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Tauri

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So i did the probably wrong thing today after i posed the result of the December competition to look in world chat. What i found was a lot of complaints about everything was rigged, how it was unfair and what not, most if not all of the comments to the contest was negative.

 

So from that i have a request to everyone that is involved with the contest, anyone from the people that enter the contest to the ones that hate it for various reasons.

Id love to make the contest perfect but it wont ever be, but that doesnt mean we cant try right?

 

If the people that have ideas on how to improve the contest, make it more fair or whatever else would be kind and post them here so we can discuss them and figure out a way to imrpove the contest overall each month.

 

That is all i ask, im looking forward to hearing ideas, hopefully all this negativity can turn into something good.

 

 

EDIT: Ive seen a lot of people ask for the judges to be changed often, and i have tried to do that before but more often than not i got people that declined being judges, and to be quite honest.. I dont want to spend my time searching for replacement judges every month.

Edited by Tauri
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For it to be really fair, it would have to be judges who don't play 3DX and don't know anyone there, that's really the only way to do it.

 

If you get the pics anonymously, you will still recognise the avi's usually and it can still be rigged by people voting for their friends etc.

(Not saying that's what's happening, but some people claim it)

 

I don't think there is really another way to fully solve this, but maybe there are people out there who have a better idea and solution to this all

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An email you send your submission to would be easy but that would force you to give me your email address which you might not be comfortable with and honestly i dont think id want that myself. Im not sure if there are websites that let you submit photos that only a few select people can then access, but if there are id love to know them and have a look to see if it would work for the contest.

 

Now assuming that would be possible, id pack up all the images submitted and send them to the judges, without any names on the pictures, they would then tell me which they vote for and that would be it. Does that sound like a better solution?

 

A big downside to this kind of solution is that most people here will never be able to see the pictures that are entered, which to me seems like half the fun of it all.

 

Another thing i see repeated a few times.. Is that people seem to want the people who win one month to be unable to win the next. Which makes sense but should they be able unable to enter at all, or only be unable to win? or get in the top 3?

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Guest beccie

Ofc the winner one month should be able to win the next... I'd be pretty miffed if I won then was told I couldnt enter cos I was better than everyone else!

 

I think you can restrict public views of images on imgur - though off the top of my head not sure if this is only to one person (or maybe an imgur account can be created that the judges have access to).

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Ofc the winner one month should be able to win the next... I'd be pretty miffed if I won then was told I couldnt enter cos I was better than everyone else!

 

I think you can restrict public views of images on imgur - though off the top of my head not sure if this is only to one person (or maybe an imgur account can be created that the judges have access to).

But that still takes away some of the fun does it not? I mean no one but me and judges can actually see everyones pictures, now i dont know how everyone feels about that but if i was entering in the competition id like for others to see my picture even if i did not win.

 

Of course could open the album of pictures to everyone after the votes have been counted

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Guest beccie

But that still takes away some of the fun does it not? I mean no one but me and judges can actually see everyones pictures, now i dont know how everyone feels about that but if i was entering in the competition id like for others to see my picture even if i did not win.

 

Of course could open the album of pictures to everyone after the votes have been counted

No I agree - I was only answering your question about whether there is an image host that allows pics to be made private. It doesn't mean I want to see it go that way!

 

The easy way to dispel any suspicions of bias/unfair voting is, of course, to award 1st place to me. Job done :D

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I've heard there is a rotation of judges every few months or so. For those that have an issue with the judging, perhaps you should apply to become a judge.

 

Also, I think part of the problem is people see a pic with more "likes" not win vs. a pic with less likes win. Perhaps likes should not be recorded and the judges find another way to break ties. Perhaps a tie should go to the person that has won the least and if that is still tied then split the xgold.

 

Frankly, I think no changes are needed and that we are swinging this pendulum to far.

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I'm a little new to the pic contest   never entered a pic or anything but why have Judges at all, why not just pick the winner with the most likes, now i know some here have more friends than others to vote for their  pics but at least every vote would count then  and it would be the forum community picking the winner not a panel of Judges. Maybe that wouldn't work  just throwin it out there

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Guest Twiggy

Hey guys I won in the month I entered, the black and white series.

For me to win that has to show it is not rigged.

For me a lot of what I enjoyed was looking at what others had entered to, so making it so that can't be done and also people cant see what you have done will take a lot away from it.

Why not make it so people make forum accounts just for the contest, like say "PicContestant101".

That way people can still see what has been done and see other peoples entries and such.

I hope you get something worked out, it would be a real shame to see it taken out.

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I'm a little new to the pic contest   never entered a pic or anything but why have Judges at all, why not just pick the winner with the most likes, now i know some here have more friends than others to vote for their  pics but at least every vote would count then  and it would be the forum community picking the winner not a panel of Judges. Maybe that wouldn't work  just throwin it out there

It used to be like that. But was heavily biased to those with lots of friends as the same people kept winning each month because they had the most friends like their photo submissions. It was an unfair thing for everyone else especially new players. It was why the judge system was brought into play I assume. ^^

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I would seek to remove likes for two reasons. One a pic posted on 31st is unlikely to get sufficient likes to beat an earlier post - see last month where my pic - posted on 1st - got more likes than a pic posted on 26th. I then beat this pic to second place following a vote tie.
Secondly it adds herd mentality to the judging. Subconsciously you see a pic has 30 likes and a judge will be like "oh yeah I must vote for this one as it must be good". People used to have the same reaction to any post made by sugarbunny when they saw her name and decided it was bad before they read it - ha ha!

But, present system yields quick results and it must take the judges 30 seconds to vote.

