On Weds, 20th October 2010, Rob Campbell of Lenzr met Slimmswitch (Helder H) and his wife CheeslyC at Balzacs, outside the art gallery /coffee shop in the historic Distillery District complex at 55 Mill St Toronto.

On that happy occasion Rob presented Helder with two prizes donated by last month’s Lenzr contest sponsors, a Blackberry Bold 9700 and an Apple iPad courtesy of a Toronto area deck building company.

How does Slimmswitch win prizes in Lenzr photo contests?

After we handed Slimmswitch the goods,  we asked him about his ‘winning process’.  Much to our collective surprise, Helder told us exactly how he incentivizes friends to come to Lenzr and vote for his images.

Slimmswitch, like so many other Lenzr winners, harnesses a network of ready voters on Facebook, and on Twitter and he even takes the bold step of individually emailing his real friends and acquaintances to ask for their help and participation on his behalf.  And now, long after the contest has ended, he’s still paying them back. When they post pleas for help, he comments and clicks on their written pieces, he spends half an hour a night paying them back with ‘thumbs up’, comments and votes. Its a time commitment to his growing ‘friend network’. Amazing eh?

Helder holds the Lenzr prizes, a Blackberry Bold 9700 smart phone courtesy of Smojoe Social Media Marketing, and a brand new Apple iPad.

How Helder became Slimmswitch?

Years ago, when he first signed up for internet service over the telephone Helder was speaking to phone rep for AOL (America On Line) and he was asked to pick a user name. The handle had to be something other than his real name, and hard pressed Helder looked around his home office for inspiration and found it stamped on the SLIM SWITCH printer switch that channeled information to a series of interconnected printers.

As an AOL user, Helder built quit a reputation as Slimmswitch in online contest forums – this is where he built the network of friends and supporters that help him today.

This is Helder’s third and fourth prize on Lenzr

Helder has won two prizes on Lenzr before.  Most recently, some readers might  remember that Slimmswitch won the rechargeable battery powered Nueton CE6 lawnmower in the How Green are You? photo contest.  And of course Lenzr members might also remember that these winning pictures really aren’t anything special. And we mean that in the kindest possible way.  But its true, even the most eccentric judges would probably not have selected Helder’s photo(s) as winners  – yet he won.  He won on Oct 1st 2010 because today the appraisal system on Lenzr is a purely numeric accounting program; the greatest number and quality of votes always wins the prize(s).  Sure its easy to game, but only by doing what the sponsors want most; by collecting friends and sending referrals to vote on their images, the individuals promoting their pictures are encouraging participation on Lenzr as a whole.

Now is that fair? Not entirely. Where is the photography art appreciation in collecting friends?

Please be patient with Lenzr. Its growing and getting busier. Soon it’ll be as big as the ocean, and then it’ll be real hard for one contester to colour it purple.  Indeed there’s some mind blowing  stuff coming down the pipe.  We are designing an entirely new social interface that will distribute sponsors coupons while tracking and measuring each user’s honour.  No insight into release date yet … but there is a surprise coming for Nov 1st 2010.

This is Eric C‘s prize winning photo Morning Rays
Contest: Morning Sunshine
Tags: rays, light, sun, sunrise, morning, trees
Current Score: 381.90
Total Views: 999
Uploaded on: 19 Sep 2010 @23:15

The August / September lenzr photo contest was indeed a strange session.

The new voting ritual certainly tested the vote fraud mechanisms and tested this Administrator’s own patience with humanity. But of course it was a blessing in disguise, and it taught us all a valuable lesson.  I’d like to report more, but this isn’t the place for that and the really juicy stuff will probably have to wait for the feature film about Lenzr.

Suffice to say that after the October / November photo contests have been announced there will be time to detail the new vote algorithm, and new vote fraud detection systems.  My apologies to anyone that’s disillusioned with the processes by which Lenzr collects votes – please keep an eye on this unique contest portal however, because  in the near future we’re introducing some really radical ideas including VIP voting with pin #s, and or a badge code honour system.

