HEY EVERYBODY!!!! The August FINAL Poll is UP!!!!

Cruise by The Lounge every so often and kick the thread!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x5548905

:patriot:

.... how many folks could (not knowing) identify the theme after seeing the photos. It might make an interesting 'contest' (or wrinkle on the 'contest') - to present the photos and poll on a list of plausible themes and see how many folks select that theme which folks were shooting against.

I don't know how it'd be done, but it's something that I've pondered for the last couple of weeks. :shrug:

(I know - I need to get a life.)

At least with this theme.

An idea :eyes: that I had would be to let the Lounge pick the actual theme. Besides having the theme voted on by a larger number of people it might also be a good way to draw newbies and such into this strange little corner of DU.

Just my pondering gone wild. :crazy:

or "ask this photograph anything"

:spray:

:rofl:

If it weren't for the contests I wouldn't poke my head in there.

:D

the entire process!! Kudos...:hug:

Yea, I know..
:donut: (minus the donut)

Prelim poll 1 gets 145 votes, Prelim poll 2 gets 128 votes, and Prelim poll 3 gets 138 votes. Then factor in that I checked and at least ONE photo got 451 unique views. Now we can discuss how accurate "unique views" are, but even if the actual number is 251....

Why the voter apathy?
:shrug:

ie, people getting ready for the weekend, not online as much.

On Gossamer Wings won its thread handily, and has one vote out of 53 cast so far in the Final.

Just do not get it.

It never makes any sense. I just feel lucky to have made it into the finals this time.

OK, I'll give up trying to make sense of it all. Just hope things are a little more rational in November.:crazy:

Love the picture. I just want to reach out and touch the critter. I was a little afraid snake phobia would hurt its chances, but it easily won its thread in the prelims. So what gives with the minimal notice in the finals? Lounge suddenly invaded by folks with snake phobia?

...maybe they're all just really tired of these motherf***in' snakes in a motherf***in' contest!

People let their vote be heavily influnced by the votes already cast. I personally have little doubt that the remarkable ranges we see between preliminary polls and the 'final' poll can be more attributed to the 'bandwagon effect' than to the competition context. Once there're a couple of leaders, I think people "pile on" and regard other candidates "unelectable." Indeed, I think that accounts for most of the large margins we see and the 3-4 photos that get "left behind" in the Photo Rapture.

I think it'd be very interesting to conduct a small experiment. Run two preliminary rounds a few days apart ... where the difference is that the groupings are remixed. In the second round, we could agree to all vote early and en mass for one of the "left behinds" from the first round in each of the sectionals. I think that the results would be far more varied, with the early 'leader' doing far, far better than any other hypothesis could explain.

People allow the opinions of others to infuence them far more than we admit, I think.

The experiment you propose would be a fascinating and maybe scary thing to watch.

This month is another case of the frontrunner being, IMHO, exactly the right photograph, but the rest of the field a puzzle. I'm quite happy with Pavement After Rain, but it in no way is superior to the rest of the entries. Its momentum (Joementum? Jeffmentum?) seems to be headed south, so maybe it won't make the top 3 when this is over; perhaps there's also a self-correcting dynamic involved - people voting later on who look at a pic like this getting lotsa votes and say to themselves, 'That's not right. I'll vote for something more deserving.'

What a long, strange trip it's been...

The mere fact that elections are compared to horse races (and "betting") is, to me, indicative of the psychological dysfunction. It's NOT a "bet" - since the "losers" don't have their money collected to pay off the winners. (Unless it;s the corrupt private profit interests that take control - D or R.) It's (or SHOULD be) about personal preferences and the values each voter acts upon. Sadly, we've been deluded into regarding it as 'picking a winner.' Thus, we seem to habitually base our 'vote' on who's leading and who's out of the "race."

