+PSP - Ending contests

THE ENDING OF THE BIRTHDAY CONTESTS

Pluspsp has no funds and no income, and Co-ordinators are promised that being a Co-ordinator will never involve them in any expense, so we cannot buy prizes. Each year a Co-ordinator took on the job of being prize gatherer. This meant approaching publishers, software designers, those who sell filters and so on, begging for prizes, and when the contest was over getting the prizes to the winners.

It became increasingly difficult to get people to pledge prizes when all we can offer in return is a listing in our Sponsors Page. Also, it became hard to get those who promised prizes to honour their promise when the contest was over. In 2005 some donors had to be approached several times before we got any response, and some gave a download when they had promised a boxed copy. Understandably there was discontent among some of the winners who thought we were trying to cheat them. Eventually all the prizes reached the winners but the affair damaged our reputation.

In 2004 two parcels went astray in the post on the way to the winners. One was to the Grand Prix winner so it included the most expensive prizes - the major prize and a category first prize. We could not ask the donors to replace them and the cost was far more than any one of us could afford, so we had to break our promise to Co-ordinators and ask them for contributions. We were very lucky because they all agreed and the winners got their prizes. It is hardly surprising that we never had a Co-ordinator willing to be prize gatherer more than once.

When a contest was running, two co-ordinators were taken up pretty much full time from early October to Christmas with receiving the entries, checking that they conform with the rules, posting them in galleries, organizing the voting and any tie break votes. Very few entrants read the rules and stuck to them, so there was a great deal of correspondence with entrants. (Examples - people including their copyright mark in images, when there should be no way of identifying a creator. We provided a header to the entry email and said this must not be changed because our mail filters used it to direct entries to the appropriate mailboxes. People added their own name, changed the case of the text, or completely rewrote it - their entry went astray.)

We decided that we could not go on with this because of the pressure on Co-ordinators and the damage to our reputation, and that 2005's must be our last major contest. We still have the Challenge and the Monthly Star Gallery awards for JFF and for general images, and we shall have occasional contests for things like banners when the prize is that the winning image will be used on the site, but no more expensive prize contests. We hope you will understand and support our decision.

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