admin tim
05-13-2008, 03:53 PM
There has recently appeared some grumbling discontent concerning the outcome of several of the weekly caption contests. Let me elucidate:
These contests are supposed to be fun and not taken too seriously. We certainly aren't intending to hurt anyone's feelings or discourage them from participating in any way.
I select images from a wide variety of subjects, just to mix up the action and keep from being too repetitive. Obviously, some are more successful than others.
Humor is subjective. What is side-splitting to you may not affect others in the same manner. British topical and cultural humor is always risky, since the judge is just a dumb Yank from Texas.
Content is judged solely on its own merits, not by who submitted it.
The best captions are brief (brevity is the soul of wit, y'know). The more verbiage there is, the less chance there is of it placing highly. Most of the time, anyway.
Besides being brief, the best captions are also relevant and witty. For some excellent examples of such, refer to http://www.jtrforums.com/showthread.php?t=4666, #3 and http://www.jtrforums.com/showthread.php?t=4341&page=3, #21.
Puns are okay, but must usually be bad to place highly. In fact, the more outrageous, the better.
Some entries (such as merely mentioning a ripper suspect by name) are ambivalent and may be perceived (and judged) either as ripper-related or non ripper-related.
Please do not post additional images in the contest thread, unless you are linking to another site such as photobucket.
Keep it up - it gets better with practice. But don't be discouraged - the competition here is fierce and will only serve to improve your own game. On another site, I enter their weekly caption contest and have not even placed after 3 years of trying. BTW, that site only awards the top 5 captions, out of hundreds of entries each week. We prefer to recognize everyone who enters, although sometimes Howard gets upset when I do that. For some reason. :violin:
These contests are supposed to be fun and not taken too seriously. We certainly aren't intending to hurt anyone's feelings or discourage them from participating in any way.
I select images from a wide variety of subjects, just to mix up the action and keep from being too repetitive. Obviously, some are more successful than others.
Humor is subjective. What is side-splitting to you may not affect others in the same manner. British topical and cultural humor is always risky, since the judge is just a dumb Yank from Texas.
Content is judged solely on its own merits, not by who submitted it.
The best captions are brief (brevity is the soul of wit, y'know). The more verbiage there is, the less chance there is of it placing highly. Most of the time, anyway.
Besides being brief, the best captions are also relevant and witty. For some excellent examples of such, refer to http://www.jtrforums.com/showthread.php?t=4666, #3 and http://www.jtrforums.com/showthread.php?t=4341&page=3, #21.
Puns are okay, but must usually be bad to place highly. In fact, the more outrageous, the better.
Some entries (such as merely mentioning a ripper suspect by name) are ambivalent and may be perceived (and judged) either as ripper-related or non ripper-related.
Please do not post additional images in the contest thread, unless you are linking to another site such as photobucket.
Keep it up - it gets better with practice. But don't be discouraged - the competition here is fierce and will only serve to improve your own game. On another site, I enter their weekly caption contest and have not even placed after 3 years of trying. BTW, that site only awards the top 5 captions, out of hundreds of entries each week. We prefer to recognize everyone who enters, although sometimes Howard gets upset when I do that. For some reason. :violin: