[Gidders]

When the fortnightly competition was set up in its current form, the 'no discussion' rule was implemented to to try to avoid influencing voters.

I've noticed recently that when people post their entries sometimes they also add some amplification of the subject matter, or an explanation of how the shot was taken etc. I suspect this has come about because when posting one's entry, if you put the image title in the post title box, then the forum software won't let you submit the post until you put something in the message box. The way round this is to leave the title box blank & put the image title in the message box.

Does this influence votes? I don't know, but I was prompted to create this thread by Robski's entry in the last competition (which I voted for), where, on learning how the shot was created, I remember thinking "that's clever - I'm not sure I would have understood the shot without the explanation." Would I have voted for it without the explanation? I'm not sure; maybe - maybe not. As it happened it didn't affect the outcome.

We used to see some people post a 'behind the scenes' giving more background to the shot after the voting closed which I found quite interesting & informative. My view is that we should revert to this but I would welcome other people's thoughts & please feel free to disagree.