I got an e-mail as well, but the Spider Awards (a fairly large juried competition for B/W photography) were actually recommended to me as a legitimate, respected organization by Dangenart Gallery in Nashville, TN. There is a fee for entering the contest...
Just my 2 cents... ;-)
EDIT: At least I did think it was a legitimate, respected organization, until it spammed all of DPC... ROFL
Why do you all jump to the conclusion that because you have to pay to enter that it is a scam? Surely most competitions would require a fee. My local show charges $10 per entry and thats just judged by the local mayor...
Have a look at the website, there are some great photos on there. Makes me never want to shoot colour again
Why do you all jump to the conclusion that because you have to pay to enter that it is a scam? Surely most competitions would require a fee. My local show charges $10 per entry and thats just judged by the local mayor...
You're right about the fee however, spaming everyone in the free world should raise a lot of eyebrows. I don't get spam from other fee based photo contests and I get about 500 spam emails a day on average. Spamming 99% of the time equals not reputable.
When it looked like all of DPC was being hit with this thing, I checked into it a little further since it looked like a potential ToS violation. Before anyone gets their panties in a wad that I dared to wonder about the site's integrity, I actually thought it more likely that a database was cracked somewhere. However, my hit did not come to the address I have registered with DPC, so it looks like they had a spider crawl through grabbing addresses from profiles and attached websites. How appropriate that it's called the Spider Awards, eh?
I am deeply suspicious of any contest that goes to such lengths to drum up business.
When it looked like all of DPC was being hit with this thing, I checked into it a little further since it looked like a potential ToS violation. Before anyone gets their panties in a wad that I dared to wonder about the site's integrity, I actually thought it more likely that a database was cracked somewhere. However, my hit did not come to the address I have registered with DPC, so it looks like they had a spider crawl through grabbing addresses from profiles and attached websites. How appropriate that it's called the Spider Awards, eh?
I am deeply suspicious of any contest that goes to such lengths to drum up business.
Very interestng Karma. I actually got it sent to my website's contact email, not my pm or personal email. So...I don't know what that means. I mean, how would they get that if there was a crawl done on DPC. I don't really care, just press the old delete button I say.
I got one to my e-mail addy that's attached to my website, but not the one that's associated with DP, which is cool because i don't have mine posted in my profile.
I got one to my e-mail addy that's attached to my website, but not the one that's associated with DP, which is cool because i don't have mine posted in my profile.
Same thing with me. Like what Karmabreeze said they probably just harvest emails in general directly from people's web sites and not from here.
I got one... the website does look for real though so I broke a cardinal rule and fired off a 'don't spam me' email to them.
'If this competition is legitimate,
you would do better not to spam massive amounts of photographers who might otherwise be interested if you advertised using less questionable means.
Bob Rose'
Mine came to the address which is on my webpage, but only as part of an image, so it couldn't be auto-harvested from there. My money is on somebody (certainly not DPC) selling their database. One of the microstock sites maybe? I haven't used this address in (m)any other places.
Mine came to the address which is on my webpage, but only as part of an image, so it couldn't be auto-harvested from there. My money is on somebody (certainly not DPC) selling their database. One of the microstock sites maybe? I haven't used this address in (m)any other places.
It has to be a spider, but it can't be from microstock. I don't do microstock, and when I register for sites I custom tailor the registration address specifically so I can see who has been violating their ToS. With DPC, I believe I've got "dpchallenge @ mydomain .com" since everything not tied to a real address just gets bounced into a default catch-all account. If it actually does generate legitimate mail, I'll create the account with a forward order to my personal address. And when the spam starts rolling in, all I have to do is see what address it was sent to.
This one came to the info address attached to my website, which is linked up to my profile. A spider can be directed to harvest all addresses at a specific site with a secondary direction to scan the front page of all websites linked to the site as well. Which is why if you have your address in your profile, it went there, and if you don't list email but do list a URL, it went there instead. Make more sense now?
I got one also but on an email account that I never use, I only use it for business photography and again never used it for anything else. All my other accounts that I use regularly I did not get that email
This one came to the info address attached to my website, which is linked up to my profile. A spider can be directed to harvest all addresses at a specific site with a secondary direction to scan the front page of all websites linked to the site as well. Which is why if you have your address in your profile, it went there, and if you don't list email but do list a URL, it went there instead. Make more sense now?
I don't list an email here.
The only email address on my website is part of a jpeg image so can't be spidered.
I love repeating myself ; )
OK - this thread hasn't been hit for a month ... but i just got the e-mail that's giving me 3 days 'til the end of THIS month ... since the same thing happened LAST month, I'm thinking they just want my money... as do I !!!! I was actually going to ask DPC members whether i should enter and then i saw this thread.
I've been getting it about once a month. Even if it's legit, it sounds like a massive waste of money. How many entries will they receive if they're spam-bombing everyone on the planet who ever admitted to owning a camera? The chances of anything coming of it are astronomically slim. Your chances are probably better with a lottery ticket.
