About the contest size limits

[Grumpy Old Guy]

Hi there,

As someone noticed, two of the winners this month violated the size limits.

Here is what happened. I was busy travelling this month, and didn't check the image sizes while the entries were coming in. I finally checked them when I was preparing the preliminaries, and at least half of the images were oversized. Contacting every contestant would have added another week and a lot more work for me in the process. I chose to use my prerogative as the contest runner and ignore the rule this month.

Quite frankly, I'm not in favor of the size limits. I think they discourage a lot of people from entering the contest because they don't know how to resize an image. Absolutely no one noticed the difference while the contest was in progress. I know the rules were in place before I got here, so I'm hoping that someone can enlighten me as to how they came about.

Thanks for your understanding. Let's have a discussion.

Ross
aka Grumpy Old Guy

[LakeArenal]

1. I think resizing is fine.

Folks can decide if it helps or detracts from their pics.

[AndyS]

2. I think the original reason was dialup connections.

A bunch of large files could choke a slow connection.

I did an informal poll,ie what's your download speed, and nobody responding had less than 20 mps. If that's the new standard large files should not be an issue.

[Grumpy Old Guy]

3. I had a suspicion that might be the reason.

I never asked anyone, but I thought it might have to do with dial-up speeds.

I remember when I first got here seeing posts with "dialup warnings." I haven't seen one in a while.

[AndyS]

4. I'll open a query in the photo group about speeds and image size. nt

[Grumpy Old Guy]

5. Maybe we can start a poll.

Ask them if they're still in favor of the size limits.

[AndyS]

6. I'll do that when I get some fresh "data" from the query.

What information I gather can inform the questions in the poll.

[mnhtnbb]

7. The reason for restricting the size of entries

was primarily related to the perception that larger photos had an advantage in impressing the voters. We all know that the contests are primarily popularity contests, and that often photos that carry an emotional punch score better, even though they might be technically not the best, or even might involve a stretch when considering how well they encompass the chosen contest theme.

This last contest may have been themed as trains, planes, automobiles, but the entries were certainly weighted towards nostalgia for those modes of transportation. Score for emotion and size.

[Grumpy Old Guy]

8. Thanks for the background info.

Certainly something to consider.

I've noticed that vertical photos often do better than horizontal photos. I also think it makes a difference whether people view them on their phones or their computers.

[alfredo]

9. I resize to 1200 X 960 then i adjust the file size to 500 to 700 K

Normally the resized file comes in from 6 to 9mb before adjusting down from 100 percent. 93% doesn't make a difference when viewed on the internet.

[Grumpy Old Guy]

10. A lot of people don't know how to resize a photo.

I think that a lot of people would like to enter the contest but they're scared off by the need to resize the photo. Everything is a tradeoff. We might get more partication if we weren't so stringent about the rules. Consider how often we open the contest for second entries because we don't get thirty entries to begin with.

JMHO

[Ptah]

11. The rules offer help:

If you need help posting a photograph or with image sizing, just ask.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/103673624