Best Practices For Contest Hosts?

It is posted on the contest the voting start and end date. There is a search to find the contest. What more is really needed?

I rather they stay silent and if people want to see it they can. So I don't have to erase that mail. Because I sure don't care who wins even if its me. Its really annoying when they are like, there is just 10 days of voting, and then they count down to 1 day, then the hours start. That becomes very annoying real fast.


----Mike Savad

Fortunately some contest hosts do this, but if I had my way they shouldn't have to because those events could simply be automated notifications to the contest entrants

For example there is already a notification setting for when someone comments on of my pictures. Sure, I could make a daily visit to my Image Analytics page and check if anyone has commented, but I prefer getting the notification.

I have asked in the past for this to be an automatic email. I will push again as more do not than do

I agree with Mike.
If I want to see what contests are happening, I go to https://fineartamerica.com/controlpanel/activity.html?filter=contests
If I want to vote, I go to "Contests" on my profile and look for "Voting in Progress"
If I want to see how I placed, I go to I go to "Contests" on my profile and look for "Recently Finished".
I hardly ever look at those mails and see no need for them and would certainly not blame any admin for not going through the trouble of sending them.

All is written down. Really interested people can review the data of contests they participated at any time. No extra work is needed.

And what's worse is when they mess up on the spelling, the time etc. And mass mail it a few times each time to say sorry for the mess up, sorry for sending this letter about the mess up. Sorry I meant to send this to one person etc. If anything maybe there should be a daily limit lock on the contest/group etc, so they can only send so many in a day or week. You got one mass mail, make it count.



----Mike Savad

I don't think it's necessary to announce any of this - it's all there for people who are interested. Having said that I like to announce the winners (I do it to the members of my sponsoring group, though arguably it should be to the contest participants) - it just feels polite to acknowledge their success.

"it just feels polite to acknowledge their success." What Hugh said.

You who answered are have been on FAAl longer than I and seem to be knowledgeable very plugged into the discussions. So I was very interested to hear how you felt.

I don't think everyone feels that way. Especially people who are newer to FAA.

I think the winners would like to be acknowledged, and I also like to know if someone I follow (and therefore admire) has won a contest. I also think it builds a sense of community - which most sites do not have.

But I'm speaking only for my own thoughts.

Carol

Carol, i had so many hosts, and entrants, contact me about this that yes, you're correct.

Carol, before I say anything else you and anyone else. 1. Go to settings. 2. Go to contests. 3. Find section that shows contests that you are participating in. (You probably already knew this maybe I just stumbled on it because at least on my cellphone It's different when I click on contests from my profile page.)

From me as a participant I'm OK not getting any notice to vote or results. I'm OK getting them too. I have noticed some curator/administrators do and a lot don't.

I don't always vote. Sometimes I vote early or late or not at all. It's fun when there's a contest that I like I'm not in to vote sometimes

Since I'm currently looking at the contest section every day on my cellphone there are 2 columns of contests 1. Accepting and 2. Voting in progress. So I know when to vote when I want to vote in any contest. I haven't won any contests and I'm not sure if for me it would make a difference but I look at the leader board sometimes.

3. On the computer there is a 3rd column of recently finished contests that have all the recent contest results so you can see who won.

Ties. I've noticed the FAA system declares 1st 2nd and 3rd place even if it is a tie Ex 15 votes is 1st place. Than 5 people with 10 votes and 5 people with 9 votes......FAA picks 1st obviously than 2 of the 2nd place people as 2nd and 3rd. If administrator sends email should they report all 11 artists and artworks or the 3 proclaimed winners?

If you enter just one contest then knowing the winners can be maybe fun. If you enter all the contests, then your box is flooded with a lot of garbage. And all I want is a sale. The win doesn't mean anything. Usually. I also don't like it when they feel the need to tell me it wasn't accepted for one reason or another.. I just don't care. I don't visit them after.


----Mike Savad

Mike. We know. You tell us at every time you can that you are not interested in community or being contacted by groups or contests. We get it.

Thankfully we do have a lot of community minded people here who care about that kind of thing, and not just for sales, but for the thrill. They want communication.

But couldn't there be a way to not be signed up for the mailing list? That's all I want.


----Mike Savad

There is not a mailing list yet!

From my few months perspective mostly enjoying creating/"curating"/administrating" contests perspective.

Carol, I like to "joke" that back when I was human once I liked to go out and see people. So I used to go out to local art shows at least once or twice a months.....see some people...... see some artwork.........eat some cheese and crackers. But that's been a long time.

So after I entered some contests I figured out I could also be kind of a curator of my own art show without actually going to one.

I think I organized my first one last Nov or Dec and enjoyed enough to continue. I look at each 'accepting entries" contest at least once a day on my cellphone and have looked at a lot of people's art from seeing them on contests.

