Photo Challenge Contest

[limr]

Wouldn't it be great if somebody put the most critical information into a short, brief post, instead of BURYING the most critical information beneath loads of meaningless shi-+?
...
You of all people ought to recognize poor writing when encountering it. Again--the last contest managed to scrape up two entries.
Obviously, the contest's entry process needs some work done on it.

Did you not notice this part of my previous post?

As for the submission process, I agree that perhaps the instructions could be written more precisely (and I volunteer to help in that area if you want, Sharon), but as for the process itself? *shrug* I dunno, you're just emailing a picture and making sure it's not too big. I know only basic stuff on Corel but I know how to resize a photo.

There's a difference between the process itself and the instructions for the process. The instructions make the process seem more complicated than it really is.

(Edit: And just for clarification, my post was right after yours, Derrel, but it wasn't a response to yours. You posted as I was typing.)

 

[sm4him]

Wouldn't it be great if everything in life were arranged for our own personal convenience?

Wouldn't it be great if somebody put the most critical information into a short, brief post, instead of BURYING the most critical information beneath loads of meaningless shi-+?

Did you not notice the pathetic total of a whopping TWO entries the last contest managed to scrape up?

You of all people ought to recognize poor writing when encountering it. Again--the last contest managed to scrape up two entries.

Obviously, the contest's entry process needs some work done on it.

Perhaps this was missed:

In fact, perhaps I'll change the instructions, to list JUST the steps to "how to enter" so it'll be clear how easy it is.
Then put all the additional stuff, about how the voting happens, how long the entry period for the current challenge is open, blah blah blah as "fine print" below for those who have the extra 90 seconds needed to read through all that.

Yes, the information could definitely be re-arranged, reworded, and such to make it easier to see the important stuff first, which is the theme, and how to enter.

I think what has happened is that over time, rules and clarifications have been added, and no effort has been made to be sure it is clear and concise. I can appreciate that, and I'm more than happy to work on making the information easier to read, but I stand by the fact that I believe the PROCESS is about as simple as possible.


But let me clarify a few other points:
1. *I* did not write those rules, they've been in place a while and I simply cut and pasted. Could I have fixed it? Yes, probably. But you know what? I've been BUSY, trying to get a several-month backlog of POTMs up-to-date, and trying to at least throw the Challenge up so that's it current. I've also been discussing some ideas to make it more interesting and draw people in, although none of you have seen that yet.


2. I do NOT believe the lack of participation last month was because of the rules. I think it had something to do with the LONG absence of challenges, and the fact that the last one that WAS posted was not finished for, what, 4 months? When people see that it's not being kept up-to-date, they quit participating. I have said this ever since I took this on a month ago--it is NOT going to be an instant fix. It will take TIME, but I believe that when people start seeing it kept up-to-date, THAT is what will help to increase participation.

And finally, and perhaps most importantly:
3. You know what would REALLY REALLY be great?!? If well-established, respected, long-time members of the forum would actually get behind this and HELP promote it and encourage those who are taking their time to manage it, maybe even offer their help as Leonore just did in order to make it even better, instead of turning what WAS a simple suggestion thread into basically a flame of all that is wrong with the challenge contest.

Now, if you will all excuse me, I am going to go have a daquiri or two--okay, I'm going to go use up all my rum--and then go to bed. And hope that I have a cooler head to prevail tomorrow.

 

[jcdeboever]

I gave up after about 5 lines. It takes a lot to keep my interest

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[Derrel]

I gave up after about 5 lines. It takes a lot to keep my interest

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The original 2013 challenge rules post is still up, locked, in the sub forum. It has
2,406 characters and 425 words. Fifteen bullet points.

The September challenge post had....let's see... 2,747 characters, and 488 words. Sixteen bullet points. Does the TPF Photo Challenge really need a sixteen-part, 488 word invitation to this event?

A basic invitation would ask TPF members to:
Send in ONE, single image file that has not been previously posted to TPF,and which can be a maximum of 1200 pixels on the long axis, and a maximum of 500k in file size.The one image submitted must carry no identifying watermarks no names,no copyright notices,and no identifying information embedded in EXIF information. Photo titles are optional. ALL photos submitted must be your own. Send your single entry photo to
[email protected].

We look forward to seeing your challenges! Good luck!

*a complete and thoroughly exhaustive list of all rules and restrictions is available at _________________.


99 words. 600 characters.

 

[tirediron]

I nominate Derrel to re-write the entry criteria to satisfy the TPF membership.

 

[Fred Berg]

Entries to the competition should be on-site and not via email. I don't participate because it requires off-site submission.

 

[sm4him]

I nominate Derrel to re-write the entry criteria to satisfy the TPF membership.

I think Leonore and I have that covered.

 

[sm4him]

Okay: As far as I'm concerned, the discussion about the readability/length of the "rules" is now done. I can't *make* anyone stop commenting about that, certainly, so if you just get kicks out of beating a dead horse, well, beat away, but I'm done with that topic.
@limr and I will be revising the entry instructions. End of story.

How to actually run the contest is another matter.

Entries to the competition should be on-site and not via email. I don't participate because it requires off-site submission.

Fair enough. There will certainly be those who choose not to participate because of that. On the other hand, if we did it on-site, it would not be anonymous, and there are those who would choose not to participate for that reason as well. And then there are those who will just complain no matter HOW we choose to do it, and have no intentions of participating either way (to be clear, I am NOT suggesting the poster I quoted is one of those in the last category!)

For now, I intend to keep it as an anonymous contest. I can understand that some will not participate as it means emailing their submission--i.e., sending it offsite. I *will* say that I am no longer using Flickr as a "host" for these images. Emailed images will be located ONLY in the original email and in the thread I create for voting here on TPF. That may, or may not, make a difference to those considering entering.

If you have suggestions as to how to set things up so that it stays completely on TPF, while remaining anonymous, feel free to let me know. I can't promise I'll change it, but I'm certainly open to ideas.

EVENTUALLY, we might entertain the notion of starting a second challenge thread that would not be anonymous and would be hosted entirely on the forum--but for the short term, I'd rather spend my time and energy trying to build up participation in ONE challenge contest.

I do appreciate the thoughts and remarks from everyone. Well, mostly.
I HOPE that when we revise things, make the rules really short and sweet, that I will then see SUBMISSIONS from some of you that say you don't participate because the rules are too long and make your eyes glaze over.

 

[Fred Berg]

Wouldn't it be possible to upload the images to a gallery that was locked to viewing and thus keep the competition on-site as well as anonymous? Setting such an area up shouldn't be too difficult: releasing the lock and allowing viewing and voting once the entry date has been passed and all submitted images vetted for anonymity.

 

[sm4him]

Wouldn't it be possible to upload the images to a gallery that was locked to viewing and thus keep the competition on-site as well as anonymous? Setting such an area up shouldn't be too difficult: releasing the lock and allowing viewing and voting once the entry date has been passed and all submitted images vetted for anonymity.

I don't know. To be honest, I've never used the galleries here. I just went in and played around with one, and it *seems* like that could be a possibility, but I really don't know. I think the problem would still be that ultimately, once the gallery is unlocked, or if I take the pictures from the gallery and link them to a new voting poll thread, since they were actually uploaded by another TPF user, they would show that person's username. In my mind, I'd have to save the images from the gallery to my hard drive, THEN upload them to a voting thread, and that would be no different than what happens now really.

Still, I could be wrong. Let me ask some other Mods and see if this can be done. Stay tuned.

 

[Aaaak]

[*]I like bacon.

[emoji23]


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