Dear All,

All members of staff are following this thread with interest. We are always happy to hear suggestions from the membership. If there is a clear groundswell of support from a broad range of members, we will endeavour to act upon what has been suggested.

There are limits on what can be done, due to both the software used to run the site, and also ultimately because moderators do not have the final say in all this. This is Andy's site and what he says goes. Quite right too, it's his money that pays for it.

Moderators have an input into the process, just like regular members, but baiting us to respond will not work.

Thank you for your patience.

Whoa :( Time Out

Could we please try and maintain our reputation as a friendly site - some of this is getting unnecessarily personal towards Stephen. For those who don't remember - or weren't here - when we first wanted to start competitions a year ago we had lots of ideas but no-one to run it for us. It was Stephen who stepped up and voluntered to what is clearly - from the tone of some posts here - a pretty thankless task. Since then he has provided some monthly amusement for several of us and I for one am grateful.

I have been a member of a variety of clubs over time and have ended up on the committee of most of them and as chairman of 2. Of one thing you can be certain is that for every 10 people who will tell you how something should be run there is only one who is actually prepared to help !

Unless I've got special powers :eek: it is entirely possible to see how the voting is going before you cast your own vote. When you first look at the pole at the bottom right of the list is a link titled "Pole results" - Simply click on it and it shows the pole to date. Having found it by accident in one of the early competitions it is difficult not to look and difficult not to be swayed over relative merits - weak willed I may be but now I've told you how I defy you never to do it :rolleyes:

Most certainly not. How do I know - I've done it. :o My excuse is that having helped me take it my kids wanted me to, plus I genuinely thought it was good as any others on that occasion- a singularly rare event. In the outcome it came 1st equal and I then lost on vote off so poetic justice was done.;)

We are always willing to listen to views on the competition, though it has to be said that it has been running pretty well since its inception. And I would like to stress that it is absolutely no fun to set up and run, and Stephens job is not an enviable one.

It also has to be remembered that there are always software limitations to what can be done.

What I will say is that there will not be a qualification for entrants to the competitions, that has always been one our principal rules... i.e. if you're a member, you can submit an entry.

Other aspects are open to change though, and disabling the ability for members who haven't voted to see the current results will be looked into... This may well have been set to this default with a software upgrade to the site.

Another idea we have used before is to not permit comments on any photos entered for the competition until voting has finished, as many comments could influence voting.

The competition is just a bit of fun, that is why we have it... please don't take it too seriously or fall out over it.

cheers
Andy

When starting the thread I was only floating ideas and certainly had no intention of creating a..vehicle (?!)...for criticising Stephen or moderators in any way.

It looks as if for every opinion there is an equal and opposite opinion, which suggests that it is probably pretty well right as it is. Have also learnt a tiny bit about the decision making behind the scenes.

Thank you Andy and Duncan for clarifying the latter and of course Stephen for bearing with us past the sticky bits as well as doing the actual running work :) :) :)

My 10 penneth (for what it's worth!)
I don't care if the winning entry is taken by a first time novice or a seasoned pro - I just want see good images and be stimulated, ideally by a winning picture that is so good I would doubt my own ability to match it.
Secondly I think anonymous entries would be a good idea so nobody could ever be accused of favouritism (and I'm not pointing fingers).
Thirdly a gallery competition would be good as it proves someone can regularly come up with goods as opposed to getting lucky!

I hope thatyou aren't suggesting that I was baiting anyone. It certainly wasn't my intention. It just seemed foolish to continue the debate unless we knew that someone in authority was considering whatr we were saying.
I agree that the post commenting on Stephen was inappropriate. This forum and its sister forums wouldn't exist without his and other people's efforts.

I think that entries should be taken only during the month of the competition. It would make photographers think about and plan their shots. We may also get a few more innovative images (e.g. Mrs Y's entry for 'Blue').

This was put forward originally and I tend to agree as it challenges you to think about a specific concept. The idea could perhaps be made a little more flexible by giving advanced notice - say 3 or 6 months - of monthly themes, to allow a little bit longer for people in vastly different circumstance around the world ample time to find a shot they wanted to enter.

I don't think that this idea is very fair to those of us scattered around the World. There are great differences in what is available to many of us and while I recognise that the comp. catagories are broad enough to include all of us most of the time, why risk excluding some of us for no real point. This month, for example, the catagory is "Vehicles" and I would love to take a shot of our ferry. The problem is that it won't be free from the ice until May so unless I want a shot of an ice bound ferry, I'd better come come up with something else. Thinking about that, maybe it's not such a bad idea for an entry.
I think that the one year window is fair.