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12/23/2009 09:04:52 AM · #1 |
There's been some chatter in the forums lately about participation at DPC so I thought I'd get the facts by creating a simple summary of 2009 with comparison to all previous years. This might be available somewhere on the site but I haven't seen it anywhere.
Note 1: I did not include 2002's 50 challenges in the graphs
Note 2: Please keep in mind that the last few challenges of 2009 is not included
Click on "View full-sized image" to get it in full size for readability
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12/23/2009 09:40:05 AM · #2 |
So to post some observations about the charts, first I see that the amount of challenges offered decrease year over year. Also the avg comments went down by 2 year over year, the amount of entrys went down and voter participate went down. Not to mention that the overall avg vote given by the voters also went down.
Looks like it was a down year for DPC overall. |
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12/23/2009 11:30:12 AM · #3 |
| Perhaps we have to consider that the economy has an affect as well. Less disposable income overall means less people joining this site, less money spent on cameras, less money available for shooting photos etc. etc. Perhaps DPC is just a microcosm of the rest of the world. |
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12/23/2009 11:47:44 AM · #4 |
| I take it 2006 was the best year. Ishload of challenges, ishloads of entries, ishloads of votes, ishloads of comments... |
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12/23/2009 01:18:39 PM · #5 |
I believe that, starting in about 2001, digital photography started to become a mass phenomenon. That drove a *lot* of folks who had no photographic experience to pick up a camera. It also drove a *lot* of folks (like myself) who had previous film experience to have to adjust to the brave new world of digital.
This drove a strong need for groups to share thoughts on everything from hardware to software and processing to photographic techniques specific to digital.
Fast forward to today, and digital photography *is* photography for the vast majority of practitioners. Film photography is a niche, a quaint (though incredibly rich and long) chapter in the progression of the art. The hardware is now much better, as is the software, and many more folks have friends or family who were "early adopters" to help with the learning curve as needed. There is still a need for community learning, it's just not as intense as it was in the "wild west" days of digital. Folks are now more focused on sharing, selling prints, selling stock, etc.; the one big thing that DPC lacks is a truly professional portfolio management system integrated with sales. Smugmug and Flickr are, IMO, the poster children for successful business models in this area.
The challenges are great, but we need to branch out, or we will be marginalized, and risk shrinking below the "critical mass" where the forums and challenge activity are viable.
ETA: When I was on SC, I compiled and published a series of site stats graphs every 6 months, and lo and behold, it showed negative trends in a lot of areas. I had hoped to generate some real urgency with respect to identifying new directions, but that did not happen.
Message edited by author 2009-12-23 13:29:41. |
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12/23/2009 02:17:34 PM · #6 |
A few thing to take into consideration when viewing the data you have presented are the site changes that took place in mid 2005 and in 2007.
DPC went from one open challenge per week to two in mid September 2005. This explains the increase in challenges from 2005 to 2006. It also explains the drop in entries per challenge now that the site had three regular scheduled challenges per week instead of the previously two scheduled challenges. This also affected the votes cast per challenge and comments per challenge. In open challenges instead of having one challenge with 300+ entries we were looking at two open challenges with 150+/- each. This also explains the drop in votes and comments per challenge. Not to mention a lot of users will not vote in the challenge they have entered or only vote in the challenge they have entered.
DPC also introduced the monthly free studies in 2007 but stopped announcing as many 24/48-hr challenges. This accounted for the small drop in challenges in 2008 and by this years end, we should be even with 2008 numbers in challenges.
The average score given has increased as we theorized back in 2005 when we were having to vote in challenges with large amount of entries. Voters fatigue and complacency set in during those large voting sessions. With lower entries per challenge voters began to take a little longer look at entries and thus the votes given out increase some.
At least this is my analysis of the data you have presented. Very good work! Thanks for gathering the information.
Scott.
Message edited by author 2009-12-23 15:28:10. |
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12/23/2009 04:33:49 PM · #7 |
| Great work Are, I'm glad I'm not the only stats junky out there. This answers a lot of my private questions about voters, voting and if joining is worth the effort vs money spent. |
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12/23/2009 04:54:01 PM · #8 |
Originally posted by Magnum_za:
Great work Are, I'm glad I'm not the only stats junky out there. This answers a lot of my private questions about voters, voting and if joining is worth the effort vs money spent. |
I can honestly say, that for the $25 spent, I would do it again in a heartbeat. I have learned an incredible amount from this site. |
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12/23/2009 05:31:22 PM · #9 |
Thanks for the all the comments on the stats. And  kirbic; I do agree with your analysis as well as SDW's theory.
What is positive though is that the amount of DPC'ers that participate in voting is nearly unchanged the past 3 years. So the people are out there but maybe not participating in as many challenges and this matches SDW's theory. It also looks to me as though the decline in entries is proportional with the decline in amounts of comments given. Having said that, it is evident from the scoring threads that a lot of DPC'ers almost care more about comments than a high score. Comments are direct feedback on our efforts, and feedback is needed in order for us to do better next time. We learn from mistakes and by asking questions and thereby boosting our self confidence making us want to enter in more challenges.... maybe!
