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DBB

bluecherry74 wrote: »

If I'd know Jazz was so close to winning I'd have paid more attention.

Aw feck! I never copped that either! What a pity!:(
Congratulations to the winner, a lovely photo of a little dog whose personality shines through in the photo!
Well done to everyone who got through, it's great to see some of the regular posters here getting into the Final 15!
I think I was a little naive as a non-Facebook user though (yes... old fogey here). This competition wasn't so much about the photos, as being able to exploit Facebook and the "like" system to a great degree. There is a photo or two in the last 15 that seriously raised an eyebrow here: one has "X person photography" written on it (I kinda though professional photographs jarred against the spirit of the competition), and another went from about 50 likes on Tuesday evening to 500+ likes by Wednesday morning? Huh?
It's kinda put me off getting involved in something like this again tbh, because it meant that some more worthy and, well, honest photos (like Jazz) didn't get through.

Victor Meldrew moment ends.:o

FoxyVixen

The one you're refering to had a massive helping from the dog breed club on facebook Either that or they own the page as nothing was mentioned on my akita.

Irritating having competitions on "likes", it's just a popularity contest :rolleyes:

DBB

FoxyVixen wrote: »

The one you're refering to had a massive helping from the dog breed club on facebook Either that or they own the page as nothing was mentioned on my akita.

Irritating having competitions on "likes", it's just a popularity contest :rolleyes:

That's another thing that I spotted FoxyVixen, that one set of Akitas got so many likes, but yours got a "normal" amount of likes! I assumed the 500+ dodgy likes had been bought: I believe you can buy likes? Certainly, a huge amount of the likes in this case were from very, very far-flung sounding names.
It's all very... X Factor, isn't it?:D

Anyway, I didn't want to sound all bah-humbug, but at the same time I hate to see more worthy entrants getting pushed out in what seems to be an unfair way.
*mumble grumble*:o

Whispered

I didn't enter because a lot of FB comps go that way to be honest. Still, a nice gesture from DF.

tk123

Whispered wrote: »

I didn't enter because a lot of FB comps go that way to be honest. Still, a nice gesture from DF.

+1 great gesture but comes down to how many likes you can drum up! Another FB page I like was urging it's followers to vote for one of the finalists today too!

DBB

tk123 wrote: »

Another FB page I like was urging it's followers to vote for one of the finalists today too!

Surely everyone was doing that, no?
I think one brought it to new extremes though, it just seems unfair.
It all goes back to it being a Facebook-exploitation competition, not a photo competition, and whilst I've no problem people getting their followers to like, I'd hate to think that this may have been maximised by, erm, not entirely transparent means!

tk123

Well alls well that ends well - Nugget and some rescue dogs will be well fed!

DBB

+1
It's a super photo, and what a lovely gesture to donate half to a rescue, and to a great rescue too! Those dogs can look forward to a nyummy Christmas dinner :)

TooManyDogs

It can be a frustrating thing about it being a popularity contest but I suppose at the end of the day everyone wins, company gets promotion and winner gets some food. If you look at it as a marketing plan, which it really is, then the winner is who worked the hardest marketing it and got the most likes for the company, that makes me feel better

Oh and the fact that it was the charity that I volunteer for that will be benefiting, I was speaking to the winner today and she's so excited that so many will benefit from the hard work.

Rommie

Mind if i ask just what exactly it was that makes my housemates dogs unworthy of being in the calendar or winning some food? Especially when she did the exact same thing as the winner did which was reposting it. Yet no one has a problem with the fact that the winner did it? She was so delighted when she saw the winner was going to be donating some of the food that i hope she doesn't come on here and see what people are saying

DBB

Presumably that comment is aimed at me Rommie, as I'm the one who brought it up? I don't want this thread to go down in flames, perhaps this is a good opportunity for me to learn something!
It was noted throughout today's posts here that everyone was asking their followers/friends etc to like their photo... nothing wrong with it, and it pretty obvious that a couple of people did it exceptionally well. But in the case of the photo of the two Akitas (I assume that's what you're talking about anyway), I was utterly flummoxed by the fact that on Tuesday night, they had 50, maybe fewer, likes. Yet overnight, literally in the space of 10 hours, they had more than 500 likes. When I looked at the people who'd liked the pic, there were multitudes of names from people from very far-off countries, it seemed unlikely to me, perhaps wrongly, that they couldn't be genuine, and to me at least, it just looked dodgy. I believe that most people would think it dodgy, looking at it from a remove. But again, I am naive in matters Facebook, maybe this sort of thing is normal. But if this is normal, maybe that's why I don't use Facebook!
But, I am perfectly happy to concede what I've said if somebody convinces me that an overnight rush of 500 likes from distant names on a photo is legit and normal in this sort of situation. No matter what, no matter how people do things, like a lot of things today, it's not about the original content any more, it all comes down to a popularity contest.

