Cheaters..... In Contests!

There is no way around this. As proven by the fact that this has come up many, many times in the past and nothing has ever been done, FAA is not interested in addressing the way the contests are handled. Because they are usually just for fun, it is our choice to participate in them or not. You have to accept how it is or just not enter. I would suggest the latter if it causes you too much stress.

When you get right down to it, it don't mean much to "win" sn FAA contest. If that's why you enter, maybe you need to rethink things.

Do a search in the discussions about contests. This comes up pretty often. It's more about exposure than "winning,"

First of all, it is NOT cheating.

Here is a copy and paste of the rules states when you make a contest:

"With general public voting, your contest will probably receive a lot of attention and a lot of votes because certain participants will actively solicit votes from their friends and family. This will make for a lively, active contest, and all of the participants in the contest will be rewarded with the sheer volume of visitors that stop by to vote. However, the final vote tally will most likely reward those participants who actively solicited votes... not those with the best artwork."

Thus, solicitation is part of the point of the contest when it is open voting.

Second, solicitation brings some exposure to the other contestants. That can lead to a sale. Winning a contest on FAA doesn't matter one bit to me. Selling things and paying my bills does.

Solicit away!

I stand corrected, I will just not enter them!

it is what it is, its just for fun. you can't take the winners seriously its just for exposure.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

You have two choices of contests to submit to, juried and contests that do not allow voting solicitation, and just skip the ones who do encourage voting solicitation.

If you don't enter, you can't win of get exposure. But do what you want.

I thought I had read (somewhere) that soliciting votes was not acceptable, and I have made statements about it. I stand corrected!

I scan contest entries just to see what has been created. I could care less who wins or loses. I find the contests to be a platform for exposure.

FAA contests will not get you into MoMa. FAA contests will not increase the value of your work. FAA contests certainly will not make you rich.

Not only do contests invite friends and relatives a right to vote, but many of the entries do not fit the contest guidelines. Example: I am hosting a watercolor contest at present. I have had to remove numerous entries that were done digitally. This only serves the public viewing the entries.

Again, FAA contests are just for exposure and fun....nothing more.

Do potential buyers really look at contest?

Ken, I can not agree more. Just look at the photo with most votes at the 'Old soldiers never die' "Contest".......
@Mike & JC, I do understand the exposure principe, but maybe "contests" should be called something else !?

Yngve

Some contest admins run their contests without solicitation. That's their right to try. You can set up contests the way you want.

The thing about images that win is that even though you might not like it, others may legitimately love it. So pointing out an image that should not have won is actually just an opinion, not a fact.

I just enter for exposure and to look at other people's art. What I don't enjoy too much is the contests where there are over 1,000 entries. I really enjoy scrolling through everyone's images, but those really big one take too long to go through all images, so how much exposure do you get from those?

Anyway, in my almost 5 years here, I've entered plenty of contests where the winner was actually a beautiful piece of art, so you just have to take them all with a grain of salt.

soliciting varies on each contest. some say its ok, others not.

yes buyers do look at contests, i've sold things after entering contests, no you don't have to win. the ones that "cheat" think it helps to win, but it doesn't. i think some of the buyers make contests just to see what they can get. but you have to enter a lot of contests to maybe get a sale. i enter what i can, then don't go back. i have no idea who won or not, don't care either.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

You have great advice and perspective, Mike Savad.

Although I enter contests, I don't vote for myself or beg and pester people to vote for me, I don't necessarily think it's cheating to have your own best interests at hand, Ken. I'm not sure why it bothers you so much.

If you look at it this way. FAA wants as many people coming to there site as possible. The contests bring them customers. They don't care if the person that brought 20 new people to there site is a good or bad artist. Its about numbers, that is why the contests will not change, and why most good artists who have been here for a while don't enter them, unless for marketing purposes.

Ken, your paintings are beautiful! Why not concentrate on contests/exposure outside of FAA? Look within your community art center, or a juried online contest. FAA "contests" are primarily for fun and exposure. Think outside the FAA box and try to get a following of those who appreciate your art :)

Thanks Sharon. Joseph I understand your opinion of art is different then mine, but the same person entering 10 different paintings in 10 different contests and is at the top of all those contests with 1000 entries is highly improbable.

Lisa its bothers me because I have only been painting a little over a year and other artists who appreciate my paintings drive me to get better and create better art. I guess I need that being a beginner.

Your work is wonderful Ken, I was going to post one of my favorites here, but FAA must be under construction or its my internet.

