The VBPC Online Competition is..... well.... it's ONLINE!!!
After 1.5 million lines of code, over 200 quarts of Jolt cola, and enough potato chips to kill an elephant, I am proud to announce the VBPC Online competition is ready for testing! OK, I don't know about all that other stuff, but the software is indeed ready for testing. Ultimately, I would like to start running competitions online much like we used to do at the meetings. You will be able to submit pictures in three categories--color, b&w, and alternative. Read more
There will be a period of time, called the "Upload Window", in which you will be able to upload your submissions. Generally, this will be about five days long. After the Upload Window closes, then the Voting Window will open, again, for about five days. During this time, you will be able to see all of the images that have been uploaded and you will be able to place your choice for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in each category. Finally, after the Voting window has closed, the software will present the winners, based on the same scoring scheme that we used to use (three points for each first place vote, two points for each second place vote, and one point for each third place vote).
Right now, the competition is not an "Officially sanctioned competition of the VBPC". What that means is you will not get any ribbons (except a very special "online ribbon"), and you will not get any recognition at the meetings or annual banquet. Therefore, we can run this however we want. The Competition Committee has nothing to do with this.
Generally, I will run one competition each month, and I will time it so that it ends just prior to the membership meetings. No particular reason--I just needed to have a target each month and that seemed pretty consistent. Right now, I do not have any rules covering whether or not you can post an image in this competition AND the regular meeting competition. If you want to put the same image in both, for now that is ok with me. As for the rules governing what can and cannot be posted in each category, we will follow the same rules of the VBPC.
There is a forum posting here where you can post any issues that you have with the software. Also, we can discuss any operational rules and procedures in that posting too. If there is a lot of interest in this competition, who knows? We may make it an official part of the VBPC.
So, where is the Online Competition Page? Right here. And you will be able to find it on the left side menu too.
So, this first week, I just need to do some testing. I don't care what you upload. Just upload some pictures, and tell me what you think of the upload process. Let me know if you have any problems or suggestions. Then, in a couple of days, we will start voting and evaluate how that goes. Hopefully it will all work perfectly, but I am expecting you guys to find some little bugs and issues that I hadn't thought of.