Photo Competitions - Expansion

For a number of years now, we have had successful monthly photo competitions running, and we have seen some remarkable photographs posted. @wiseowl continues to make sure that they run smoothly, and I am sure you will join me in thanking him for his ongoing efforts.

Gardeners Corner continues to grow, and is now well established as THE friendliest gardening forum on the internet, if not the friendliest forum of all - this is borne out by the fact that we are all here, on a daily basis, even in the dead of winter to keep each other company and to share our other hobbies. So, the staff team got to thinking what we could do to build on the success of the Photo Competitions, and what we could do to make things a bit more interesting.......

The traditional photo competitions will of course continue, with the winner being posted on the homepage each month - that is a given. However, starting with this year's January winner, the winning photo will also be posted into the new Champion of Champions thread - the staff team will take care of this, so please don't worry that you will have to be re-posting images etc if you win.

In addition to this, we will run additional themed Photo Comps throughout the year - the theme will be clearly shown, and will also be seasonally sensitive (so we are not going to be asked for Snow pictures in July ) - voting will be done in the same way as it is for the main Photo Comp, and the winner will be announced on the thread and via a forum notice containing a link to the winning photo. The winner of these themed comps will also go into the Champion of Champion thread.

At the end of the year, there will be a vote (exact timing to be decided upon), and the overall winner will have that photo placed onto the homepage (potentially over the New Year period, but this will depend on the timing yet to be decided).

In the past couple of weeks, there has been a remarkable amount of interest and support for the changes in the Recipes forums, and we hope that these ideas will also be as interesting to you too - we look forward to being snowed under with photo entries (yes, we love a good photo around here!) in all the competitions.

So, get snapping folks, and don't forget - you won't win it if you ain't in it!

 

You get the special prize @"M"............




































You will find it in Shiney's garden in May..... goes by the name of Asparagus!

 

It is only ambiguous because we have not discussed or decided yet @"M", and we are of course completely open to input from everyone as to what their preference will be -- given that this is going to take place at the end of the year, I think it is quite reasonable that it is ambiguous at this stage.

As for any bias as to who wins, what I can assure you (and everyone else) is that the winner is chosen based purely on the number of votes; @wiseowl takes considerable time to check and double check the result every month before posting the winner -- if people are choosing to vote for their favourite according to their own bias, then I am afraid I don't think that there is a lot we can do about that - from my own perspective, when I vote, I vote for the image that I like the best - and that is it. Whether you choose to take part is of course entirely up to you, however I am certain that your entries would be treated in the same way as any other by the vast majority (if not all) other members.

The changes that we are making, both to photos as well as the recipes threads, is to try and strengthen our community and give us even more in common throughout the year, and I assure you that I personally would not have wasted my own free time in doing the required work if I thought that it was just for a select few or that there was some sort of bias or other shenanegans going on.

 

I'm sorry, "M" but yet again you are speaking for yourself,

Yet, again, we have done our research, taken time, taken thought to appraise means of ensuring that the Photo Competition gives pleasure and and enjoyment to the members. It is not designed to please an individual nor all the members of GC, but those members who do enjoy putting their talent and ideas into the competition.

The one who will have entered the best image and who received the most votes given by members of GC........who else would? Are you saying/implying that some members who won shouldn't have, in your opinion, or that the competition wasn't fair or balanced in your estimation.?

I disagree, "M", that is precisely what you are doing. Woo has committed a great deal of time, effort, and his innate sense of fairness has made sure that the rules, which have evolved over a long time, have been observed.

Let's see now, members submit basically unaltered images that they have taken, the subject being decided by the last Winner. The members then vote independently as to who they vote for and those votes are displayed in the Open Forum so no "miscount" can be reached. So where does the "bias" arise?, is it the members who voted independently?, is it Admin covertly changing the results, is it Woo alone deciding the winner? Or is it, in truth, yourself being biased?

Actually, as has been proved over the course of the Competition it's the person with the "eye" and mental courage and confidence to see and take an image and then enter it in the competition. Yes, of course, keen and experienced photographers will enter the competition, and so hopefully may that continue, but the idea of the competition is to encourage those who may not be experienced, skilled, or have the confidence to see in their images a deserved quality and acclamation should they enter. I cannot see in any of your posts "support" for the competition, or any encouragement to those who have not yet entered but who might in the belief that, as I stated, the competition is fair, unbiased, and winning only depends on the image itself whether that is taken by a hi-tech camera, a phone camera, or a pick up and shoot camera. Criticism comes easy, but actually putting in an image for perusal by members whether you win or not is a lot harder but much more positive.
Your thoughts are valued, "M", but saying you won't enter the competition because it's biased or the independent votes by members are based on "popularity", are unbased and possibly your views come from a lack of confidence in your own images.

 

Now, whilst I am of the opinion that anything that boosts our Photo Comps is worthwhile, I would (personal opinion) be against the staff team making selections in this way. This forum prides itself on being the Friendly Gardening Forum, and as such it is all about the members - not the staff team. Furthermore, the staff team making decisions in this way could (quite rightly) lead to suspicion of bias, which then has the potential for things to be unfair.

However, a potential solution - so what about this?

Should someone come across an image on ANY thread in the forums that they feel is worthy of recognition, they notify one of the staff team (and I am happy to nominate myself as the responsible party for this if it makes things easier) via PM of the post/image and why they believe it is worthy of further recognition. That post/image could then be copied across to a poll thread where the members can vote to choose whether or not that image gets included in the Champion of Champions thread for the year?

I will also copy this post into the staff room so that my colleagues are aware, as we make all decisions on a consensus basis, and this is not something that we would take forward without agreement from all.

 

That's not a bad idea, Tetters, but,as you have seen in earlier posts, such things would be open to accusations of bias especially if those images for selection were chosen by Staff. It might be better if members were to suggest a short list of images from the competition themselves.

As regards a monetary prize it would have to come from the pockets of the Admin team who are all unpaid volunteers giving their own time. So it would be a case of raising money for a prize by.....