The Morning Sunshine photo contest was where most of the action occurred last month. There were 45 photos uploaded, and almost 2500 votes!  This challenge really captured the imagination of the membership and it was a hard fight between Morning Rays and Sunrise of my Heart.  We all thought for sure that ljclo was going to win, but then Eric C pulled ahead at the last moment.  It was an honest win that happened in the last six hours of the contest.  Indeeed Eric C won after he wrote the tender comment, “Thanks everyone for your votes and support. I was hoping to win the IPad to test and app for children with Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome but it looks like I will have to get one another way. Thanks anyway guys!” This comment tugged at everyone’s heart strings, and most certainly affected other members and visitors, and in the end, that might have been what put him over the top! Congratulations Eric C !

The View From The Roof photo contest was the second most popular preoccupation of at least twenty different Lenzr members. The challenge enjoyed 34 image submissions and 1150 votes from members and visitors. It was a tough fight that was eventually won by ljclo

View From The Roof was sponsored by an industrial roofing company that’s owned by Dan Sheridan located in Toronto Ontario he services the GTA and most of southern Ontario. He was very impressed with the diversity, and the overall quality of all the imaginative submissions. The winner was… well it was unusual to say the least and roofing guys appreciate that particular view, even if it wasnt the most photographically breathtaking or beautiful vista.

A veteran Lenzr member and previous contest winner named Slimmswitch took first place in the People Building Things photo challenge. This contest enjoyed 22 photo submissions and over 700 votes. Whenever the contest asks for specific images like that, the numbers are always a little lower, and consequently the odds of winning are perhaps a little higher.

And finally its our great pleasure to announce that Slimmswitch is a multiple winner in this session! His photo Clubbing Conflict is the winner of the Conflict photo contest that was sponsored by Smojoe social media marketing in Toronto.  Congratulations Slimm, the prize is a Blackberry Bold 9700 smartphone which will no doubt only improve your already powerful social network.

Slimmswitch is Really Cutting Grass now!

Here’s a prize winning Lenzr member named Slimmswitch cutting his own lawn with a Neuton CE6  electric battery powered  lawnmower.

The How Green Are You? photo challenge ended dramatically on May 1st 2010 with Slimmswitch twenty points ahead of Johnny. The web challenge collected 27 photos which garnered 1592 votes.  Almost all of the images are focused on green subjects, and most share insights into one or more facets of the green energy industry.

Sponsored by a solar powered grass cutting business in Toronto Ontario, the company used the contest to showcase their green services which includes bio fuel trucks and lawnmower trailers adorned with adjustable solar panels. The firm proudly offers a sustainable, organic grounds keeping maintenance that is also a relatively silent. The Neuton battery powered lawnmowers are also very quiet as Slimmswitch has no doubt discovered.

Readers of this blog, photographers, Lenzr members and friends know that this website is a work in progress. We are starting something here, and with bold intentions we are trying to perfect a mechanism that efficiently ‘harnesses business to make art’.  Already the success of our enterprise has proven that buzz marketing attached to a photo contest is a healthy way for any company and especially local business to tell consumers the specifics of their offering and share branded content and user submitted photo genius through an expanding social network.

But all is not perfect. There are problems that need to be remedied and the biggest issue seems to be the manner by which the winning photo is selected.

As you know on Lenzr, there are two qualities of votes. To encourage more participation, we have opted to have a popular vote that does not require registration, and yet we have a registered vote that is more powerful.  In the last set-up the registered vote was worth five times more than a popular vote.  In the new equation it will be worth 10x more than a popular vote, and members will have to have uploaded a photo before they can cast a registered vote. Newly registered members that have not uploaded a photo or if their photo has been deleted, will find their registered votes actively or retroactively rescinded into popular votes.

