Lack of Votes in Weekly Finalists

[TNEmily]

Well, I'm an amateur too - not everyone here is a pro, and everyone wants to learn. If you want a guide, just look at a few photos and see how others approach comments. There's also a comments guideline for POTW somewhere on the site -there's probably a link on the main POTW page.

Just give your honest critique of a photo - if you like it, say so; if you can think of something to improve it, mention it. You don't have to rate if you're not comfortable doing so - but you can leave a comment without rating the photo. I personally value the comments over the ratings.

Hope that helps!

[shootem]

We have all levels of photographers at this site. A good way to start commenting, is just write what you like about the picture, how it makes you feel. Don't rate (number rating) simply comment. And watch how others comment. Maybe comment after others have. That will give you ideas. Speaking for myself, I have learned a tremendous amount here. It's fun, and sometimes very frustrating too....
Just keep watching, reading, commenting, and posting your work.
Have FUN!!!!
Carolyn
shootem

[matrixneo]

thanks TNEmily and Shootem....well..have put in a few cents in your pics...hope not to harsh :P.....and YES! 10 more comments to get to VOTE

[TNEmily]

Matrixneo - thanks for the comment on my photo!

[ImKayd1]

I just went in to vote and the site gave me the view as if I'd already voted. Wrong. Haven't. Poop.

Suzan

Also FYI I have a hard time navigating the new site (ok I haven't been around in over a year) but am definitely having a difficult time. It's ok, now that I've whined I'll get over it.

[PantisS]

I also voted as I do every week. the contest is the heart of this website. Let's vote so we keep the heart beating and the website alive!
Personally, I love this website, this community of photographers of all levels. I learned so much from the critiques and comments!
was waiting to see who won the week 24 POTWs...will there be winners for that week or that contest is going to be canceled.
I propose another 2 days allowance for voting for week 24's photos - as a special case, 'cause I think after this thread more will vote.
what do you say?

[RTaylor]

Welcome back to the new Bytephoto Suzan
Sorry, you missed the voting period. It closes on Monday afternoon.
I'm in the process of setting up the voting for last weeks entries.

Bytephoto is using new upgraded software since we purchased the website in November 2009.
A lot of where you want to go as far as forums, voting, congratulating the winners etc, are all accessible easily from the front page

Also, if you notice on the left there is a Users menu with quick access to things you can use.

I've also added a special forum with tips and features about the new software.

http://www.bytephoto.com/forums/site-navigation-tips/

[RTaylor]

Hi Sorin,
You must have submitted a reply while I was typing

The winners will be announced shortly. I'm working on the pictures and uploading to the secret place until the thread is submitted

So glad you are still enjoying Bytephoto. I think many members have learned a lot here from critiques over the years, myself included.

As for the voting, we do still have some members that forget to vote each week. We had 100 entries but not all members submitted 2 this week, so there were more than 50 members who entered.
We received 54 votes this week which is a few more than past weeks.

As for extending the voting, if we only had only 40 something votes, I would extend it another day.
We try to have the votes closed Monday, so I verify the voting then work on the announcement for Tuesday and also work on the voting for the following week. Steve works on the weekly mass mailer so we can submit it by Wednesday, early Thursday

I say we try to beat 54 votes for the next contest
Some of the members that are voting are from the past and just pop in to vote and browse around, but having more voting from the participants each week would even help more.

[RTaylor]

as a side note, when I took over Bytephoto as admin back in March of 2009, Paul, the previous owner told me it takes about an hour to work on the contest each week with the then 6 finalists and one winner.

So now that we have 36 finalists, it takes a LOT longer, 5-6 hours of time. Especially with all the extra features I added with the ribbons and keeping track of how many wins each member has since they have joined Bytephoto

[Marla]

Agree with you because if you can take the time to post pictures, edit pictures, do whatever you need to do to put something great on the site, why not vote??? Rule is: not everybody can win at the same time so............. do your best and keep voting. Maybe your the one winning next time. Hopefully many more will contribute because lots of efforts have been done and are still doing to keep this site as it is!!

[RTaylor]

and the winner is.... drumroll
keep your eyes on the forum

[EmsPics]

I agree with the the gist of all. To improve voting, the "Vote Here" bar should be up at the very top of the home page, not last, even above "Enter Contest"; if there are qualifications needed to vote, spell them out right there with a quick link; if there is no voting open, say when to come back. Voting is actually a great way to get people involved, if it's made easy enough. It's a little hard to navigate this site in places, but hey, it's really hard to design and maintain a good site. Ruth and Steve (is that right?) do a great job based on what has to be mostly love - just look at the quality of photos they attract. Thanks, guys.

[EmsPics]

Can I also make a comment on the side thought about comments. It should be allowed to make them anonymously. It is very, very hard for people to give critical feedback, because they don't want to hurt people's feelings (it's why you never look to family or friends for thoughts for improvement - if you could believe them, you would be Ansel Adams). To me, comments are the most important thing, so I can get better.

[RTaylor]

Hi Em,
We place the POTQ and POTM winners on top of the page as part of being recognized longer for achieving those wins :wink:

I agree about making the entry anonymous, the problem is, the software used to run the website has no way to do this.
Many other websites that run contests with this software have expressed the same suggestion to the programmers, so far they have not made the change. They all ask for the name to be hidden during critiques and for the admin to be able to unhide after the contest.
So far there seems to be no plans for them to make this change.

Even if photographers names were hidden, I think many members would begin to recognize the style or local scenes belonging to certain members. Or they could tell who they might be is they saw the camera in the exif data. Everyone learns from reading exif data

I place the photographers names and photo titles in the voting area, mostly because it makes it a heck of a lot easier for me come time to announce the 6 1st place and 6 2nd place winners.
If their names and photo titles were not there, I would have to go back to the contest archives and search them to see who the picture belongs to if I didn't remember. All that takes extra time to the already very long process (6-7 hours) of running the contests each week.
I've added a lot of nice features for members to be able to search out their own POTW, POTM, POTQ wins along with their 2nd place wins and Honorable Mentions. None of this is automatic, its all done one at a time per picture including adding the little ribbons on each of the winner pictures, which I still have to do later today after posting the voting

No one should be afraid to give feedback on things they think could improve a photo. Many of the long time members here are already used to it and want detailed feedback.

Glad you are enjoying the website and learning in the process