There's something really pathetic about it, imho. In my mind, it has a lot to do with parenting and how we're raised and trained. Fewer and fewer people are raised to think for themselves. How many parents actually discuss the choices (behaviors) their kids make - asking them what they're trying to achieve and examing whether the choices they've made are best for actually achieving their goals? How many parents train and nurture their kids in making choices that reflect their kids' own values about the person that kid wants to be? What I see (and experience) is judgement and reward/punishment - kids trained to be clones of their parents' values (or lack of sam). I have a family that's probably 'normal' in its dysfunction - or maybe more so. My uncle is a case study in a failure in nurturing - in that his daughter was raised to make choices her dad would approve of. "Successful" parenting seems to be the equivalent of making the kid an "approval addict."

I think this is much of why we flock to the "normal" - the pinnacle of the bell-shaped curve which, tragically, is merely mediocre. Average. "Moderate." "Centrist." It's akin to thinking that the mob rules - might makes right - the majority is "right." Security. Misery loves company. (Was the earth REALLY flat when the vast majority thought so? I guess so.)

That's why I call Junior "C-czar" - a manifestion of the majority of mendacious mediocrity.


But this is the Photography Group ... not General Discussion - so I'll climb down from my soap box and merely say (truthfully) that ALL those photos are "winners." The "vote" is interesting, but NOT determinative. (I can't, however, confidently conclude that it reflects the "favorite" of those voting in the proportions shown.)

You should spin this off into a GD thread. Very worthy topic of discussion. "A manifestion of the majority of mendacious mediocrity" is the best epitaph for the W era I've ever heard.

As to the contest, I'm still mourning many pics that didn't emerge from the Prelims, as always. All weirdness in voting aside, and notwithstanding my crabbiness, I love the contests. This may be the best one yet, regardless of the totals.

...I wish this website software could be modified so that you can only see the results after you cast your vote (a feature that is found on a lot of photography sites). I predict you'd see a far closer bunching of entries by a day or so into the contest, instead of three or four front-runners and the rest left in the dust.

(FWIW, during the submission period, I wrote that I was "pretty sure" which photo was going to be the winner. I also had a feeling as to which one would likely win if the aforementioned one didn't. I notice that both of these entries -- each of which won its preliminary round -- are currently tied for next-to-last place. Go figure. :shrug: )

:dunce:

Same-O. Same-O.

It would be an easy fix. There are a couple of scripts on the internets :eyes: that would allow for all the pixies to be voted on at the same time and each would be ranked from 1 to 5. Would have to put it on an outside space.

Problem is.. I think most people like the Lounge thing and I honestly think there are a few in the Lounge that look forward to the contests.

I've never disagreed with the outcome of which photo is the "best"... deserving the most votes and such. But overall I think the whole prelim-final thing really sucks. So many good photos get ignored or pushed aside for one reason or another.

Take... the Peppers. First; why was this so small? I remember it being bigger and I think I actually saved a much larger version. I think Peppers got screwed just because of its image size.

And why the frug' do less than 1/2 the people who apparently take the time to looksie at all the pix actually vote? This is a big mystery to me. Are there that many non-registered lurkers on DU? I could go on but I've said the same things in the past. The contest is what it is. Aint' perfect. But what can be done?
:shrug:

Go Scales! :)

:wow: , that's some texture there! But it's been a great competition!

and Shoot! Gosh Darn It All!
It takes a lot of time...pack up, clear out, clean up, start again...

Anyway...just finished completely cleaning the old rental, and am now FREE...to get back to my life, and to post here.

What a great contest this month :wow:


And am so surprised to have made it into the finals.

Gosh...I kinda feel like a real photographer :blush:

WTG everyone! :thumbsup:

that would have been all the additional evidence I would need to conclude the world has gone completely mad.:crazy:

Thanks, JeffR :pals:

And thanks for your kind words.:hi:

Your Pavement After Rain has such strong texture, I can feel the roughness of the pavement, the bricks, and the coolness of the water. ;)

Great photo!

...that was a subtly lovely image. Since it wasn't so "in your face," I was pretty sure it wasn't going to win outright, but I was hoping the Lounge Lizards showed enough taste to put it in the finals. At least they manage to live up to my expectations/hopes sometimes...

Moving sucks.

Summer Grapes most definitely deserved to be in the Finals, and you are a real photographer. You do what 99% of people 'with-camera' don't... you actually use the damn thing and express your own creativity with it.

I so admire you photographic talent. Your compliment means a lot to me. :loveya: