Best Votes!

Hello, 'Sceners!

We know a few of you are pretty upset with our "Best" voting system.  As you may be aware, we've already made some changes:

• We reset the "Best" votes on the first day of each month (so that all photos start each month with zero votes).  This allows more recent photos to compete with older photos (which previously had a "head start" for vote-gathering).  It also means that the photos you folks hate so much -- you know which ones I mean -- are gone (but that seems to be making way for new photos you hate!).
• We blocked IP addresses that have been noted to vote excessively (we're talking, say, a couple of thousand votes in a short period).

But some of you still seem mad! 

I'll tell you what...there are a couple more things we can try.  But we're not sure you'll like them either.  So let's put the ball in your court: we'll let you vote on the option that you prefer, and the option with the most votes at midnight on September 30th will be the winner.

A few things you should know about your choices before you vote:

• If you choose the "Rate This Photo" option, this is likely to cause a lot of ties.  We might have ten "#1" photos instead of just one.
• If you choose to leave the system as it is, I hope everyone will be a lot more civil in the comments!  You know who you are, sourpusses.

If you have any other suggestions or thoughts, we'd love to hear them -- leave a comment on this post if you please!

Love,
Your Friendly Moderator (Lindsay)

Comments

[C Dawg]

Lindsay, you are the best. You do what you do and don't let anyone tell you WHAT to do. You go girl.

Love,
The person who help Django get home

[photog]

this is a ludicrous voting system. i sure hope this isn't how you pick your ultimate winners because having all your friends log on and say wonderful things doesn't mean the picture is any good - for example, this roller coaster pic in belmont park is totally lame.

[Lindsay Barnett]

Awww!!! Thanks C Dawg, but we all know YOU are the best (at least my sweet little dog certainly thinks so)!!!

[Lindsay Barnett]

Hi photog, I think you're referring to our Ritz photo contest -- if so, you'll be happy to know that the Best votes have no bearing on the outcome. The contest winners will be determined by independent judges who are professional photographers and are not affiliated with Your Scene. Hope this helps!

[Ashley Aguirre]

So we're not doing the whole voting thing?!

[Y Leven]

You need to move the "Move Best" button away from the photo navigation button. I accidentally voted while trying to get to the next photo.

[Just Me]

What about resetting the votes weekly? A rating system isn't going to work. There would be WAY more than ten ties.

Personally, I'd really like to see the voting done away with completely, but barring that, I think resetting them weekly would work much better.

[Ashley Aguirre]

Hey Lindsay,

I was noticing some pictures have the "vote for best of" option and the others don't. So theres some real good pictures we can't vote for.

[Doug Collins]

The system is obviously flawed and easy to abuse. All one needs to do to vote multiple times is to log off and log back on between votes. Try it if you don't believe me.

This month's "winner" is a perfect example -- a cute dog but not more attractive than many of the others, and a rather poor-quality snapshot. Many, many other photos were far superior photographically and featured even more attractive dogs.

Yet we're supposed to believe 510 people thought the snapshot of Gizmo was tops in this field? And the runner-up had only 95? Please! These posters quite obviously took advantage of the flaws in the system, and it needs to be replaced or eliminated.

Aren't the photos themselves enough? Must it be a competition?

[Horace]

The only option on the table that will truly stop the cheaters is to remove the voting system entirely. However, the polling system seems to be broken. I voted, but the vote tally did not go up one as it should have.

I'd also like to suggest something that would alleviate a lot of other problems for the editors. An UNMODERATED discussion board. There we could trade photography tips- and talk trash about each other. Seriously, I think just venting would help things a lot.

[Lanie]

Doug Collins: Gizmo wasn't the winner. Gizmo's was absolutely a average to below average shot. However, I freely admit to voting for him 10-12 times because I fell in love with him. IMO, Jasper was the absolute worst dog shot for the month of August. His owners cheated him up to nearly 8,000 in a voting war with the other top voters and the credited his miraculous numbers to rescue groups around the world! Positively ridiculous.

