prize for the runner-up will be introduced. Please note that there is no money tree here and the membership fees I receive don't even cover the running costs of the forum. It get's subsidised from income from ads and affiliate links on the blog which receives a lot more traffic.

I was happy with the single first-prize cash award, and I'm sure that's less work for you.

3. The winner will select the theme for the next month from a list of approved themes chosen by the community (see this thread).

There's no need for themes. Leave it wide open. Unless you want to include guidelines for judging entries (based on themes), choosing a photo of a bird-in-flight compared to a landscape, is no different than comparing photos of a similar genre.

You have lots of other theme-based threads/challenges and those are excellent opportunities to encourage members to explore and grow.

The changes I'm still deciding on are:

1. Entry Period. From your comments it seems not many like being limited to only two months, so extending this to three months (current month + previous two) will hopefully allow for more flexibility but still encourage members to get out and shoot rather than relying on older shots from the archives.

Sounds good

2. Modifying entries. We never had a rule about changing your entries before and unless the majority of members would like to see this enforced then we might as well leave it as it was, meaning if you wish to change your entry before entries are closed then that's fine.

Leave it as it is. Submissions should be frozen when voting begins. Otherwise, you may see people holding off until the last minute (and some, like me, missing the deadline altogether).

Any further suggestions?

Cheers!

 

[evacguy]

There's been a lot of discussion around our monthly competitions so from next month there will be some changes.

The changes planned so far are as follows:

1. The Free Members and Site Supporters Competitions will be merged into one.

2. The first prize will be reduced to $30 for the winner and a $20 prize for the runner-up will be introduced. Please note that there is no money tree here and the membership fees I receive don't even cover the running costs of the forum. It get's subsidised from income from ads and affiliate links on the blog which receives a lot more traffic.

3. The winner will select the theme for the next month from a list of approved themes chosen by the community (see this thread).

The changes I'm still deciding on are:

1. Entry Period. From your comments it seems not many like being limited to only two months, so extending this to three months (current month + previous two) will hopefully allow for more flexibility but still encourage members to get out and shoot rather than relying on older shots from the archives.

2. Modifying entries. We never had a rule about changing your entries before and unless the majority of members would like to see this enforced then we might as well leave it as it was, meaning if you wish to change your entry before entries are closed then that's fine.

Any further suggestions?

Hi Tim,
Many thanks to you and to everyone else that keeps this forum alive, I really enjoy being a member of the forum. Concerning the competitons, I have several comments/suggestions:
1) I don't see a problem in entering pictures taken several months ago. After all, the theme of the competition is restrictive so you may have taken a cracking shot several months ago, but there hasn't been a suitable competition to enter the image. So I personally think the competition should be open to images taken in the past 12 months (inclusive of the competition month). If 12 months is considered too long, then make it as long as possible, but certainly longer than 2 months.
2) I think there should just be one competition open to all.
3) Related to (2), if you want to differentiate between paying members and non-paying members (to add to the incentive of becoming a paying member), perhaps you could restrict voting rights only to paying members, but anyone can enter. This is a bit like the voting for the academy awards, any film is eligible for the academy awards, but only members of the academy can vote.
4) I don't think it is necessary to have a cash prize. The cash is hardly going to make a dent on this very expensive hobby and so is hardly incentive to enter (for those members that need an incentive other than the pride in being acknowledged by ones peers). Rather than a cash prize I suggest the following:
(a) As in the olympics, first prize gets a gold medal, second a silver and third a bronze. This way you also share the pride and joy of winning.
(b) Medal tallies can be a new section of the MEMBERS page, so we can have a medals tally league table (ranked gold tally as first descriminator, silver tally as second descriminator, and bronze tally third descriminator). I really don't like the concept, as is becoming common in some NEWS outlets where Olympics medals are graded gold 3 points, silver 2 points and bronze 1 point, so I suggest we stay away from this.
(c) Medal tallies could also automatically be shown on the member description section of the forum and also as part of their signature.
(d) In addition to individual medal tallies being shown on the MEMBERS page, we could have a national medal legal tally. This could instill some collaborative and and friendly competitive spirit into the forum.
5) The winning entries also receive the following additional benefits if they are a non-paying member:
(a) gold winning entry gets voting rights for the next 12 months
(b) silver winning entry gets voting rights for the next 6 months
(c) bronze winning entry gets voting rights fo the next 3 months.
(d) if a non-paying member wins several prizes, they assume the additional benfit that prolongs their voting rights the longest, but the additional rights are not additive.
6) I really like the idea of the first place getter setting the theme for the next months competition. As already suggested, I think there should be a list of acceptable themes from which to select the next theme, and I suggest that the same theme cannot be used within a quarter i.e., cannot be repeated within a 3 month period. I suggest including an 'open' theme in the list of possible themes.
7) I think voting should start at a set time e.g., 1 week before the end of the monthly competition. I would also suggest that a person eligible to vote gets just one vote, but they can change that vote before the end of the voting period. As an alternative, an eligible person can make a maximum of three votes, and can change all three before the end of the voting period. My alternative suggestion may be better as it makes more images more competitive.
8) Each person can enter only one image into the competition, but they can change their entry up to the date that the voting starts.

