Special Veterans Reprise Challenge

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

09/03/2004 09:09:20 PM · #1

A special challenge using Basic Rules that does not take the place of any other challenge. Both Registered Users and Members can enter however you must have entered at least 75 previous challenges, must have cast more votes than you have received, and made more comments than you have received. Each entrant must select their own topic from all previous dpc challenge topics (excluding Free Study challenges) and the selected topic will be the title of their entry. Voters should exclude meeting the challenge topic as a criteria when rating the entries and just vote on photographic merit.

The idea here is to reward people who have contributed to the site over a period of time with an extra challenge that is unlike any other, and where their contributions are not measured in the same way their entries have been. The challenge wouldn'd need to be open for more than a week but should be announced well in advance so people could plan ahead. Those just short of the qualification levels may be able to hurry up and meet them. Everybody could plan which of the past challenges they would like to have another chance at, or maybe pick one they were sorry they missed, or one from before they registered. If this turns out to be a sucess maybe it could be repeated at the same time every year. Emphasis would be less on the competitive and more on participation and having fun.

BobsterLobster

Fujifilm FinePix S3 Pro

09/04/2004 01:29:56 PM · #2

Excellent idea... I agree with your aims.
I see myself as having contributed a lot, but I would have quite a few votes to cast before I would be eligible though... perhaps some of these critera could be relaxed just a tad?

09/04/2004 01:32:19 PM · #3

don't forget that the person must have an average vote cast of 5.0 or higher

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

09/04/2004 01:33:34 PM · #4

Cross posted:

Originally posted by coolhar:

How about expressing your opinion of the Challenge Suggestion I made last night please. Do you like the idea? or dislike it? Do you think it is workable? Want to propose any modifications? It's in a thread called Special Veterans Reprise Challenge. I'd really like to know your reaction.

That's sounds like a perfectly viable challenge except for the requirement for votes cast > votes received, which may be a mathematical impossibility, and at the least is a very severe restriction, when I think the goal was to be inclusive.

The general idea of a challenge for people who have participated a lot seems fine, and your method of creating a semi-restricted "free study" topic could produce interesting results (50% of entries titled "Nude" perhaps?). I'm not sure why you then remove the restriction on considering the challenge topic though ... it seems to me if you get to pick the topic and then take a picture which doesn't represent it you should be penalized for that ... maybe I misunderstood you there.

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

09/04/2004 01:34:27 PM · #5

Originally posted by OneSweetSin:

don't forget that the person must have an average vote cast of 5.0 or higher

And have a username utilizing initial captial letters ...

Rooster

Canon EOS-400D Rebel XTi

Sigma 28-105mm f/2.8-4.0 Aspherical for Canon

09/04/2004 01:35:45 PM · #6

Originally posted by OneSweetSin:

don't forget that the person must have an average vote cast of 5.0 or higher

why?

dickwilhelm

Canon EOS-30D

Canon EF 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 IS USM

09/04/2004 01:47:24 PM · #7

Folks,

When I joined this site and paid my "about $2/month" among the benefits was the ability to participate in "members only" challenges. I didn't then and don't now see any mention of "super member" or "masters" or other unique statuses that would preclude me, a full member, from entering certain events.
This site worked pretty good under the conditions I signed up for and, unless you change the Ts and Cs please stop playing silly games.

Dick

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM

09/04/2004 03:12:23 PM · #8

Originally posted by OneSweetSin:

don't forget that the person must have an average vote cast of 5.0 or higher

I think my idea was to reward people for voting, not to make a judgement about what is the more favorable way to vote. Voting is a very important way that people participate in, and contribute to the success of the site.

PaulMdx

Canon EOS-1D

09/04/2004 03:13:50 PM · #9

Originally posted by Rooster:

Originally posted by OneSweetSin:
don't forget that the person must have an average vote cast of 5.0 or higher

why?

Ditto.

