bigbuck wrote:
People are now picking up 25-30 votes for some pretty ordinary cut/paste work, and while this continues, there's probably not going to be much improvement in the overall quality of work on the site.
You said what I was thinking when this topic started.
I could be wrong, but I think what you said there is exactly one of the major causes.
But that's just thinking...
when I have to speak for myself; I've never been part of the 'old-school gang', even though I joined here in 2003. It's only in january 2008 that I got to know Photoshop, PSC and it's members and I noticed that in one year, a LOT has changed. Not only do I miss some very good choppers who chopped regulary, I also noticed that the quality of the daily chops have gone downhill in a serious matter.
I'm sorry if I offend someone by saying this, but I am including myself aswell here. I do like to chop, and I do like to participate from time to time, but I really can't find inspiration to put in some effort to chop something nice for PSC, even though I want to.
A year ago, things were different for me.. Before participating, I knew that if I wanted to score, I had to make something wow-like to get noticed.. these days, I often see chops in the top 5 which would get a handfull of votes in the past, if not a lot of comments on how to improve their chop.
And it was exactly that which worked as a stimulans for people to get better and better.
At the other hand, I'm glad there are still new people coming who give the best of themselves every day or every now and then to improve, to learn and to bring some quality to the contests. It's inspiring and hopefully I'll find that inspiration too again.
Let me explain it with a little story of me:
In real life, I play competition in a board-game (live and online)
I go to tournaments such as European Grand Prix and I participated in the World Championships in 2004.
Before I got there, I played every time with average players until I was at their level. I didn't improve, nore did they, because we reached the peek of our capabilities.
After I while, I moved on to another website and met people who played live in tournaments so they invited me to start practicing with them. So I did.. and after some weeks, I became better then the average group I used to play with.
And so on and so on until I reached a level in where I can compete with the best players out there.
My point is, and this used to be my golden rule when practicing the game: "Play with the best and become better then the rest".
Why am I saying this? Well, I see a lot of similarity and I do believe that when you compete with very good choppers every day, your skills will vastly improve because you want to 'compete' with them on an equal level and not being too much disadvantaged.
(These are just my thoughts on how I see it)