Thanks again.

 

[Angus Cameron]

Hi Tim,

The new competition rules look very well thought out. You mentioned that many people would like the period of time the photos are taken in to be extended.

As a suggestion you could extend this going forward rather than older photos. 52Frames for example provide the current theme plus the next three.
You could choose the 1st three to get up and running, then the winner choose the next thereafter. In practical terms it provides time to go out and shoot for the upcoming competitions with advance notice of theme.

Cheers,

Angus.

 

[Tim Mayo]

Thanks for everyones feedback here. Ultimately I have to make a few decisions as February is just around the corner. It's always difficult to please everyone but hopefully the new format will please more than a couple of you!

So here are the basics for the competitions going forward.

1. Free & Site Supporter Competitions will be merged.

2. $30 Amazon voucher for first place and $20 for the runner up. Some suggested no prize money but I'd like to keep this small incentive for now at least. I"ll also create a monthly winners post on the blog homepage highlighting first, second and third shots. This might also help to drive some more entries.

3. Only shots taken in the previous two months and the current month will be allowed. I'd prefer a limited period to encourage people to get out more and not rely so much on a large catalogue of older shots.

4. Regarding the themes. Lots of debate here but the general consensus is that they need to be pretty general. So I've picked a pretty general theme for each month remaining of this year. This will give you the heads up on what's coming and might help somewhat if you feel the entry period is too restricted. It will also mean the theme is chosen each month which saves me contacting the winner or runner-up, as last time I did this I didn't always get a prompt reply or people would complain about the chosen theme.

Feb: B&W
Mar: Long Exposure
Apr: Animals
May: Patterns
Jun: Motion
Jul: Mechanized Machines
August: Reflections
Sep: Close Up
Oct: Food
Nov: After Dark
Dec: Festivities

I also like the medal suggestion that @evacguy suggested but I won't be able to implement anything like that for next month but I'll look into it.

Cheers,
Tim

 

[Unframed Dave]

Looks good to me.

 

[Deleted Member 5003]

Its an OK-To-Go from me.......

 

[alexpler]

Thanks for everyones feedback here. Ultimately I have to make a few decisions as February is just around the corner. It's always difficult to please everyone but hopefully the new format will please more than a couple of you!

So here are the basics for the competitions going forward.

1. Free & Site Supporter Competitions will be merged.

2. $30 Amazon voucher for first place and $20 for the runner up. Some suggested no prize money but I'd like to keep this small incentive for now at least. I"ll also create a monthly winners post on the blog homepage highlighting first, second and third shots. This might also help to drive some more entries.

3. Only shots taken in the previous two months and the current month will be allowed. I'd prefer a limited period to encourage people to get out more and not rely so much on a large catalogue of older shots.

4. Regarding the themes. Lots of debate here but the general consensus is that they need to be pretty general. So I've picked a pretty general theme for each month remaining of this year. This will give you the heads up on what's coming and might help somewhat if you feel the entry period is too restricted. It will also mean the theme is chosen each month which saves me contacting the winner or runner-up, as last time I did this I didn't always get a prompt reply or people would complain about the chosen theme.

Feb: B&W
Mar: Long Exposure
Apr: Animals
May: Patterns
Jun: Motion
Jul: Mechanized Machines
August: Reflections
Sep: Close Up
Oct: Food
Nov: After Dark
Dec: Festivities

I also like the medal suggestion that @evacguy suggested but I won't be able to implement anything like that for next month but I'll look into it.

Cheers,
Tim

A fixed themes calendar is way better. Well thought! Let's see how that goes.

 

[alexpler]

@Tim I can't post a picture at the February competition. There's no "Upload Images" box when replying there, unlike anywhere else in the forum. Could you check it?

 

[alexpler]

You've been banned from the competition!

I thought that might be the case

 

[Tim Mayo]

@Tim I can't post a picture at the February competition. There's no "Upload Images" box when replying there, unlike anywhere else in the forum. Could you check it?

Can you see it now? Looks like I forgot to change some permissions for non site supporters. Sorry about that!

 

[alexpler]

Can you see it now? Looks like I forgot to change some permissions for non site supporters. Sorry about that!

Yes, I just posted my contribution. Thank you for solving it fast!

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

Rats! I'll never win now!

Me neither