Photo Contest rules (please read)

[JR6ooo4]

FWIW. I agree totally with your original post tiggr33. Really sensible and good observations.

Thank you for offering to help sort out what is in my opinion a problem that has been ongoing from I started using the photography board and yet to be resolved.

I do not see the point of having rules if they are not to be observed.
I'm sorry that you have had some negative responses but I wouldn't worry too much about it. Everybody has different opinions and are entitled to them.
The idea of members contacting other members telling them how their photo breaks the rules is ridiculous. This IMO should be done by a moderator, the person running the competition or as you suggest - a group of reviewers.

As for your concerns over allowing entries to be reposted. This is against the rules. If an entry is posted and it breaks the rules then it should not go to the voting stage.

Please note that the above is all my opinion only. I believe that if a Competition is to be held here on the Dis it should be done right, without any grey areas.

Having said this I too am grateful to rtphokie for taking the work on and however which way the competition is run I will continue to take part.

Maybe it should be percieved as a game to play, with people that love Disney. Not realy a competition.
Jmo though...

Mikeeee

 

[willis37862]

Maybe it should be percieved as a game to play, with people that love Disney. Not realy a competition.
Jmo though...

Mikeeee

Exactly. Why does it have to be a cut throat competition. There aren't any prizes and I doubt 80% of the DIS even knows about this contest or cares. Many of the people that enter it regularly seem to be friends with each other just having fun.

One of the reasons I quit entering the contests on a regular basis was all the nitpicking and complaining. Can't anything just be fun! If you don't win you don't win and if you do so what. I have said it before and I will say it again some people on the DIS need to lighten up

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Sounds like we need a poll.

 

[CheshireVal]

People, by nature, are competitive. If it's only supposed to be a game, then why not stick with "Disney Picture of the Day" threads?

It's because everyone wants to win, whether they'll admit it to themselves or not.

I think the contest seems to be running just fine, but it would be nice if there were some way to enforce the rules. It's a bit annoying when a rule-breaking picture makes it to the final vote (or even wins), because it's like, hey, *I* could have submitted a winning picture, too, but I stuck to the rules. You know?

But then again it would be nice if the voters could police themselves and familiarize themselves with the rules before voting for those kinds of pictures.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Wow, I never expected so much negativity (not simply the posts here but the few direct noted I received)

I'm not seeing the the negativity to which you are referring. A few of people might not be taking this as seriously as some others, but I wouldn't call that negativity.

I see a lot of smart aleck remarks.

Oooh. Oooh. That's me. I'm a self-appointed forum clown ; a job I take very seriously. It would be great if the DisBoard provided a way to ignore annoying posters, but then again, I'd get really lonely.

I think if we are going to have rules, they need to be clear rules.

I think we have clear rules. I think that the problem is that the rules (necessarily) require a higher level of knowledge than some posters have. Not everyone understands resolution and how to resize photos. Not everyone knows the rules for photography on every ride. Sometimes people just make mistakes. I don't know of any cases where a poster, other than myself, has deliberately tried to violate the rules or cheated.

Maybe most of the people here are snap-shot types, I am not.

We have all types here. There are professional photographers , serious amateurs , complete newbies , and even idiots that think that just because they have really expensive cameras they are good photographers . I think that most people are in the contests to have fun . Andromeda and RTPHokie have run the contest in a way that accommodates everyone . They've also listened to everyone's suggestions for improvements. Sure, they haven't taken my suggestions seriously , but neither have I .

As to being a fuss, why have rules then? Why not just make it a POTW and not a contest?

As to being fuss, why add more negativity to this? Why not offer up suggestions to help the situation that was brought up by rtphokie.

I think that the rules are fine the way they are. People are having fun and contest participation is very high. I think that the current contest overlord ::cop: is doing a great job (but don't tell him that I said that) and I really don't think that the contest needs a review board . If it helps lighten his load, I'll start sending friendly PM's to people that make a mistake with their entry instead of just badgering the chief enforcer ::cop:. Wait, I'll only do that if he explains what the heck "Sola-Rex, Sola-Rah" means.

Maybe it's time I just I put the lens cap on my involvement here.

Your call. If you want this to be a serious competition taken seriously by all, you'll probably be disappointed (although it wouldn't help if maybe I won it some day - hint, hint). If you want to have fun and see how many people vote for your pics , keep with it.


Oh, and if there is a review board , I think I should be in charge . Then I'll show those non-Canon users who's boss . Mwah, hah, hah, hah, hah!!! (That's supposed to be a manical laugh).

Do I get a prize for using so many smileys???

 

[willis37862]

Sounds like we need a poll.

Do I get a prize for using so many smileys???

I don't know, did you adhere strictly to the rules for smilie posting?

 

[Master Mason]

It would be great if the DisBoard provided a way to ignore annoying posters, but then again, I'd get really lonely.

There is actually, but I won't block you, I promise.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

don't know, did you adhere strictly to the rules for smilie posting?

Actually, it barked at me because I had 27 smilies. I had to drop two. I just can't keep up with all these darn rules.

There is actually, but I won't block you, I promise.

