Photo contests... opinions, thoughts and observations.

[revhtree]

This discussion has gone long enough and I’m afraid it’s causing hard feelings when a fun contest shouldn’t do that.

The mod team we have here are the best of the best and not one of them has ever cheated to earn a POTM award. The members vote for the winners and if your photo is good enough it will make the final cut. To be honest we don’t care that much about it as participants. We’re entering to help the contest gain steam and be successful. Sometimes we just have a killer photo of our own to share! But to say it’s rigged, unethical and a mod versus you type of thing is simply not true in the slightest aspect.

We have taken your feedback and have discussed them and will make some changes according to what we think is best for the community. Thank you for your input.

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

I reached out to Rev and was given approval to post my thoughts on this topic:

I just wanted to bring up some points from when I used to lead up the POTM. When I was doing it, we would typically get around 30 entries or less. This was kind of disappointing since there were few entries, which typically meant the same people entering and limited variety of winners. We did allow the membership to vote for the winners. This went ok, but we wanted more participation. To do this, a prize was added to the POTM to entice more people to join in the contest. Then, it happened. We started to see growth in the entries. This led to growing pains. We noticed that members were starting to win based on popularity and not necessarily based on photo skills. The staff (and members too) saw the contest losing value. We brainstormed and came up with the plan to have the mod team review every photo and vote for the top 15 (this number might be off). When the voting thread is posted, we just see the photos and not the member's name. This is done to not sway the mod's opinion as to who posted the photo. The only posting that mods post in the thread is to acknowledge they voted. What many members don't realize is that many mods would most likely not vote for each other if they knew it was their photo. It's not all sunshine and rainbows being on the mod team. We have lots of disagreements. Also, it is only moderators that are permitted to vote. The Reef Squad is not included in the voting group. So, yes it is a smaller group of people to help narrow down the playing field. However, we are a diverse group that have very differing opinions.

Now, let's take a look at the winners of the POTM.

In 2019, there were ZERO mod winners. So, I am not sure where the bias comes in?

In all honesty, the mod team tries their best to do what they feel is in the best interest of the entire community. It can sometimes be difficult, we truly do care about R2R. As far as the POTM, this is something that we truly try to ensure is fair for the entire community.

You also say that we try to hide behind PM's. This is simply not the truth. We try to communicate via PM when members have concerns so that we can communicate openly with the members. It allows for a more open dialogue that is not clouded by the comments of others.