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Its hard to replace the likes, like what would the alternative be, a dice roll? that would just make it all seem a little weird if you ask me. But i suppose if there is a tie in some way i could send the pictures that are tied back to the judges and they could vote once more between however many there is tied. Would probably make it take another day or so to get the results out but thats not too bad.

 

Also to whoever that might read this and want to help out by being a judge, please do pm me here on the forums. Its been two months since the last judge change, but i have had a hard time trying to find new ones.

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Guest beccie

The way I see it, there are two plausible options.

 

1) Leave the system as it is. Everyone likes looking at the entries, so restricting access would be counter-productive. Cease the use of likes as a tie-breaker and send the two first place entries to the judges to revote on should this situation arise (which it won't always).

 

Entrants simply have to accept that the judges' decisions are subjective; what makes a winning image does not necessarily make a 'good' one, as in December's Photoshopped competition. Luck has a heck of a lot to do with it.

 

2) Overhaul the prizes to award one winner for different categories, for example 'Technical winner', 'Creativitity', 'Composition', 'Photoshopping' etc. Maybe 4 categories with one/two judges per category? However the judges might need to have some experience or knowledge to judge fairly, unlike the current system which is more or less what they see that they like.

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The way I see it, there are two plausible options.

 

1) Leave the system as it is. Everyone likes looking at the entries, so restricting access would be counter-productive. Cease the use of likes as a tie-breaker and send the two first place entries to the judges to revote on should this situation arise (which it won't always).

 

Entrants simply have to accept that the judges' decisions are subjective; what makes a winning image does not necessarily make a 'good' one, as in December's Photoshopped competition. Luck has a heck of a lot to do with it.

 

2) Overhaul the prizes to award one winner for different categories, for example 'Technical winner', 'Creativitity', 'Composition', 'Photoshopping' etc. Maybe 4 categories with one/two judges per category? However the judges might need to have some experience or knowledge to judge fairly, unlike the current system which is more or less what they see that they like.

 

Or they just give everyone who enters x-amount of gold and get over with the voting system. Judging pictures is very tricky as it is in the eye of the beholder and everyone looks at pictures different. I heard many times that good pictures did not win the contest. But the question would be "What is good and what is bad".

 

Sarcasm aside. I dont think it really needs to be more precise as it is. They just added up 2 slots for the photoshopped one and that should be enough. Going overboard with it will kill the contest because it would basically become a job for the judges to go through all pictures and put them in the said categories if they fit or not... its just to much work in my opinion.

 

I dont even think the judges get any advantage of it like a small stipend of gold or anything. They just do it voluntary... but thats the huge problem within this community... voluntary work is always critized and alot of proposals going around how it could be done better. Nothing bad about ideas and proposals but we should keep the church in the village for a little while right?

 

Free Stuff should be taken as is. Free. No need to ask for better free stuff really!

 

 

 

You "probably did the wrong thing" by paying any attention to World Chat.

Never use it as a gauge of anything.

 

So much this!

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Guest beccie

 

Or they just give everyone who enters x-amount of gold and get over with the voting system. Judging pictures is very tricky as it is in the eye of the beholder and everyone looks at pictures different. I heard many times that good pictures did not win the contest. But the question would be "What is good and what is bad".

 

Sarcasm aside. I dont think it really needs to be more precise as it is. They just added up 2 slots for the photoshopped one and that should be enough. Going overboard with it will kill the contest because it would basically become a job for the judges to go through all pictures and put them in the said categories if they fit or not... its just to much work in my opinion.

 

I dont even think the judges get any advantage of it like a small stipend of gold or anything. They just do it voluntary... but thats the huge problem within this community... voluntary work is always critized and alot of proposals going around how it could be done better. Nothing bad about ideas and proposals but we should keep the church in the village for a little while right?

 

Free Stuff should be taken as is. Free. No need to ask for better free stuff really!

 

 

I was making two suggestions, one of which was to effectively do nothing. No need for the sarcasm then.

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Or they just give everyone who enters x-amount of gold and get over with the voting system. Judging pictures is very tricky as it is in the eye of the beholder and everyone looks at pictures different. I heard many times that good pictures did not win the contest. But the question would be "What is good and what is bad".

 

Sarcasm aside. I dont think it really needs to be more precise as it is. They just added up 2 slots for the photoshopped one and that should be enough. Going overboard with it will kill the contest because it would basically become a job for the judges to go through all pictures and put them in the said categories if they fit or not... its just to much work in my opinion.

 

I dont even think the judges get any advantage of it like a small stipend of gold or anything. They just do it voluntary... but thats the huge problem within this community... voluntary work is always critized and alot of proposals going around how it could be done better. Nothing bad about ideas and proposals but we should keep the church in the village for a little while right?

 

Free Stuff should be taken as is. Free. No need to ask for better free stuff really!

 

 

 

 

So much this!

You are correct, judges arent getting anything for what they do, neither do i.

 

From next month and forward likes wont have any effect anymore, it will be done as i described earlier, might take a day more to get out but thats how it goes. and ontop of that ive already gotten a few people interested in replacing a few of the current judges which is nice so there can be some rotation every few months.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest RomanFox

Not sure if this has been answered yet:

Tauri:

Im not sure if there are websites that let you submit photos that only a few select people can then access, but if there are id love to know them and have a look to see if it would work for the contest.

 

A website that could be used is called IMGUR.COM which is probably very familiar. It allows people to create an account (which I strongly suggest if you like to keep the quality of your image as much as possible) and upload pictures to an album (or not) and make it private... that way... only the person with the URL to it can access the images.

 

PS: You could potentially create an account under your 3DX alias, so no need to worry about your identities people!

The account thing isn't obligated, but it helps with image quality.

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