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

09/04/2004 03:22:30 PM · #10

Originally posted by coolhar:

Votes Cast: 17662
Votes Received: 39676

No way I'm ever going to "catch up" though ... maybe have a threshhold for votes cast, but don't tie it to votes received -- the photographer has no control over that ... in theory all 21,000 registered users could vote for my photo this week.

mfairbanks

Sony DSC-F828

09/04/2004 03:30:53 PM · #11

Greetings,
As a new user who alos just paid his $$$ and reading Dick's post, and some contemplation of his comments, I feel compelled to add my own. The logo on this site states that it is a contest, in some contests, especially those with large numbers of entrants (i.e. the recent olympics) not all of the competitors get to go on to the finals, the most qualified, experienced or sometimes just plain lucky ones are selected/eligible for a final elimination round. I feel this is akin to what is being done here, this challenge is for those users who have passed a significant milestone in their DPC journeys, and as it is open to both levels of users it seems fair to all.
Personally I hope to see more of these challenges, although I would think that perhaps one a month or bi-monthly would be frequent enough, if the bi-monthly concept were used then perhaps the alternating months could be used for a Challenge similiar to what COOLHAR (see below) had suggested. Just my humble opinion and thoughts.....
Mike

Originally posted by dickwilhelm:

COOLHAR
09/03/2004 09:09:20 PM
A special challenge using Basic Rules that does not take the place of any other challenge. Both Registered Users and Members can enter however you must have entered at least 75 previous challenges, must have cast more votes than you have received, and made more comments than you have received. Each entrant must select their own topic from all previous dpc challenge topics (excluding Free Study challenges) and the selected topic will be the title of their entry. Voters should exclude meeting the challenge topic as a criteria when rating the entries and just vote on photographic merit.

09/04/2004 03:45:15 PM · #12

Originally posted by GeneralE:

Yes, more votes cast than received is a high standard. I am more interested in crediting the value of voting than in setting a standard so am happy to be flexible on where the bar is set. Could be 90% or 80% instead of 100%. Same for comments, and even number of challenges entered to be eligible. Would not be as exclusive as the Masters' but still not easy to get into.

Probably need to change the topic being the title to the topic being included in the title to lessen duplicate titles.

The reason I said to disregard meeting the challenge in the voting was that with everyone selecting their own topic they should select one that they can clearly meet; and with not all entrants trying to meet the same topic it becomes a little more subjective than usual for the voters to judge whether it is met. And it eliminates another potential point of fruitless arguements in forums while we are celebrating participation and temporarily de-emphasizing the competitiveness a little bit. Voters have been exposed to disregarding the "meets topic" criteria in all of our Free Study challenges.

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

09/04/2004 03:52:39 PM · #13

Originally posted by coolhar:

As I noted before, the photographer has no control over the number of votes received. I think a threshold for number of votes cast, with perhaps a minimum average percentage of votes cast per challenge, might make sense, but not any qualifications based on factors outside your control.

Message edited by author 2004-09-04 15:53:16.

09/04/2004 04:13:05 PM · #14

Originally posted by PaulMdx:

Originally posted by Rooster:
Originally posted by OneSweetSin:
don't forget that the person must have an average vote cast of 5.0 or higher

why?

Ditto.

why should we reward someone who casts more votes than they receive if they are voting extremely low. 5 is the middle of the voting system. In other words keep anyone who TROLLS out of it especially if you are keeping people who do vote on every challenge they enter and most of the time vote on all the images out of the challenge.

Curiosity got to me and if you check my profile you will see I have cast less votes than I received and 90% of the challenges I have entered I have voted on every entry. And often I vote on challenges I don't enter and I have more received than cast.

Yeah I don't leave as many comments as I get but come on just look and you can tell saying more votes cast than received might be a bigger problem than you realize.

09/04/2004 04:30:33 PM · #15

Might be better with just straight numbers as thresholds for votes and comments instead of relating it to how many you have received. How does 75 challenges entered, 10,000 votes cast and 1,000 comments made sound?

09/04/2004 04:58:36 PM · #16

Originally posted by OneSweetSin:

Originally posted by PaulMdx:

Originally posted by Rooster:
Originally posted by OneSweetSin:
don't forget that the person must have an average vote cast of 5.0 or higher

why?

Ditto.

why should we reward someone who casts more votes than they receive if they are voting extremely low. 5 is the middle of the voting system. In other words keep anyone who TROLLS out of it especially if you are keeping people who do vote on every challenge they enter and most of the time vote on all the images out of the challenge.

Curiosity got to me and if you check my profile you will see I have cast less votes than I received and 90% of the challenges I have entered I have voted on every entry. And often I vote on challenges I don't enter and I have more received than cast.

Yeah I don't leave as many comments as I get but come on just look and you can tell saying more votes cast than received might be a bigger problem than you realize.

I don't think having a voting average of less than 5.0 makes you a "troller". If so, 5 of the top 25 "masters" are, in your opinion, trollers.

