I see the pattern.
I just don't think it's Paola's fault. She's friendly, that's just her personality, which I appreciate.
About her voting on bad chops, is a matter of taste. Either you vote being very critical, or you vote to try to stimulate or you just like art, in any form.
If Paola gets too many votes from people she voted on, it's the ones who vote on Paola's chops who need to be held responsible for her wins, even when she wasn't the best in a contest.

I can tell you that when I started chopping here, I was very sensitive for votes and after getting votes over and over from the same person, I would almost feel guilty if I didn't vote back. I think that goes for a lot of people here, which starts innocent, but ends up in a routine.
When your eye isn't trained yet for PS, and Mr. or Mrs. X haves 25 votes in a open contest, standing spot 1 or 2, you feel obligated to vote, because you think it HAS to be good if so many people vote for it.
To be honest, it took me a while to break trough that habit.

When it comes to Marco... you have to admit (in all honesty), the guy could chop.
He didn't always bring the best work, but hell, if he puts all his time in a chop, he would blow away a lot of competitors. (even in anonymous)

The difference with Marco and Paola, is that Marco would push you to vote (by pm if he had to).
By pushing I mean that he would keep an eye on who voted for him and who didn't. After a while, he would sometimes message you to ask why you didn't vote for him. Paola doesn't really seems to care if she wins or not. I've never had a message from Paola in any way like that.
So therefor I don't really think Marco and Paola can be compared. Paola is just being her friendly self... it's the voters who need a different perspective.

I also blame it on lack of commenting. Chops aren't discussed enough. Name-calling is being avoided and good chops get good credits, but bad chops get nothing, while it's the bad chops that could use a little help.
But, I'm also guilty when it comes to that. I commented on a lot of chops some weeks ago, and got (pm) my nose bitten off a couple of times, so I'm more carefull now.
Also, I'm not a top notch chopper, therefor I don't feel my judgement on a chop is worth any advice.
When I started chopping here, I basicly learned a lot from comments on my chops. I still do.
You for example, Arcaico. You can chop on a pretty high level. You could do so much more for this community if you would help people. It takes some time, patience, but imagine not just you, but 10 great choppers took the initiative, do you have any idea what kind of influence this gets in the long run? I think it would have a great outcome.


Tell me if I'm wrong though, maybe I'm seeing things wrong here. I'm - still - pretty naive

A couple of friendly reminders:
- do not discuss active contests in forums and chat
- publishing your active contest entries (a.k.a. vote whoring) is frowned upon

Other advice to Marx-Man... and said it with my chop!

It would be smarter not to respond, but I cannot resist!

@ Arc:
No offence?
Of course not, I love it when people burn me down in public while I sleep. Who wouldn’t?
First thing what took my attention where you numbers.
Check her latest anonymous prize contest entries:
1. 6th 22 votes
2. 8th 17 votes
3. 14th 16 votes
4. 18th 14 votes
5. 7th 18 votes

And compared with her latest non-anonymous no prize entries:
1. 2nd 22 votes
2. 1st 23 votes
3. 3rd 28 votes
4. 9th 12 votes
5. 5th 26 votes

Where is the list of anonymous NON PRIZE contest. Not convenient enough for your conspiracy theory? Cause I won quite a few?
103 wins out of 1596 is winning contest after contest? Hmmm… your mat sucks big time my friend.
And yes, I like to vote! I can do with my 25 votes whatever I please. For me voting is like saying: Good for you! Go on, go on!
Am I angry? Nope, I rather chop than wasting my time for anger. But I have to thank you anyway, for all your time and attention, I assume.

@ Kinetic:
First this... if I ask Arc for help, he will help me out.
There was once a couple of chop wizards, like a kind of help forum. Bringing new life in the PSC Wizards’ Forum would be great.
If I say I don’t like getting votes, it would be a lie. It’s great if people like your images, but a nice comment does the same. Most of all… I love to chop, I’m a real chopaholic! So you are right… I don’t give a damn on winning or not.

@ All:
Well… this shit happens when you win some contests. Before I ‘enjoyed’ PSC the same happened to me on another site after 5 chops!!! I’m not the first and I won’t be the last, that’s for sure.
So… think twice before you make a great chop!
But most of all: have fun with Photoshop, nobody can take that away from you.
Time to say: STFUAC!

This pretty much proves my point. If you had 0 votes for like... what... 20 entries... and in your 21st entry you had like... 2 votes.... you'd know you ACTUALLY improved. Now, if ya get a bunch of votes for any piece of crao you do, you'd keep doing the same shit, cause you'd still be getting votes, no matter what.



I beg to differ. Marco could work for days on an entry, and Rey or Claf would still crush him with 20 minutes chops...



Just because you don't see it, doesn't mean it doesn't happen.



You are wrong. But I wouldn't call it naive. I'd call it stupid. No offense though.

we never resist...



