POTW is coming back in a new way
 

We've been trying to work out the best way to run the POTW competition and think we might have a system that most will be happy with. There were some clear issues with bassing it on number of gallery comments but also it being choosen by the mods doesn't seem ideal either.

So here is the new system which we will try and see how it goes (obviously we can make alterations if needed). Each member will be able to email their choice for photo of the week to 'wpf-potw @ hotmail.co.uk' (without the gaps) they will need to include the title of the photo and the name of the member who took it (and a link if possible). This way each member will get one anonomous vote each week, a mod will then collect the votes and post details of the POTW up on the forum.

I would ask members to email their choice after midnight GMT on Saturday and before midnight GMT on the Monday (choosing between photos posted upto midnight GMT on the Saturday). The result will be posted onto the forum in the following days.

You've clearly been thinking hard and I for one support your proposal. Could the details be included in the banner "Gallery Information" so it's nice and handy?:)

Sounds like it could work. Like Peters idea as I think it will need to be as obverse as possible to everyone and lots of reminders to vote.

sounds good, anything is worth a try,I think a reminder wound be good too,being on a different time zone I get confused with the times....when is it starting?

I agree with the above, there has to be a very obvious banner somewhere with instructions of what to do etc. Look forward to seeing the new POTW starting, hopefully you will make it obvious when it kicks off.

Sounds like a good idea, it'll high-light the gallery as a bonus too.

Good to see POTW return.

When does it start?

Let's kick it off from this week - so from midnight Saturday email details of your favourite POTW (so any photo taken between then and midnight the previous Saturday). I know that this isn't the easiest way to vote but hopefully it will work and we can get it up and running again, the system can always be tweeked as we go along.

So far I have had some votes for POTW but I am sure there are more to come, please vote now.

I tried to vote last night, maybe it was too late as the e-mail came back undelivered or else I put in the wrong address!

Not sure why that would happen as others emails have come through ok. I won't be able to get onto a PC to sortthem and post a winner until his evening at the earliest so if you can try again it would be good, if it bounces just PM me your choice.

I think I put in a . instead of a dash after wpf (senior moment no doubt!).

Marydoll

I am confused about the email address to use in order to vote. I sent you an email with my vote Peter, is that the one to use or what?

I have set up an email specifically for this which is WPF-POTW @ hotmail.co.uk (without the spaces). I did get some votes come throug on PM and to my own email, which is no problem and hey all got counted. It will only be an issue if another mod were to be sorting it one week as they'd only get the ones to the specific email. This won't happen in he first few weeks while we all get into the swing of the new system.

With all the confusion hope my vote got to the right place.
Don't understand why you write the Email address with capitals and spaces. Could that be part of the confusion, why not [email protected] ?
Then lazy people like me could copy and paste. Ok, I did but had to delete spaces. Saved in contacts for next week.

I think eventually you need a permanent sticky about voting with all the rules and a link to the email address for voting as otherwise not only will people like me forget and lose the link but new people to the forum won't have a clue.

I wrote it like that because clickable email addresses get picked up by automated spam systems! As for capitals, it was auto corrected to that by my phone when I typed it but wil make no difference as emails are not case sensitive.

this thread is a sticky one already, once we have it running smoothly I will be updating the first post to give clear details on voting.

Thanks Peter.

Is it me, it probably is, I missed the opportunity to vote as I don't know where to look for all the photos posted last week. Do we have to trawl through these manually or are they grouped together in one gallery. If we do have to trawl through is there an easy way to view just the photos from last week. I know there is a shortcut to show the last 7 days but if it ends on Saturday and I browse on Sunday some of the entries will be missing.
I have been using this forum for a while now and if I'm having problems then newer members may also be experiencing them. If so they will not join in.

