Blah Blah Blah it is the same old story of not getting placed like i thought i should, wah wah wah... or is it? I entered in a couple pieces into the Mixed Media this past week. there was some tough competition and some great entries. There were also some not great entries... my entries brought home a pathetic 15th and 18th out of 21... that is the bottom of the barrel. I don't think my entries would have won this contest, since the top 2 were just who i thought they would be. but i definitely thought i had a t least one in the top 5, hell both should have been in the top 10. instead i was beat out by people who slapped together an entry in an hour and puked it into the contest. lack of skill, eye for detail, and understanding of color and light design. all of these things were found rampant in at least 8 of the 14 entries that finished ahead of mine, the top 3 being excluded for sure. (they were all good.)

But having "Photoshop Talent" holds no meaning in the outcome of these contests. To say that a professional designer viewing this contest would have never picked most of them to be in the positions that they are in is an understatement.

Oh listen to me whine will you. all i'm saying is that i wish the voters really looked at these images, and took the time to vote better. many of the talented artists on here would be a lot happier, and the folks that really need the help learning can start learning to step up their game. as of now they are not benefiting because their mediocrity is continuously rewarded in the contests.


I have one more entry in this week's contests and after that i'll be saying ciao for a while.

Thanks to all the friends i've made here and I hope you have lots of fun creating all the pretty pictures i have enjoyed while i've been here! I look forward to seeing more of them in the future!

Jay

Mediocrity is the only thing that makes the world go round.. you should feel happy you were rejected by the plurality and try something more... (Justin Beiber is cute as a bug but if I see one more 12 year old singing baby baby baby OHHHHHHHHHHH while I'm in a grocery store shopping for carrot juice I'm going to barf)

Giving up on competition because you were rejected for your creativity should spawn you to try harder... and have fun creating stuff.. that's what I do... I really enjoy just being me

The best part is when you don't care.. it really frees up the creativity... the second you take into effect the voting is the second you gave up on yourself... the second you don't care about the out come.. is the second you kind of embrace yourself... (the whole internal hug is very real, when you just love yourself and don't care what others think, it is very uplifting)

Outer judgement is such a crotch (Look at Mad Max/The Beaver) what a career evil

Always enjoy your work bjaockx.. sad to see you leave, but would enjoy to see you create and stay.. for yourself.. not for others... just for you.. but that's just IMHO.. I kind of enjoy the underdog.. they make my heart beat

First of all not that many entries in that contest have been rewarded, just 7 out of 21 entries got TP (just top 7 scored TP and the rest made nothing because they where not over 65% (see new reward system)), one could say that according to the voters the average level is low. Personally I did not vote in this contest but looking over the results I have to agree with the results. OK, some are maybe technically not that perfect but they show imagination and humor, both important factors as well.
Your entries may be technically OK but lack some of the other factors to score a higher score IMHO (sorry if I sound harsh but you started this and this post also asks in some way for an honest answer).

To indirectly blame the mods for your low scores (and I assume you had one or two of your entries temporary removed) is something I will not spend a lot of time on, every one who knows the mods knows what you are saying is complete BS. They do their ultimate best to keep the contests fair for all and keep as many entries in the contest as possible.

The scores are an average off all votes and if you do not agree with them well then those voters are not your peers and have another standard of voting and judging an entry then you.
There's been scientific experiments which show the more voters the closer their average will get to a fair end result (have 100 people guess the amount of beans in a jar and the average of those 100 will always be close to the actual amount while the guess of 1 person can be way off, meaning our collective judgement represents a close look at reality). Like I said before we do not judge only technique but also other factors which complicates this matter, besides that we are not judging beans but something more subjective, never the less the end results still show a fair end result. Saying 1 persons view on a subject is always better then the views of a majority is complete non sense.

Golum does has a good point that we do make what we make for ourselves to enjoy, PXL is here to share this. You can take the scores serious or not, in the end it is up to you and your motivation to enter.

robvdn wrote:Saying 1 persons view on a subject is always better then the views of a majority is complete non sense..

No offense, but if Ellen DeGeneres said I was great I would kinda cuddle up to her... she's gone through sheet and a shingle, and her thoughts are ordained by GOD... your worship of the Majority puts you in the realm of Nationalsozialismus... hehehehe.. create and be fun.. create to win? then frack you

so peace out

GolemAura wrote:your worship of the Majority puts you in the realm of Nationalsozialismus

Excuse me???
You've said a lot of BS about me and others already but now you are going to far!