However I told myself that before I sent out winners I'd look at every single image on the library computer a second or 3rd or more close look before sending winners emails. Then haven't been getting to library much.

So I want to apologize for not sending the results of contests you've participated in and without looking I know you've participated in more than one and I have favorable recollection of your entries.

Still not sure about vote now announcements.....I don't need them myself at all but I could send them out.... I thought most people don't want them?

And I don't know how to include links. After I learn that I could include that with results but mentioned before if you check the "recently finished" contest section every few days you can find results.

Seperate related question: I think all the contests I've curated except the first (candles for greeting cards) are still up on my personal contests section if people are looking at my profile page on computer and click on my contests. One "matching sets of coffee cups" voting ended January 6, 2024 and I think it will disappear soon. I think that is still accessible?

Q. Can I save at bottom of my artist profile links to all of the contests I've created? How would I do that? (Even if I do not comprehend today I can look back another day?)

I think all together they could be interesting collection of subjects featuring my preferred media. And I personally enjoyed looking at particular participants artwork and would like to revisit some.

They are here! https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/garyeklund-dodobbird?tab=contests Why would you add them elsewhere. Your time is better spent marketing your work

Thank you. But I think they disappear and I'd like to see them again and if they disappear from there I don't know how to find them. For instance I enjoyed the "Happy Photos" contest and the "motion dogs wolves coyotes" contests and I'd be happy to look at them again sometime. I really enjoyed everything in the dogs wolves coyotes contest and there are nice paintings and photos and many with them in midair showing form and motion that might be helpful to look at for inspiration.

I am also doing literary stuff for outside here in future and if I write something in contest description I may want to pull excepts to use elsewhere. Example...I have a current contest "praying mantis" and I thought it required a poem for some reason and I wrote a poem special. Now that one I have saved on my praying mantis photo already. I'm seeing these contests as partially literary for me for fun and some repurposing. I'm playing with the prizes offered and not to be too full of myself I've thought a couple of them are pretty funny.

So I know once people are on your site you don't want to send them away still the other day at the library computer when I realized how visitors can use my site to find and access "my" contests I thought about possibility of using that access for niche marketing.

Niche idea if you enjoy seeing various artwork on themes with my preferred media in contests for unretouched photos or real world paintings and other physical media customers could use my site as portal to access interesting art from around the world. Maybe they buy from other artists...maybe they come back regularly to access these contests. Keep in mind this was brainstorming daydreaming type thought but that's my idea. So if a year from now some one could pull up the praying mantis contest and find something...maybe not me but if they keep coming back?

I've only joined one group so far.....not much for joining these groups yet but having 75 praying mantis paintings and photos is like an informal group.

Thinking out loud because you asked.

Maybe shouldn't give away my ideas when but if I had on my site access to browse say
Motion dogs wolves coyotes
Praying mantis
Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar
Monarch Butterfly Chrysalis
Monarch Butterfly Butterfly
Turkey Vultures
Etc
Etv

And if they were available in future years could I use that as a draw to my premium site even if they did then leave to peruse the contests.

Not sure but I think if I knew how to post the link to the contest like other contest administrators in an email I could put them somewhere on my site and the only place I could think of was at the end of artist statement which I think would only be able to be read on the premium site cause only part shows up on faa.

This may be bad idea but I'd still like to access.

One example that comes to mind .. I know I could "follow" or "favorite" to find someone again but I'm afraid of following too many people because of screen time limit. There is a painter from Ha Noi Vietnam that entered a painting in the dogs etc in motion contest. I'd like to go look at his work again and I figured if I could access the contests I could see his work again and others too without having to follow.

So to be clear. I've noticed there are some artists and buyers/customers who are passionate about traditional physical art forms and even some who prefer 1970s photojournalism style unretouched photos. I'm not committed to the idea yet but I was considering that since those are the art forms in my contests maybe I could use that interest of mine as a draw 1st to my site than on to the contests. Than back to my site again.

This idea is far more thought out now than it was an hour ago.

If I was at anyone's site and I saw a 2 year old "Irish setters at the beach" contest I'd click on it. Wouldn't you?

So I've come to your store happening upon it as i search for labradors

I see a link to Irish setters... I travel away from your Labrador and go to Irish setters ... Feasible, as I'm a squirrel person and end up down rabbit holes so many times... And now I've seen so many Irish setters that's I've forgotten your Labrador which i was going to buy, and instead purchase someone else's art. You've lost a sale.

So, again, why would you do this when you're better sticking that person on your Labrador.

Sending people away from your work is a terrible idea, hence the premium sites aren't part of the community here. They try more to keep people where they are meant to be. You then linking to other sites (which you will be if adding links in your profile) is defeating the whole purpose of having a premium site... More or less.

Marketing your own work is a much better use of your time.

It's understandable that some people may not want notifications for contests they have entered, but the solution is obvious.There would be an accompanying Opt-in/Opt-out Notification Setting like we already have for the Newsletters, Weekly Updates and Comments.

