I will not mention any names (you know it yourself...), but it has been a thing not to vote for the good chops when you are a good chopper yourself. «Play» fair and vote as «you» are used to in the other (not anonymous) contests.

As explained in an earlier thread, I don't vote for anyone in the money contests in which I have an entry. There are a few good choppers who do the same. Then there are knuckleheads or arrogant jerks who vote for the one chop they think should win--sometimes a mediocrity. These are the self-appointed king makers. I can recall very few instances in which a good chopper voted for a lame entry to affect the outcome of a contest. Of course, my powers of observation may not be all that reliable.

If we had a much higher participation rate, voting behavior would be different. I'd like to think so, anyway. When you have fifty or sixty voters, a fair contest outcome is usually the result. With ten or fifteen voters--not so much.


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Then I have to ask: WHY, to this you wrote:

As explained in an earlier thread, I don't vote for anyone in the money contests in which I have an entry. There are a few good choppers who do the same.

Thx for answer btw.

If your chop is good enough, it doesn't matter if you vote for ALL the other entries. You'll still win. It's not about manipulating the votes. It's about making good chops!

Here is a money chop I won in 2014: http://photoshopcontest.com/photoshop-contest/1001591/big-flashy-egg.html?l=&o=votes There were 24 entries. I voted for 7 of them. I didn't think mine was the best, but it won. That happens sometimes. What is interesting to note is that I voted for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, and 9th place entries. Of further interest is the fact that five of those seven voted for my entry. I think this is the way it should be, but it is no longer. Somewhere along the way, good choppers stopped voting and others began voting for only a single entry. Worse, many users who had what you might call the "correct spirit" stopped participating. Some of my favorite choppers voted for my Humpty Dumpty. That felt better than winning the $50.00. Sadly, they are rarely seen here anymore.

I believe the only thing that will improve the ills of PSC is greatly increased participation. I don't know how to promote that. Apparently management doesn't, either.

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OK, I feel as if I have to stick my 2 cents in here, and I tend to agree with what Tawiskaro is saying.
Let's take the last $ contest, I didn't vote (neither did the winner btw), reason being I did not like any of the entries, and that happens some times, I don't want to vote just for the sake of voting, and regarding the winning chop, personally I DESPISE those kind of chops, hate them with a passion.
I wanna go on and on and on, ...but it's Sunday, and I gotta go to church now.
Later.

No offense meant to Designed2522

[quote="genesis2"]Let's take the last $ contest, I didn't vote (neither did the winner btw), reason being I did not like any of the entries, and that happens some times,

Hey there:-) you really didn't like any of the others?

I like most of them, so I can't say anything here, since I vote all the time, maybe too much, but I have never come across a contest, money, anonymous, or other that I didn't at least like 1 of them. Strange but Okay:-)

I read some of the comments here... I didn't want to participate, but I do recall someone brought it to my attention that I needed to vote.
I have done that a few times, I have also shot myself on the foot by doing so.. I like to photoshop, it's a hobby of mine, and although it is nice to win now and then, for me it's not that much of a deal though...but a few weeks back, there were , I believe 4 entries two of them were mine, they all had the same amount of votes. I believe it was 4 votes each... Now I know I can't vote for mine, so I did the only thing I could do, I voted on the other entries, no more votes were submitted after... there fore I shot mine down..so I ask you, you all think that's fair?

I'm with g2 on this. I vote for chops I like, whether they are outstanding pieces of work or simply have something that appeals to me. And although It's always nice to win a contest, it's not enough to bother with tactical voting. Usually there's one or two entries in a contest that will get my vote, often there's none but that's purely down to my personal taste and is not a reflection on other peoples work.
I do know that back in the day, you could easily use all 25 votes in a contest and it makes me think how strange it must look to any new members when they see that the amount of votes they are allowed is often more than twice the amount of actual entries per contest these days.

Yes Lynnette, I honestly did not like any of them, maybe my standards are too high, maybe I look for too many imperfections, not sure.
I must admit I break my own rules and I may give a vote to someone that voted for me, probably the right thing to do, but in anonymous contests I can't.
As Bic9000 said, it's personal taste, and is not a reflection on other peoples work.
But I believe there are people here that feel that they can control ( some times ) the outcome of a contest by their single vote towards the end of a contest because they like one person better than the other. ( I hope I am wrong on this ).

The way I see voting is this: I'll make a chop to try to win the contest, but after I've submitted my entry, I vote as if I don't have an entry in that contest, and let the voting do what it's supposed to do. Even with 10 voters, if everyone votes honestly and unselfishly, the better chops will still come out on top.

Tactical voting (and complaining about those who vote tactically, for that matter) is really just born out of selfishness. Think about it. If we're just here to make a good community, chop and have fun, it shouldn't matter to us if we don't win a $ contest. It's great when we do, but it's always cool to see a fellow chopper win a $ contest.

Anyway, whatever side of the river you're on, happy chopping!

I hear you BG, but just because you discuss something that may be negative does not mean you are selfish.
There's a lot of good here, and some bad, and if we all discuss those issues maybe we can make it better.

I agree

what you should never do is jump in the river if you don't know how to swim