I just remembered from my daily trawl what I thought were the "deserving" ones Steve, and then before voting had a quick look back to identify them using the seven day button. (I'd need to find my winner so I could e mail the link to postcard cv). Having done a quick review of my shortlist I lodged a vote. I believe this is a sensible way to proceed given that nobody's livelihood is at stake and the site is basically for the enjoyment of its members. Dissenters can even post an alternative view on their favoured pic or here in POTW. Anything to liven things up.:)

That's quite a commitment as I generally scan the new pictures daily but would probably forget which pictures I had preferred even an hour later, let alone a week (age gets to us all).
Surely there has to be an easier way to browse the weekly collection of new image. If there were a weekly gallery wouldn't it encourage more members to get involved in either submitting images and/or voting.
It would be very interesting to know how many people actually voted this week or after a few weeks into the new system, which I should say, I do support and would like to see become a success.

I just pressed the 7 day button on the Saturday, quickly scanned the photos to remind myself of the photos I had particularly liked, made my choice and sent an email. Took two or three minutes at most, the bulk of the work being done during the week.

I know a lot of thought has probably gone into this, but it sounds complicated. Like Steve I don't understand how to look at all the photos from the last 7 days. The gallery has always confused me.

on the gallery page if you look on the right hand side below the pictures you will see recent photos...1 day 7 days 14 days...click on 7 days and have a look through them...

I also usually know the few images I really like & think are worthy of POTW as I look every day to see what is on here, then I have a quick look through to see if I missed anything ,then vote.

[quote=postcardcv;52394]I wrote it like that because clickable email addresses get picked up by automated spam systems! As for capitals, it was auto corrected to that by my phone when I typed it but wil make no difference as emails are not case sensitive.
Thanks for the explanation. Please feel free to change or remove my clickable email if you want to.
If nothing else this way of working POTW has got people involved. Realise it makes more work but would be nice to know how many people voted and what percentage the winner had. Just a thought to make it more interesting.

so are we voting for any photos posted from last Sunday GMT through to midnight sat. (yesterday)...is that how it works...I am getting confused by the time difference.

As far as I understand it vote for the shot of your choice that were posted from midnight last Saturday through to midnight Saturday (yesterday). Hope that makes sense, I had not realised another week had gone by so would have forgotten to vote.

did you get any votes for the second POTW?????

I sent a vote in

I did too!!.

well that's 3 of us...I sent in a vote too, just wondering where POTW is this week.

4 then as I did too.
Still think it is far from easy for a newcomer to find out about voting for POTW which is a shame as the more involved they are the more likely they are to stay.
They are hardly likely to search the whole of this thread for the required information.

yes I agree, I thought there would be a reminder in the gallery too...don't think this is going to work too well myself.

Yes I did get votes this week but haven't been able to get online to post up the winner - sorry about this but with three kids getting online in the summer holidays doesn't happen so much. I will post up the winner shortly.

I would have put up a reminder in the gallery as I did last week but could only access on my phone and couldn't post one up on that. There were less votes this week than last week so we will see how it goes in the next couple of weeks.

As for the ease of finding the info - all of the info required for voting is in the first post of this thread (let me know if anything is missing and I will update it). Once it is running smoothly I am planning to have a sticky thread just containing how to vote info, but was leaving it a few weeks to check that this was working. As people don't think this system will work perhaps someone can come up with a better solution. Moderator choice wasn't popular and basing it on number of comments doesn't work either. I know that it was suggested that we could have a vote button by each photo in the gallery but this does not seem to be possible with the gallery system we have.

I'm out of town at the moment, but I got a vote in and I think we should give it a few weeks running to settle in. Some stats would help when our noble moderator gets a chance. :-)

I am travelling interstate this week for my brothers funeral & will be away all week, won't have access to a computer so won't be able to vote next week...just realized it is another week gone & time to vote again!!!!! it's SUNDAY.

sorry Peter, I can imagine how hard it is with 3 kids to be able to get anything done.

Appreciate the time pressures on you guys - all we have to do is vote :confused: but I suspect that the numbers of votes you are getting fairly small.

It would be interesting to know the number of votes received & the % the winner gets.

Also are the winners going to be added to the POTW gallery <<<here>>> ?

[quote=Gidders;52460]
It would be interesting to know the number of votes received & the % the winner gets.

So would I, just out of interest.

I think this is key.
I have been away too so have not seen any of the photos yet nor back in time to vote so no vote cast this week.