Photography Contest - And the winners are...

First let me say nice work everyone!

After resolving as many of the problem votes as I could, the following are the results. (I'm truly embarrased by this, and almost didn't post the results because of that.)

1st Place - MartinLiss 1
2nd Place - MartinLiss 5
3rd Place (tie) - oceanebelle 3, MartinLiss 2, Merrion 2

There were a total of 15 photos that received 1st place votes. They where (in alphabetical order)
abhijit 2
abhijit 3
dclamp 3
kleinma 1
kleinma 3
MartinLiss 1
MartinLiss 2
MartinLiss 5
mendhak 2
Merrion 2
oceanebelle 3
penagate 1
penagate 2
penagate 5
zaza 1

I plan on doing this again and when I do I plan on making some changes to avoid the problems that I had with this one. Those changes will include

• Fewer entries from each member
• Member Name will be a required field in the survey response
• Members who join after the start of the contest will not be allowed a vote

If you have other suggestions, please let me know.

:cry:

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Originally Posted by MartinLiss

First let me say nice work everyone!

After resolving as many of the problem votes as I could, the following are the results. (I'm truly embarrased by this, and almost didn't post the results because of that.)

1st Place - MartinLiss 1
2nd Place - MartinLiss 5
3rd Place (tie) - oceanebelle 3, MartinLiss 2, Merrion 2

There were a total of 15 photos that received 1st place votes. They where (in alphabetical order)
abhijit 2
abhijit 3
dclamp 3
kleinma 1
kleinma 3
MartinLiss 1
MartinLiss 2
MartinLiss 5
mendhak 2
Merrion 2
oceanebelle 3
penagate 1
penagate 2
penagate 5
zaza 1

I plan on doing this again and when I do I plan on making some changes to avoid the problems that I had with this one. Those changes will include

• Fewer entries from each member
• Member Name will be a required field in the survey response
• Members who join after the start of the contest will not be allowed a vote

If you have other suggestions, please let me know.

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does that mean that pictures submitted for this contest won't qualify on the next one?

Do you mean the 10 points vote with "1st place votes"?

What were those anomilies?

Would it look any better if you made a best photographer list so you wouldn't be in there twice?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MartinLiss

First let me say nice work everyone!

After resolving as many of the problem votes as I could, the following are the results. (I'm truly embarrased by this, and almost didn't post the results because of that.)

1st Place - MartinLiss 1
2nd Place - MartinLiss 5
3rd Place (tie) - oceanebelle 3, MartinLiss 2, Merrion 2

There were a total of 15 photos that received 1st place votes. They where (in alphabetical order)
abhijit 2
abhijit 3
dclamp 3
kleinma 1
kleinma 3
MartinLiss 1
MartinLiss 2
MartinLiss 5
mendhak 2
Merrion 2
oceanebelle 3
penagate 1
penagate 2
penagate 5
zaza 1

I plan on doing this again and when I do I plan on making some changes to avoid the problems that I had with this one. Those changes will include

• Fewer entries from each member
• Member Name will be a required field in the survey response
• Members who join after the start of the contest will not be allowed a vote

If you have other suggestions, please let me know.

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Allow entries from the previous contest? :D

Oh, and congratulations Marty. I think it was pretty obvious you'd win, just not obvious which picture.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mendhak

Oh, and congratulations Marty. I think it was pretty obvious you'd win, just not obvious which picture.

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Congrats Martin. :wave:

Congrats

Quote:

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Originally Posted by oceanebelle

does that mean that pictures submitted for this contest won't qualify on the next one?

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It will be an entirly new contest, but there's no reason that I can see to not allow you to submit the same photos (subject to the lower photos per member limit).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by grilkip

Do you mean the 10 points vote with "1st place votes"?

What were those anomilies?

Would it look any better if you made a best photographer list so you wouldn't be in there twice?

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Yes, the "1st place votes" where the 10-points ones.

The anomolies where some people didn't see the "BTW" in the rules that prohibited them from voting for themselves, and some people who were not VBF members voted.

The "best photographer list" would be

#1 MartinLiss
#2-3 (tie) oceanebelle, Merrion

Thank you all for your votes and your congratulations.

