bit-tech November PotM winner announced

weird..

Originally Posted by GregTheRotter
weird..

exactly! weird = odd.

Consider this a bit more open but challenging at the same time...

A composition of odd numbered elements...
Odd one out...
Against all odds...
That was odd...
What were the odds...

a bit different and I'm sure you can find something odd because of Halloween. ;)

no halloween in Israel :(
man i wish we had that theme like 2 weeks ago, i could get some nice shots of that...

Congrats to everyone and goodluck!

I could have a chance with this one. :)

Congrats akpoly

Congrats akpoly!, now i just have to go out and shoot for this monts theme...

Great job man, love the shot and awesome pick for the theme!

Many congrats, is a great shot. Nice for me to be snapping again as well, and even better sneaking on to the third step of the podium. Trying to think ahead to this month's theme now as enjoying shooting again.

I've got a couple of ideas for this theme, just got to see if I can find some time to get out and shoot them.

Originally Posted by Hwulex
Many congrats, is a great shot. Nice for me to be snapping again as well, and even better sneaking on to the third step of the podium. Trying to think ahead to this month's theme now as enjoying shooting again.

Great to have you back mate :) I've always liked your shots.

Thanks man appreciate that, and motivates me more to keep shooting again. :)

Now, what to do this month............

Is there a problem with the PotM site? I've just tried to log in to upload a photo and it's not letting me in. Is anyone else having the same problem or is it just me?

Originally Posted by Silver51
Is there a problem with the PotM site? I've just tried to log in to upload a photo and it's not letting me in. Is anyone else having the same problem or is it just me?

Its not just you I can't get in as well.

It's getting a bit late on in the month for it to be broke, no-one has been able to upload an entry yet. :(

Who's in charge of maintaining it?

Dan

I'll poke Nath to fix.

Thanks :)

Dan

Waah okay, will take a look at it later today. Do not panic.

Are you all done? I'm going to open the voting in the next few hours...

EDIT: Only 4 entries uploaded this month...

there's more entries in the threads, i think with the long time of not being able to log into the the POTM site some people have forgotten

i have made a thread in this forum, but the site wound;'t let me add it to it

It should all be working now, I'm assured.

I'll give everyone until tomorrow morning.

cool Bindibadgi :D problem i got now is it's saying it's not a jpeg but i have saved it as a jpeg in a few programs :) but i will keep trying

Voting Open.

Alright I'm a little late in closing this month, sorry :o

Also - no POTM for December because we're running other competitions later this month which need organising and I'd really like *some* Christmas :p

How about just extending the deadline to 25th Jan, gives 2 months over Christmas to get some ideas?

Edit: Congratulations to this months winner.

Congrats Silver51, great shot.

\^-^/ Yay.

Congrats to the winner(s)! :)

I now realize that I forgot to vote... Where did November go...? :(

Congrats silver51, it's a really lovely picture

Did I miss the theme that Silver51 picked for this month? What is it? My camera want's to know. Please tell me it's Jello. :)

^^same, I don't see a new theme.

No POTM in December

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi
Alright I'm a little late in closing this month, sorry :o

Also - no POTM for December because we're running other competitions later this month which need organising and I'd really like *some* Christmas :p

We should totally do an unofficial one (or like someone else suggested; have it running till end of Jan).

Dan

that would be cool. but how would we decide on a theme.

Make a new thread with a poll with about 4 different options and leave it open a couple of days for people to vote for their favourite.

Or seen as though it's winter/christmas time, have a theme based around that.

Dan

maybe a theme for winter holidays so it's open to your own interpretation of what you do at the holidays or what this time of year is about.

sounds pretty much perfect...

perhaps also a joint thread to keep track of everything so the ppl normally in charge of the potm wouldnt have to do anything...

I'll make one :P

Dan

The PotM site requires pretty much no effort to run, so if you want to use it for the unofficial competition then by all means go for it. :)

If you wouldn't mind, that'd be great thanks :)

Now we'll just have to see if anyone takes up the challange of the unofficial POTM!

Dan

ofcourse they will... but probably in the end of the month... when the real christmas spirit comes up ^^

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi
Alright I'm a little late in closing this month, sorry :o

Also - no POTM for December because we're running other competitions later this month which need organising and I'd really like *some* Christmas :p

Apparently no POTM for January either as where halfway through it. Is this going to start up again or has it died?

It saddens me that I often sense an incongruity between the attention from mods/staff and users willingness to keep PotM running and on the beat.
I guess I simply just don't agree with the prioritizing of PotM and I believe contributing users are being put off that way.
And no I'm not very good at accepting it being run as a "friendly competition" where deadlines and administration is being run half-heartedly. Even though I applaud the presence of the institution of PotM.

Originally Posted by whisperwolf
Apparently no POTM for January either as where halfway through it. Is this going to start up again or has it died?

Died for now, I just don't have time. We've got a move to Dennis to organise and I've got more work on my plate than ever. I'm still sorting MOTY stuff and since Hiren left us to work a more general role within Dennis we've no person doing competitions to help any more.

If we do it again, we want to do it properly with proper prizes etc. Like you said - it started off as a friendly way to get people out an using their cameras and it's sort of turned away from that. I can't give it the attention it requires and if I'm brutally honest with my "business hat" on: I it doesn't bring traffic and it doesn't satisfy a hardware/game partner for content to the site either, which has to become a factor in spending my time on *anything*.

Although doing stuff for community benefits are always pushed as an investment in you guys (MOTY compo, hardware for modders, competitions in general, keeping the forums a nice place to live.. etc), but compared to hardware, games and modding, photography has not been a critical priority up until now. We're talking a dozen, maybe 20 hardcore people in this sub-forum versus well over 1M who read bit-tech a month.

