Why anonymous photos in the photo contest?

[pny]

When I found this site I was very excited by the site and the photo contest, but after a closer look I got great conserns about the handling of photographers rights of their photo's.

Why does photo's (in the contest) at higher place than four not have any photographer identity provided? (Or is it? -I can't find any). Also when I look in the gallery I find all the submited photos under the name of the user "paradise" not the photographer himself???

[phishphorphun]

Let me answer the second part of your question first. When you click on the "Gallery" button in the bar above, a dropdown window opens. Click on "Galleries Home". Then click on "Member's Galleries". You then will find an alphabetical listing of the members galleries.

As for the not having the identity in the POTM contest. This rule is in effect so that the voters will not be influenced by the name of the author. When the identity appears it could encourage a higher vote if the voter likes or has a higher regard for the author. It also can work against the entry if the voter dislikes the author for various reasons.

Hope this answers your questions.

[pny]

Sorry.. I probably did not make myself clear... I show you some examples with these links:

Here all winner photos have missing photographer identity (all photos says user: paradise)
http://aquatic-photography.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=2148&c=78

Here only the three top photos have photographer identity:
http://aquatic-photography.com/cgi-bin/voting/vote.pl?contest=7050

[phishphorphun]

Ahhh, I see what you mean now. I think it may be a glitch in how Ed is posting the POTM after the voting is complete.

This is a good suggestion. Perhaps he can include the author's name on all the entries before he posts the results.

He'll read this and explain, I'm sure.

[paradise]

Hey, pny, I am the "paradise" guy, so I will answer all the questions :)

1. re: only top 3 w/names. That is how the software works, not something I can do anything about. We purchased the POTM software, it's a one of a kind piece of work, and while it may be a good suggestion to include it in fugure version ( I will contact the guys about it) it's not there yet. What you are looking at is the Announcement of the winners, so the emphasis is on them. Nobody here pretends to steal the photos. IF you look in the POTM rules and submissions, it's Clearly stated about the rights of the people who submit the photos.

2. The gallery you looked at is the "collected" gallery of winners of POTM contests from the last two years. Again, I created the gallery, so that people could browse the photos that have done well in the contest. There is no way for me to put them in under each individual members' names. I hope you understand that. The gallery puts automatically the name of the person who uploads them. BUT, we (admins) have already discussed putting in a memo field below the photo which would give you the name of the photographer. It just has not happened yet, it's only been up for 3 days :)

3. I think bobby answered your question re: no names in the contest while it's going. Protecting the integrity of the contest requires that the voters vote for photographs and not photographers.

[pny]

Hi!

Thanks for the answers above! I totally agree with you about answer number 3. But considering answer 1 & 2 I think I will wait with my participation in the contest until you have fixed the problems. If I send in my best underwater shots I at least want the credits for it, even if it doesn't reach position 1-3.

[Ibn]

LOL...just submit a picture that'll place in the top 3 and you won't have to worry about it. :)

[Andreas Werth]

3. But considering answer 1 & 2 I think I will wait with my participation in the contest until you have fixed the problems.

Hi,
this is not a problem, it´s a feature. And it is a part of the victory announcement (i hope this is the adequate translation), that only for place 1 to 3 the photographers are named and presented on top of the result screen.

One can change that. Not a big thing. But i wouldn´t. And this has nothing to do with copyright.
Even photos without the name of the photographer are part of the apf contest and all copyrights remain with the photographer. Of course it is prohibited to use one of these photos without permission. To express this, i use a logo within all submitted photos. (Like -> here (http://forum.aquarienfotografie.net/cgi-bin/voting/vote.pl?contest=805)).

[phishphorphun]

Andreas, congrats on that beautiful capture. Was that PTOM for a recent month? You had some excellent competition as well. :-O

[paradise]

Andreas, I have shied away from putting any info on the images that are submitted, in fear of changing them, even ever so slightly, when I re-save them. If I did, it would be to show the person who the copyright belongs to, and I dont want to do that on the photo. I think I would actually like to have the names of the other contestants available in the "winners" page. Can you talk to Cirsten and email me how to do this? I want to try it out.

Btw, forgot to mention, the new admin upgrade works well. For those who dont know, our POTM software has been upgraded, to where the admins can now not only monitor votes, but also remove votes that are considered to be "cheating", for example voting 1 on each photo and 10 on one specific one.

[Schnauzer]

Ed ,
Tell me if I am messing up . If for example I think 3 photos are excellent I would vote 10 for each . Is that wrong ? Or are we only allowed 1 that is 10 ?

[hir0]

Ron, you vote based on a scale of 1-10 for each image. meaning, if you think 3 photos are a '10' then you would give them all a 10. you're doing fine. personally for me a "10" is perfection. i don't give too many of those out.

[Schnauzer]

Just an example hirO . Thanks .

[paradise]

Agree. We posted guidelines that show you how we'd Like you to vote, which is vote for each image on its own merits, not against others. So if you vote a 10, does not mean the next best one is a 9. I am more interested in making sure each person votes for each image. The more votes the individual entry gets, the more accurate the average number is.

[paradise]

OK, our software has been updated to now show all participants' names once the contest is over. We do listen to our members :)