Contest 06/2020: SUMMER

Janina · Jun 5th 2020

SUMMER is coming! This again is a free topic, so let your creativity run wild. Activities in the sun, holidays at the beach, a pool scene… it’s up to you! But please add a description if it’s not clear how your picture is connected to the topic. Pictures which seem to have no connection to summer will be deleted. I hope we will have as many entries like last month.

The rules are as always:

CREATE a SP-Studio picture about the topic of the month
UPLOAD your unedited picture until the 20th
VOTING will start on the 21st on the contest page
THE WINNERS will be announced at the start of next month

Rules for pictures:

Your picture must be at least 300×300 px big (not the small size). You are only allowed to use the SP-Studio, so don’t edit with additional software. No cutting, background rotating or color changes. Of course it must be your own creation. And it must fit the topic of the month. Add a fitting title to show how it is related to the topic.

Janina · Jun 22nd 2020

Time to vote!

There are 31 pictures and some really creative ones among them.

Jareen2 · Jun 22nd 2020

Quote from Janina

Time to vote!

There are 31 pictures and some really creative ones among them.

Uhm the title of mine is wrong. It now says Jareen2 while it should say: Summer Holiday for a gamer

Art Vandelay · Jun 22nd 2020

I feel I should explain that my entry was meant to be inspired by the coronavirus, but I couldn't think of a good title. Basically, a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model cover for our current times.

Jareen2 · Jun 22nd 2020

Quote from Art Vandelay

I feel I should explain that my entry was meant to be inspired by the coronavirus, but I couldn't think of a good title. Basically, a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model cover for our current times.

I got it when I saw it, and I liked it

Janina · Jun 22nd 2020

Oops, fixed

Jareen2 · Jun 24th 2020

Also because nobody asked here is the top 3 most used backgrounds in the current contest (with 31 entries and a total of 9 different backgrounds)

[Blocked Image: https://i.ibb.co/BfKt6gW/sp-studio-17.jpg]
16 times used

[Blocked Image: https://i.ibb.co/D5VJkBT/sp-studio-24.jpg]

6 times used

[Blocked Image: https://i.ibb.co/w4MVNNr/sp-studio-23.jpg]
3 times used

DavidSchwarz · Jun 24th 2020

You're absolutely right, Jareen. That's very eurocentric! For example, here's what a typical summer in Antarctica looks like:

Art Vandelay · Jun 26th 2020

I hate to bring this up as it always sounds like sour grapes, and because these contests are just meant to be fun, but seeing as how Janina has already disqualified an entry, I feel the subject has now been broached.

I think these contests should only be open to forum members. Lately it seems like every contest has one or two entries that get a suspiciously high number of votes. In fact, besides the already disqualified entry, I see another entry has gained a suspiciously substantial lead.

The problem is, with the way the voting works, there's no real way of knowing who, or how many times, a vote is cast.

I think having forum members encouraging their friends/families to vote, while also discouraging them to vote for them, doesn't work. I think if people want to vote, they should be forced to join the site. At least you'd know the voting would be more honest.

Again, I know this is really trivial, and that Janina has a lot on her plate at the moment, but just something to consider. Personally, it's more fun to lose to an entry that I know some effort and creativity was put into it.

DavidSchwarz · Jun 26th 2020

As I understand the contests, they are meant to make the website more appealing to visitors. I'm afraid, if you limited the participation in the contest to forum members, this wouldn't lead to more forum members but only to less participants.

Jareen2 · Jun 26th 2020

Quote from Art Vandelay

I hate to bring this up as it always sounds like sour grapes, and because these contests are just meant to be fun, but seeing as how Janina has already disqualified an entry, I feel the subject has now been broached.

I think these contests should only be open to forum members. Lately it seems like every contest has one or two entries that get a suspiciously high number of votes. In fact, besides the already disqualified entry, I see another entry has gained a suspiciously substantial lead.

The problem is, with the way the voting works, there's no real way of knowing who, or how many times, a vote is cast.

I think having forum members encouraging their friends/families to vote, while also discouraging them to vote for them, doesn't work. I think if people want to vote, they should be forced to join the site. At least you'd know the voting would be more honest.

Again, I know this is really trivial, and that Janina has a lot on her plate at the moment, but just something to consider. Personally, it's more fun to lose to an entry that I know some effort and creativity was put into it.

Display More

Janina and the Mods (Me and Eggy) are well aware of this problem. It drives me also mad as a die-hard image creator and I know how you feel when you put hours of work into a picture and you get beat by a random kid with a terrible 2 second pic. But as you stated yourself it is hard to see how many times one person has voted and such. Still we try our best. Just so you know we are familiar with the problem and are looking into other ways. Just because of personal stuff it is has now less high a priority.

Quote from DavidSchwarz

As I understand the contests, they are meant to make the website more appealing to visitors. I'm afraid, if you limited the participation in the contest to forum members, this wouldn't lead to more forum members but only to less participants.

And that is exactly the problem. Sadly this forum isn't as popular as it used to be back in 2011/2012/2013 when we easily got 20 pictures from forum members. From those glory days (correct me if I am wrong) the only real people left are Me, Janina, Eggy and Strider

Eggyslav · Jun 26th 2020

Yup, Unfortunately, this is true.

Janina · Jun 28th 2020

I understand that this is annoying.

Unfortunately as Jareen wrote the forum does not have enough visitors right now and most people don't want to register for contests. We've been there before, so I know it's not working. So the forum is not an option with its current amount of active members.

When the new SP-Studio launches et the end of the year the website needs a small makeover anayway, so I could implement a new voting system. I already searched for a fitting plugin, but haven't found a good one so far. It's difficult... uploading your picture has to be easy, but we want to trust in the votes. Because of the small amount of voters it is very easy to cheat with the helo of some loyal friends, even if you don't use any special tricks on your own computer. I hoped people would stay fair if there is no actual prize to win, but I guess because of all those voting contests on social media it's believed to be okay to make a popularity contest (for friends, not for quality) out of everything.

There is one other possible solution: no public vote at all. A Jury of former contest winners could vote for their favorites in private.

Janina · Jul 4th 2020

Congratuations to the winners!