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PhotoSE staff (both the moderators and a few key top users) has been watching the Picture of the Week contest for some time, and we are always looking for ways to improve it, make it more fair, etc. We've made some changes over the last few months that we believe have lead to a much better, more effective, and more presentable contest. I want to thank everyone who has participated, both by submitting content and by voting (and conforming to voting rules!), for your cooperation and help keeping our contest working smoothly.

We would like to consider another change in an effort to make the contest more fair. Before doing so, it seems prudent to ask the community and get your feedback. The winners of the last few months contests have been dominated by a couple individuals. Their work is excellent, and they most certainly deserved to win each week they participated. However, we do not want to exclude others work from having a chance to be exhibited on our site header, either.

As such, we would like to propose yearly submission limits for each member. No specifics yet, however once each member has won the PotW X number of times per year, they would no longer be eligible to submit new photos. They would most certainly still be eligible to participate via voting and comments. The goal here would be to give other members a chance to win the PotW.

Alternatively, we don't change the rules. There is no question that the winners each week have stellar work, the kind of content our membership desires to see each week on our header. If the community prefers to allow unlimited wins and see the best of the best each week, were happy to oblige.

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  • I'd like to express again - in no way should this indicate that we think those currently winning often shouldn't win. The winners have had excellent work.
    – rfusca
    Oct 12, 2011 at 19:35
  • I'm also open to other timeframes - apart from yearly. Could be quarterly, bi yearly, etc.
    – rfusca
    Oct 12, 2011 at 19:39
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    As a frequent winner, I recently made the decision to self-attenuate how much I submit. (Actually, also toying with the idea of submitting b-roll photos to see what people like of pics I'm less sure about). Anyway, I'm glad you guys are thinking along these lines. A formal rule might be a good idea. Something like: "if you have won twice in the last X months/weeks, please wait Y months/weeks before submitting again." Going back to the weekly theme idea might also help.
    – jaxxon
    Nov 8, 2011 at 20:34

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Currently, the rules state that you cannot enter if you're currently featured. If a limit were introduced, I'd be inclined to do it over a relatively short window, as not to discourage someone from ever entering again, because it's a bit hard to track the winners.

So maybe 2 wins within a 2 month (8 week) sliding window?

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  • I agree that we do not want to discourage entries. There is some happy medium balance that will accommodate everyone, but I do think we need to "level the playing field" in a sense.
    – jrista
    Oct 13, 2011 at 17:44
  • Should we try to formalize this? Figure out an appropriate window? I really liked Fluf's image from last week, however he did not win, and is up this week against the uber winner. I think we should figure out something to give other people a chance to win the PotW contest and diversify the winners a bit.
    – jrista
    Oct 24, 2011 at 18:52

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