Unitedcats Online cats community

Unitedcats team has talked long about a photocontest we want to make and we know how much our users want to have it
We have seen on Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian site that users adore these kinds of things.

On 26th of June a contest on Uniteddogs and Unitedcats to find best pictures for Uniteddogs and Unitedcats Widgets on Facebook and MySpace
There will be 2 themes
1. Kitten love– category for all users who have kittens or who have cute pictures of their cats when they were young and you just adored them all the time
2. Unitedcats’ most funniest pics– we all know how funny our cats might be, when they are sleeping, running, jumping or doing something they should not

Users can add pictures to contest for 3 weeks starting from the 26th of June until 17th of July.
Voting takes place on photocontest page for four weeks from 26th of June until 24th of July. The last week is just for voting only, so that even those who uploaded their pictures to the competition later, will have the same changes

Contest will be held on four language pages: English, Dutch, Croatian and Spanish.
Best 25 pictures from each page (2 themes) will be added to new Widgets showed in Facebook and MySpace. All users whose pictures will be shown on the Widget will get points for this.
First three places also get Unitedcats stuff and extra amount of bonuspoints – 10 000
Places from 4 to 9 will get 3000 bonuspoints
Places from 11 to 19 will get 2000 bonuspoints
Places from 20 to 25 will get 1000 bonuspoints

Some extra prices can be given to users with interesting pictures.

Users can upload up to 5 pictures from 1 cat under one theme.
If user is winner on different sites with the same picture then the best place will be counted.

More detailed information will be available together with the opening of the competition on 26th of June.

Until then, grab your cameras and take your cat to a photoshoot

Elise

This sounds like a lot of fun, Elise!
I have two questions though.

-Do I need a Facebook or MySpace account?
-Are existing pictures able to compete or only new ones?

This sounds like fun! And just enough time for me to get a new digital camera.

This sounds like a lot of fun, Elise!
I have two questions though.

-Do I need a Facebook or MySpace account?
-Are existing pictures able to compete or only new ones?You do not have to have MyPSace or Facebook account as the contest will be held on Uniteddogs and Unitedcats sites, but I guess if your cute will be one of those cats on the Widget, you will also like to have it

You can also add older pictures to the competition, so if you have some fun or really cute pictures of your kitties already on your profile, they can also take part of the contest. During the contest you can add the it by editing the picture

Sounds great. Pretty open for everyone!

Just one question - do the photo entries become the property of UDC?

And just one suggestion - how about a few points for everyone who takes the time and makes the effort to enter? Even if it´s only a small amount, like 50 points.

Sounds great. Pretty open for everyone!

Just one question - do the photo entries become the property of UDC?

And just one suggestion - how about a few points for everyone who takes the time and makes the effort to enter? Even if it´s only a small amount, like 50 points.
The pictures in the contest won´t become property of UDC, Uniteddogs and Cats has the right to use these pictures in the Widgets.

As our experience shows thousands of pictures will be uploaded to take part in the competition, so there has been no need to give extra points, but we will think about it, as we do have more than a week to think through all small details

Sounds fine, but have a few more questions about the widget bit. I´ll ask them later though.

To enhance and not conflict with your official competition, would it be ok to run little mini fun contests in the other clubs? I and many other members have a lot of expertise in photography etc, and we are keen to help members develop these skills.

The contests wouldn�t be formal, just a way of attracting people to some clubs and making the clubs really useful, as well as fun. We wouldn�t even need to call them competitions - we could call them "Best in Show" for the themes we come up with.

In fact, I really like that idea... "Best In Show" .... for all sorts of things. Everyone could enjoy it. We are trying hard to make our clubs accessible, fun, useful and open to as many members as we can!

Voting wouldn´t be an issue as everyone would be a winner - the whole point is to get people to "have a go"! Sometimes new members of UC may feel a little shy, and the people who have set up clubs are doing their best to make them welcoming and all inclusive!

The "exhibitions" or "Best in Shows" within clubs would not put unnecessary or cumbersome data loading on the site, because the images are limited to what can be linked to threads.

Your competition will be great! I´d just like clarification because I don´t want to start something that is not appropriate, and I certainly don´t want it to become a negative issue. And to be fair to me, I prefer not to put time into something that will be stopped because it´s against the rules.

M&D

Some questions about the voting. During the four weeks of voting, does each user get to vote only once? Will users be able to vote for their own photos? Will visitors to the site be able to vote? Will the number of votes cast for each photo be visible or invisible?

