Tapeworm, thanks for posting that...I've been feeling pretty discouraged, too. I don't mind if people vote for friends, or even if they vote for a post that could be considered somewhat sub-par. I'm less concerned with folks vote for than who they DON'T vote for--it seems people stop voting altogether a few hours into each contest. Contests are supposed to be 3 days, but if you haven't posted by midway through the first day, it will really take something great to even get into double-digit votes.

For what it's worth, I was really excited to post my 10th entry, just so I could vote for all the great work everyone else does. But I'm realizing that a lot of people aren't really doing that much voting, or at least not for anyone outside the top-tier of choppers.

Look, I understand that being an Advantage member would fix a lot of this...I know, Advantage is good. But I'm not looking towin a contest or get 40 votes per post. If you do good work, you should still be able to get a decent number of votes and compliments even without Advantage.

Sorry...I know I'm venting a bit, and I'm certainly not making this a "Woe is me, my work is s underappreciated" comment. I know I'm not that great. But there really are a lot of excellent entries from the latecomers, and I wish people would take a closer look at them.

TWP...

I see how people tend to vote for their friends...the old "Give me a vote and I'll give you a vote" schtick.... I personally try to vote for contests where I have an entry.. and the maximum number of votes on a single entry I have done was 34. I know a lot of this has to do with me not being an Advantage member and the position my post is in when it is entered... most of it also has to do with my skill level and amount of improvement shown shince I have begun posting on this site. I try not to cry too much when I don't get the amount of votes I expect on an entry, but when I do get 20 votes or more.. I feel pretty good. I hope this helps..

...if not...Try psychotherapy--don't work for me, but I now view my mom in a different light.

I happened to stumble across this site in February, the same topic has been in the forum. To some of you, I am still new to this site and some of you might recognize my name. For one main reason I keep putting it in your face. I try to have two entries in every day. When I first started I had a lot of people vote for me. Just because I was a newbie, and I tank those people. When you first join the site and you actually get recognition for something you did, that brought pleasure to you and you were able to share that with somebody else, it gives you a pretty good feeling. Of course there are patterns to the way people vote. It's no different than what radio station you listen to or what television show you like when you see a style of art that appeals to you. You will be drawn to it. It may look like favoritism to someone else but to you. You're just voting for what you like. A lot of people act as if votes are gold bars. You have to understand, this is all for pleasure, if you find something that makes you smile a little bit or makes you think, vote for it. from what I can tell, there's over 500 people that visit this site. In no way shape or form, are there that many votes given out at any contest. are people saving them up for a special day. I agree with everybody else. It is very discouraging when you really try hard and you don't break double digits. But that hasn't stopped me and it shouldn't stop you keep putting them in. Keep getting them knocked down eventually, you will hit a good one. as for the topic of how people vote let it die! If you don't like the way people vote, changed the way you vote.
Thank you for your time.

I understand the point, but really, it gets pretty masturbatory to keep posting things that very few people ever see or seem to care about. All of us could just send chops to friends and family, who would unfailingly call it the greatest thing they've ever seen. But we're supposed to be sharing with our peers, and the 'why bother?' factor creeps in when you're tap-dancing to an empty house.

I agree with what you're saying that's one reason why my past two entries are as bad as they are my computer was down for 12 hours. When I finally got it to work. All I can think about was get the entries in before it's too late, and nobody will see it myself. I go back and look for entries I have missed until the contest is over.

[quote="Feral Hamster"]
The whole damn thing is masturbatory whether you get votes or not.
WELCOME TO PSC LEN!
Wait till you've put in at least a year and your still mediocre. *sigh*
Keep enjoying it for whatever made it fun the first day
you ever posted and you'll be happy-
only other option--chop till you
know how to chop
G'd Luck.

I find that to be great advice.

SciionShade is correct- You came here for a reason, and I bet most of you "newbies" (and remember us Oldies were once Newbies, like, a year ago!) didn't join up just to see if you could get the highest votes. If you did you are probably ready for that stomach ulcer medicine by now!

