WPF Censorship - POTW

[Birdsnapper]

I think that the fairest and most democratic way is to let the members vote and give each member a number of votes determined as follows.

100 votes for every week of membership - this will reward loyalty to the forum.
50 votes for every comment made during the previous week - this will encourage participation.
75 votes for every photo posted since becoming a member - this will further encourage participation.
Each week the member is allowed to distribute a percentage of his votes amongst any four photos that he chooses. To allow for ties, the member then states how his first choice votes are distributed among the other three photos. He then states how his second choice votes are distributed. Likewise his third choice votes.
The photo with highest number of votes is chosen as POTW provided that it gets more that 60% of the total votes cast and more that 40% of the total possible votes of all members, whether they have voted or not.
Should no photo meet these percentages, then the member's first choice votes are distributed as he previously nominated. The process continues until there is a clear winner.
When all of this descends into confusion and chaos, the moderators then decide on the POTW by whatever method they feel works for them and we can all go back to enjoying looking at the images we like instead of being critical of the mods for trying to make the forum more interesting.

[robski]

Good Grief Mike that sounds extremely complicated. I think life is too short to work out how many votes you may or may not have. Plus who is going to verify them ?
Since when was PoTW a competition ?

I think the whole thing should be kept simple. A simple method to mention in dispatches a short list of images which were considered to be outstanding in one way or another in a particular weeks post. Some weeks there maybe no images that make the grade other weeks there maybe 3 or 4. I think Don's approach goes a long way towards that.

We should be out there snapping not counting votes

[jamieZ740]

I agree, it should be kept simple, but who ever decides on the Potw, should say why it stood out. When greeting new members, it is always said we're here to help and contribute, especially to newcomers of 'tography. what better way to help and inspire than to choose a potw and explain what/where and why. then newcomers know what to look for in a shot?
J

[Birdsnapper]

It's easy enough to decide who does all the all the work to verify the votes - the member whose been shouting loudest about the choice of POTW and how the mods choose it. You'd be surprised how quickly everyone would agree that the present method is perfect.
I put forward my idea with tongue in cheek to show that whatever method was used, somebody would not like it - that's why I ended up saying let the mods decide anyway that they want.

[John Hallas]

I read the first few posts on this thread and did not know who Scott was and so was unsure of which picture was being talked about.

Today I noticed a link to all the POTW winners and looked at a few to see which was the one under discussion. Based on the comments, Scott's photo (Scribbles ) was the 4th picture I looked at.

So I found 3 other photographs that to my mind could have fitted the criteria that was being criticised. To my mind that just shows how much of personal opinion is involved.

One criticism is that it was a test shot with a new lens. So be it. Is that any worse than Sassan sticking his camera on a tripod and pointing it at the sky for 17 minutes. Probably not.

Each of the winning POTW photographs bring something to the party. Personally I prefer to see ordinary objects photographed well and with a new dimension rather than a panoramic view of Everest from base camp, a picture that most people will never be in a position to take.

All in all I am happy for a POTW to be chosen, I am not interested in voting on the matter but it might be a good idea to qualify why that particular picture has been selected.

John