You know, I thought the Reunion was a great idea. We'd have twice as many entries in the contest, and there'd be twice as many votes spread around, and twice as many comments, and there'd be all sorts of cross-pollenation, and we would all be better choppers for the experience.

That's not the way it happened, though, is it? It seems to have been a day of old friends voting for one another and ignoring posts by the newer members.

Remember when I asked whether the old members wanted the new ones to stay on the sidelines so they could have the spotlight? (And got flamed for it?) If somebody had just said, "don't bother entering, we want to have strictly old members participate that day," I would have been fine with that. I would have saved myself hours of chopping and a day of confusion and disappointment. As it stands, I feel like the world's biggest ass for believing my post would stand a fair chance against the others.

And Holly--if I thought that were true, I'd be satisfied. Yesterday proves that it isn't.

Incidentally, anybody who is not interested in how they fare in the voting (despite the site being called photoshopcontest.com), please let me know and I will discontinue voting for your posts.

Just remember:

Forum threads = suburbs

Chat threads = Da Hood.

I kid. Much luv.

BTW, Cynn....you're wicked overreacting. Half the people I voted for...I'm not even sure I like.

If people didn't like your post compared to others...oh well.

I can confirm the authenticity of Bluefist's last remark!

I've always liked ED.

Whether he liked it or not.

yeah Cynn you have a point about yesterday...but yesterday wasn't the norm around here..i thought your post was good..but to be honest there were so many good posts it was almost a joke trying to decide which were the best..all yesterday did for me was inspire me to work harder...and as a result my posts from now on will be better than they would have been-the fact is,you never know what people are going to like on any given day..we all know sometimes entries get more or less votes than they should..but in the end it's about mutual respect and comeraderie(did i spell that correctly?)..not "being the best" everyday..or even most days..or for some of us..any days at all..i never think" i'm gonna win today"... when i see i have some votes i feel encouraged to go on and work harder..that's what the votes and comments do for me..i would hate for them to become so important to me that i lost sight of what i was doing this for in the first place

Yep Cynn... you're over-reacting. I truly believe you are. I understand your disapointment, but that contest wasn't a friend voting contest as you seem to think it was. I don't spend my days here, I've posted only 20 pics, I don't even have adantages and my post did fairly well... And BTW you can't say the CREW didn't have anything else to vote for. There were plenty of amazing post and we only had 25 votes each, that's why some posts have been undervoted like yours. Take a deep breath and stop hallucinating exclusions and conspiracy. My 2 cents...

He's right. His post kicked ass...and he hardly knows anybody.

One more thing... since I'm one of the "old-timers" you're referring to and will be hitting the road again once this contest ends, I just want to ask one question: Since when does anyone owe you votes?!? You might not be stating it that directly, but that's what it comes down to. The idea of complaining that your post was unfairly ignored or stating that you "got robbed" is absolute bullshit. I've posted more than a couple pics here and quite a few bombed for one reason or another, but it never even occurred to me that it was the fault of the voters. To do so demonstrates a level of arrogance I can't comprehend.
As far as voting for friends, I can honestly say that I did throw a few votes to posts that maybe weren't a good as some of the others, but I wanted to give a small salute to some people who have made a difference here at PSC in one way or another over the years. It probably only accounted for 2 or 3 votes, but they are my votes to distribute as I please. If you don't like it, tough shit. The rest of the votes went to posts that I felt truly deserved them, regardless of newbie/old-timer status. I still have 6 votes available that I intend to distribute on the last day of voting, and I'm going to have a really hard time giving them to anyone who has spent the past couple days whining that everything is so unfair. Again, if you don't like it... tough shit. As I've stated in the past, to me a vote is nothing more than a compliment, and tell me the last time you felt compelled to compliment someone that practically demands that you do so.
Unlike some people who are still frequent posters here, I have the liberty of speaking my mind without having to deal with the backlash. This reunion idea was great, and I thank everyone involved. It was fun competing again and bumping into some old friends. It also served as a reminder of the petty griping that has plagued this site since the early days, and will probably continue for a long time. The site is what it is. Either deal with the perceived unfairness or pack your things and go, because, believe me... things ain't gonna change.
Now feel free to bash me in any way you please. I've said me peace and honestly don't care about whatever insult you might choose to throw my way.

Great comments, holly

Cynn, I haven't voted yet, except for one VERY late entry by Ed (who I don't know), cos he was sitting at 1 vote, even though, IMHO, his entry was fantastic.

When I DO vote, I will vote for what I like, not who I like. I don't even know most of the old-timers, since I only joined in August. If I don't vote for you, don't take it personally. It'll just be cos I don't think it's in the top 25.

The same people who would claim that this is a favouritism site would shout the same thing every time Deshone or Metalic win a contest, but look where they are in this contest. I think that kinda proves that favouritism is not an issue here.

I can imagine some biased friend votes changing a total by maybe 3 or 4 votes, but 70-something??

ED rulz.

I have to second Blue on that...........excellent post Alex. Yours was one of my favorites!
I don't know how long you've been here, but ....WELCOME


VW
Wesley

To those who have constructive things to say, thanks, I appreciate it.

To those who just want to pile on me, go for it. I'm here because my feelings were hurt, hurting them some more isn't going to make a significant difference.

I think I am beginning to understand why there are so many good choppers who used to post here, but don't any more. And I now have some insight into the downward spiral in quality that people often complain about. So it's not a total loss.

The Alex post rules mightily

I think in this contest, the keys were to do extensive and really obvious (non-subtle) manipulation, with few to no mistakes/flaws, and an obvious strong effort. The extra touches such as a really cool "oh that is impressive" feel to a pic or telling a story or nailing the right chord with some humor or just a special higher level of execution all helped to boost certain pics. It's actually like this most every day, but just at a magnified level for this contest. In short, to get the big votes in the reunion contest, you had to bring your freaking A game as hard and as deep as you could. The people who really honestly did do this are generally up near the top I think. Even some of my personal faves aren't way way up there (i.e. MoZub). It was just so hard. I am completely honored to be where I am. I knew my streak had a monster likelyhood of being over when I entered and I was right, but I don't regret it at all. It's something really sweet to be a part of and to post among my heroes from the past and present. I'm still proud of my work and even more proud of many choppers who brought game I may not have even known they had. I could have conceivably spent 40 votes on this contest, and that has never happened before. A very special day. Thanks to all who helped make it sooooo good.

Like Ed I'm one of the old timers who will pack up and leave after the contest closes. In which case I should probably STFU and just go but I feel Cynn's remarks call for a response.

I came back to post because it seemed like a great deal of fun and a chance to see how many of us old guys might show up. It certainly wasn't to put down any members or to try and show up anyone at this site, newbie or not. There were only a handful of people who posted that I knew. I distributed my votes based on my judgement of the best chops.

Starting with originality of idea, complexity of the work attempted and the execution of the entire chop. PS skills count high to me and that doesn't mean the knowledge of the program and heavy use of filters or actions. It's the artistic ability to use even the simple tools with some expertise. Most of my votes, including one that I gave yours, were for images created by people I've never heard of but showed those qualities in some form

I received the highest vote total I've ever had on this site and I doubt that most of those voters ever heard of me. I'd like to think I did a decent chop even though I personally wouldn't rate it high in the creativity area.

Kind of a shame that an event which I expected to be fun for everyone has become a bit sullied.

Unfortunately some things never change.