09/04/2004 05:21:17 PM · #17

Originally posted by dwolff:

Originally posted by OneSweetSin:

Originally posted by PaulMdx:

Originally posted by Rooster:
Originally posted by OneSweetSin:
don't forget that the person must have an average vote cast of 5.0 or higher

why?

Ditto.

why should we reward someone who casts more votes than they receive if they are voting extremely low. 5 is the middle of the voting system. In other words keep anyone who TROLLS out of it especially if you are keeping people who do vote on every challenge they enter and most of the time vote on all the images out of the challenge.

Curiosity got to me and if you check my profile you will see I have cast less votes than I received and 90% of the challenges I have entered I have voted on every entry. And often I vote on challenges I don't enter and I have more received than cast.

Yeah I don't leave as many comments as I get but come on just look and you can tell saying more votes cast than received might be a bigger problem than you realize.

I don't think having a voting average of less than 5.0 makes you a "troller". If so, 5 of the top 25 "masters" are, in your opinion, trollers.

I'm not saying the masters are trolling but by setting a the standards as blantly high with the votes and comments you might as well set the avg vote cast high too.

09/04/2004 05:26:54 PM · #18

Originally posted by coolhar:

Considering some people don't like leaving comments cause they don't feel they know enough or because they are to busy reading and participating the forum to leave comment 1,000 comments made or 1,000 posts to the forum...

but from the beginning I've thought these requirements were a bit high...prehaps rewarding those who participated in at least 4 challenges in the last 6 weeks would be a better requirement than anything else.

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

09/04/2004 05:47:36 PM · #19

Originally posted by OneSweetSin:

The requirements are intended to be high. There is not as much need to encourage and reward forum posting. At least for me there isn't. Some people's forum posts are largely in the rants debating politics. I don't want to reward them. Should it be counted as a contributition to the site when someone types "bump" on a thread few find interesting?

Sonifo

Canon EOS-400D Rebel XTi

09/04/2004 05:52:18 PM · #20

This just isn't fair. I don't have alot of time to spend on the computer because I have 4 kids that keep me busy. To busy to vote or comment. :-P

09/04/2004 05:59:26 PM · #21

Originally posted by coolhar:

Originally posted by OneSweetSin:
Considering some people don't like leaving comments cause they don't feel they know enough or because they are to busy reading and participating the forum to leave comment 1,000 comments made or 1,000 posts to the forum...

but from the beginning I've thought these requirements were a bit high...prehaps rewarding those who participated in at least 4 challenges in the last 6 weeks would be a better requirement than anything else.

The requirements are intended to be high. There is not as much need to encourage and reward forum posting. At least for me there isn't. Some people's forum posts are largely in the rants debating politics. I don't want to reward them. Should it be counted as a contributition to the site when someone types "bump" on a thread few find interesting?

I agree. Not that I don't think forum posts aren't important and I have gotten some very useful advice through both posting and just reading past posts. Since this is a challenge site I think having a contest for the people who either 1)enter the most challenges or 2)cast the most votes would be good.

09/04/2004 06:07:35 PM · #22

Originally posted by Sonifo:

This just isn't fair. I don't have alot of time to spend on the computer because I have 4 kids that keep me busy. To busy to vote or comment. :-P

Hard to tell from comparing your stats. There are 20 out of the top 25 that comment LESS than you do. You comment more than double of 18 of them. I think you would fit in just fine.

09/04/2004 06:32:05 PM · #23

Originally posted by Sonifo:

This just isn't fair. I don't have alot of time to spend on the computer because I have 4 kids that keep me busy. To busy to vote or comment. :-P

If you were referring to yourself, I'm taking your comment as tongue in cheek. You easily qualify for both my proposal and the Masters'. WTG

09/04/2004 06:42:04 PM · #24

Originally posted by coolhar:

Originally posted by Sonifo:
This just isn't fair. I don't have alot of time to spend on the computer because I have 4 kids that keep me busy. To busy to vote or comment. :-P

If you were referring to yourself, I'm taking your comment as tongue in cheek. You easily qualify for both my proposal and the Masters'. WTG

Hate to break the bad news to ya but according to the standards suggested at the beginning of this thread no she doesn't qualify for it. She has cast less votes than received and has made less comments than receive.

I know exactly where Sonja is coming from too. She participates and votes as well as leaves comments and yet if the standards were those at the beginning of this thread she wouldn't qualify for it.