If entrants received more comments it is possible IMO that they would enter more often. The comments club is an excellent incentive to make this happen and while I think it made a good difference we could still benefit from more constructive comments.
Although stats are just numbers I do believe that by making photogs aware of the numbers we might behave slightly differently. My hope is of course that we see the importance of commenting just a little bit more (me included of course!) and maybe enter a challenge or two more than we currently do.
I also read in a thread a couple of years back that some users cared mostly about side challenges and did not bother too much with the regular challenges. This is obviously every individual's choice but might also be part of the reason for a decrease in 'official' entries. Didn't the side challenges start around 2006-07?? I mean the more serious ones with the leagues? We also need to keep in mind that side challenges are important as well. And they are not visible in the stats so if we could add stats and the side challenges we might get close to the numbers we had a couple years back. In that case the numbers for total DPC participation is deceiving in the stats. It would also explain why the amounts of voters has not declined (much anyways) but the entries has.
It's snowing huge flakes outside right now and we have at least a solid foot of snow on the ground. Snow is in the forecast for the next 2 days so it will definitely be a white Christmas!! Yay! :o)
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12/23/2009 06:08:53 PM · #10 |
Originally posted by TrollMan:
I also read in a thread a couple of years back that some users cared mostly about side challenges and did not bother too much with the regular challenges. This is obviously every individual's choice but might also be part of the reason for a decrease in 'official' entries. Didn't the side challenges start around 2006-07?? I mean the more serious ones with the leagues? We also need to keep in mind that side challenges are important as well. And they are not visible in the stats so if we could add stats and the side challenges we might get close to the numbers we had a couple years back. In that case the numbers for total DPC participation is deceiving in the stats. It would also explain why the amounts of voters has not declined (much anyways) but the entries has. |
In my opinion the WPL and DPL side challenge was one of the reasons for the jump in entries durinig 2006 and 2007.
In March of 2006 myself and  DefyTime decided to start up an informal team-based contest built around challenges at DPC, which became known as the World Photography League or "WPL" There were 4 seasons. The WPL ended in April 2007 when it was officially integrated into DPChallenge, to become The DPChallenge Photography League - The DPL
During the era of the WPL, season one had 10 teams with 7 player per team. That accounted for up to 140 entries per week. In season 2 the WPL went to 20 teams, season 3 and 4 consisted of 24 teams with 7 players per team accounting for up 336 entries per week.
When it was taken over by DPC as DPL season 1 there were 72 teams finalized with 7 players on each team. To give you an idea of how many people were entering you can look here at all the teams and players on one page. That's a lot of entries per week.
The FSM side challenge that I have been running since 2007 also is built around the monthly Free study Challenges at DPC. This, IMO, has increased entries.
And we cannot discount the other side challenges that have been implemented by others. Some have also been built around challenges at DPC but others have not. Even the ones that have not been built around challenges at DPC encourage users to enter DPC challenges. As they learn from their mentors and challenges they tend to apply what they have learned in an Official DPC Challenge.
In summary I feel that most if not all side challenges have benefited DPC in some way and users have learned a lot form them.
Message edited by author 2009-12-23 18:22:25. |
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12/23/2009 06:24:46 PM · #11 |
You are absolutely right SDW. I should have thought of that since those side challenges are based on scores from 'official' challenges. If any impact at all it will be all the other image thread side challenges but they probably don't account for a lot.
Did the leagues and olympics die out? Or is a new season coming up? We never had enough active Norwegians to make a team so I missed out unfortunately. |
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12/23/2009 06:36:36 PM · #12 |
Originally posted by TrollMan:
You are absolutely right SDW. I should have thought of that since those side challenges are based on scores from 'official' challenges. If any impact at all it will be all the other image thread side challenges but they probably don't account for a lot.
Did the leagues and Olympics die out? Or is a new season coming up? We never had enough active Norwegians to make a team so I missed out unfortunately. |
I can't speak for Dirt_Diver and The DPC Olympics but I would like to bring back the WPL but as I stated I turned it over to DPC in early 2007. It's now  langdon's decision on bringing it back.
I believe it would be a good idea to bring back the DPL.
Message edited by author 2009-12-23 18:37:04. |
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12/23/2009 06:47:30 PM · #13 |
Originally posted by SDW:
Originally posted by TrollMan:
You are absolutely right SDW. I should have thought of that since those side challenges are based on scores from 'official' challenges. If any impact at all it will be all the other image thread side challenges but they probably don't account for a lot.
Did the leagues and Olympics die out? Or is a new season coming up? We never had enough active Norwegians to make a team so I missed out unfortunately. |
I can't speak for Dirt_Diver and The DPC Olympics but I would like to bring back the WPL but as I stated I turned it over to DPC in early 2007. It's now langdon's decision on bringing it back.
I believe it would be a good idea to bring back the DPL. |
I'd also love to have it back, but I liked it much more when you ran it, Scott. I also like the idea that has been tossed around about team captains drafting from a pool of participants. Not sure how the logistics would work on that...I digress. I would like to see the league back, and it was an obvious incentive to play more at DPC. The stats seem to support that well.
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