INELIGIBLE PHOTO WINS AVATAR CHALLENGE
I was disappointed to see that the the winning place image for the latest Rural NSW avatar challenge does not appear to meet with the guidelines of the group or the challenge. The winning image clearly states that the image was taken in ‘I stumbled upon this bridge in Utica, IL’, I am assuming this is Illanois US. Doesnt seem like Rural NSW to me! If it is, I stand corrected. It also doesnt appear that the image is even a member of the Rural NSW image collection. However, there is a clear problem emerging with challenges on RB as any member can enter images into any challenge, regardless of whether they are members of the group, or whether the image is within a group. This image was clearly missed by this groups moderators who can remove ineligible images (manually) submitted to the challenge.
It is clearly a great image don’t get me wrong, but if it is not in Rural NSW which appears to be the case, the image should not be adopted as the groups new avatar. The avatar should go to the next image that meets with the group and challenge guidelines! Otherwise, why participate in a challenge at all……......................I’m sure that if I posted an image of a flower in the Australian Wildlife Group it would be quickly removed!
Just my 20 cents worth…….......
Evita
Just saw that… so what happened??? Isnt IL in USA ???.... granted I’m not an expert in geography but… I’m totally confused now….
Steve Sass replied
well that’s what I thought also Evita. I cant find Utica in New South Wales at all, and I am reasonably well travelled around the state!
Evita
Well I also never heard of Utica in NSW so I went and google it…no Utica in NSW….
Steve Sass replied
umm, just as I thought.
Steve Sass replied
the image is not even in the Rural NSW group I just noticed also!
Zefira
Have to agree with you
Steve Sass replied
In the moderators defense, these guys are offering a great service to the members of the Rural NSW group and I guess this image just slipped past them in eligible entries. As a host myself, I have artisits submitting ineligble images all the time to challenges, and I think RB needs to change something in the database so that only images submitted to a group can be submitted to group challenges.
Bandicoot
Someone stuffed up!!
Steve Sass replied
Yes Indeed…..........its hard one, and it is a deficiency in the RB system that group hosts just cant keep a track of all the time. I constantly am removing images from challenges of a group I hist as anyone can submit any image to them regardless of whether they are group members or not!
Trudi's Images
hmmmm yeah does’nt even look like a scene from anywhere around NSW, and the artist living in the States kind of gives it away ! would have thought the moderators would have picked it up, and entrants need to learn how to read before submitting their work
Steve Sass replied
Its definitely a floor in the RB system – I think we would probably all agree, something that needs fixing.
Ruth Lambert
Just a thought here folks…..as a Host I know it is easy to miss one sometimes but what about the entrant? Surely she knew it wasn’t taken in Australia when she submitted it!!! There is a “responsibility” here that clearly rests in the hands of the one who submitted KNOWING where the shot was taken! Just my 20cent worth!
Steve Sass replied
definitely Ruth – with the current system allowing the entrant to submit any photo, the onus should surely be on the entrant. As the challenge has now closed and this ineligible photo has won, the responsibility has no shifted to the hosts to ensure they don’t make this image the next avatar.
Michael Howard
Well I’ll give the artist benefit of the doubt as the photo could be Rural & NSW is probably an unknown to someone in USA. But I do think the bubble system should only accept pictures to challenges that are within that group only.
The Rural NSW group should also state “Australia” ! What do NSW mean ?? Shouldn’t it be N.S.W if you really want to get picky.
Obviously to us Australians I know, the shouldn’t be picked.
Steve Sass replied
Gday Michael, I guess so, but surely it is the responsibility of the entrant to ensure they meet with the groups guidelines. Perhaps the guidlines should say Australia, but if an entrant does not know what NSW means, then I would suggest that they dont join the group? I think utlimately, what we will all agree on is that if the image isnt in Rural NSW, then it should not be eligible to win the challenge.
Lori Peters
Utica has only 977 people as of the last census. In the US, this would be considered rural. However, I always check challenges to make sure that they do not violate the rules. I have had to remove images (I don’t like to do that) but people must comply with the rules of the challenge. I think in this case, there may be a misunderstanding about what “rural” means. I have that problem as a host of Country Bumpkin. I hope things can work out so that you can feel that things were fair. x
Lori Peters
I’m sorry, I just realized an image from the US should not have been in the challenge. Sorry. xo
Steve Sass replied
no worries Lori. It is clear that Utica is not in Rural NSW.
GailD
Missed that Steve. She is a member of the Rural NSW Group. Also of Rural Around the Globe. Perhaps got confused there.
Granted, it should have been removed before voting had started. We voting should take a little more notice too.
I think that the hosts should pleasantly deal with this now & award it to the second place getter.
Steve Sass replied
yes she is a member of the group, but the image is not. I agree, its up to the hosts now, but ultimately, you shouldnt be able to enter an image if it isnt submitted to the group images.
~ Ademac
Agreed our mistake…................sorry, try to do better next challenge.
Ade
Steve Sass replied
its a tough one…...but there must be some way the RB web designers can make it that you cant enter an image into a challenge unless the image is already within the group – therefore, it would meet the guidelines. I get this happening all the time in the challenges of the group I host, and it is clearly a deficiency of the otherwise spectacular and fantastic RB system.
SharonD
It’s easy to get past the group hosts,there’s so many entries. but the owner should have known where it was from.
Rosalie Dale IPA
Perhaps it is another case of members joining heaps of groups and ticking every box without much thought – this causes a lot of heartache and wasted time for hosts and there doesn’t seem to be a simple way around it the way things stand.
kalaryder
Agree it is sometimes easy to miss an image when checking through those entered into challenges, particularly when it is avatar time ! Also agree, that the onus really should be on the entrant and not the hosts. It would be wonderful if the software for challenges rejected images not in the group but I think this is a huge ask of the programme and its designers. The majority of members are great and stick to the rules and sometimes one slips through like this – but it happens and unless you want a ‘police state’ on RB where everything is over-regulated, I think we need to accept that mistakes happen and that they are only mistakes and not intentional
Trish Meyer
Mistakes can be made and are made … we are only human, BUT, being human we presumably can read and should do our group hosts the courtesy of reading the rules/guidelines for each challenge and making sure that the image we enter falls within those guidelines.
Rochelle Buckley
I understand that this should not have to be moderated to this extent by the hosts. Surely they do not have the time to go through every single submission and read every single little detail.
I do believe that if you are unsure where somewhere is, you should maybe google it first or something before submitting it because one word describes your work.
Personally I have found the difficulty in ticking the box for which group to enter it into. Let me explain…
As a traveller, I had a varied array of topics photographed and therefore have joined many groups. Short of having a print out of each and every single group rules and conditions sitting on my computer moniter, sometimes I just can’t quite remember if my image would be suitable for a particular group. Usually I err on the side of caution and do not enter it. Sometimes I read the rules and conditions again and feel some shots (very ocassionally) fall into a bit of a grey area. In this case I will scroll through the other submissions and determine whether mine would be suitable to submit and base my decision on these other submissions. This in turn can create another dilema, I should not base my submissions on those already submitted.
I feel, and I may be wrong (as I so often have lately), it could be beneficial if RB could have a brief description as a reminder next to each box to tick. Some groups actually have in their title “2 submission per day” which is extremely useful for someone like me with no short term memory.
Anyway, that is my opinion