cool idea!
could also be determined by your Vote Per Post number

You can let people estimate their own abilities to decide whether they want to claim 'expert' PS skills. Or add a panel of expert mods to weed-off obviously flawed entries. Or have a mandatory 3-wins-in-the-rookie-contests requirement to join the big guns.

I dunno, but isn't this idea of this site based on the concept that everybody is handled equally, no matter what their expertise is?

That's why I joined here and not somewhere else

it was just a suggestion on a once a week or once a month contest, and not for every single one

OK, I agree. Don't limit participation in the Weekly Expert Contest. Give it a separate page (sandbox, playground, whatever, much like the H2H)

Of course that will open the whole can of worms of how to handle votes (will they count toward the general vote count), stats, etc.

Better yet, scrap the whole idea and keep doing what you're doing.

YEAH! If it ain't fixed, don't break it!
wait! what?

Translation: "Scion yer all talk".....Indeed, beat my best score and give me something to shoot for. Excuse my patience for waiting till you name buddies all disappear for awhile and the rest can get back to bizness.

The Contests definitely shouldn't split up, when I joined, it was great competing with these amazing choppers. And when I would beat out a veterans chop with mine, I would be so psyched. And when I finally won, it was amazing; I was fifteen, and I had beat these amazing graphic designers. You aren't gonna have to work nearly as hard if you're competing against all newbies.

An Anonymous contest once a week would be nice.
But we should definitely, even if its just once a month, have a NO ADVANTAGE contest, where you chop starting at 8:00.

There: That's IT!

My TWO main points said clearly and simply.

What would happen if at the beginning of the year (2008) all stat's were saved. then everyone starts at zero votes, zero entries. starting Jan 1st. ~ that would be very interesting! if everyone's closet was cleaned people would be humbled and start off as equals. they would still have the old stat's but they would be saved and stored somewhere else. ~ just an idea" and yes I have been taking my meds!

Noooooooooooo I don't like the number 0

oh, Marco, you shouldn't worry.... it would be a race for you and few select others to get to 1000 pretty fast I'm thinking!

If we are going to elitism, contests based on VPP and or rankings, then please REFUND my advantage money and I will give it to the person who purchased it for me. I want NO part of elitist photoshop. There are places on the web now that do this and are not fun nice or friendly.

This is not what I signed up for. And its wrong to change the guidelines to suit some. Anon entires are fine, anon voting is fine but limiting who gets to do certain things here Is NOT FINE.

And even if you did that once a week.. that is 52 contests a year and makes for 2 months of an other wise normal contest i could enter that I would be barred from. So the SITE would OWE me 2 months of Advantage money.

The Anonymous feature Splodge wants already exists in one form in Grefix's PSC QuickBar. I don't know whether he still has it available for download? Anyway, with "Anonymous On," the names still show up under the thumbnails, but once you click on the first thumbnail (in DEFAULT order), and keep clicking "next entry" or "previous entry," the names and avatars are blocked on each image's entry page.

What is lacking is the option, suggested by TutorMe, of making your own image anonymous (author, not votes) for everyone else's view. I do think it could work, mixing the two in one contest, provided the anonymous author did not give him- or herself away before the contest conclusion. If you care about authorship and you're suspicious of who it might be, then don't vote for it. Or vote for that great unknown.

I would be in favor of keeping people from voting in vote order... Maybe the sort-by-votes view could require the forfeit of any unused votes? But that's another issue and suggestion for another thread... As is the idea for tiered contests (including ones for beginners only, not just ones for "experts" only). Never mind that ANY pay-for-membership IS "elitist" and the privileges of "Advantage" make it aptly named... By the way, anyone hear from Chopper?

I think Blue Lurker and a few others who do not want to enter prize contests will like this idea: Have the first two or three weeks of the Advantage calendar locked against new prize contests, and only allow new sponsoring of the last week or two. So many times I've seen people bummed out that they pre-posted in a contest that was later turned into an anonymous prize contest. Why some people do not like prize contests is yet another whole thread or dozen. Point is, they wind up competing in a different style contest than they thought when they pre-posted, and I don't think that's fair. Again, fodder for another thread...

Anonymous contests... love them or hate them, and can anonymous entries coexist in the same contest as non-anon? Do go on...