Rommie

As far as i know a friend of hers runs an akita fan page so Im assuming it was posted there as she knows a lot of akita breeders and rescuers from the US and UK. I just think its unfair to assume she was doing something untoward to get likes and to say her dogs were unworthy of getting in the calendar

Probably lucky she didn't win or people might have thought she had paid people for votes or something

DBB

Rommie wrote: »

As far as i know a friend of hers runs an akita fan page so Im assuming it was posted there as she knows a lot of akita breeders and rescuers from the US and UK. I just think its unfair to assume she was doing something untoward to get likes and to say her dogs were unworthy of getting in the calendar

Probably lucky she didn't win or people might have thought she had paid people for votes or something

That's fair enough, and thank you for clarifying that.
If all is genuine, then nobody, myself included, would question the worthiness of a photo going into the calendar, or indeed winning outright!
My apologies that my inexperience of how these things work led me to come to the conclusion I did about your friend. I'm afraid that I didn't quite express myself as well as I might have liked in some of the things I said, I don't want to come across as being pissy about it at all:o! As already stated so eloquently by others here, it was a win-win for many parties, especially the rescue who benefited!

borderlinemeath

DBB wrote: »

That's fair enough, and thank you for clarifying that.
If all is genuine, then nobody, myself included, would question the worthiness of a photo going into the calendar, or indeed winning outright!
My apologies that my inexperience of how these things work led me to come to the conclusion I did about your friend. I'm afraid that I didn't quite express myself as well as I might have liked in some of the things I said, I don't want to come across as being pissy about it at all:o! As already stated so eloquently by others here, it was a win-win for many parties, especially the rescue who benefited!

Missed most of this debate here yesterday, just wanted to add my 2 cents.

At the end of the day these type of things usually end up as either the best genuine photo wins OR the person who has the ability to 'reach' a large amount of people through facebook. This is done by either having a very large amount of 'facebook' friends or by being part of a club/association that will actively canvass it's members on their behalf. I use facebook sparingly compared to some people I know, I have relatively few friends on it compared to most and I only tend to 'like' pages if I actually do like them.

I do understand what you're saying DBB, the photo of the Akitas literally went from 50 odd votes to 500 in a relatively short space of time. Just underneath the photo you will see how many 'shares' it got. The owner can post the photo on their page and ask their friends to both 'like' and 'share' the photo, so not only do their friends like it, but they also shared it well over a hundred times so it 'reached' a hell of a lot of people who may not have ever known what an akita was! If you look at mine it was only shared 6 times:o, I shared it with my friends and the like minded ones shared it on their pages.

At the end of the day it did what it was meant to do, generate publicity for dogs first. But I suppose it's our version of a 'bonny baby' competition so we do feel quite strongly that ours are worthy of winning:D. Unfortunately with the likes of facebook you have to work at it!

Edit, What I thought was the best photo of the finalists was the pointer on the lake with the ducks taking off. It was an amazing shot of a beautiful gundog doing what he does best and it would be worthy of any calender or publication.

bluecherry74

I agree it can look dodgy when one or two entries get miles ahead in a contest like this, but that's just how Facebook works. It's all about using your network to get as many votes as possible. If a page with a lot of followers (such as a breed club in this case) promotes an entry then it's entirely feasible that it could get hundreds of votes from all over the world in a short space of time. It seems unfair, but that's how it's supposed to work.

It's also possible to fix a contest and buy votes, but I don't think that was the case here.

I don't use Facebook much either so realistically I knew I wasn't going to win. I'll just have to start buying Bakers now.

borderlinemeath wrote: »

Edit, What I thought was the best photo of the finalists was the pointer on the lake with the ducks taking off. It was an amazing shot of a beautiful gundog doing what he does best and it would be worthy of any calender or publication.

I loved that photo too! Did you read the owner's comment underneath the photo? It made me love it even more:

Ah Victor if you only knew, she was actually going into the water to eat the bread we thew out to the ducks! lol!