I wanted to say some positive things about the challenges here. Dpr certainly has the best range and frequency that I have found. I am fairly new to the site, but have gravitated to the challenges and I am really enjoying them. They inspire me to get out there and try new things. I am happy to find such a range of frequent challenges. Thanks to all that contribute to make it happen.
A lot of discussion centres on the voting. I am finding my votes correlate fairly well with the final rankings, so I don't think sandbagging is either all that prevalent, or maybe it's just not having such a great effect. So, so far, I have no problems with it.
I think we have to remember that few voters are trained judges. People will sometimes vote, just based on personal preference. It just happens that way. Also, when voting on comps that you haven't entered, there's more chance that the rules of the challenge are not fully understood by the voter. I have not yet decided on whether to only vote in other challenges, or only in challenges I have entered, or both.
Votes of 0.5 get a mention often. My belief is that a photo should not normally get such a low vote. I reserve 0.5 as a vote to indicate the image does not comply with the challenge rules and intentions. An image that is well taken, technically good, and represents the challenge,, starts at 3 for me. Then I push it up or down the scale based on finer considerations. I seldom give a 5. I reserve that for the rare image that totally blows me away. I will happily give a 1 to an image that is just a poorly taken snapshot, and a 4 or 4.5 to any that stands out. I don't think it helps to give everything votes within a small range. In the end, I don't think it matters, as long as you consistantly give higher results to better images.
A lot of discussion centres on the voting. I am finding my votes correlate fairly well with the final rankings, so I don't think sandbagging is either all that prevalent, or maybe it's just not having such a great effect. So, so far, I have no problems with it.
I think we have to remember that few voters are trained judges. People will sometimes vote, just based on personal preference. It just happens that way. Also, when voting on comps that you haven't entered, there's more chance that the rules of the challenge are not fully understood by the voter. I have not yet decided on whether to only vote in other challenges, or only in challenges I have entered, or both.
Votes of 0.5 get a mention often. My belief is that a photo should not normally get such a low vote. I reserve 0.5 as a vote to indicate the image does not comply with the challenge rules and intentions. An image that is well taken, technically good, and represents the challenge,, starts at 3 for me. Then I push it up or down the scale based on finer considerations. I seldom give a 5. I reserve that for the rare image that totally blows me away. I will happily give a 1 to an image that is just a poorly taken snapshot, and a 4 or 4.5 to any that stands out. I don't think it helps to give everything votes within a small range. In the end, I don't think it matters, as long as you consistantly give higher results to better images.
