I can only speak for myself but my lack of entering the contests comes down to a couple factors

1. I've been extremely busy at work lately. I'm writing entirely new software for the Crisis Intervention hotline and I have a deadline of mid-May. Last pay period I had 125 hours for two weeks and I think I forgot to record some time. I pop in to PSC for quick breaks. I'll check the forums (yep they've gone boring too) and to vote on the daily. It's either chop and be anti scocial or be somewhat social.
2. Lack of creative juices. I'm in another funk and this time I'm just waiting it out rather than trying to force it. When I force it I make chops that I don't even like.
3. The move. We're finally unpacked (except for my home office and a dumpster sounds like a good solution for that right now). The new house means a whole new routine and I just don't get a chance to chop at home anymore.

I dunno. Seems like PSC goes through phases and this is just one of them. I worry less about the number of entries and more about the personalities that don't come by much anymore coughReinMancoughSquarecoughQueenLaTiffcoughetcetcetccough

Hmmm...and where is her majesty the Queen been hiding, I wonder?

I just take whatever source is there, and make something out of it".. work on it until it's good. You can always incorporate other elements into a source to kick it up a notch"... the love of learning photoshop, art and design is the bottom line though! making friends and having a good laugh helps too"

Yes, hmm..learning .....that's one of the culprits for sure...I'd
say that has decreased greatly....well..at least sitting back and watching folks develop a talent and find new ways to do things has been greatly decreased.I also notice that the old shortcuts for making an image look good easily has become
not just overdone but is saturating the environment. Dark images and soft brushes to
throw a scene together ,looks good at a glance but not in comparison to
what the old schoolers used to do. Yeah, occasionally you still see awesome chops, but
in general there aren't that many trying to pull off exceptional chops, and there used to be many trying to do just that...everyday.

I wish I was here a year ago to see the good old days, but i just joined a little over a month ago.

I've looked at a lot of older chops, and I must say that they were of very high quality. Namely, many of them were often more creative and jumorous. Despite this, however, I don't think I can blame the sources for my lack of creative chops. Like mikey said, I can always use my favorite outside source as well in order to increase the quality of my entry.

I've learned a lot this last month. Especially about composition, color, and tools I rarely use. I've actually started getting the hang of pen tool, something I've tinkered with in the past but never quite mastered. Even though my chops probably don't seem very original to others, they are groundbreaking for me. Even though I've been a photoshop user for awhile, I've not used it regularly nor taken the time to learn all its ins and outs. So if you see me create an effect that has already been around, become popular, and died off, it's quite likely that's it's new to me.

Sure, I can't compete with anfa, ReyRey, Meaty, or others, but I'm having fun trying!

I agree. Unfortunately for you guys, my advantage ran out recently, and I have not renewed it. But I was noticing that the source picts lately look like fun to work with. I don't have time to chop anymore, and, therefore, can't keep up with my strenous pace of 36 posts a year. I will, however, keep mentoring the likes of Claf, 2rey and anfa. I encourage you guys to keep pming me for guidance and advice. As always, I'm there for you.

As well as i will still mentor you sage... don´t worry...

see...there's the community spirit some say was lacking.

I am not referring to any temporary slump that we'll get over in a couple weeks--
participation on this site has been at a steady decline--I sat back for months and just watched -- I did not participate in this site at all--
What did I see? I saw about twenty members who slap eachother on the back everyday, ignore the improprieties of their friends, ignore every new member who did not immediately jump onto the friendly voting and back slapping wagon and I watched
dozens after dozens of new members get ignored and give up--
except for all the ones from Brazil.
New members who made decent entries, who showed marked improvement in their work ,
who tried...would get five votes for an image equal to many of the top three images done by well known members.
I've watched a "majority" of active members settle on an easy to do style and get
a steady flow of votes for it, I've watched contest after contest where winning images were not clean and often looked un-finished.
I rarely voted but concentrated on welcoming new members and giving encouragement
through PMs and suggestions.
Their images had very few views and the PM's I got in return were usually along the lines of 'thanks for the welcome, the only other welcomes seemed to be asking for me to give votes to those who will vote for me in return'
Most of the people I have gotten to e-know on this site have given up over the last year,
and every single one of them gave up because of this stuff.
ALL of them loved/love this site and hate that they are not compfortable here any longer.

To put it briefly--I we can't have a site where the "Gumby Game"
can thrive
then...

*edit* OH! And if anyone has any knowledge at all what jmh can do to stop these
spam accounts --share the knowledge man!
To JMH,
Sir! In my humblest opinion, it would for now be a great boon to this site if the link in forums linking to the 'newest member's profile would just be ....gone.
I dunno about anyone else, but for me it is like having to step over dog dirt on the doorstep everytime I come in here, and if I were a new member, yeah,
I'd look at it like this place is a joke too.
Besides it certainly no longer serves the function of allowing people to se who's new, since the spam is always back up within minutes.

This is true!....

I'll be back posting again as soon as I finish with H2H .....maybe real soon

Come Wes,come people, it will be bloody as hell.... whatever the source, making gold from shit....multiplying breads (hem...no..;yet done).... (invert the emoticons'place)

I've been uninspired as of late. I saw this topic though and decided to make one, inspiration or no inspiration.

Got one in for Monday now, and I'm looking at the other sources to see what else I can enter.

I didn´t even know this button existed...

and hey... I was a newbie once... I got 7 votes for a very good late first entry... which as far as remember, yours was the second and Michel´s was the first, and I´m still here... so, my point is... hmmm... what were we discussing about? I kinda forgot...