Bluelight weekly photography contest Running Time poll

[SA]

Further to a previous "debate" on the subject, I believe it is healthy to let the people decide their own fate. The previous thread was deleted by the OP, so I can't link to it, but here is the gist.

We have three options to consider:

1. Let each round last one week. Submissions would be accepted from Monday to Friday and voting would be done on Saturday and Sunday.

2. Let each round last two weeks. Submissions would be accepted from Monday to Wednesday of the following week and voting would be done from Thursday to Saturday. Sunday would be a rest day.

3. Let things remain as they are, with submissions lasting eight days and voting lasting two.

The main benefit of the first two options is regularity - people will always know that the start and end times of each round are the same.

The main benefit of the third option is the time frame, the running length, which is optimal for this community in my (and some others' opinion).


This is not an empty poll. The results of this poll will be considered very seriously and most likely enacted. This poll will last until next Friday, March 30th, which should coincide with the end of the next round of the weekly photography contest. This should facilitate a smooth transition into whatever system is decided upon by "the people".



P.S. While you're at it, please feel free to leave suggestions for future rounds. Thanks.

P.P.S. Please don't forget to vote for this week's poll here: http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?t=298165



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[MazDan]

Good idea SA.

Can I just pull you up on one thing though..............if its a 5-2 mix then I would suggest your voting days are say Tuesday and wednesday..........basically any weekdays not weekends.

 

[L2R]

Tossing up between 2 weeks and as they are, i voted for the latter.

 

[pennywise]

I like the current system. While it sucks waiting if you already have a photo ready to go, I sometimes need the extra time to take photos. Also, I think if people have more time it will result in higher-quality photos, and allow more entries to be made into each contest.

 

[Raving Loony]

I can't see why we can't have a new photo session start as soon as the voting commences for the old. Eg. seven days for submission, with the tuesday and wednesday for voting the work and tuesday also being the start day for the next competition.

 

[MazDan]

I can't see why we can't have a new photo session start as soon as the voting commences for the old. Eg. seven days for submission, with the tuesday and wednesday for voting the work and tuesday also being the start day for the next competition.

Now thats good thinking............

 

[SA]

I can't see why we can't have a new photo session start as soon as the voting commences for the old. Eg. seven days for submission, with the tuesday and wednesday for voting the work and tuesday also being the start day for the next competition.

1. If everyone is looking for regularity, the best options, IMO, are ones beginning on a Monday and ending on a Saturday or Sunday, in tune with the rest of the world.

2. Contrary to some belief, setting up each round of the contest, especially the poll part, is a fair bit of work. It's one thing to suggest a different time schedule, but to start piling everything together so that rounds overlap will double that work (at the end/beginning of each round) and place unnecessary time restraints (read: stress) on those who are doing the setting up (read: me). Please consider the work involved before suggesting future changes. Thanks.

 

[MazDan]

1. If everyone is looking for regularity, the best options, IMO, are ones beginning on a Monday and ending on a Saturday or Sunday, in tune with the rest of the world.

2. Contrary to some belief, setting up each round of the contest, especially the poll part, is a fair bit of work. It's one thing to suggest a different time schedule, but to start piling everything together so that rounds overlap will double that work (at the end/beginning of each round) and place unnecessary time restraints (read: stress) on those who are doing the setting up (read: me). Please consider the work involved before suggesting future changes. Thanks.

wow, that was pretty heavy considering he was only making a suggestion.

SA, you do a great job running it, but its no good if it stresses you out........maybe you could try sharing the load with the other mods Vibrator and THR?

 

[SA]

I really don't consider my response heavy. RV made a suggestion and I countered it by providing reasoning behind my counterpoint. I felt that was better than just throwing out an "I don't agree" or "That plan sucks" response. Why on earth would you suggest that I was being heavy? Furthermore, I have no problem sharing the workload of running the contest, but if this whole thing is about conforming to a regular time schedule, to then try and get three moderators to synchronise their activities to meet this one schedule week after week, every week, is again, IMHO, asking a bit too much. And setting up the contest does not stress me out.

eta: My suggestion is to take this one step at a time. First let everyone decide what they would like as a time frame and then decide (another vote?) on the start/end cycle.

