OcUK Photo Comp - THE FUTURE ...

[A.N.Other]

Dear All

The OcUK Photo Competition has been running since 2003 in a similar(ish) format to now. It's had its ups and downs in that time, generally associated with member turnover, but I don't think it's a secret that its been struggling in recent years, along with the subforum in general.

Over the last 3 years, the average number of entries per round has gone from 38 (min 16, max 59!) to 14 (min 5, max 25). Now in Season 12, we start the competition with only 6 entries. Traditionally the competition has always started the year strongly and then waned down to somewhere around 1/3 the number of entries by the end of the year. Starting with only 6 entries, I fear this year is going to be significantly worse.

We're after your input to help save the competition. Please feel free to comment on how we can change the competition for the better - the format, judging, rules, etc etc. Even if you've never entered the competition but would like to if it took a certain direction, please let us know.

If the competition is still appreciated, we will do some plugging in GD (and elsewhere?) and attempt to get it back on its feet. Depending on the feedback we get, we will also be requiring a new judge, as Oxygen has decided to step down after a goodly 2 years of service.

A.N.Other, Ichabod Crane, and Oxygen

 

[A.N.Other]

Thanks for the responses so far. We're going to give it a few days and then discuss our thoughts and opinions before deciding anything. Keep posting your ideas and comments

Do you disagree on all points, because whilst I appreciate the argument with regards to making it challenging, I still stand strongly by the vicious circle of the person who wins proposing the theme gives them better chances of doing better.

This has never really been an issue before due to the number of people entering the competition. Only when you have 10 people actually submitting an image does this get a chance to occur. I do agree that nowadays we have a minority that win the majority of rounds and hence decide the following themes.

I don't neccessarily think there is a lack of popularity in PV. It might have gone down hill, but there are still a high number of posters who frequently post in PV, yet rarely contribute to the competition thread. There's also a number of posters who post spec me threads. Surely it's new members we wish to entice and bring into the sub community?

P&V suffered greatly some years back with a mass exodus of contributing users. In reality, it has never truly recovered. With the creation of a large number of themed 'post your photo here' threads, it has really impacted the number of things posted and the level and quality of critique received. When people used to post their own threads, this was a different kettle of fish. There are many contributing factors, though, this is simply one that the judges have thought about over the past months.

To be honest I don't participate much at all in here anymore, there's little photography discussion of merit and what little there is soon gets derailed by irrelevant gear related rubbish.

This is an increasingly serious issue. The forum generally exists as a 'spec me' board and, as you say, has very little photo posting or critique - high level or low level.