Reducing the number of entries

[ch4r7ie]

It would become a hunt for votes instead of a forum for sharing cool photo ideas. Think “Top 40 radio.”

Yeah, what he said.

or.. it makes you, the photographer, think about what works in a picture and what dont

Clearly I’m not a pro, but I don’t think I know what works in a picture. By posting three and comparing votes, I’m slowly beginning to understand why my lousy picture was so much better than the one I really liked.

Maybe this isn’t the place to be learning. That would be a shame, though, because I can’t get anywhere near as many objective eyeballs anywhere else.

there’s all those prior contests to look through, go to a contest, scan the pics, guess the winner, look at the results…

[veruca]

Maybe this isn’t the place to be learning. That would be a shame, though, because I can’t get anywhere near as many objective eyeballs anywhere else.

I can’t even begin to count the number of things I’ve picked up and learned from others since I started participating. I believe this whole concept would be a fruitless effort and pretty pointless if we didn’t learn from each other. So if this isn’t a place of learning…well I didn’t get the memo either.

[Morningbreath]

Maybe the seocnd contest idea would be best then. With multiple contests a week, people would be more likely to participate in one or the other. Not everyone will have 6 pics a week. I think the demand for multiple contests is there anyway. I would do a different theme each contest, though, and not repeat a contest.

On an unrelated note. Whoever is picking the themes is doing a great job. The next four themes are awesome.

[ch4r7ie]

It would become a hunt for votes instead of a forum for sharing cool photo ideas. Think “Top 40 radio.”

Yeah, what he said.

or.. it makes you, the photographer, think about what works in a picture and what dont

Clearly I’m not a pro, but I don’t think I know what works in a picture. By posting three and comparing votes, I’m slowly beginning to understand why my lousy picture was so much better than the one I really liked.

Maybe this isn’t the place to be learning. That would be a shame, though, because I can’t get anywhere near as many objective eyeballs anywhere else.

not to be cynical at all, this is the funnerest photo club.. my favorite time of the week is 5 pm pst, but… well, you’re just climitizing yourself to what people who think fark is a good place to go for a photo contest think is a good picture…

one should post 1 or 2 pictures that you believe in rather than average yourself out…

.

[schnee]

I don’t see stats yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of new people.

The FSM is back now – sorry about that.

The Farktographer’s Over Time report shows the number of new people per contest, and the number of people that dropped out. For the last couple of contests, we picked up 60 newbies and looking at the chart, we appear to be on a bit of an up-trend since the “Happy Anniversary” zenith.

The FSM, however, only counts entries that have received a vote – it really only looks at the Results page. This could introduce some collective bias – some sort of aggregate “oh heck, there’s too many entries, I’ll stop voting” thought-process that every voter goes through. For what it is worth, the Distinct By Theme report seems to show a slight up-trend in the number of votenated entries.

What I’d really like to capture is the number of individual voters (and related stats), but that’s locked behind Fark.com somewhere.

[Elsinore]

Thanks for getting the FSM sorted out!

[Marley]

not to be cynical at all, this is the funnerest photo club.. my favorite time of the week is 5 pm pst, but… well, you’re just climitizing yourself to what people who think fark is a good place to go for a photo contest think is a good picture…

one should post 1 or 2 pictures that you believe in rather than average yourself out…

I think it’s fun, too, and it motivates me to stop and take pictures on days when I would probably let real life get in the way.

It’s not that I’m averaging myself out, it’s just that for the most part, it’s only me who looks at my pictures. I get very little objective input. The people who vote on my pictures (or vote for one rather than another) have three credentials which make their vote valuable to me:

1) They have at least one eyeball.
2) That eye does not belong to me.
3) They saw something in my pictures that motivated them to actually reach for the mouse and click the check box.

I don’t think that everyone voting for a picture is a brilliant and well educated professional art critic. And I don’t think they’re all bored and wandering through the contest while they wait for the next boobies link to be posted. They’re just people who can be objective where I can’t. And I’m grateful that they took the time to look.

I have so much to learn that every chance I get is valuable to me.

If we go down to one entry per person, I will lose a whole layer of understanding–the ability to compare my pictures and understand why one is more interesting than another. I’ll probably still participate, but it won’t be as useful to me. I’ll just be taking potshots at what my best picture might be, and because I don’t have the experience to judge well, my belief of what’s best is grounded only in my subjective opinion.

I speak only for me, your mileage may vary. Batteries not included, and so on.

[Author]

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