This is, in the end, a site set up to encourage creativety (and not speling) and it has a semi-competitive system that uses votes to (kind of) track how well you are doing in the creativety thang. Are you CHOPPING better now than a month ago? Maybe a few more votes? WAS IT FUN DOING THE DAMN CHOP? Did you LEARN anything by seeing what a nasty old OLDIE posted today? Did maybe an OLDIE answer your PM to them about HOW THEY DID THAT CRAZY SKIN DISEASE POST? DID you have a laugh at someone's post in an otherwise POINTLESS thread?

These are all bits of PSC world. But if you take it too seriously, and if you are too IMPATIENT to find the flow here, you will NOT HAVE FUN. And then you are sadly missing out on one of the funkier websites the internet has to offer.

So, I do sympathize with you newer dudes and dudettes - I was there once myself (check out my frickin portfolio - man there are some STINKERS inthere! ) And I had ZERO friends at the beginning and also a few 'enemies'. But I hung in and I played as fair as I could and helped people and tried to create laugh when I could. Now, at least, I don't have any enemies!

You can do it too! (HINT: get naked and take pictures of yourself playing a dangerous squeezing musical instrument - it will confuse your enemies and give smiles to the ladies! )

Okay.... ENOUGH TALKING! LET'S CHOP CHOP CHOP PEOPLE!!!!

I've posted under two aliases and won contests the first or second contests that I entered. Didn't tell a single person who I was, yet won anyway.

My point? If your image is good enough you'll win, regardless of whether you are a newbie or not.

Problem is that newbies don't know what wins, so they think the voting is unfair. They see a cool MC Escher chop and say "Man, this should win!", when in reality, the MC Escher idea has been done so many times, that nobody votes for it anymore.

spot on i agree this is madness, i'm not bigging myself up but i think im pretty good, and i am finding it uber difficult to get justified amount of votes, especially since i work my ass off to get the high standard quickly as soon as the new picks are up.

marcoballist

check my pics to see what i mean

i disagree chopper, hey you say you won, fair enough lucky you and well done, but i feel like im being screwed, i mean some of my pics, 100 views 3 votes??? what the hell, i dont expect everyone to vote, but come on at least leave a commet we are all here to learn and have fun.

"we are all here to learn and have fun."

That is a key issue that many would debate on. My experience here is that SOME people are here to learn, almost ALL are here to get happy when they get votes and sad when they don't. SOME people are having fun just chopping, but definately not ALL!

The BIGGEST LESSON YOU CAN LEARN HERE (if you want to - 'cause learning IS optional in Life) is to HAVE FUN DOING WHATEVER YOU'VE CHOSEN TO DO!

If you've spent 5 minutes or 5 hours on a chop, I REALLY REALLY hope you had fun doing it! 'Cause if you just did it to get happy pats on the head (votes) then that IS SO SAD!

This is an IMPORTANT LESSON, folks. You all got LIMITED TIME here - don't waste it doing stuff that DOESN'T MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD JUST DOING IT! In the end, NO ONE might appreciate what you've spent your time on - BUT YOU SHOULD!

Oh, and don't foget to smell those frickin roses every now and again - even if you are a man!

I vote...for good chops, bad chops, chops that made me laugh, technical chops, dumb chops, shitty chops, black and white chops, MCEscher chops, cliches, puns, off the wall chops, heroic, simpson, Jacko chops, girls in chops, girls in bikinis, and some mandrills...

...to be continued.

I disagree. Yes many jobs here are undervoted cause some people don't care to vote, but mostly jobs with a lot of votes a really good too. I always leave some votes for fresh people who just came to psc and even they didn't do perfect they deserve more than 0 cause at least they spent some time working. Also more time I spend in contest, more I see I don't know as much as I thought when I came here and more I learn from the others.

And also I think -abouth those views- they count your own enters too. So every time you look at your job of edit it- it's plus 1 view.