philipy wrote: ↑Mon Jun 23, 2025 9:41 am
FWLR wrote: ↑Mon Jun 23, 2025 7:41 am
Although there may well be 1,973 Forum members, I’m not sure all of them regularly visit the forum, so asking them to participate in voting is never going to happen. The present system of voting however does require members voting, which is ok in its own way, but it does need some sort of update to make it easier and possible for more members to win. I know it sounds like sour grapes and all that, it does seem however like it is the same few members winning and it may not seem to have any impact in terms of winning anything, but a lot of members might think “Why bother, I never win anyway” so they just won’t vote or even enter to see that they’re photo/s , having two photos also makes it harder for them to either don’t get a vote or they see the same members win, even though it’s a bit of fun and there is nothing given for winning, it doesn’t encourage them to submit or even vote. Has you know I don’t visit that much nowadays myself so I suppose I may miss the opportunity to vote.
Rod,
I don't want to hijack Peter's thread, but I'm not sure that I'm understanding your point? What 'update' do you think is required? I'm more than happy to consider suggestions.
The requirement to log in to vote is to ensure that we don't get deluged with idiotic votes from random passing strangers. However any forum member can enter and any member can vote and it therefore follows that anyone can win, but so many apparently are too lazy to vote, let alone enter.
I find it extremely frustrating that, for instance, this time we were up to 17 views of the voting thread before there was one vote cast! Can anyone explain to me why the first 15 ( the other 2 were me checking, so that doesn't count) didn't simply push a button whilst they were there??
There is no necessity to enter two photo's and most people don't, I never have myself. When we originally discussed the question of allowing multiple entries, I was of the opinion that, as you have just said, it dilutes your chances of winning. However if you feel that is the case, why did you enter two pictures yourself this time? - I'm not saying you shouldn't have done, they were both perfectly acceptable to the theme, it's just that you did exactly what you are commenting on.
As for opportunity, the entry thread is open for 3 months and the voting for 2 weeks and I normally post at least one reminder shortly before the closing dates. If anyone goes more than 2 weeks without looking into the forum then that is up to them, not much we can do about it. It is interesting to see that the June voting thread had 469 views but only 17 votes cast...why? Similarly, the September entry thread has so far had 101 views and one entry! Ok, obviously I know folks have to read it to know what this quarters theme is, but I'll bet we don't get more than the usual 10 or a dozen entries by 3 months time!
Phil,
My point is, most members don’t come every day, week or month, sometimes I bet they don’t visit for years or they just register and only post a thread or reply when they feel that they’re not going to be lambasted for saying something.
I only posted 2 photos because I thought they were good enough, generally if I do have a photo it’s only 1 because I don’t keep records of my builds or anything else really, I am not one that just takes a photo then post it just for the sake of it. Most of the time the theme doesn’t concern what I have, so I don’t post.
Also, the chances of winning don’t increase because you can only vote for one, which is right, so I don’t see the point of it. But again because I have mentioned something again, it’s likely that I will get reprimanded again for saying something that other members don’t. Still it happens and I don’t really care if it upsets Administrators or not. We are supposed to be living in a society that has free speech and not in a totally rule that doesn’t accept questions about what they think.
Still has I don’t spend every waking minute on the forum, well not has I used to because of my health issues with my heart and now my eyes, a lot of threads and posts are missed by me, in fact I don’t go on the internet much now either because it’s makes me far too tired to do anything else. So any reminder is missed by me to. I feel that other members don’t come on the forum that much either, or if they do they don’t bother with the quarterly photo competition.
Anyway the competition is a success really, but it’s not the be all and end all for the forum. Hopefully it will get more people interested in sharing their photos or even voting, but some people will never change their ways and they will just carry on doing their own thing.
I have been writing this now for over 90 minutes and I feel totally washed out. Keep up the good work Phil, because it’s a thankless job, I personally have always supported the Administration on the forum and I always will, but if I feel certain things could happen for the better I will continue to say something about it.
Thanks for listening Phil, at least you have took the time to respond.
Congratulations for winning again, brilliant how you do your conversions and they do somehow fit into your thinking skills for creating something new and interesting from just something most would never think about, including me. My thoughts on creating something from anything in my imagination seems to have been dwindling now 
having a theme is great, but let’s not stick to it, members I think might just want to participate with a photo of what they are doing or something they have done that they are proud of or even not so proud of, I know that I have lots of things I wish I hadn’t done and wanted or should I say thrown in the black bin outside 
I do feel better in a lot of ways and I am hoping that in the next couple of months or so I will get a lot of healthier and I can get back to a more fruitful existence… who knows 