Gary: about ties. I feel very strongly that everyone who gets the same number of votes should get the same treatment, regardless of who is randomly at the top of the list when a visitor sees the list. Similarly if 5 people end up in first place with, say, 12 votes, then there are 5 equal winners, and the next person, with 11 votes, is 6th, not 2nd.

@Similarly if 5 people end up in first place with, say, 12 votes

In all competitions, it would be 5 joint winners
next is 2nd and next is 3rd

Personally, I do like to see an email or a congratulatory comment in my activity feed if I have won or placed in a contest.

Once in a while I will host a contest. I try to remember to look after the entries but. I never send emails, although I do try to write a congratulatory comment on the winning pieces. For me if there were too many rules I probably wouldn't bother at all. But that's just me.

Hugh and everyone....just FYI I agree if 5 people tie for second and 5 people tied for 3rd they are all equal.

I was just surprised to see system contest winners announcement automatically arbitrarily picks 1st 2nd 3rd ....which is not complaint re FAA system.....they have enough to do already ....a tie is a tie .....I think it's just set up that way. (And I'll try to announce winners.....I'm learning.)

Mike, why waste time erasing (deleting) emails. It's much easier to just save the ones you want to keep. I do this by forwarding them to myself. That way they can be easily retrieved by opening my "sent" file.

I don't know of any forward on this site. I get like 30 mails or more a day. Its a horror when I come back from a trip. Almost all junk. Unless they go out of their way to say - hey mike or something not group related.

I do wish the mail had a page 2 and so on. Its all just one page.


----Mike Savad

Mike, that's beyond enough saying admin are sending you junk. Enough. They spend a long time looking after their groups and i have had enough of the way you talk about them. If you don't like groups, stop joining them. If you join them, then accept once and for all that admins will send messages. I've had enough of you being rude about them. Stop

When I host a contest, I always congratulate the winners with a comment and, if the artist allows it, pin their winning image to a Pinterest board I’ve created for that specific purpose. I also view every entry and vote on well created arts.

I do not send out emails. We have access to the contests we enter in our profile settings. I assume that people who are interested in the contests they enter will track their entries.

I myself do not like emails regarding contests. I automatically delete any email regarding contests without opening them.

Oh, and ties—-as an example, if there is a clear first place, and then six entries all have the same votes and are listed as second and third place, I will congratulate all six entries with a comment “congratulations on your second place tIe“. Etc. They all get pins. But if in the top finishers four people get ten votes, three people get nine votes, and one person gets eight votes, I will only congratulate the first four people. For anyone who is familiar with golf tournaments, it’s the same methodology for finishers.

Same as me, Mary. Good call

I find that the e-mails work great to those who are entered into the contests and group members. One e-mail to remind folks that the contest is open for voting "dramatically" increases the amount of involvement.

If members do not read e-mails it's then on them when they do not know of a change and are left out. Sometimes in the cold.

Mary,
not only golf. At very first also in the Olympic Games. That is the best solution and I would like Sean implementing that here.

If we want to talk about best practices,

If you decide to remove someone's art from your contest maybe send the person a message about why?

I've had art removed from contests with no notice that fully complied with the the rules and spirit of the contest. No message, nothing.

What is a person to do with that other than take note of who posted the contest and not participate in their contests in the future?

To be honest i never contact people whose work was removed from one of mine. The rules are clearly announced on the homepage. If a work is removed, then normally it's because someone didn't actually read them.

If you followed all the rules but were still removed, you contact the host.

If people contacted everyone who entered but should not have, hosts would be writing emails all day, there are normally that many people who don't read the rules.

It could have been a mistake. How will you know unless you ask, with a link to the image on your homepage which was removed? Always add a link because it could be one of many removed that day usually

When I host a Contest it is linked to the Group that I am Administrator for. The process I follow is to send an email to all Group members in order that they know of the new Contest. A further email is then sent to all Contest entrants and copied to all Group members when the submission period has ended and voting has begun. At the end of the Contest an email is then sent to all Contest entrants and copied to all Group members with the results of the Contest. In all the emails links are provided for the Contest and for the Group. ( FAA and Pixels ). Comments and Favourites are added to the top three placed images congratulating them and inviting them to add their winning images to the Group where can then be Featured on the Group Homepage and where then can add them to a dedicated Discussion Thread for the Contest as a permanent record of their achievement. Over the several Contests that I have hosted this process seems to work well and leads to the success of the Group and its growth.

As for removing images from the Contests the rules are clearly outlined that entries will be removed without further notice if they are not on the theme of the Contest or are inappropriate images. The number of entries removed varies considerably but usually without any further issues being raised

Ditto what Abbie said.

I do not contact folks to let them know they have been removed. If someone were to contact me regarding a removal, I would reply. Most already know the reason straight up after they go back and "finally read the rules".