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Photo Contest How do photo contests work?/ Photo of the month = POM?)

Just read through the submission rules and would suggest an additional one that might be valuable. One of the problems that DPR has had with challenges over the past few years is the fact that there are too few members who vote on them. As opposed to having to make "meaningful posts" to qualify to submit to challenges might it also be possible if members could also qualify by accruing a set number of votes on challenges instead. This might help assist members who lack the experience to contribute through "meaningful posts" to submit entries to challenges/contests and thereby improve their photography skills. They would initially see and vote on the submissions by more experienced and knowledgeable members to gain experience and then be able to submit their own images and gain more experience through the feedback they receive.
 
Just read through the submission rules and would suggest an additional one that might be valuable. One of the problems that DPR has had with challenges over the past few years is the fact that there are too few members who vote on them. As opposed to having to make "meaningful posts" to qualify to submit to challenges might it also be possible if members could also qualify by accruing a set number of votes on challenges instead. This might help assist members who lack the experience to contribute through "meaningful posts" to submit entries to challenges/contests and thereby improve their photography skills. They would initially see and vote on the submissions by more experienced and knowledgeable members to gain experience and then be able to submit their own images and gain more experience through the feedback they receive.
This makes some sense. With the forum in a start up phase, anything you can do to encourage participation is good. In a year, rules could change some, but startup is critical. If someone is discouraged and goes someplace else, we all lose.
 
Yes, from my very brief career as challenge host, I can roughly tell how the DPR challenges system works (or worked, depending on how quickly you read this).
Another useless fact for the history records: ever wondered what happens when a DPR challenge entry gets no votes at all? Well, now that the site is slowly becoming a ghost town, we can solve such mysteries nobody probably cares about :D And the answer is: the entry won't even show up in the results of the finished challenge (still contributes to the entry count though).
 
Yeah, that is kind of frustrating. But what can I say? Everything what happened over the last 4 weeks is not logical and does not motivate at all.

The description of "ghost town" is surprisingly accurate. It would be better to close that forum asap. There is no benefit in posting anything there anymore. It will be all deleted, best case archived. So what?

I would recommend to save your energy or to "waste" your energy in places like DPRforum, so you still get interaction with others. Even in 6 weeks :)
 
One of the problems that DPR has had with challenges over the past few years is the fact that there are too few members who vote on them.
Count me as one who only voted a few times. I could never figure out the point of the challenges. You vote or submit, something wins, the rest don't, and you never know why. Without any explanation of the reasons for the votes, I couldn't figure a reason to either enter or vote. It seemed like a black hole into which went pictures and votes and no information ever came back out. I certainly never learned anything from it. It just seemed like a popularity contest (which photo is the most popular), rather than a way to learn and improve. I guess my question is, is there some way to make the contests useful so that it's worth anyone's time to enter or vote? That could improve the response. If it's just for fun, as someone posted above, I get that and if that's your thing, that's fine. I just think there might be more engagement if people found it useful if they don't find it fun (or if they find it both) useful and fun).
 
For a while I was in "contest mode" over there and usually ended up in the high forties. Once I think I came in 3rd. Of course I always thought my shots were somewhat better than OK but after a while I decided: "who needs this"
 
Every photo contest is a difficult and thankless task. No matter what anyone says. I know this because I've organised three) and there will always be unhappy photographers.
The contest must be linked to the prizes, at least a nominal one. Otherwise it becomes just a photo gallery.

The easiest way - I used to offer free licences from well-known software producers - DxO, Topaz Labs, etc. to the winning photographers. And that's quite possible - there are very friendly and adequate people working there. The only thing I got was a harsh and slightly mocking answer from On1, and that's it... The other have been great - I'd like to thank them all for that.
 
I am/was the moderator for the Challenge Discussions subforum at DPR. They started to develop this great system with multiple levels of voting and such, but in the end it depended a bit too much on human integrity. People creating multiple accounts from which to vote, etc. Downvoting others to boost their relative score. It created a lot of gnashing of teeth. I don't think your goal should be to emulate that in any way, but to keep it simple.

I don't think cash prizes in the future are a good idea; people will start to take it too seriously. Maybe a good prize would be increased photo size in the winner's portfolio for a year or something like that?

As for the voting with Likes, how will that work? Will the "thumbs-up" be the +1 and the "Love" be +2? Will the "angry" be -1?

Another idea dirk will create the challenge and the votes will come with the poll functionality after submission time is past?

Will only dirk create the challenges, or an anyone?
 
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