Someone asked me via PM what kind of camera I used. Some (but not all) people's cameras record that information in the pictures they take and the information will show up in the pictures on ImageEvent if you expand a picture. If you do that with mine you'll find that I used a Cannon PowerShot G2, which is a 4 Mega-pixel camera. It's still a nice camera but now I'm "negotiating" with my wife for a Nikon D80. Call it a part of a post-midlife crisis:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mendhak

Allow entries from the previous contest? :D

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Ah wait, I think that it would be a good idea to disallow the winning photo from this or future contests from being entered in any subsequent contest.

No votes for me? What gives?

its because you dont have 1000 posts any more. You now have 1001.... what a shame

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Originally Posted by I_Love_My_Vans

No votes for me? What gives?

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There where one or more votes for you, just not first place ones.

My internet connection was down since 24th and I missed all the fun. :cry:

Ya - I didn't get to vote. NVM. xmas and all - it happens.

Gratz on the winners - some pearler shots there!

What do you folks think about doing it again in 6 months? Too soon?

Six months sounds fine. I'll be able to share some of my travel shots by then. :)

Congratulations Marty. By the way, how did you find out whether voters were VBF members or not? I didn't notice any kind of authentication system when I voted.


P.S. Hi everyone!

Hmm, i'd have to see where I can find some good shots here... :'(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by penagate

Six months sounds fine. I'll be able to share some of my travel shots by then. :)

Congratulations Marty. By the way, how did you find out whether voters were VBF members or not? I didn't notice any kind of authentication system when I voted.


P.S. Hi everyone!

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Compare IP addresses.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mendhak

Compare IP addresses.

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Bye bye, Penagate's votes.

You're a genius Marty.

Yes the survey responses do contain the IP address of the respondee but there are a couple of problems in using that as validation. One is that if the IP address does match the address of a member, that does not mean that it is the member doing the voting. An example of that would be several people using the same school's IP address. The other problem is that some people have dynamic IP addresses and it's possible that the IP address they use to vote is not one that they ever posted under and hence I can't tell that they are a member. I never thought about the need for validation when I came up with the contest idea, and so while I did the best I could with what I had to work with, it's possible that some invalid votes got through.

The above is the reason that next time I'm going to require the member's name on the survey and I will validate by PM that the member did actually vote. If anyone has a better idea please let me know.

Well, I do have an idea... you can fly each member over to your house, where we get to spend a day lounging in your pool while you bring us drinks. At the end of the day you can then politely ask us which photos we chose.

Edit: Then fly us back.

Edit edit: First class.

You could take vbf polls in stages.

I have a picture of a flying saucer somewhere. It's out of this world

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mendhak

Well, I do have an idea... you can fly each member over to your house, where we get to spend a day lounging in your pool while you bring us drinks. At the end of the day you can then politely ask us which photos we chose.

Edit: Then fly us back.

Edit edit: First class.

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brilliant! absolutely brilliant!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MartinLiss

The above is the reason that next time I'm going to require the member's name on the survey and I will validate by PM that the member did actually vote. If anyone has a better idea please let me know.

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Just have the votes sent to you by PM and you can tot them up however you please.

This does of course mean you'll need to be excluded from entering future contests. :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by penagate

Just have the votes sent to you by PM....

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That would make it a little harder for people to vote but it's a good idea.

some php expert could whip up a quick app ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dclamp

some php expert could whip up a quick app ;)

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Yes, but that's not the problem. The problem is integrating it with the forum's membership system.

vBulletin's built in poll system simply isn't anywhere near sophisticated enough to handle this sort of task.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MartinLiss

The above is the reason that next time I'm going to require the member's name on the survey and I will validate by PM that the member did actually vote. If anyone has a better idea please let me know.

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Considering the extremely low entrance fee and the prize money involved, you could just leave the system as it is now. :)

6 months would be good. I'll dust off my camera and start looking for opportunities.

How do I have my camera lenses cleaned?

It's an old sony cybershot and I think there's a lint inside the lens. However I clean it, I still get a spot on the pictures. :'(

Dust on the front element isn't likely to show up on your pictures. It would be way out of focus. The dust is almost certainly on the sensor. This is essentially impossible to clean manually on compact cameras.

You could, however, try shaking it. :D

If you are cunning with your framing of the picture and ensure that the piece of lint always obscures mendhak, then people will actually be thankful for it.