Another factor is the number of votes, and this is where we went wrong last contest period. The weight was too high and the members who uploaded their images first received the lion’s share of audience participation and won by sheer volume of votes, both low and high scores.  In the new algorithm, the # of votes will still count, but only be worth half as much.

Slimmswitch wrote us an email last week and said,  “Maybe another suggestion would be to allow both the registered user and anonymous user to only be able to vote on one photo per day as opposed to every photo? as people might get others to vote a terrible score on every other photo.  I think this would make voting more accurate as people will be forced to vote more honestly.” Our response: Although we agree that limiting the # of votes per day would force people to be selective and discriminating, we think it would be too limiting, and severely affect participation numbers, which is a metric intricately connected to our sponsorship sales efforts.

# of Comments Here at Lenzr we have decided to add another variable to our increasingly complex formula. Now we are adding # of comments to the equation. Each comment will be considered a positive addition to the photo selection metrics.

SUMMARY of the new LENZR SCORING ALGORITHM

The winning photo on Lenzr will now be selected by a combination of Registered Votes and Popular votes, whereby Registered Votes are worth 10x more than Popular Votes. The total numbers of votes each photo receives will be halved and this amount added to the equation.  And finally the # of comments will collected and added to the scoring with each comment being worth one perfect or 10/10 registered vote.

Lets try that, and see where we are in sixty days. Your feedback is appreciated.

Ontario Tourist Attractions photo contest on Lenzr ended on Nov1st 2009 and one image No Pesky Neighbours Here was rated a few points higher than the rest.

This quirky snapshot gleaned 93 total votes to finish with a rating of 8.7 from 20 registered votes (and 7.2 from 73 popular votes).

Mommakoala wins $200 gift certificate from Kanetix Insurance & Mortgage Rate Quotes.

Mommakoala is a 50 yr old nurse in Hamilton, Ontario who likes to photograph unusual landscapes.  She’s presently on a mission to lens all 126 Waterfalls in and around the Hamilton Wentworth area (and all up the Niagara escarpment) . This is a big adventure on her part, and I expect we’ll see more of her work on Lenzr in the near future.

The winning photo was taken when Mommakoala was with her family, enjoying the sights on the 1000 Islands boat cruise in Gananoque Ontario in August 2008. This was one of dozens of images that she snapped on that trip. But there’s something about the image thats timeless and she knew it was the best possible submission for this photo contest. She was right.

Overall, the Ontario Tourist Attractions photo contest on Lenzr was a huge success. There were over seventy five images from all across Ontario – we saw Wasaga Beach, St Lawrence Market and several shots of the CN Tower and Niagara Falls. My personal favourites include The Big Nickel, Huskie the Muskie, the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa and Old Fort Henry in Kingston.

Second place reward was $100 and this went to member Slimmswitch for his submission called Ottawa – The Spider City.  Early on in the competition this image had the highest rating, and it was the clear favourite to win – it’s interesting to note this picture has almost twice as many votes, but a slightly lower rating.

Slimmswitch, who donated the colouful self portrait seen below, did a great job using the 140 character caption to really sell the originality of his photo composition.  He writes in the description, Located in Ottawa , if you stand under this huge spider and look up you can actually see they put fake spider eggs inside the structure??

TIPS: Participants that upload images to Lenzr should always make their caption as long and colourful as possible.  It should contain ideas that are counterpoint to the subject of the picture.  In Lenzr photo contests, the most important thing is to make your submissions more interesting than everyone elses. Your pictures don’t have to be technically superior, or more aesthetically beautiful, but rather more charming, quirkier and ‘storyfull’.

Occasionally people email me to complain that certain pretty pictures are not ranked higher, or fail to appear in the top 10, while other,  inferior images are ahead of them. This would be frustrating, but its important to remember that sometimes the most technically perfect and aesthetically pleasing pictures are also the most boring.  In Ontario Tourist Attractions we all watched as two wacky images pulled away from the rest of the pack to finish as prize winners.