This weekend notwithstanding, I don't vote very often because I have a million other things to do that don't involve DPC. An hour spent voting is an hour better spent memorizing the ins and outs of contact law, working on my marketing project, or even just putting my clothes away for a change.
I won't vote on challenges when the topic is wholly unappealing to me eg Pet portraits, Sci-Fi.
I try to vote at least 20% on most other challenges, sometimes I even manage 100%. I like the Free Studies, but confess I haven't voted 100% on one of these for a long time. I try to do 20% on day 1 and then if I get time, I add more votes as the week progresses.
To me it's less about the number of entries in a challenge and more about the challenge topic/quality. In Popcorn for example, I stopped voting after 20% as I was a bit bored with the subject matter.
I always vote in the challenges I enter.. Since DPL League though, I kinda had the creative juices sucked out of me. That process was exhausting.. And, I got tired of some of the same people winning the majority of challenges.. I guess, I've been bored with it.
So, I've taken a step back and am trying to get back in touch with this hobby and this site. One of the ways is to go through the challenges & vote.. I think that can help inspire me again..We'll see.
I would rather spend my time looking at photographs that excite/inspire ME, unfortunately it seems that a lot of the time I do this on another site these days. Im not saying that there are not images here that do that but they are few and far between, and I can see many of these images I like elsewere anyway.
note: you will not see me bitching about the scores I get as I know that to help fix the issues this site has I have to fully participate myself. I enter challenges for a bit of fun and to see what funny comments I get most of the time.
I simply don´t have the time these days, I kindof have a full time dayjob on top of a full time freelance job so if I have any spare hours I spend them with my family.
To those of you who don't vote... Don't you feel that it is unfair to expect others to vote on your images without voting. What if no one voted on your images? Would you still enjoy this site as much?
Shouldn't we all do our part? The 20% minimum really doesn't take that much time. If you are already a good photographer, it should take almost no time at all to see the qualities/problems with a photo and rate it and if you are struggling to learn to do better, what better way to learn than judging others and then taking a second look at your own photos to see what is lacking.
Subjectivity: Being honest, If I see a 4.whatever for a pic that in my humble opinion should at least be a 5, I am inclined to vote lower than I should.... especially those pics I think are 'worse than mine'.
And because the sun does come up in the west for me sometimes.
Just lately I have been entering any challenge i can, i try not to vote in a challenge i am in.. so... that leaves 1 a week to vote on, most of the time i do vote on that one and a lot of the time, i don't.
Time is also a factor for me, but I personally see voting as a relaxing time to sift through beautiful images... so I grab the time when I can :)
On a side note, I won't vote on an image in a challenge I'm voting on, if I don't think it meets the challenge. I guess I think my view is subjective and not necessarily justified.
I DO try to vote the free studies because the work is better and I'm curious to see what people submit where there are fewer restrictions.
I've been focused on trying to improve my portraiture lately and find that I can usually contribute more by finding threads on that topic and entering the discussion or just browsing the portrait and fashion galleries and dropping random comments. This activity usually leaves me feeling more 'connected' to other photographers than trying to hammer through votes on 200+ images.
Also... all the DNMC and editing is evil threads tend to just turn me off. I seems that some people have a decided that their best opportunity to 'win' is to bring other people down, and I already get enough of that in my day job.
Because of the complaining PMs I get if make a comment that isn't sugar sweet, and being called out in the forums for comments not to the liking of the photographer. I know, get a thicker skin. But a comment is a gift which takes time and thought.
When it is possible, I vote at work. It is a fast connection, and I can do it in a reasonable amount of time. However, the past 6 or 7 weeks, work has been extremely busy so my voting has been limited.
At home is another story. I got motivated to vote on popcorn the other night. After 15 minutes, I had completed exactly four pictures (and that is just for the picture to load and vote, maybe a short comment). There are 73 entries in this small challenge. So, lessee, 4.5 hours, give or take a minute or two, just to load the pictures.
I would like to vote more, but until my immediate area gets something besides dial up, I'm stuck.
As far as the concern that I am "taking" by entering challenges and not voting, I do give back to the site. There are other ways than just voting, you know. :)
I vote whenever I can and almost always vote on all entries. Whereas the 20% is good to get more people to vote, I actually dislike the fact that there is such a large variance on votes received. Example: free study shows a difference of 17 votes on the front page. This doesn't seem fair to me.
I usually try not to vote on challenges like "popcorn". It's hard to remain objective after looking at so many of the same thing.
Nursbaum dislikes DNMC and editing is evil threads. I dislike being referred to as police just because I try to follow the challenge description as if it were an assignment, either school or work. Attention to detail is a good thing and should bring you rewards not get you chastised.
I actually dislike the fact that there is such a large variance on votes received. Example: free study shows a difference of 17 votes on the front page. This doesn't seem fair to me.
The '20%' rule has been mentioned a few times. I'd love to see the statistics of how many voters vote on 100%, how many stop after 20%, and how many stop at some point in between. I know that if I've reached 20% I usually just continue voting until I've voted on 100%.
I wonder why 20% was picked originally? In practice there might be a fairer number like 80% which would give a better distribution of votes.
1. I don't enter very many challenges anymore because I don't do very well. However, I did try voting just to get the number of votes up in some challenges.
But I stopped because:
2. I get tired of the threads that basically tell everyone how they should vote on a particular challenge. Example, the duotones thread. Not just this one, it's almost all the challenges.
3. I liked to comment when I voted but then we get all the threads about trolls, idiots and unkind comments.
4. The only way to please everyone, it seems to me, is not vote and not comment. That is the only way to prove you aren't a troll or a mean person.
5. The number of entries used to be daunting when I was voting.
I actually dislike the fact that there is such a large variance on votes received. Example: free study shows a difference of 17 votes on the front page. This doesn't seem fair to me.
The '20%' rule has been mentioned a few times. I'd love to see the statistics of how many voters vote on 100%, how many stop after 20%, and how many stop at some point in between. I know that if I've reached 20% I usually just continue voting until I've voted on 100%.
I wonder why 20% was picked originally? In practice there might be a fairer number like 80% which would give a better distribution of votes.
I think 80% would be much better. In my opionion it would eliminate some of the problems (troll, friend, thumbnail) that have been discussed in the past.
