I didn't say I did. I said you could. The thumbnail is usually a pretty good sign of design skills. There might be some cool stuff going on in the image that you can't see but the classic winners usually show in the thumbnail. Go ahead. Say it ain't true. I dare ya.
Take a look at the galleries. (not the reunion images. We all got more votes than normal for those) Look at the thumbnails for the hi scores. They all look great from the start.

Sure... Fine... Whatever... This isn't about voting, or thumbnails... this is about viewing images in their intended size. or changing it so that none have to 'go big'

I'm seriously in no mood to argue about it Rey...

I always take the time to view it bigger and hope that everyone else does the same with mine.
Its just common courtesy after all the work people put into the entries no matter what thier skill levels are.

Oh ok

i always big it.. better detail

I biggie size by DEFAULT...even if i dont need 44oz. of drink. I also look at most the entries big. Around 25 of them anyway.. ..and a few that catch my eye.

If you don't go big on entries by Micose..... .....you're only seeing 50% of the GOODY.
That's like going to a strip club, that's only topless.

CHOPPERDOME!!!!

Basically, unless I see it big, a chop never gets my vote, and I do try to see all the comp images big first, before I go back for a second pass to vote on them.

The thumbnail, to me is like a billboard or a poster. Its purpose is to attract attention, and focus, ultimately to entice its viewer to spend more time with the image. If the thumbnail doesn't make initial sense, more than likely the viewer will just move on to something else that does, thus, a lost potential vote.

I think one can have the greatest chop ever made, with tons of clever details, represented by a less than stellar thumbnail or preview, and because of that, the clever chop you spent hours on, ultimately suffers less votes, and less attention.

That said, the chop and the thumbnail, and the preview image should all work together to sell the image towards the almighty PSC VOTE.

I always blow my source up and work big. This is so I can have the final images sent to photo processing for my physical portfolio, and maybe make a poster if I so choose. When it's time to enter the contest, I have to make a copy, shrunk down to the PSC submission ratio. The entry always looks fine when I shrink it down and enter. So what's the difference with the standard entry page (without going big)? Why does it look compressed? Is it a crappy compression conversion from the website, or is it the fact that I've shrunk my image down to a smaller website size, 72dpi, that shrinking it a relatively small percentage again (for the standard entry page) makes the image fall apart, due to the lack of info from the original large Photoshop file? Capiche?

Very well said Tarmac. I agree with what you put out here.

I always will preview all the entries first, then go back and vote on the one I like, always saving a few for the last day. Loosing that will end my days at PSC.
I don't think I have ever voted on something that I didn't view large and If I enter a chop that I really want folks to see... I'll and a note to "please go big"

What the hell? Who told all of you to look at the big image of my work I am not that good no wonder I do not get any votes

Looks like about half only view them if they want to see more...
good topic...
lets keep this going.

Going big always. Seeing it in normal (small)view is like looking at Paramecijum No really ppl go big Ur missing a lot by not going big.

Oh one more thing I would like if the none advantage members had the big source to. I remember when I was doing the entry "chess god" and when I was pasting the pieces together and resizing them, I had a lot of problems because the the pieces were losing quality.

When I DO get the time to vote, it is simple for me. If I see a chop that works great at "normal viewing size" and I love it I then vote for it and get on with the voting process. (sorry Marco & Rey, I may miss out on some of your brilliance, but there are many other that I need to view too and time is money so I must move on...)

IF I see chop that seems to tweak my fancy but I'm not sure I will THEN GO BIG. And I'll also click on the View Larger Size button as well.

Then I'll make my decision and vote or not vote according to my final opinion based on both the Smaller and the Bigger version.

ReyRey is right, a LOT can be told about a chop from a small version of it. But if I'm questioning the QUALITY of the chop, I'll go BIG. And then also click on the View Larger Size button.

awesome...

my biggest beef of all, is the quality that is lost with PSC downsizing my 1280 x 960 entry to the contest viewable size to 550 x 413. Which as we all know is the normal view size here...

I'd much rather see a larger standard size of 700 x 700 like in H2H where no one then needs to 'click big'