However, given the fact we can in theory start reviewing cameras and equipment (Dennis owns these mags - we can freelance the pro-photopher/writers, or, even perhaps use you guys! Commissioning guides, Photoshop tutorials etc? what do you think??) it could be an opportunity to have a whole new section, with PROPER support.

There's no promises of anything - we're still in a "plan stage" for us Editorially and there are major decisions still to come.

I can understand your reasoning behind it, and especially with the change in publisher, they are probably wanting you all to be efficient and stuff >_>

It's a shame that POTM won't be on for the immediate future though as I was just starting to get into the swing of off camera lighting and hoped to make good use of it in near future POTM's.

I would definitely enjoy a new section of bit-tech reviews for photography, and I'm sure there would be more than a few willing forum members to go freelance reviewing

Dan

Originally Posted by DeMoB
I can understand your reasoning behind it, and especially with the change in publisher, they are probably wanting you all to be efficient and stuff >_>

LOL not really, I've just got more work to do because we've just had CES, CeBit is early march, IDF is in April and then Computex is in July. Plus "house move" sometime soon + new people to get to know and understand how a new company functions = lots to do :(

It's a shame that POTM won't be on for the immediate future though as I was just starting to get into the swing of off camera lighting and hoped to make good use of it in near future POTM's.

I would definitely enjoy a new section of bit-tech reviews for photography, and I'm sure there would be more than a few willing forum members to go freelance reviewing

Dan

Well, we've yet to get out of the planning stages for new stuff yet, but if people are interested to suggest features they want to see or contribute to, of course we're all ears. Surprisingly it's EASIER for me to put something on site + edit + fix pics because that's a half days content (time we budget for) than it is to manage POTM + do news post :| (that's "extra" and competes with other things like email, PRs, admin... etc)

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi
However, given the fact we can in theory start reviewing cameras and equipment (Dennis owns these mags - we can freelance the pro-photopher/writers, or, even perhaps use you guys! Commissioning guides, Photoshop tutorials etc? what do you think??) it could be an opportunity to have a whole new section, with PROPER support.

There's no promises of anything - we're still in a "plan stage" for us Editorially and there are major decisions still to come.

I would guesstimate there to be a 5-15% room for photography/photoshop on the site. I would of course love to see it no matter what. It sounds very interesting in my ears.
Just like the articles on building your own server etc. I think articles on getting started with photography and photoshop would be a great addition. Especially if they were themed around the needs of modders/product photographers et al.
I guess it really depends on how wide you wish to take the site. I think you guys have been doing an awesome job at being a modding and tech site so far. If you can stretch further then that would be cool but please don't compromise what you do best.

Wrt. PotM: Can't you hand over some of it? It would be my pleasure to keep the potm site ticking and keeping POTM threads running... I don't think anyone here is partaking for the sake of the prizes. We just want a theme of the month, a deadline and voting... Mention of the winner on the site is of course a great bonus in that it helps draw more people to participate.

Another vote from me to make the POTM "unofficial".

At least for me it wasn't about the prizes, but about the inspiration and fun. :)

Originally Posted by OleJ
I would guesstimate there to be a 5-15% room for photography/photoshop on the site. I would of course love to see it no matter what. It sounds very interesting in my ears.

We've been talking about making it official since.. ages ago, but were restricted by certain conditions. Now we're under Dennis which has a pro-photo division it could far more easily be applied - after all, we know from the reader survey last year that there's plenty of pro-sumers out there.

It's all working around the fixed factor of time, as always. For this and other ideas (video?/podcasts? for example) and more modding between all our other current commitments - something we have to work out.

I guess it really depends on how wide you wish to take the site. I think you guys have been doing an awesome job at being a modding and tech site so far. If you can stretch further then that would be cool but please don't compromise what you do best.

There are so many factors - site design to stand up to more content, organisation, funding etc. It's better to get 1 thing right, then 5 things half assed, but doing new things takes time to work out the kinks.

Wrt. PotM: Can't you hand over some of it? It would be my pleasure to keep the potm site ticking and keeping POTM threads running... I don't think anyone here is partaking for the sake of the prizes. We just want a theme of the month, a deadline and voting... Mention of the winner on the site is of course a great bonus in that it helps draw more people to participate.

Yea, sure. I'll speak to Nath about getting someone else admin'd on the POTM site and if you need new threads stickying just PM me.

Originally Posted by Smilodon
Another vote from me to make the POTM "unofficial".

At least for me it wasn't about the prizes, but about the inspiration and fun. :)

I agree with this

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi
It's better to get 1 thing right, then 5 things half assed, but doing new things takes time to work out the kinks.

Exactly! :)

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi
Yea, sure. I'll speak to Nath about getting someone else admin'd on the POTM site and if you need new threads stickying just PM me.

Cool. Thanks.

Originally Posted by OleJ

Cool. Thanks.

No promises this will be very soon - I haven't spoken to Nath in months, I'm not even sure if he frequents MSN any more even :o I have left him a message though.

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi
No promises this will be very soon - I haven't spoken to Nath in months, I'm not even sure if he frequents MSN any more even :o I have left him a message though.

Considering he posted this on December 10th I reckon he should be reachable :)

Originally Posted by Nath
The PotM site requires pretty much no effort to run, so if you want to use it for the unofficial competition then by all means go for it. :)

I have contacted Silver51 wrt the theme for February and if everything goes to plan I'll make the thread soon.

Cheers!