As to the poll deciding the change of the voting scheme, I find it unreliable. It is astounding to me that ONLY 29 people have voted on it in four days. It sounds as suspect as the current voting system.,

[Sam]

I don't think there's enough information on how the rating system would work.
a) Is it averaged out, i.e., if 3 people rate a pic "1" and four people vote it "5"?
b) People will still be able to vote excessively to rate their pic the best, yes?
c) If one pic has two "5" ratings, and another has 5,000 "5" ratings, will they show up as a tie?

More information, please, kind editors.

[JOE SANTOS]

HI YA,
I DON'T MIND THE EXCESSIVE SELF VOTING AS MUCH AS THE LACK OF INFO
FROM THE TIMES ABOUT WHAT THE "BEST OF " PIC'S ARE GOING TO BE USED FOR?
ARE THEY GOING TO BE USED IN THE 12-PAGE SPREAD MENTIONED WHEN THE
CONTEST STARTED? I CERTAINLY DON'T THINK SOME OF THE 1000+VOTED FOR
PHOTOS ARE THE BEST OF THE BUNCH?
ALSO HOW ABOUT SOME OCCASIONAL FEED BACK IN THE PAPER INSTEAD OF JUST SILENCE.
AS FAR AS THE VOTING GOES YOUR NOT RE-INVENTING THE WHEEL HERE! THERE ARE PLENTY OF OTHER CONTEST THAT SIMPLY HAVE QUALIFYED PEOPLE PICK THE WINNERS AND HONORABLE MENTIONS, AND THATS THE END OF IT.
THANKS
WARBIRD

[jason]

Lindsay,

i found that someone stole my image and posted it on the photo contest. Who i should contact and file a complain?

jason

[Lindsay Barnett]

Hi Jason,

I'm emailing you privately now -- hope this helps!

[Lindsay Barnett]

Hi Y Leven,

That's a good thought; thanks for sharing it!

For the record, has anyone here had the same problem with the proximity of the voting box to the scroll arrows?

Many thanks.

[Lindsay Barnett]

Hi Just Me,

We'll take your idea of resetting the votes weekly instead of monthly into consideration! Thanks for weighing in.

[Lindsay Barnett]

Folks, some of you are asking about the Ritz Photo Contest, which is not affected by the outcome of the Best votes (the winners are to be chosen by a panel of judges who are professional photographers).

And Warbird, the "Best Of" collection of photos (found here: http://yourscene.latimes.com/mycapture/photos/Album.aspx?CollectionID=184) is just that -- a collection of the photos with the most votes (which start over at zero every month). They're not related to the contest.

I hope that clears up some confusion!

[BreckLundin]

I agree with the poll results. A ratings scale is cool. All voting systems will have flaws if you use simply IP addy's. Logins to vote as well as tracking to ensure 500 buddies of on photo poster do not cheat and downgrade the other images while highly rating they pal's pic.

It comes to integrity of the folks out there...this is for FUN and just pic the pics ya love. And don't knock a pic for being simply a 'snapshot'. Many folks do their best and don't have the latest and greatest gear. It's all about the dawggies!!

We really enjoy browsing the dawggie pics (kitty pics too, but ony the good kitties and not those darned naughty kitties! ;) ) so, thnaks a bunch.

[kai wang]

reconsider your new system. It shall limit to one vote for each photo and from each IP address. Even your editor's choice's only got 2 rating. That is absurd.

[J. Reeves]

How is it that the same cat photos continue to appear in Best Of, Your Scene. Not only is it absurd, it smacks of outrageous manipulation of the best voting system. I recommend discontinuing the entire Best Of system. I know that the system is abused, and the change in voting has only made matters worse. There is never any other photo appearing except for the continuing same cat photos. I, for one, will not participate, and I am surprised that anyone else does who is not a "CAT" manipulator.

[Peace]

Well Hello,
What I have to say is that the voting system at Your Scene, has enlightened me to the world-wide global fraudulent voting systems. I am thankful for being so enlightened! I no longer believe in any voting system, or the integrity thereof, but, in fact that manipulation is the one and only goal. It is a said state of affairs, but, sadly, it is truth. I think no one will ever see this post, but, nevertheless, I post it here!