Did somebody say something? I thought I heard something.

Actually, this probably explains why I haven't seen anything from that pointless 0lbi0 kid in a while.

 

[rtphokie]

The idea of members contacting other members telling them how their photo breaks the rules is ridiculous. This IMO should be done by a moderator, the person running the competition or as you suggest - a group of reviewers.

I was a bit surprised by the hesitance some have in contacting others with concerns. This is generally a friendly board so a friendly note either pointing out a problem or asking a question about a shot would not be unwelcome.

The problem is that I'm getting contacted several times a day with complaints and I'm getting tired of it. I can almost hear some of them whining "Teacher, WDWGoofyMickeyLover2 broke the rules". The ones that really have gotten to me are those that are accusatory of me for "not following the rules that I wrote."

For the most part, I didn't write the rules. They've been there since before I started posting here. I've tweaked them a bit to clarify some things that have come up over the past couple months. I think the rules are good, perhaps a little more complicated than necessary but that complexity has come not from necessity but often to satisfy specific complaints.

I check the current thread at least once a day (usually more) and PM posters directly when I see something that break the rules. What I'm not ready to do is guarantee that all the entries are completely legal and that's precisely what some are asking me to do. If that's what people want, I'm going to need some help.


Personally I dont see the need for such stringent measures. Above all, this is supposed to be fun. The more process we put around it, the less fun it is for me or anyone else.

As for your concerns over allowing entries to be reposted. This is against the rules. If an entry is posted and it breaks the rules then it should not go to the voting stage.

I've been allowing people to do that. If there is a problem with it, we can remove the rule about reposting. I dont want new people to feel too intimidated to enter the contest. The first contest I entered I broke half the rules because I didn't read the rules. Had I gotten PMs informing me of my transgressions and told that my entries would not be considered for voting, I might not have entered another contest. Instead a regular on the board (not even the person running the contest then) PM'd me with a link to the rules, told me what I'd done wrong and encouraged me to edit the post and make it right so I could participate. I took it for what is was, friendly advice. I kept posting and went on to place in a few contests and even win one.

Yes it's a contest and yes it needs rules but it's also not the bar exam. It can be executed in a friendly way. As a contest, we will pick winners but I rank that 3rd in importance IMHO. 1st is learning from each other, 2nd is encouraging participation.

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Personally I dont see the need for such stringent measures. Above all, this is supposed to be fun. The more process we put around it, the less fun it is for me or anyone else.

I've been allowing people to do that. If there is a problem with it, we can remove the rule about reposting. I dont want new people to feel too intimidated to enter the contest. The first contest I entered I broke half the rules because I didn't read the rules. Had I gotten PMs informing me of my transgressions and told that my entries would not be considered for voting, I might not have entered another contest. Instead a regular on the board (not even the person running the contest then) PM'd me with a link to the rules, told me what I'd done wrong and encouraged me to edit the post and make it right so I could participate. I took it for what is was, friendly advice. I kept posting and went on to place in a few contests and even win one.

Yes it's a contest and yes it needs rules but it's also not the bar exam. It can be executed in a friendly way. As a contest, we will pick winners but I rank that 3rd in importance IMHO. 1st is learning from each other, 2nd is encouraging participation.

Thank you rtphokie. I went back and read every post in this thread and realized I am the offending picture poster in the Rides thread. I appreciate your kindness and allowing me to repost, because you're right -- if I was only told my picture broke the rules and didn't qualify, I probably would never post another one. I am sorry if my deleting and reposting my too big photo caused such a hassle. I didn't read the rules and I should have. All I knew was I needed to resize my photo and it still looked too big to me when I would check the properties on it. That's why I deleted and reposted. (In fact it still looks too big to me but you and Andrew said it was okay now, so I'm sure it must be something to do with my browser cache. At least I hope that's why I'm still seeing it in its too big size!) At any rate, thanks for your patience and for kindly explaining to me what I did wrong and allowing me to resize and repost the photo. I'm sorry if you are getting a lot of heat because you allowed me to repost my photo. OTOH, if people really hate that I wasn't disqualified, they can always choose to not vote for my photo. Thanks again!

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I've been allowing people to do that. If there is a problem with it, we can remove the rule about reposting.

I haven't noticed the reposting bit. What are we worried about here? Someone substituting a better picture half-way into the contest? I think we'd want to allow reposting if it was fixing oversized entries or replacing illegal entries. I can see banning strategic reposting (although I'm apparently not bright enough to figure out what that might be), but allowing reposting to correct mistakes seems like the friendly thing to do.

 

[jann1033]

I'm not seeing the the negativity to which you are referring. A few of people might not be taking this as seriously as some others, but I wouldn't call that negativity.


Oooh. Oooh. That's me. I'm a self-appointed forum clown ; a job I take very seriously. It would be great if the DisBoard provided a way to ignore annoying posters, but then again, I'd get really lonely.


I think we have clear rules. I think that the problem is that the rules (necessarily) require a higher level of knowledge than some posters have. Not everyone understands resolution and how to resize photos. Not everyone knows the rules for photography on every ride. Sometimes people just make mistakes. I don't know of any cases where a poster, other than myself, has deliberately tried to violate the rules or cheated.



