Runoff for March 2010 Contest

[JCagle]

The March contest ended in a 3 way tie. In order to break the tie we will be having a 2 day runoff for the 3 shots in the tie. It seems like we have a contest decided by one or 2 votes every month. The tie breaker has become something that has been all too common. I thought by upping the vote total to 3 per user might help with that, but it didn't. I have a couple thoughts on how to try to get the contest out of a tie or near tie every month.  Here are my ideas.....

Limit entry to one photo per contestant and keep the voting at 3 per member.

Use the new Karma feature to select the 10 most liked photos into the contest for voting. We would keep the entries at 2 per user and allow 2 votes per member. This would put the later additions at a bit of a disadvantage however. Perhaps we could close entry a week before the poll so that everyone gets a fair shake at getting positive Karma. By the way we would also not count negative Karma votes. Users can not give Karma votes to their own posts, and each user gets one karma vote per post. This would make sure things remained fair.

If anyone has any feedback or new ideas feel free to let me know and let's discuss it

[JCagle]

Voting will end March 2nd at about 1130 Central.

[tq-07fan]

I see two patterns that show up a lot in the photo contest. Many people will only vote for their own picture no matter how outstanding another photgraph may be. I admit I've voted for myself many times but am not ashamed to vote for a better photograph. Also it looks like it's about the same group of people voting here all the time. Anywhere from a dozen to two dozen. I don't know how or where but maybe all the contest needs is more people voting. The members box shows that there are 861 members on jreb. I would guess a much smaller active number but there are plenty of people looking at jreb that probably never vote.

I do like the idea of multiple votes. The karma idea would have been good for this month with all the outstanding entries. On months with less participation maybe go with one or two votes without the karma option.

I like the contests. We see some very high quality work and also some interesting interpretation of the given photo topics.

Jim

[JCagle]

My thinking with multiple votes was it would allow people to vote for their own as well as at least 1 other photo. There is no shame in voting for your own photo. It would be like asking someone to run for office without voting for themselves.

I have done some research on the karma idea and it looks like karma follows you from thread to thread. I am begining to lean to one entry per person. We could always use the critique board for those that may have trouble deciding. We could use some life over there anyway. With that being said does anybody have any comments or new ideas?

[E.M. Bell]

The "karma" feature is pretty much a lifetime thing, and will grow with each member over time, thread to thread.  I dont think it would work well for the contest.   

[butch]

how about two votes and limit folks to one vote for their own pictures?  they can pick their favorite and still vote for what they think is the best of the other posts.

[JCagle]

There is no way to allow for only one vote for your own photo. We would have to do it on the honor system. I just hate having to cast a tie breaking vote every month. I also want to keep things as simple as we can.

I am thinking the easiest way is to just limit entries to one per person and allow 3 votes.

[E.M. Bell]

Congrats Willy!  I think this has been about the most fun contest yet.

I must admit I voted for Willy myself. That spot at Time PA where his shot was taken is bugger to get up to in the middle of summer, I dont think I would have even tried it in the snow.  The effort alone was worth the win! 

[JCagle]

Sorry for the delay in posting this, but Congrats Willie! We'll get that bad boy on the main page tonight at some point.

[Willie6622]

I'd like to thank the academy, and all the little people that made it all posible... Lol. Just kidding!    I do want to thank those that voted for my photo. There were some really good entries this month and it was an honor to get selected from that bunch.

[JCagle]

You have now been immortalized (at least for the next month) on the main page.

The April contest will be announced in the next day or so after we settle on the rules change.