 

[DG]

I definitely like the 5 day submission and 2 day voting.

 

[chrissie]

How about having each submission period be 1 week and when the voting is going on for that round, the next submission period will start? That way submissions and voting will always start on the same days. So it would work like:

Round X
Submissions: Sun-Sat (March 18 - 24)
Voting: Sun-Mon (March 25 & 26)

Round Y
Submissions: Sun-Sat (March 25 - 31)
Voting: Sun-Mon (March 30 & 31)

Etc. Although now that I reread the thread, I think this may be exactly what RL was suggesting, just with different start/stop days.

I do understand that creating the voting threads can be a stress, so if that time frame does not sound appealing, stretching it out to two weeks is perfectly reasonable to me. I'm all for regularity

 

[DG]

^ I think that RL & you have a great idea.

SA, I think maybe if you cant do it all in the same day then there is 2 other mods to lean on for help...

 

[Banquo]

the contest is probably one of the most time-demanding parts of running any forum on BL, so even if there wasn't absolute regularity in start and end dates, I don't think it would be a big deal. i'm just hoping the contests continue, and if you need to take a break or slow things down to keep from burning out, then go fer it. also, there are times, like holidays, weekends, the summer, when board traffic slows, so it might make sense to keep things flexible for when people aren't checking SO as often.

 

[AmorRoark]

I like the current system... not that I participate that often but I think only having 5 days to take your photograph is quite short. Like Banquo I'm happy as long as the contest keeps happening!

 

[SA]

The contest will definitely keep running, regardless, as I am the biggest fan of it whether I participate with my own submissions or not.

The workload itself, regardless of the time frame is very manageable. I have no complaints there.

The only part possibly garnering any annoyance (I'll be sure not to use "stress" in the future, lol) is the overlapping period between the two rounds and I'll explain why:

I'm an obsessive compulsive perfectionist when it comes to little details like time stamps (and stuff like "edited by" tags; ask Noodle, he knows how it feels. It took me years to get over that one, after deleting thousands of posts in my first years here). You'll have taken note that I try to start rounds and polls as close to the zero hour mark as possible. The poll for the current round, for instance, is a few minutes late because I messed up the original poll I'd set up by making votes public by mistake again. So, I had to redo it and it was a few minutes late and that bugged the shit out of me. That is the type of annoyance I was talking about. If, all of a sudden, we have to have a round begin at the same time another round ends, at the same time the voting for that first round begins, well... that throws my whole perfectly timed world out of whack. Major annoyance factor.

I hope that came across a bit better.

So, like I said, the contest is not in any danger of disappearing. However, if we have to do overlaps, then I will need therapy for my Obsessive Compulsive Perfect-Timing syndrome. Anyone have any references.

 

[QuestionEverything]

^Perhaps the best therapy would be to force yourself to face the fears and never start another one on the exact time, or (gasp!) have multiple ones started at not perfect times! I poke fun because I relate

 

[BA]

I originally had it so submissions were Monday - Friday with voting on Saturdays and Sundays. Simple. Easy to remember. Then of course, people started to complain about this n' that and it was changed.

I say make submissions through the week and voting on the weekends.
Don't like it? Tough shit. You don't have to play. Start a better contest elsewhere with your rules.

It's when you try and please everybody that confusion starts. It's too bad that a little fun contest like this has become so twisted with photoshop allegations, hair-spliting definitions of the rules, and picking a submission date that nobody can seem to agree on.

 

[L2R]

^that's right.

why are we getting so uppitty about something that's there for FUN?

 

[chrissie]

the fact that it is a contest creates these issues. there needs to be a set of rules and people need to follow them.

if it were just people sharing photos, rules wouldn't be an issue.

 

[DG]

so it looks like we won! when will this change that got voted for go in effect?