I would suggest that, in order to make it fun for everyone and keep people coming back to UC, users get a new vote every day. Likewise, visitors to the site should be able to vote - and they should also get a new vote every day. Perhaps, in the final week of voting, there could be a shortlist of 50 or so finalists in each category - with the number of votes each has being visible. This could well bring people back every day to cast their vote to make sure their favourite wins.

If visitors could vote, though, couldn´t people cheat by logging out and voting on their own pets loads of times?

This sounds very fun!! I think someone should only be able to vote once for each entry. Otherwise, there may be too much "stacking" of votes, making it harder on Admin, and unfair to others. I don´t think there should be a short list because some that might get left off might have otherwise possibly received a surge of votes at the end. I think to be totally fair, all submitted photos should be there the whole time.
Good luck to everyone!!

Well, what I suggested was that each visitor and each user only gets one vote to use each day of the competition. That way there shouldn´t be too much stacking - because you can´t just sit there and vote time and time again. - you actually have to come back every day. That way, if there is any biase, it will be towards the people who come onto the site most regularly. And who better to choose the widgits than the people who use the site the most?

That sounds like fun. Oh boy, I already spend far too much time here. I have no hope! Lucky it is winter here and it´s too miserable to do much else!

Some questions about the voting. During the four weeks of voting, does each user get to vote only once? Will users be able to vote for their own photos? Will visitors to the site be able to vote? Will the number of votes cast for each photo be visible or invisible?Every user can give his/her opinion about a photo once. It is not only about do you supprt the photo, but you can rate photos with
Soso ; Good ; Super
Visitors can´t rate the photos!
Definitely there will be new photos to rate every day, so it will be fun to give votes for every picture and yo u will always know and see if you have already rated a photo.
On the picture the average rate will be seen after user has given her/his rate.

To enhance and not conflict with your official competition, would it be ok to run little mini fun contests in the other clubs? I and many other members have a lot of expertise in photography etc, and we are keen to help members develop these skillswe will give an answer to MatildaAndDot question in couple of hours

Sounds fine, but have a few more questions about the widget bit. I´ll ask them later though.

To enhance and not conflict with your official competition, would it be ok to run little mini fun contests in the other clubs? I and many other members have a lot of expertise in photography etc, and we are keen to help members develop these skills.

The contests wouldn�t be formal, just a way of attracting people to some clubs and making the clubs really useful, as well as fun. We wouldn�t even need to call them competitions - we could call them "Best in Show" for the themes we come up with.

In fact, I really like that idea... "Best In Show" .... for all sorts of things. Everyone could enjoy it. We are trying hard to make our clubs accessible, fun, useful and open to as many members as we can!

Voting wouldn´t be an issue as everyone would be a winner - the whole point is to get people to "have a go"! Sometimes new members of UC may feel a little shy, and the people who have set up clubs are doing their best to make them welcoming and all inclusive!

The "exhibitions" or "Best in Shows" within clubs would not put unnecessary or cumbersome data loading on the site, because the images are limited to what can be linked to threads.

Your competition will be great! I´d just like clarification because I don´t want to start something that is not appropriate, and I certainly don´t want it to become a negative issue. And to be fair to me, I prefer not to put time into something that will be stopped because it´s against the rules.

M&D
Clubs owners with/without some helpers (club owner is responsible) can make this kind of "Best in shows" exhibitions in their clubs.
It would be advisable to let admins or moderators know about what you´re up to. This way UDC team can also know what is going on in the site and what our users want to have, what they enjoy and what parts of UDC we should develop more quickly.
We give green light for different happenings that are not in conflict with any UDC rule. All small games or "competitions" that users make in their clubs have to be explained in a correct way and users have to understand that UDC team is not responsible for any voting or rewards that users might promise.
If the shows are about having fun and showing your lovely kittens (and dogs on dogs site) then be reasonable and go ahead.

And just when we all thought United couldn´t get any better or more fun! I put my hands (And tegan puts her paws) together for the mods once again. GREAT idea! Well done!

Thank you admin. That is an extremely reasonable explanation and response. It allows us to have fun, encourage and engage members, but with the responsibility to do things that are good for the site and don´t cause any conflict.

I feel very pleased and encouraged by this balanced attitude. It appears that good communication and mutual respect are, as always, the key to a positive outcome with any site issues that come up.

M&D

1.I had the Facebook widget, but to participate, you need another widget? where is it?
2. Do the photos can be edited (maybe with objects and a background, but not distorting the photo)?

Where is the photocontest page to vote & upload picture´s?, is it on facebook , myspace or UC site.
What do I do?

I´m not sure either on how to enter this competition.Dont know where to start...

I think we have to wait until June 26th to enter, since that is when the contest starts. Be on the lookout!!

Oh.yes of course,it´s the 26th here,forgot about the time differences....