Voting and selecting a challenge winner

[Deamiter]

To select which photographs will make it to the final round, I will take the top ten from the three first rounds. I'm hoping there will be a clear majority, but in case of some close calls, I'll consider some other factors like ratio of votes for a submission to total votes in that thread...

In the end, my decision may include judging of the last few on my opinion of their merit, but that's only if there's no other way to find 10 finalists. If necessary, I may only include 8 or 9... With no experience here, I have no idea how the actual votes will turn out, but I will make every effort to be as fair an unbiased as possible. As I'm personally funding the challenges, my final decision will remain final.

I plan to run the first round of voting for either one week or two weeks depending on how many people show up. I should note that we can go back and find out who somebody voted for (along with IP addresses etc...) so stacking the votes will not be tolerated.

In the final round, members will only be able to vote for one selection and a simple majority should decide the winners. Note that any member can only win one prize.

I hope that clears up everything -- I welcome suggestions, but remember that this isn't a democracy. I consider myself to be quite impartial and I don't have any personal preferences at this point so I think everything will go smoothly.

 

[Deamiter]

I should also note that I ordered the photographs in the first round randomly. I will again randomize the order in the final round.

 

[I don't believe it]

To select which photographs will make it to the final round, I will take the top ten from the three first rounds. I'm hoping there will be a clear majority, but in case of some close calls, I'll consider some other factors like ratio of votes for a submission to total votes in that thread...

In the end, my decision may include judging of the last few on my opinion of their merit, but that's only if there's no other way to find 10 finalists. If necessary, I may only include 8 or 9... With no experience here, I have no idea how the actual votes will turn out, but I will make every effort to be as fair an unbiased as possible. As I'm personally funding the challenges, my final decision will remain final.

I plan to run the first round of voting for either one week or two weeks depending on how many people show up. I should note that we can go back and find out who somebody voted for (along with IP addresses etc...) so stacking the votes will not be tolerated.

In the final round, members will only be able to vote for one selection and a simple majority should decide the winners. Note that any member can only win one prize.

I hope that clears up everything -- I welcome suggestions, but remember that this isn't a democracy. I consider myself to be quite impartial and I don't have any personal preferences at this point so I think everything will go smoothly.

A couple of thoughts here, firstly, I'd suggest that image quality shouldn't be a factor in influencing someone's choice, skills vary wildly (as does camera quality), so should be taken into account when judging each image.

Second thought, this one's probably going to be a bit contentious, and is probably too late for the first round, but I don't think contributors should vote for their own pictures, oh I know in a democracy you can vote for yourself, but with a fairly small voting base, where one vote can decide a win it shouldn't come from the person who posted the image, I've certainly not voted for either of mine, and will continue not too if they make it through to any further rounds!

 

[Deamiter]

A couple of thoughts here, firstly, I'd suggest that image quality shouldn't be a factor in influencing someone's choice, skills vary wildly (as does camera quality), so should be taken into account when judging each image.

I'm afraid I must respectfully disagree. When you say that image quality shouldn't be a factor, I agree to a point. We certainly don't judge on resolution as all pictures are automatically (or can be and are by default) resized by the web browser in full view. I don't believe there is any camera currently in production that has a low enough resolution to be unfairly represented on a typical computer screen.

skills certainly do vary wildly (and in the future, I will put slightly stricter limitations on digital manipulation) but I am uncertain how you could implement an equalization based on skill. Do we judge each photograph based on how good it COULD be?

Good photography does take quite a bit of work, but at the level the submissions are at now, we're largely judging snapshots and not professional photographs. Rather than try to keep it that way (so it's fair to everybody) I would prefer to allow submissions by photographers who ARE willing to put quite a bit of time and thought into their art. If nothing else, it will push other members to a higher standard.

 

[Deamiter]

After just two days, it looks like we'll have enough votes to go on to the final round in just one week. Unless there's serious objections, I'll plan to shut the voting down on Sunday night (or Monday morning) and start the final round of voting.

If you want to add your input to this round, get your votes in quick!