I'm interested in brainstorming on ideas for how to do the contest voting. I think that asking people to pick out 5 images from a group of over 100 is a bit unreasonable. Could we come up with a better system? Some ideas I've had:

1. Ask people to pick the best of only two images at a time, then combine the results to automatically pick the best out of the full group.

2. Allow people to use the gallery to either mark images as "good" or "bad" so that they can narrow down the candidates in a systematic way.

The second idea is something I had in mind. Being able to add images you like to a "shortlist" would make the decision making process mucheasier, rather than having to remember them all.

Extrapolating on your ideas above a bit more, *caedes:

i) Allow the voters an initial perusal of entries, being able to mark each entry as 'proceed' ... 'discard' ... till all entries have at least been viewed once in a preliminary light (fitting for the contest theme, as a criterion on this note).

Then ...

ii) Present the entries in groups of five. Choosing one from each group of five.

Gradually narrowing/reducing the field of entrants down successively ... till only five remain.

Then, allow the first, second, third, fourth and fifth place images to emerge from the pool of submissions this way.


/\ Might speed things up some on the voter's end and provide an assist on the qualitative front for the voters.

This is essentially how I conducted my voting in the past. Opened up ten or so pages/tabs of images in my browser, side by side ... flipped through each page, eliminating images ... adding those yet to be voted on/assessed ... till I was left with ten or less. At which point I addressed the win, place and show stuff.


Other:

Allow members to assign a number from 1 - 5 as they go through each of the submissions.

Only allowing those images that garner a 3 or above to 'proceed' to the next pool.

Again as noted above, successively assigning scores till the pool is reduced to ten or so. At which point, allow all ten to be viewable on a page and then their final selections to be made.


Perhaps, the key here ... is to allow the voters to cull those images not 'best fitted' towards the current theme initially. Or, some sort of method that would allow an initial criterion along these lines to be in place to reduce the numbers at the outset of the voting process.

How to pick a Winning Photo. I think that a measurable standard should be used by all, and the High Score wins. Example. The score should be based off three standards, The WOW factor. This is the first 2-3 seconds of looking at a photo. Did it catch your attention or WOW you. Score it on a 1-10 points. The Composition Value. Is the photo composed or organized to be pleasant or does it hurt the eyes. Score it on a 1-10 points. Technical Value, like lighting, focus, color saturation, dept of field etc. Score it on 1-10 points. Add the score and the overall high score wins. There is nothing easy about selecting a winning photo. I think each and every photo deserves to be judged by a standard format. It will take some time to do 100 photos, but anything of value will take time. I think its worth it. You can only be as good as the opportunity presented to you. To simply say a photo was good or bad with out a measurable guide does not provide much opportunity to improve. I understand you are trying to make a large chore easy as possible. I think success is not an entitlement it has to be earned. The only way to be fair is to share the misery equally. That means a little effort is required. I hope this is the type of brainstorming you were looking for, I have other ideas, but none of them are worth a darn. :)

My system in voting on contest images is very similar to Les'.

Step 1. First I select the contest entries that I feel best fits the contest theme. Then I have a second go through to verify my selections or make changes ... I don't want overlook anything on my first go through. These selected images then move on to the next list or pool. An initial vote would work well here ... a simple yes or no.

Step 2. From that list (let's say it consists of 45 images) ... my goal is to come up with a number that is 10% of the total number of entered images. Example : If there is a total of 150 contest entries, then 10% equals 15 images that would be placed in the next list or pool. Sometimes it's more ... sometimes it's less. This number, of course, can be a fixed number for all contests to prevent any confusion.

I do this by rating an image on a scale of 1 - 5 with '5' being best & the highest ratings move on to the list of 10 or 15.

Step 3. I then pick my final five from the +/- 10 or 15 top-rated images that I feel that best represents the contest theme & deserves to be in the final voting (usually, but not always, the previous rating has something to do with it).

I know voting takes time ... so with that I say keep it simple.

hey, I know..and I'm being serious here..

check boxes.

what if we could run, erm..browse through the contest gallery, and check off all the entries we'd like to further consider. this would, perhaps, easier facilitate a 'short list' as mentioned above.

second idea... being able, perhaps, to put the image's ranking under it's thumbnail, thus getting a viual layout of how onw is voting.

I'm done..

Another idea ...

Introduce a preliminary vote to narrow the field of submissions/entries received ... prior to that of the final and deciding vote, once the contest has officially closed.

I.e.. Contest runs for ten (10) days.

After five (5) days, send out voting invitations/requests ... and allow for the culling to be done by those that are voting from that particular pool.

End of contest, send out the second round of voting invitations/requests ... eliminating those that received them in the first round ... voting occurs once again with this second pool, final decisions rendered.


Greater site wide participation and involvement might result.


Possible contingencies to mitigate enthusiasm dropping off, in those members that had their images culled in the first round:

Allow these members to submit another entry.

The hope/idea here being that these particular members might address 'what went wrong', so to speak ... and then, submit an improved entry to that of their first.

I realised today when voting on the "Orange" contest that there is a very simple way to make it easier; just keep tge voting page open in a seperate window and tge contest gallery open in another. Then you can add images to your voting list and replace/reorder your selections when you find something you prefer. As the selectec images are displayed on tge voting page it's simple to compare images you've already chosen and decide if you prefer something else. Worked for me anyway.

That's the way I did my voting in the b/w contest, Sam and it worked perfectly for me to!

My thoughts on the voting... Rule #1: As many judges as there are means as many differing opinions... we are dealing with a subjective choice... so I am not worried about how decisions are made! I do feel that judges could participate as judges for 3 or 4 contests... that way if they feel they have learned something from their experience, they can test their theories... and hopefully be able to PM the other judges re. their apparent discoveries.

In addition to the voting... I have a feeling (and have expressed it via PM) that changes should be made so that
there would exist a chance for graphics images to be a part of the 5 winners... and you know I am not one of these people.
I like to get out and play with my camera not stay at home and mess around some more with my computer!
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Personal message from Con_ [ 29/09/09 15:24 ]:

Les... I just discovered that PMs are not formatted as we see at our end nor do they allow Alt-255 characters as do the Comments! and Descriptions! So I will re-send my last message with _ representing a space.

Les... I am sending you 2 little suggestive formulas!

#Fractals___#Slots4Prizes
-------------_x_______________=_Obligatory_#Fractal_winning_entries
#Entries

Round OFwe to the nearest unit
Should the OFwe be less than 1 then OFwe = 1, IF the number of entries is greater than or equal to 5% of the total entries.

#Slots4Prizes - OFwe = #Digital winning entries

I feel (and I am definitely not a fractal artist!) that some sort of guarantee of a win by the fractal people should exist.
The magic numbers could be passed on to the judges or made public after the contest closes... or maybe the formula could be made public.

On this one, you can let me know what the powers of Caedes think. Thanks for reading this and bringing this to their attention. :o)
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And oh! By the way, I also believe the judges should not be allowed entries into the contest! If a person is selected to be a judge during the contest, that person should remove his/her entry by entering an image that has no relevance to the contest. It would help to make the choices of the winners more acceptable. (In the past, it is possible that a judge had entered a superior image but did not win because he/she was ineligible and the entrants were unaware of this.)

I have more thoughts on this but probably have overstayed my welcome at this point! :o)