We have all types here. There are professional photographers , serious amateurs , complete newbies , and even idiots that think that just because they have really expensive cameras they are good photographers . I think that most people are in the contests to have fun . Andromeda and RTPHokie have run the contest in a way that accommodates everyone . They've also listened to everyone's suggestions for improvements. Sure, they haven't taken my suggestions seriously , but neither have I .



I think that the rules are fine the way they are. People are having fun and contest participation is very high. I think that the current contest overlord ::cop: is doing a great job (but don't tell him that I said that) and I really don't think that the contest needs a review board . If it helps lighten his load, I'll start sending friendly PM's to people that make a mistake with their entry instead of just badgering the chief enforcer ::cop:. Wait, I'll only do that if he explains what the heck "Sola-Rex, Sola-Rah" means.



Your call. If you want this to be a serious competition taken seriously by all, you'll probably be disappointed (although it wouldn't help if maybe I won it some day - hint, hint). If you want to have fun and see how many people vote for your pics , keep with it.


Oh, and if there is a review board , I think I should be in charge . Then I'll show those non-Canon users who's boss . Mwah, hah, hah, hah, hah!!! (That's supposed to be a manical laugh).

Do I get a prize for using so many smileys???

i almost thought this was one of my posts with so many of the cute little fellows..i agree with willis...lighten up people..it's a game i'd rather read 10 smart aleck but funny posts than one cranky one...i can go to plenty of other photo websites if i want that

 

[MarkBarbieri]

i almost thought this was one of my posts with so many of the cute little fellows..i agree with willis...lighten up people..it's a game i'd rather read 10 smart aleck but funny posts than one cranky one...i can go to plenty of other photo websites if i want that

Ummmm...when I post a cranky, smart aleck post, how does that count? And does it really need to be funny or is trying good enough?

 

[jann1033]

Actually, it barked at me because I had 27 smilies. I had to drop two. I just can't keep up with all these darn rules.



Did somebody say something? I thought I heard something.

Actually, this probably explains why I haven't seen anything from that pointless 0lbi0 kid in a while.

he can't take it anymore and blocked us all. maybe we need to put it in all our sigs...Where's ObliO

 

[fitzperry]

i almost thought this was one of my posts with so many of the cute little fellows..i agree with willis...lighten up people..it's a game i'd rather read 10 smart aleck but funny posts than one cranky one...i can go to plenty of other photo websites if i want that

Amen to that. Of course I'm one of the people who jumped on the sarcasm bandwagon, so I would say that.

I've been lurking on the D300 board in another popular forum trying to get some tips in anticipation of my planned upgrade (yay! ). Sheesh, those people are nasty to each other--very competitive and always trying to one up each other. I've always enjoyed the more laid back atmosphere here. I understand the need for rules, particularly with the growing number of contest participants, but it ought to be possible to have these contests without some byzantine rule system and a panel of moderators to ensure fairness. I guess I just can't imagine that there are many people deliberately breaking the rules. I suspect most of these "violations" are inadvertent and would be happily corrected upon receipt of a friendly message to that effect.

 

[mabas9395]

I am personally in favor of banning anyone who has ever broken a rule, complained about a rule breaker, posted without reading the rules, uses to many emoticons, posts smart alec remarks, uses Nikons, has ever come in 1st, 2nd or 3rd in any previous contest, or just in general is a better photographer than me.

Maybe that way I can finally win one of these darn contests!

 

[JR6ooo4]

Wow! I did not expect...

Heheheheheeee

Mikeeee

 

[emmabelle]

Do I get a prize for using so many smileys???

OMG, I was just thinking that!


I love this contest. I looked at a contest on another photography board, and I would just be laughed off of it. I like that this contest is laid back, especially because I had a picture that was too big this week! But don't worry people, I read how to check the size of my picture, so I assure you it will not happen again. By the way I love the smart-aleck comments, that's why I keep opening the thread to see if any new ones have been added.

 

[Donold_Fan]

Thank you rtphokie. I went back and read every post in this thread and realized I am the offending picture poster in the Rides

Actually, I broke the rules in the "Rides" contest too, I posted a picture that was 633x800. I used Picasa to crop, and it doesn't let you choose a dimension, it gives you 4x6, 5x7, 8x10 or manual drag. I failed to pay attention to the results and when I told photobucket to link at 800, it still had the horizontal dimension at 633. After a super nice PM from RTPHokie, I recropped to get rid of the offending 33 or so pixels. So, I submitted a photo that was illegal, recropped and reentered the same photo. It's HE double hockey sticks for me.

Anyway, I didn't want you to feel you were the sole focus of the complaints. I share some of the blame.


As someone said earlier, I'd really hate to see this thread if prizes were offered....sheesh.

 

[steery1]

I think the solution is to stop calling it a competition or contest. Forget about the "rules" Then remove the voting stages.
That way everyone can post, it'll be really laid back, friendly and so much fun. And think of all the smart unhelpful remarks we can post! I can hardly contain myself.