Fish Of The Month

[Inchworm]

[in fact I'm surprised that POTM is still allowed to run here as cheating still happens in that one.

That's an interesting accusation. Please PM me proof of it.

 

[xingumike]

xing....I understand your enthusiasm for doing this, but, taking it on yourself may be more difficult than you think and also may open you up to some criticism from other members. I understand Inchie's comments here re: the amount of work that this all involves.

Darkstar will tell ya i did just fine running the aforementioned POTM and the 32 entry ko contests 'elsewhere' when i moderated there, sure setting up 16 seperate threads and polls could be a pita but the results were more than worth it imo.

Critiscism? pah its only the net, i'm a big boy

I hope it happens, there is more traffic here than 'elsewhere' (my spiritual home as it were), the pics there can be downright spectacular, if its exponential it would be worth a few gripes to see it implemented here.

 

[steelhealr]

Acces to a gallery is an interesting thought. Some have proposed that for a voluntary additional fee, a member could access a private VIP room and chat area. However, I only mention it here as food for thought. Starting up money stuff complicates things and is not in the plans for now. SH

 

[OohFeeshy]

It doesn't nessecarily *complicate* things, it's more a case of 'what for?'. It's not like there's much extra you could get by paying, unless free stuff was reassigned to paying only...

 

[The-Wolf]

[in fact I'm surprised that POTM is still allowed to run here as cheating still happens in that one.

That's an interesting accusation. Please PM me proof of it.

no need, Annastasia is well aware of the incident and the member doing it was dealt with by her,
however you'll note that I no longer participate in POTM

 

[Inchworm]

no need, Annastasia is well aware of the incident and the member doing it was dealt with by her,
however you'll note that I no longer participate in POTM

No, I hadn't noticed, The-Wolf, but then there are so many members it's hard to keep track of everyone. I'm sorry you feel that way about it. This was certainly not the first time a member was caught trying to cheat on this contest, and I'm sure it won't be the last. In recent months, Erised has been a big help with the POTM. We just try to be vigilant and catch them.

This is the trouble with having contests. People will cheat, even if it's something as simple as the POTM contest. There are no rewards for this, nothing at all to motivate anyone to do anything else but have a little fun with a picture of a loved pet. There is very little involved here. Can you imagine the number of people who will cheat on a contest where they have some motivation?

 

[steelhealr]

Inch....what would happen if we left if up to individual forums? EG....if each mod decided to have one in their forum? If we dumped the responsibility onto individual moderators, would THAT ease the issue? I'm just trying to think of a way to do this...a halfway point. Perhaps the individual forum members could select a method? Eg..let's say we tried this in our nano section....could it be done? Darkstar, Inch, Oohfeeshy....thoughts?
SH

 

[OohFeeshy]

Again, I think it depends. The areas where it would be most applicable (nanos and planted, for example) probably have enough support and people to get something decent going (in terms of entrants, judging, fairness etc). The possible drawback of that is that it will probably lead to a large increase on 'well why can't we have a competition?' posts in areas where it isn't as applicable.

Another thought I just had- instead of just photo competitons, there's no reason why it couldn't be extended/substituted by a writing competition of sorts. Something like an article about a species or an area of fishkeeping. While it is probably more open to cheating, there are still precautions that can be put into place, and there are more benefits for the site.

 

[backtotropical]

there's no reason why it couldn't be extended/substituted by a writing competition of sorts. Something like an article about a species or an area of fishkeeping. While it is probably more open to cheating, there are still precautions that can be put into place, and there are more benefits for the site.

That's a great idea OohFeeshy. Good thinking!

 

[BigC]

Back on track and full of negitives... I still say that FOTM/TOTM glorifies certain members. They may be the worst fishkeepers on the planet set a tank up just for a day take the pics win the prize and everyone on the forum thinks them special. OohFeeshy is right in saying that planted against species tanks will always win hands down and if they dont then are we going to loose members just because that member thought that their particular tank should have taken the prize. I have been around a few forums (but like this one better) whereby if you are popular, generally helpful and keep a good fan base enter a competition then your tank is going to win (purely because of your fan base) this in turn can and does alienate the also rans in the competition and may lead to loss of members. A post recently entitled Praise post http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/209639/Praise-Post-/ look for the trend of most popular people. I totall abore this type of attention. It doesent mean that they are good fishkeepers and for all we know use internet lookups. But each to his own....
By all means have a comp. if you really want one but dont glorify it by giving prizes and guru like status.
Sorry for rant
BigC

 

[steelhealr]

BigC has a good point. Ya know what....we still have a TFF Newsletter and it can always feature a tank with each article instead of a competition. This would obviate the worry of fakes. Just a thought. SH

 

[Fella]

What good do these competitions do?

 

[blue acara]

generally people like competition, or at least like to view competition. The benefits would be more people logging on and posting. It would be fun. I love looking a pictures of peoples tanks and fish, we would get some high quality entrants I'm sure.

 

[Esfa]

Back on track and full of negitives... I still say that FOTM/TOTM glorifies certain members. They may be the worst fishkeepers on the planet set a tank up just for a day take the pics win the prize and everyone on the forum thinks them special. OohFeeshy is right in saying that planted against species tanks will always win hands down and if they dont then are we going to loose members just because that member thought that their particular tank should have taken the prize. I have been around a few forums (but like this one better) whereby if you are popular, generally helpful and keep a good fan base enter a competition then your tank is going to win (purely because of your fan base) this in turn can and does alienate the also rans in the competition and may lead to loss of members. A post recently entitled Praise post [URL="http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/209639/Praise-Post-/"]http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/209639/Praise-Post-/[/URL] look for the trend of most popular people. I totall abore this type of attention. It doesent mean that they are good fishkeepers and for all we know use internet lookups. But each to his own....
By all means have a comp. if you really want one but dont glorify it by giving prizes and guru like status.
Sorry for rant
BigC

I compltely agree. people WILL vote for mods, if they enter, or people like andywg who are "higher up the social ladder". no two ways about it. They will see who has entered, find someone the know/look upto and *click* all done.

 

[backtotropical]

I think you'd have to be pretty shallow to do that, and why should the people who do fall into that category spoil it for the rest of us?

Anyway, that's life. It happens in all types of competitions all over the world from a TOTM competitions on this forum right through to things like government elections. Surely that shouldn't mean that we stop having competitions all together?

Theres always someone who will vote for the wrong reason or try to spoil it. Theres nothing we can do about that. I don't think it's a reason for the competition not to even get off the ground.

I subscribed to the TFF newsletter when i joined the forum and i've never seen a newsletter yet.

Also, I really like OohFeeshy's idea of including article writing. It would be a great asset to the forum.