Author Topic: Photo Competition ???  (Read 37165 times)

Offline Tim_w

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Re: Photo Competition ???
« Reply #10 on: January 07, 2006, 17:46:39 »
Hello  All  :)

This is certainly a very interesting post but it might be worth some carefull thought before implementing a regular contest. I am very certain we do not want to repeat any mistakes that 'other' forums have made in the past ;).
One of the main things to consider in a competition is the different style's of  photo's that we take. The two obvious conflicting style's are Photo Shop enhanced and Non Photo Shop enhanced. Both of the two styles are quite different and take very different skills to create. This is not to say that one is better than the other just that they are both quite different.
The age old question is how do you compare a picture with effects enhanced using a graphics package to a picture taken in a garden using natural effects ? However much people try to be 'indifferent' between the two styles you will find people will usually favour one or the other. Obviously this has been discussed at length in the past and has been known to cause one or two heated debates ;D. The only solution to come out of these debates is to run two seperate competitions, one for photo shop and one for non photo shop.
As for customising competition's they come with their own problems. This is where we need to take on board Gordon (Playmofire's) points. That is how do you compare a custom fire engine with a custom pirate ship or even a klickie ? Both types of competition are potential 'minefields' and need some very carefull thought before implementing.

Kindest Regards  Tim  :)

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Offline deadeye dick

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Re: Photo Competition ???
« Reply #11 on: January 07, 2006, 18:26:07 »
Do you understand now why I was/am confused  8}
In dutch we say: comparing apples with pears  :)
The advantage that non-photoshopers have is that they look for some nice piece of nature to have as a background, whereas photoshopers look for some virutal piece a background... My consideration was more about the difference between pictures with customized and non-customized objects. I have that feeling that a moderate picture with a custom has more 'potential' than a nice picture without custom...
Now, something just happened  (:!:) during doing the dishes... The big issue with whatever contest is the word 'contest'... Even when you don't 'win' anything (besides eternal fame :wow:) people start to do the most crazy things to be first. What I already suggested on the other forum, was to have a system in place where everybody could post his/her picture of the month. Instead of voting, ALL pictures are displayed on the frontpage according to a rotation scheme.
I like this idea because it's not only the 'best' pictures that are displayed, but every participant's picture comes into the pictre  ;)
............................
Coming back to the calendar (do you mean a printed version?), which is a wonderful idea, I have the following idea: What you see on some download pages is that there's a ranking based on the times that e.g. a certain background has been downloaded. This could be some 'hall of fame', where the top-12 can be used for the calendar.
...............................
Shouldn't we also do something with wallpapers  ;D
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Offline Sylvia

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Re: Photo Competition ???
« Reply #12 on: January 07, 2006, 18:46:24 »
I agree with Tim in that it's very difficult to find a contest format that everyone will be happy with, and I don't know if we have enough members yet to run several different contests simultaneously... but hopefully that will change. ;)

You're right, DD ... we should also look at alternatives which give everyone the same amount of chance to see their pic featured rather than just running contests.

Instead of voting, ALL pictures are displayed on the frontpage according to a rotation scheme.
I like this idea because it's not only the 'best' pictures that are displayed, but every participant's picture comes into the pictre  ;)

This 'rotation' idea sounds very interesting! :D

Is it something that would have to be done manually (ie the admin would have to change the pictures regularly), or are you thinking it would be done through a simple type of program? (ie. the picture changes automatically each time a person visits the page). I saw something like the latter on another website recently but haven't investigated how it is done...

Click this and then reload the page (might take 2 goes) and the pic changes. I think there's 3 different versions (red, white, yellow). 8-)

Offline playmofire

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Re: Photo Competition ???
« Reply #13 on: January 07, 2006, 18:57:56 »
Tim and DD have nicely brought together my so far unexpressed thoughts, so I won't express them again. :)
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Offline deadeye dick

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Re: Photo Competition ???
« Reply #14 on: January 07, 2006, 19:06:44 »
Is it something that would have to be done manually (ie the admin would have to change the pictures regularly), or are you thinking it would be done through a simple type of program? (ie. the picture changes automatically each time a person visits the page). I saw something like the latter on another website recently but haven't investigated how it is done...

Sylvia, I think this can easily be done by a javascript that picks a picture randomly. You just have to give the picture a generic name, e.g. January## (## is a serial number). With some programming whitchcraft it's even possible to extract the month from the server's date, add a random serial and pick the random picture. The only thing the admin has to do is place the pictures in a folder and name them after <month>+<sn>.jpg, e.g. january01.jpg, january02.jpg, ..., february01.jpg, ... and so on.
I will do some testing (it's already a while ago that I did some scripting) and propose something...
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Offline playmofire

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Re: Photo Competition ???
« Reply #15 on: January 07, 2006, 19:22:13 »
DD, your avatar keeops changing.  Is this some sort of script?  (Apologies for moving slightly off-topic.)
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Offline deadeye dick

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Re: Photo Competition ???
« Reply #16 on: January 07, 2006, 19:25:57 »
DD, your avatar keeops changing.  Is this some sort of script?  (Apologies for moving slightly off-topic.)

Well eh... I'm refining it every day, just until it's perfect  :toot: But now, I think it's moving in the good direction  ;) It's the 4th version now, but I think I has always been recognizable, isn't it  ???
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Offline ElvenRainbow

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Re: Photo Competition ???
« Reply #17 on: January 07, 2006, 20:34:34 »
(Apologies for moving slightly off-topic.)

...And veering precariously back onto topic....

OOO!!!! contests?! i love contests! there are actually some ideas floating around in this ol' brain of mine as well. :) here's another vote for "yes contest!!" :)

Offline Psyche

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Re: Photo Competition ???
« Reply #18 on: January 08, 2006, 01:43:31 »
I agree with Tim that there if there is a photo contest there should be "digitally enhanced" and "non-digitally enhanced" categories. As this site doesn't have very many members perhaps one month could be for "digitally enhanced" and the next fot "non-digitally enhanced."  I feel customization should be a separate matter altogether. I also like the idea of changing photos and showing all submissions. Hituro's game site randomly shows a different grophs each time you visit.

Calandar discussion began here for those who missed it. It didn't get very far.
« Last Edit: January 08, 2006, 02:00:10 by Psyche »
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Offline Serenity

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Re: Photo Competition ???
« Reply #19 on: January 08, 2006, 02:59:14 »
Quote from: Psyche
I agree with Tim that there if there is a photo contest there should be "digitally enhanced" and "non-digitally enhanced" categories.

I have to agree with this as well.  It levels the 'playing field' to have two different categories.
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