I hardly ever win a placement Ken, but when I do choose a contest to join, I choose carefully. I stay away from 10 submissions per person, only because there are so many submissions it is likely you will get lost in the crowd unless you do have folks outside of FAA to give you the boost to be seen.

However to get a jump in any contest except juried, its wise to vote for yourself out of the gate, there is a good chance someone will agree also vote for your image. Staying in the forefront of the contest, gives you exposure for a possible buyer pursuing something special for the living room.

Thanks, yeah I started watching closer where to put paintings, and I have placed a couple of times in the top three, I guess it is what it is.

Do buyers go to contests, maybe....

That said, a buyer that didn't know they were a buyer comes to a contest to vote for their niece. Oh my they say, I LOVE that work next to hers. I MUST have it.

Yes, that happens.

At the very least, some take a look at FAA at large while they are here to vote for Aunt Sally and think, what a great place to buy art.

THAT is why solicitation is encouraged by FAA.

Good point JC!

In one now right with over 2000 entries and one person (1st ten images) topping the contest with all ten of their entries. I voted for 40 images including 4 of my own on that contest. . Guess I will have to solicit someday, but if I decide to chose that route, I don't believe I would want to go that far. Wish the administrators would team up and fine an amicable solution that would ultimately benefit everyone. But I do appreciate that if does at least give some exposure. There are many remarkable images; unfortunately way too many are hidden in the crowd. Perhaps someone should run a series of contests ( 5 or 10) with only 25 images in each and no voter solicitation including not voting for your own; then taking the top 2 or 3 in each contest to be placed later in a larger contest with only about 50 images. Easier for everyone to see all the entrees and hopefully make a more sound judgement. Make it that only one image can be entered throughout any given series. Might sound crazy, but just one thought that hopefully may pave a new direction. Need a special thread for different ideas. Need solutions, not gripes.

When I host contests I state in the criteria that I am against vote soliciting and the members always respect this. I would think that anyone who solicits votes in the contests always gets the same friends/relatives to vote on their images so how can this bring more viewers to the site? There are also much better and more profitable ways to spend one's time marketing your work.
If poor quality images win in a contest through vote solicitation it would hurt the image of the site I'd think.

I have many times seen images on the "recently sold" page that I just saw in one contest or another....so, it must do some good to enter...and I'm thinking that all of the contests end up in Google results too? BTW, I don't think the contests are "fun" at all....but more of a "necessary evil" to promote our art more.

I would doubt that buyers look at the contests to choose what to buy. Winning might boost the image in the search rankings to some degree but there are many other criteria that contribute to that as well. One can post their images in many other ways and on other websites so as to be found in search engines.

Contests allow more exposure of your work. It's a link drop that may be the one that gets picked up by a potential buyer.
There's nothing wrong with taking the contests seriously but don't let them get under your skin...

Ken,

The whole point some are trying to make is that you should not care about this.

I was actually expecting more of a separation between the top 3 and the others. I don't see the big deal here

"Do potential buyers really look at contest?"

No, not in my opinion.

First year I was here I did all the contest and groups that I could and I uploaded as many images as I could. I had a steady incline in sales.

The I stopped doing any groups or contests, that inclined remained steady and seen no dip whatsoever.

With number of uploads, that was not the case. I see a steady incline is sales directly related to the number of uploads I add every month.

Conclusion: Don't do contest and/groups. Do do uploads as many as possible. That is much better use of your time and will do more for your sales.

No one is going to give us the details of what winning a contest or being featured is going to do to the search ranking. But from everything that I have seen, selling is the number one thing that will boost search ranking.

So I look at it this way. If one contest win is worth 10 points or a feather is worth 5-10 points, I am guessing that one sale is worth 500 or 1000 points. I have only had a half dozen or so of my images that have ended up in the first ten pages of the search. NONE of them have been in contests let alone won one. And they all have had very few features if any and very few "views" or likes or anything else. But they all have multiply sales.

Conclusion: Spend all of your time uploading new images and selling and marketing them outside of FAA and build your sales. This is the only thing that we know for sure works.

But if you are going to play around with the groups and the contests, for crying out loud, don't take them seriously and stop whining about things that have significant effect on sales. Unless of course you don't care about sales.

WOW! I can't believe you are exposing the member after having accused him of cheating. That is tacky!! :-(

Isn't this the same as name and shame? Same results.

I just posted the facts 900 paintings he has 3 at the top, you come to your own conclusion! Plus I didn't say he robbed a bank, this is art! Other people have said this is encouraged by FAA and I said I stand corrected already!