InstantForum.NET v4.1.4Sierra Club Online Community Forumhttp://connect.sierraclub.org/forums/community.support@sierraclub.orgTue, 18 Jun 2013 18:37:53 GMT20http://connect.sierraclub.org/forums/Topic4266208-2020-1.aspxTHE BIGGER PICTUREPhotos and art are definitely appreciated by everyone differently. This makes a photo contest very hard to judge. I think the idea for the majority votes contest was to go out into the community and get as many people to sign up and vote as possible, and the people who do that get rewarded for their hard work and efforts. The people who did not do this should be APPRECIATIVE of those who did, because they brought more people to see yours and everyone else's photos and to groups as a whole. And that's what we need to make a strong group and have this site and the Sierra Club thrive. I think everyone should look at the BIGGER PICTURE, no pun intended. The point of this site, this group and hopefully all the photos on the site are to get people to get out and enjoy and appreciate nature more and hopefully think before people destroy it. So with or with out the contest you should try to get as many friends and family as you can to sign up and be apart of this group.Moving forward I think the prizes should be discounts or trips to nature preserves or parks, or where ever need attention. The winner will have to take pictures of that place and post them on the site. Like a grant sort of thing. This way all the people on the site can enjoy the prize. And when the winner is out on the trip they will be promoting the site and club and we can grow stronger and make a difference in the BIGGER PICTURE. Maybe then there will be less negative comments and haters that way. Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:07:35 GMTsocietal voicehttp://connect.sierraclub.org/forums/Topic4266208-2020-1.aspxPhillip's idea sounds really good to me. The relative consistency and impartiality of staff judging appeals to me. I also like his idea of having previous winners participate in the judging. While beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I agree with others that this contest felt a bit like a test of who could round up the most positive votes. It seemed that many great photos got few/no comments while others received surprisingly high numbers. Like others have said, I really enjoyed viewing everyone's interpretation of "orange." Thanks for taking our comments, thanks for the contest and thanks to all of the Sierra Club!Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:50:44 GMTBob Stevensonhttp://connect.sierraclub.org/forums/Topic4266208-2020-1.aspxHi,I like the new mode of one pic per person. That will make us submit only our best photograph that matches the theme.With regards to the community voting, its a nice democratic idea, but with such a small population and almost every participant entering the contest, the vote is too easily skewed. You're going to need a panel of judges, either staff or volunteers, who narrows the field.One thing I've seen on other sites is for the judges to pick the top 10 and then let the community vote on those, but even that can get skewed if the voting population isn't big enough. But that may be worth a try.- Rogardhttp://rogardphoto.comSat, 21 Nov 2009 08:40:31 GMTRogard Rosshttp://connect.sierraclub.org/forums/Topic4266208-2020-1.aspxHello, why not use a combination of both - comments and staff votes?Tally up all of the good comments, then out of the top say maybe 5 or 10, let the staff decide :) along with the previous month's winner. Just a thought..Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:49:13 GMTMary Evanshttp://connect.sierraclub.org/forums/Topic4266208-2020-1.aspxLeaving it the way it is makes the votes very "thin" - lots of different pics with very few votes and such a small margin of difference that the results could be easily skewed. Having a set panel would bring consistancy to the project. Community Members would not likley want to be "just" judges for a long enough period of time to offer consistancy. So, by default having Sierra Club staff be judges is the best option. I would suggest that community members might particapte in judging in two ways - one seat on the judges panel goes to the previous month's winner and one seat might be an "at large" volunteer.Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:22:36 GMTPhilip Houghhttp://connect.sierraclub.org/forums/Topic4266208-2020-1.aspxWe've been excited all month to see the excellent photos in the Monthly Photo Contest. We’ve also heard from some of you with suggestions for how to make the contest better. Because of the overwhelming number of submission this month, we will be limiting future contests to one submission per user. But we also want to know how you’d like the contest to be judged. Sierra Trails is a community, and we want you to feel like this is your contest. So let us know what you think. We can’t guarantee that the rules will end up just the way you want them, but we can tell you that we will listen to all of your suggestions. If you have an idea that wasn’t one of the three choices in the poll, you can provide them in the comments below.Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:57:20 GMTCanyon Kyle