Members here run the gamut of art knowledge, Photoshop skills, age, cultures, occupations, avocations etc.. IMHO most members vote from the gut or how much they like an entry, technical skills and academic artistic merits take a back seat to the appeal an entry has on the voter. You can either pander to the mass appeal you see and try to make something that you think more people will like or you do something that is truly your own and expresses what you want it to. An artist doesn't create for the public he creates for himself. Woody Allen's films don't do very well at the box office but for the most part I think they are quite brilliant.
You've been candid with your opinions so I will respond with equal candor. I think you look at your work through your own eyes with little objectivity. You mentioned "a professional designer" seeing this contest, there are several professionals who are members here, if you really want a true "professional" evaluation of your own work just ask and I'll oblige. Blaming mods is a lame excuse and totally invalid but I won't waste the time defending what I know to be the truth, every entry is subject to the same voters as yours are, if someone finds that after 360+ entries only 3 have placed in the top three logic would dictate "the fault lies not in our stars but in ourselves... me thinks thou dost protest too much".

robvdn wrote:

GolemAura wrote:your worship of the Majority puts you in the realm of Nationalsozialismus

Excuse me???
You've said a lot of BS about me and others already but now you are going to far!

I'm sorry, I've never said any BS about you or others (Not that I'm aware of) ... and if I did, please let me beg your forgiveness... If I offended you in any way I'd like to officially say my bad... my entire life has been shaped around fairness and creativity, but it does appear that you've been offended by me (which is something I have NEVER done to anyone in my life, though I am curious that you feel I have tread into that realm)

Once again, I apologize for all the hard ship I've caused, it was never my purpose, I just like making images that please me.. I don't really care what other people think, because I just don't.

Seems to me a few folks have been amply rewarded for a lot of mediocrity. One in particular.

CMYK46 wrote:Seems to me a few folks have been amply rewarded for a lot of mediocrity.

I have to respond to this post.. I've seen this before on this site and what it amounts to is we all have different tastes. Just because you didn't win doesn't mean we don't know how to vote. I have noticed that a lot of people have either left or just don't enter contests anymore and at first I wondered why but I think I know now. Sometimes this is more an episode of As the World Turns than a contest website. This site always seems to have some kind of problem, one after the other. The voting system keeps changing, results are always late, people don't read the rules, entering contests after the deadline, only to have them pulled for being late and then wondering why it was pulled. I very rarely comment on others entries anymore. You're liable to get whiplash for expressing opinions. And then the "most comment " award. The comments are supposed to be to help, not get points. Why get points for saying good job". Makes no sense to me. I thought the old system was fine the way it was and wondered why the change. Maybe it's time for me to leave as well

RickLaMesa wrote:

CMYK46 wrote:Seems to me a few folks have been amply rewarded for a lot of mediocrity.

I have to respond to this post.. I've seen this before on this site and what it amounts to is we all have different tastes. Just because you didn't win doesn't mean we don't know how to vote. I have noticed that a lot of people have either left or just don't enter contests anymore and at first I wondered why but I think I know now. Sometimes this is more an episode of As the World Turns than a contest website. This site always seems to have some kind of problem, one after the other. The voting system keeps changing, results are always late, people don't read the rules, entering contests after the deadline, only to have them pulled for being late and then wondering why it was pulled. I very rarely comment on others entries anymore. You're liable to get whiplash for expressing opinions. And then the "most comment " award. The comments are supposed to be to help, not get points. Why get points for saying good job". Makes no sense to me. I thought the old system was fine the way it was and wondered why the change. Maybe it's time for me to leave as well

Rick, you get your ass back here right now! You're one of the few who exhibits quality photoshop skills month after month. We all know there are "Put some pics together & desaturate them" "Geniuses" out there, and they love to imitate each other. Unfortunately the voters seem to suck that stuff right up. Then there are the CBR "geniuses"...at least they're more creative, but chopping the source image beyond recognition isn't really manipulating a recognizable version of the source. Sometimes those entries are fun, but for me...rarely. My objection to CBR is I could make a similar if not identical pic without using the given source. And as for overuse of the fake HDR filter and the Flood filter...don't get me started!