POTY 2010 Launched!

Originally Posted by Amy Davies

beauxreflets - the spambot box is no longer there, on any of the site ;-)

Amy

Hi Amy,
I'm still having to fill in the captcha script box to place a comment besides the thumbs up. Is it because my dsl is not UK? Or is the spambot box here to stay?

[Amy Davies]

Hi Andy,

We had to put it back on again I'm afraid as we kept getting hit by spammers - sorry!

Thanks,

Amy

Thank you for your swift reply Amy.

Unfortunately I fear popular sites wll always be targeted, and I hope the sites design team can come up with a solution to the situation to encourage more interaction in the galleries and Poty2010.

[Amy Davies]

Hi Andy,

Good news - the captcha boxes are gone again

Obviously this is something we'll keep on eye on should those pesky spammers reappear, but for now, leaving comments should once again be a painless operation - comment away!

Thanks,

Amy

[Reinardina]

Thank goodness for that! It is such a laborious, slow process if you get it wrong three times in a row! It often happened to me; it probably stopped a lot of people in their tracks.

In previous years, I seemed to get a lot more comments (always very much appreciated), I hope the number will now go up again.
We all must have missed out; no one is likely to go back to photographs they saw and voted for in the past. Even if they could find them again.

Hi Amy,
I had noticed Great to see it's back to normal. Cheers

[Stormsong]

. . . but I still don't like the fact that the number of votes is hidden. It's like winking in the dark - only you know you are doing it. I know we have been told to look at the 'highest rated' and 'most commented' on POTY, but the highest rated could have 5 votes as opposed to 4. Or 1 as opposed to none. You see my point?
Regards,
Denise

[highlandscenics]

It is a good point, but speaking for myself, if I vote for a photo, I always leave a comment.

I suppose a good "halfway house" idea would be if everyone who votes for a picture, also leaves a comment, that way you'd know how many votes you'll have. But in reality not everyone feels inclined to leave a comment...which is a shame

[Reinardina]

Originally Posted by highlandscenics

It is a good point, but speaking for myself, if I vote for a photo, I always leave a comment.

I suppose a good "halfway house" idea would be if everyone who votes for a picture, also leaves a comment, that way you'd know how many votes you'll have. But in reality not everyone feels inclined to leave a comment...which is a shame

I'm afraid I must plead guilty to voting without leaving a comment. Either through lack of time, or problems with the 'Wobbly Words.' Now that we do not have to endure this nasty 'test for humanity' anymore, I'll mend my ways.

There may be people who do not leave comments because they have problems with the English language, though I have seen plenty of comments in foreign languages, so this does not hold everyone back.

As for checking the (non) progress of your pictures in the 'highest rated' section, I find this very frustrating. A picture can be on page two or three, but next time you look it has disappeared, only to reappear in more or less the same spot as before when you look again.

In the past the photos with the same number of votes played musical chairs, where the order in which they were shown changed regularly. The 'leader of the pack,' could be 'last in show' the next day. I suppose this is still the case.

I only check the first five pages of the 'highest rated.' If my pictures are not there, I give up, so I haven't got a clue how well I'm doing with some of them. This has a charm of its own though, especially when you find a picture you thought was getting nowhere, suddenly appears on page five.

As Denise says, we don't know if the top picture has six or sixhundred votes, so we don't know what we're up against. This system may, however, prevent the inane 'block voting' where groups of cyber friends from social networking sites vote to get/keep certain pictures at the top.

[mitchellkrog@gmail.com]

Originally Posted by ABERS

From past experience voting plays no part in the scheme of things, it just keeps the interest in the competition going.
With supposedly 100,000 entries it would be impossible to run a voting scheme. It would appear there are two levels, selection and judging. The selection process is carried out by DCM staff with a (relatively) short list presented to the final judges for the awards.

So don't be in awe of the list of eminent judges, one of which is a competent club judge, you are firstly in the hands of those that deem what is good or not at a different level. So vote to your heart's content it won't make one iota of difference to the outcome.

You also need to bear in mind this competition, like most magazine endeavours, is a marketing excercise. However it brings a lot of pleasure and excitement to many 100's of people so it must be commended for that. Good luck!

I agree, last year I had one image that had a mere 7 votes and was shortlisted, did not make the final cut but shows that the judges don't pay much attention to how many votes an image has received.