Apparently, not even Charlie Sheen would. http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/roast-charlie-sheen/index.jhtml



Oh puh-leeeease... even marx-man would win regular anonimous contests... nobody except you and noobs post for non-prize anonimous anymore cause they're plain boring!!! You get to see only your votes and wait for 3 whole days to find out you placed 5th, or 6th, or whatever and to find out that entry that you think sucked pretty hard was on top, even though it was a ripoff from an ad... but how would you know it... you can't see the comments on it... where's the excitement to see you're getting close to the top3 midway... where is the excitement to see what people are talking about the other entries... which are the favorite chops in the contests? It's PLAIN BORING!!!! I think the only thing that should be anonimous at PSC are the names... who chopped, who voted, who commented... hide that and we'll have excitement back... and not only for some contests... do that for all... just like it used to be... you can see the most voted entries, and after three days you can see who posted what, without missing the vote race... you can save your vote for pushing yer favorite entry forward... you can point that flaw that hurts your eye and noobs won't ever realize until someone actually points it... THAT was fun!


correct... and that's exactly why the voting system is totally fucked up. Noobs act just like kinect... they feel guilty if they don't vote back. You do whatever you please with your votes, but remember... a wise man once said... with great powers comes great responsability.


That wise man is a rice brand today... not sure what's the point behind that though...



"Go on... go on... keep doing the same crap you do cause I'll keep voting for it."

Seems pointless to me... votes are supposed to mean recognition. Recognition depends on merit. A good chopper might feel good about your vote, but then see you voted for a piece of crap and figure you vote for anything. The recognition becomes deception.

In the other hand, the crappy chopper will see you voted for a good entry, and will think your vote was a recognition for his "great" chop... even though it's not.

But the votes will keep coming for you... cause guilt is a bitch. They HAVE to vote for you. You might stop voting for them if they don't. And they like getting votes.

Throwing votes away end up bringing three things:

1. Deception from good choppers that feel their entries are as worth as a piece of crap;

2. Illusion for crappy chopper that they're doing something good;

3. Votes thrown back at you.

It's a lose-lose-win situation... And in the end, the only one who benefits from your voting pattern, is you.

Last Poster.. Agreed, I said this in a 3 year old topic/diff words/ same meaning. I just don't understand the obsession with the word chop. who came up with that anyway?
But agreed...

I think I heard these unwritten rules somewhere before.

Welcome to Photoshop Contest. The first rule of Photoshop Contest is: you do not talk about Photoshop Contest. The second rule of Photoshop Contest is: you DO NOT talk about Photoshop Contest! Third rule of Photoshop Contest: someone yells "stop!", goes limp, taps out, the contest is over. Fourth rule: only two entries to a contest. Fifth rule: one user at a time, fellas. Sixth rule: No shirts, no shoes. Seventh rule: Chops will go on as long as they have to. And the eighth and final rule: if this is your first time at Photoshop Contests, you have to chop.

Agreed with what Arc said:


Oh puh-leeeease... even marx-man would win regular anonimous contests... nobody except you and noobs post for non-prize anonimous anymore cause they're plain boring!!! You get to see only your votes and wait for 3 whole days to find out you placed 5th, or 6th, or whatever and to find out that entry that you think sucked pretty hard was on top, even though it was a ripoff from an ad... but how would you know it... you can't see the comments on it... where's the excitement to see you're getting close to the top3 midway... where is the excitement to see what people are talking about the other entries... which are the favorite chops in the contests? It's PLAIN BORING!!!! I think the only thing that should be anonimous at PSC are the names... who chopped, who voted, who commented... hide that and we'll have excitement back... and not only for some contests... do that for all... just like it used to be... you can see the most voted entries, and after three days you can see who posted what, without missing the vote race... you can save your vote for pushing yer favorite entry forward... you can point that flaw that hurts your eye and noobs won't ever realize until someone actually points it... THAT was fun!

Ouch man, unwritten rules are as good as the paper they are printed on, no need to get the ban hammer out about images made with skill in a popularity contest anyway

Not to throw a spanner in the works or anything I mean I love the Drama Llama as much as the next retarded monkey who puts his hand in poop, but if it's not written down don't act on it. That's pretty much how any regulating body works which is why Vogons are such a parody of the administration bureaucracy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENgdM87Cqjg
"They can't think, they can't imagine, most of them can't even spell, they just run things."

Besides the point, the contest is open and public, who is to say other choppers don't talk about their work outside the forum? After all non anonymity helps promote PSC and you can only vote by joining so actually it's counter intuitive to the forum as a business.

But that doesn't help "Vote whoring"
Which is a term invented for a popularity contest and as Arc is adept at putting, anonymity is a solution, I would agree that but also write down the flecking no discussion rule especially before acting on it because it puts a giant floater on the heads of the members when you enforce something that isn't written and is a kin to Making stuff up, or Selling your mum for a trip to Disney (and not even the good Disney, the French Disney).

At the end of today the image that was removed is in a free, open, unanonymous, popularity style, tit for tat voting system, contest for a few days but the 7 page tutorial and follow up tutorial video that Marx-man had created is now deleted

It was deleted on a point of principle. Because who is to say that unwritten rules can't be made up on the spot?
And who is to say there isn't a war and peace length fictional book (Akin to the hitch-hikers guide including Stephen Fry like narration)

Enjoy your unwritten rules at least I got to see the tutorial.

this has been discussed and in the works for some time around the mods/devs, so be patient, just a little more

@ Arcaico, It's oké, Arc. We just have different opinions. But I really think you underestimate the fact that most people wish to learn and improve themselfs.

@ Kinetic, please start this game again on a new thread. Arc has ruined it totally!

That's all folks! Time for ScavHunt!

I agree with Arc.

That, and these damned signature images that take up way too much real estate on my screen are out of control.

Fix said issues, please.

Thanks.

You not in the scav hunt this year I take it then ????