I just received a thorough usability report of PSC. This combined with some new analytics software I have been using address many issues on the site that I knew of and many that I did not. I am after all a hobby developer, so I was pleased to learn I was doing some things right

One resounding issue that they all had was the inability to vote until being registered, let alone having to post ten images first.

I want to fix this. I want to grow the site and community. My question to the group is, how do change this without destroying the integrity of the contests and standings of the site?

My initial ideas are:

Alternate public voting system 1: the public can vote, but these votes will only count as 1/4 (25%) of a regular vote.

Alternate public voting system 2: the public can rate an image (1-10), these ratings would be a new sorting option, and used to break a tie.

Open the voting system: the public can vote and it counts the same as any other. Restricted to 25 votes per contest by IP and session cookie. Or no 25 vote max.

Change the voting system to a rating system: change everything to a 1-10 rating system. Public and members can rate and comment on any pic.

Don't change anything: Let the site continue to scare away 9 out of 10 people that visit.

Again, these are just my first ideas. I would like to know what all of you think about them AND what your ideas are.

Thanks,
jmh

Not bad...Not sure about a rating system...
How about post at least one image in order to vote?

hmm... maybe I am thinking negative, but public voting could cause cheating. A bunch of friends/big family could be used as a "help" to get many more votes. Especially with price contest people could be persuaded to make use of this "help". Not sure what to think about that.

I thought of reducing it a bit, but that still does not allow the public (non-registered users) to vote.

Good points, we would use a session/cookie/ip restrcition to help prevent it. Perhaps the prize contests are for members only. Remember there are actually people that post 10 images with multiple accounts to cheat even now. We cacth them, but still, people will always cheat. It is a matter of keeping it to a minimum.

I like the idea, but it's still possible to cheat by deleting session cookies and constantly changing IP's. Maybe as you suggested to keep the prize contests open to members only.

A rating button might be good - maybe a 1 to 10 radio button or something, as well as the normal vote - not sure how that would work - my maths is very bad!

I'm not sure - I'm still half asleep. Anything that makes the voting fair is good though - I like the anonymous contests - it seems a lot of people vote here because somebody else has voted for them. I may be wrong, just seems that way!

Keeping price contests for members only is a good idea. The above restriction will not help really since almost everybody owns a pc these days. Maybe its a bit overreacted, but you know how this site often provoces discussions about "friends voting". Maybe I am being a bit over-worried about this, but I just get sometimes annoyed by this kind of cheating.

*edit* oh... chadchud was faster with his post, but I completely agree with him. Also about the anonymous voting.

I like the idea of public voting, but we need to keep in mind ways of getting new members to sign up for Advantage.

Maybe it's me, but I feel if the public was allowed to vote and submit entries before first registering, then they might not even consider signing up for Advantage.

I think a rating system is too much like a couple of the other Photoshop sites and would be a bad idea.......it would throw in the fact that people would rate everything low except their own, which would result in having to weight peoples votes like those worthless sites.

Does the public really want to vote?

Public rankings being used as a tie breaker wouldn't be bad I suppose.

I vote for: Alternate public voting system 2.

I think the 10 post rule is great.
I'm new here, but and I directly understood what was so good about that.
Now the only people that can vote are more serious people that actually know something about chopping. I'm more happy when the people here like my chops than just some visitors that I don't know and might not even take this seriously.

Good thoughts. They would not be able to submit entries without registering though.

Then I think Alternate public voting system 2 would be a good idea, especially when it comes to ties.

Maybe a short trial/test period could be done in which public is allowed to rank or vote, but where it is not really applied to any actual stats or rankings yet.....then you could have some data to compare to the actual real votes to see how much they might differ, and possibly get a better idea on how they would affect the stats and results of contests if they were applied.

question@jmh: why is the voting system not anonymous like the price-contests? Is there a certain reason for that?

yes, to promote an interactive learning environment.