Have you experienced unfair voting on web competitions ?
 

Hi, I'm a newby here, hello to everyone.

This post in in 3 sections.

1. Firstly, has anyone ever entered a picture into a web-based competition, and been frustrated by unfair voting? I'm referring to the kind of contest where anyone can view the entries in the competition, and vote on them.

I've just entered one such competition, and noticed wide, wide discrepancies between different pictures.

For example, you see several mediocre pictures uploaded by the same person, which all have a ridiculously high number of votes ? Then you find other pictures which would grace the pages of National Geographic, yet only have a couple of votes, or none at all ? (PS. My pictures fall somewhere between these 2 extremes! )

Maybe entrants contact everyone they know, and ask them to only vote for their own pictures. I suppose this is understandable, but it's a shame if nobody actually looks at the other pictures ! This becomes a competition of how many email addresses/ Facebook/ web contacts you have, rather than a photography competition.
We should all have the courtesy to look at other photographer's work - it's a great hobby, and it's good to share compliments around, and get new ideas from other people's work.

Less understandable is when people deliberately 'vote down' other people's work. The competitive edge should push people to try harder in their work rather than sabotage other's. After all, we're talking creativity here, not war!


2. Secondly, does anyone have any ideas on how such competitions can be made fairer, without paying huge sums to web developers to create secure voting systems ? It's a nice idea having the public being able to vote, but it needs to be fair. The only answers I can think of are either making the website secure, with personal ID's, etc that only allow a limited vote to entrants, and preventing them voting for their own pictures (which would be expensive to pay for.) Or to just display the pictures, but completely remove the public voting element.


3. Finally, if anyone wants to add some fair voting to such a photo competition, I've included the URL below. I'm posting on here anonymously so there's no way I could be accused of unfair voting myself !

Note you can vote on several pictures from one screen if you look at the thumbnail screen. There are some great pictures in here, and more pictures keep being added, yet they either seem to attract 30+ votes at once (suspicious), or none at all !

http://photos.yearofhealthandwellbei...nail/top-rated

Either way, I'd be interested what other people think.

Hi Dogsurfer, wow this is a difficult one - I am not sure about on line unfairness but I have been to a club where there was one particular picture I thought was brilliant and it didn't even get a mention, felt very annoyed for the person who had taken it + I have seen pictures being commended and just wondered "why". I just have no idea how to make competitions fair. The real joy I have with photography is giving someone a memory of an event or a day where I have captured something unique, as for competitions I do not have much experience. Sometimes when I put a pic on facebook and people don't comment I wonder why, but generally when I meet these friends they are full of praise of my pics. These are general observations and not addressing any of your concerns. All I can say is keep taking pictures of what you like which may in turn attract votes. Sorry this isn't very helpful. I did not know about the competition you have talked about hear and maybe just for the fun of it will post a picture - hope you do not mind. Oh and by the way hello.

Hello
 

Hello, thanks for your thoughts. It's always good to hear what other people think. It's a funny thing - I've been enjoying photography for years just for the fun of it. I've only recently started entering them into competitions, as I keep being told 'those are good, it's a shame you never do anything with them!'

I'll keep taking pictures anyway, I'll just be wary of competitions with a 'People's Choice' award !