Soliciting Votes

[biggerry]

I could well be missing something but I do find it very strange the large number of people that feel it is acceptable to submit images to X competition then head over to their social networking sites (including forums obviously) and drum up support.

Is that acceptable? Recently I came across a site that says:

How do I get votes on my photo?
One of the best ways to get votes on your photo is to use social networking sites. Post a link to www.XXXXXXX.com on your facebook, twitter, flickr, tumblr etc. and tell friends and family to vote for your photo!

oddly enough they talk about the 'best photo competition', my thoughts are it is rather a photo by popularity more than anything else.

am I being a absolute prude here? what are others thoughts on this?

[gstark]

Gerry,

No you're not being a prude.

That's why I place such little faith in so many contests ... ranging from shit like the Logies, through the various so-called reality tv shows, and even our feral elections, whereby we think that choose the leader of the country, and we do so via a popularity contest.

[TonyT]

I thinks it crap, the picture does not need to be any good you just need to get the votes. whoopy duck

[Remorhaz]

Pretty much - when I see these I basically move right along. What's worse it isn't even popularity of the image itself (which at least might be OK in a blind viewing) it's popularity of the person promoting the image.

[the foto fanatic]

Hang on, hang on...

If you had entered a photo competition why wouldn't you tell your family & friends? Why wouldn't you tell them where they could see & vote for it?

If your friends are adults they could decide whether they wanted to vote or not. It's not like you could force them. I have been notified by friends in this way and never feel an obligation to do anything more than look. If I don't care to vote then I don't.

So - I don't have an issue with it.

[biggerry]

Hang on, hang on...

If you had entered a photo competition why wouldn't you tell your family & friends? Why wouldn't you tell them where they could see & vote for it?

if that involves 3 forums, 2 social networking sites and a email list would you feel the same? what if every entrant on the competition did this?

to an extent i am playing the devils advocate here but i think there is a significant difference between telling ya mum about it and plastering the internet with messages of 'please vote (if you think its worthy)' I have found myself visiting said sites and usually voting for someone else who i think is better

[the foto fanatic]

[quote="biggerry"I have found myself visiting said sites and usually voting for someone else who i think is better [/quote]

Proves my point!

We are the masters of our own destiny. We can ignore such requests, we can visit and not vote, we can visit and vote for the asker or for someone else. If you (for example) advised that you had entered an online competition, I would go and look at your entry. I may or may not vote for it depending on the context and the other entries.

To take up your point further, if it became a regular occurrence then I might lose interest.

[biggerry]

Proves my point!

We are the masters of our own destiny. We can ignore such requests, we can visit and not vote, we can visit and vote for the asker or for someone else. If you (for example) advised that you had entered an online competition, I would go and look at your entry. I may or may not vote for it depending on the context and the other entries.

To take up your point further, if it became a regular occurrence then I might lose interest.

If for whatever reason i did enter and felt the need to inform the forum (i would not ask friends or family) .... actually i would not post in a forum about it fullstop, so no point in hypotheticals

Trevor, i guess the point is that it has been a regular occurrence (not necessarily here) and feels like it is becoming more prevalent

**edited to make the quote make sense!

[Reschsmooth]

Trevor, i guess the point is that it has been a regular occurrence (not necessarily here) and feels like it is becoming more prevalent

It is not very different to the charity fatigue I and I know others have felt when being tapped for Movember, Dry July, Shave for a Cure, etc. I have participated in this myself, as this forum knows and have gratefully participated. But when you have 10 mates doing Movember, 15 doing Dry July, etc, you suffer fatigue.

So when you have people soliciting votes for a competition, fatigue can set in pretty quickly.

Does this invalidate the popularity contest style competitions? Perhaps, but I find it easy just to ignore solicitations and, not being on twitbook, it is even easier.

[ATJ]

I'm with Trevor here. You can drag a horse to water but you can't make it vote for your photograph.

If the competition is all about votes, why wouldn't someone do whatever they can to get more votes? Isn't that what the pollies do when they want our votes (and very little in-between)?

Perhaps the real issue here is the competitions themselves...

[sirhc55]

Who gives a toss. It only becomes a problem when you do not have the mental ability to make your own choices and follow the crowd.

In my book I am me and me alone and whatever I do is OK by me.