Photo Contest Suggestions

Greetings, all. I have noticed that there are not as many members who participate in the photo contests compared to when they were first started. I personally think there are a few reasons for this and would love input.
1. The photo contest tab on the main menu is not clearly visible and some members may not even be able to see it. I think that at the beginning of the month, there should be a tab towards the top of the home page inviting members to the contest. I feel that more members would participate, and it would be a more fun experience for everyone on Fishlore.
2. I noticed that the same few members continuously win the photo contests each month (with few exceptions). I think many members are discouraged from participating on Fishlore due to these same individuals who just win each month, meaning there are less posts and it is pointless to others to participate with these same "winners". You could put a cooldown period in place, such as 3 months. Contest winners will be able to participate in other contests during this cooldown, but will not be able to participate in the one contest they just won until the cooldown has been lifted.
3. I feel that in order to participate in the contest, you should be an active member for that, just like with the pm and buying and selling features on Fishlore. Some members I feel are just joining Fishlore to win the money each month, while not really contributing to Fishlore otherwise. However, new members can still vote in the contest, they just can't make a post until they reached active member status. This is supposed to be a friendly contest for people on Fishlore, but I feel that many are disadvantaged due the system currently in place.
PS: I would love your thoughts on this suggestion, Mike (and the other moderators)! I just want to put this out there in case there are people out there that feel discouraged to participate in the photo contests, which would be much more fun and exciting if more people participated. Wishing everyone the best,
JLAquatics

 

Bumpity Bump, Bump... I would love input by anyone about this idea, it would be much appreciated.

 

I like your thinking! The forum can be made more exciting if there’s a flashy box that invites the user to participate in the contests. The cooldown gives all users a fair chance too.

 

Totally agree with #3.
Active members with a minimum amount of posts

 

I think posting should end after 3 weeks, THEN voting starts. As it is, the first few days of entries get more likes because they are there longer. Voting shouldn’t be allowed until all entries are in.

 

I think posting should end after 3 weeks, THEN voting starts. As it is, the first few days of entries get more likes because they are there longer. Voting shouldn’t be allowed until all entries are in.

How come I didn’t think of that?! Usually the first photo entered wins, not the one that actually deserves the win.

 

I think posting should end after 3 weeks, THEN voting starts. As it is, the first few days of entries get more likes because they are there longer. Voting shouldn’t be allowed until all entries are in.

This is a great idea for the contests as well. It will allow all members who participate to have an even playing field. You could have the first 20 days of the month for entering your pic and the last week or so for the voting period of such images, with reminders towards the top on the home page when these periods end so that members can easily know when the time to vote is.

 

Solid ideas!

 

Thanks for the suggestions!

Unfortunately the photo contest thing is an add-on for the software and I don't have the ability to edit how it functions... it's a rather simple contest add on to track likes per post then tallies them to order the photos by votes at the top.

 

If the persons responsible wanted to or thought it would be helpful they could implement rules like no voting until a set date eg 15th of month on an honor system - since votes are visible people would be reminded by others if they vote early. This would solve the early pic wins problem listed above

and a rule like if you've already won in the last 3 months the prize goes to the next person. This wont stop people entering but perhaps share prizes more widely. Solving 2 above

In both cases it wouldn't need software changes just text rules at the top and a quick check by judges at the end to find the highest scorer who hasn't won recently.

I don't think it matters if you are new and I'm not sure anyone is using it to make money without playing elsewhere on the forum but that would require software changes that Mike ruled out anyway.

Alejandro's octopus won this month and we were new members entering our first photo neither looking for prizes or active yet, but I hope we have contributed since. I think it's a lovely friendly idea for the forum - sad if anyone's abusing it - if simple changes can make more participate I think that's great.

 

If the persons responsible wanted to or thought it would be helpful they could implement rules like no voting until a set date eg 15th of month on an honor system - since votes are visible people would be reminded by others if they vote early. This would solve the early pic wins problem listed above

and a rule like if you've already won in the last 3 months the prize goes to the next person. This wont stop people entering but perhaps share prizes more widely. Solving 2 above

In both cases it wouldn't need software changes just text rules at the top and a quick check by judges at the end to find the highest scorer who hasn't won recently.

I don't think it matters if you are new and I'm not sure anyone is using it to make money without playing elsewhere on the forum but that would require software changes that Mike ruled out anyway.

Alejandro's octopus won this month and we were new members entering our first photo neither looking for prizes or active yet, but I hope we have contributed since. I think it's a lovely friendly idea for the forum - sad if anyone's abusing it - if simple changes can make more participate I think that's great.

I agree with all said above, you wouldn't need any software changes and this would address most of the issues displayed, Mike. I appreciate your input, Alejandro!

 

To also get another way mods to easily view winners of contests for my number two suggestion, there could be a counter on your profile of how many contests you won as well as the date you won them. It could work similar to the counter for posts and reactions visible on everyone's profile.

 

Just to be devil's advocate here for a minute try to look at this from Mike s point of view too. He can look into software changes and pay cash and bust his hump to implement these (admittedly good) ideas. OR we as a community can police ourselves.

Make it a point to go in at the end of the month and vote for pictures you like to help alleviate the head start. You win 2 months in a row? Maybe the second time you defer the prize to 2nd place out of kindness. You think there's a person who never contributes anything to the forum but keeps winning? Report them up to the mods and let them investigate.

Sure these ideas sound good to me too, but a lot of this sounds like we can handle it ourselves as a group of mature individuals.

 

Just to be devil's advocate here for a minute try to look at this from Mike s point of view too. He can look into software changes and pay cash and bust his hump to implement these (admittedly good) ideas. OR we as a community can police ourselves.

Make it a point to go in at the end of the month and vote for pictures you like to help alleviate the head start. You win 2 months in a row? Maybe the second time you defer the prize to 2nd place out of kindness. You think there's a person who never contributes anything to the forum but keeps winning? Report them up to the mods and let them investigate.

Sure these ideas sound good to me too, but a lot of this sounds like we can handle it ourselves as a group of mature individuals.

Yeah, you got a pretty good point there, mimo91088. I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens. I just think it is sad that not as many folks participate in these contests. It would be much better having many people participate than what we have now (we have so many members here and are lucky if 50 people participate each month). If you see this post, Mike, I sincerely apologize for getting way ahead of myself. I hope that this thread was not intrusive to your forum in any way and I completely understand your points and concerns software wise. To conclude, I wish all you folks out there the best.
-JLAquatics

 

Yeah, you got a pretty good point there, mimo91088. I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens. I just think it is sad that not as many folks participate in these contests. It would be much better having many people participate than what we have now (we have so many members here and are lucky if 50 people participate each month). If you see this post, Mike, I sincerely apologize for getting way ahead of myself. I hope that this thread was not intrusive to your forum in any way and I completely understand your points and concerns software wise. To conclude, I wish all you folks out there the best.
-JLAquatics

Don't take my response the wrong way either bud! I liked your ideas and I don't think Mike would ever get upset with someone looking to improve the forum. But once he said it's stock software he can't tweak, my first thought was "we can probably handle a lot of this without website coding anyway".

 

Thanks all - I'll look at adding some of these changes after the software upgrade that is coming soon!

 

My suggestions to solve jlaquatics concerns were effectively self policing without software changes. So they might also evade the issues mimo91088 raised.

All that would be needed is another line or two in the rules - depending on which ones you want to do. E.g. "entries open until 15th of each month and voting only permitted after that. Please come back to see everyone's photos and vote after the 15th." Solves problem 1.

For problem 2 if it's a real issue "To help share the fun people who have won in the last 3 months cannot win another prize. You are welcome to enter and participate but if your image wins the prize may be awarded to the next highest scorer that hasn't won recently."

And obviously there is already a 'cheat and you're out' clause in the rules and 'mods discretion' always applies so any time someone isn't playing fair that's covered.

I'm sure Mike doesn't need more work so whatever those in charge decide is fine - I do think having more people play would be great so if any suggestions get more to participate I'll encourage it.

 

I wasn't even aware of it that we had photo contests overhere...

 

I wasn't even aware of it that we had photo contests overhere...

Yes we do, you can find them here
Photo Contests Forum