www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

On another site I frequent they have a monthly graphics design competition that is very hotly contested. As on this site there are no prizes but the winner gets a gold star (think gold medal at Chelsea) that appears when they post in their signature area. You can immediately see who the hot shots ( or If you haven't got one, lucky beggars) are and it seems to add to the enjoyment.
Do you think it would work here or are we all too mature ? Not that it would make any difference to me as I have yet to register a vote
Cheers
Dave

You are getting desperate when you start replying to your own posts but this is how it might look:

This is taken from a design site. I will now stop banging on and go back to submitting butterfly pictures
Cheers
Dave

I think thats a great idea Dave, I'd take the idea further and give Gold Silver and Bronze stars, after all we are doing it for fun.

There are also areas that I think need a bit of improvement regarding the comps .
One month there was 36 entries 42 votes and only FOUR! comments now!.....considering that the entries are what folk will be thinking are some of their best shots......this is very sad!
Even if one didn't agree with the winning entries, surely some discussion about the results and an encouraging word here and there is worth the effort ?

I totally agree with Mike, I always congratulate the winner ( although I won't this mouth ). I do find it a bit disappointing that we don't have more of a discussion about why we voted for what. Or a "thanks for voting for me" wouldn't go a miss TW.

Gruditch

Gruditch wrote:Or a "thanks for voting for me" wouldn't go a miss TW.

I have to agree. I presume he is too busy building his house. I wonder if he even knows he won.

Would it be more exciting if we didn't see the running votes immediately after we voted but had to wait until the end to find out who won? I have a sneaking suspicion I know which picture is going to win this month (!! ) and I think it is absolutely beautiful. I've looked at it dozens of times and I love it (so, if I do forget to say anything later, then congratulations to that person!!). But when the comp is over there won't be any sense of excitement or discovery - might that be why we are a little apathetic about it?

Would it be good to keep a permanent gallery of the winning photos and runners up each month? The 'gold star' reward would be to get into this gallery of excellence.

Guy

All ideas welcome

The competitions are run using the "poll" facility on the forum which is pretty constraining I'm afraid - and I don't have any time to build anything different. At least you don't get to see who's winning when you vote!

In terms of a "winners gallery" - I think that's an excellent idea and will include all "top 3" photos in the not-too-distant future.

Cheers,

- Pete