Even at Facebook, audience too small for a proper contest

[Mgoldman]

Ever catch Trains Magazine's "Trackside with Trains" weekly contest?

A bunch of regulars and a sprinkling of guests enter a themed contest which viewers "vote" for their favorite image. If nothing else, it's great to see what "themes" you've missed in your own collection, but as far as "best pic", seems even FB has too small an audience to overcome "most linked" /please vote for my pic even if you don't think it's the best:

Last week's theme: "Containers" - winner, nice shot, though last photo I'd have chosen for the theme at hand. Alex Mayes had a winner a couple of weeks back for "Glass" - his shot from inside a full length dome was better then my shot of an engineer a glow in orange looking out the glass window of #611. Yet, the winner? No doubt, most campaigned.


http://trn.trains.com/photos-videos/...l&utm_content=

http://trn.trains.com/photos-videos/.../2015/07/glass

/Mitch

[RobJor]

The Stacks contest winner reminds me of the Wendy's commercial? "where's the .........".

Question I always wonder, do you just pick the best photo or the one that is the best representing the theme.

There was the "Last Light" contest which specifically mentioned twilight and I had an entry
http://trn.trains.com/photos-videos/.../06/last-light

and there were several good twilight photos but the top two selections were of sunsets. Maybe sounds picky but twilight is pretty specific, after sunset.???????




I guess being a little naive, I never thought of campaigning and not sure how you do, for that contest, tho I admit to sending an email to two or three people if that counts.

Bob Jordan

[Mgoldman]

Originally Posted by RobJor

...there were several good twilight photos but the top two selections were of sunsets. Maybe sounds picky but twilight is pretty specific, after sunset.???????

Bob Jordan

You are of course correct, Bob.

The only caveat I'd give to Trishia's win is that many may have overlooked "Twilight" and instead (short attention span) saw only "Last Light":

Last light

See some of our favorite train images captured at twilight.


Trishia's shot was pretty wild - had a lot going for it that may have made some overlook the theme or again, never got past the "Last Light" in the theme
description.

/Mitch

[JimThias]

Originally Posted by RobJor

Question I always wonder, do you just pick the best photo or the one that is the best representing the theme.

There was the "Last Light" contest which specifically mentioned twilight and I had an entry
http://trn.trains.com/photos-videos/.../06/last-light

and there were several good twilight photos but the top two selections were of sunsets. Maybe sounds picky but twilight is pretty specific, after sunset.???????

Odd that the two photos that are NOT twilight shots have the most votes. Even quite a few voters don't know what "twilight" is. They were definitely picked because of "best photo" and not because of the theme.

[bigbassloyd]

The tracksides with trains contests are a joke.

Loyd L.

[hoydie17]

Originally Posted by bigbassloyd

The tracksides with trains contests are a joke.

Loyd L.

1000 times this!

[KevinM]

IMHO, none of these internet "contests" are true popularity contests. They are contests to see who is the best self-promoter. I pay virtually no attention to them.

There was a time when RP.net was a pretty good daily "contest" to see who could come up with the most interesting images, but that kinda died when folks figured out that they could promote their way to To24 by linking to other websites, or to popular Facebook pages. Views are no longer a good measure of image impact here.

Many contributors will link a special shot now and then to promote a museum, an event, or some struggling tourist operation, and there's nothing wrong with that. Those outfits need our support. On the other hand, linking every shot that one posts, in order to beat everyone else to To24 really says something about the person.