It doesn't bother me if people vote for their own photos if they want to, after all it is their opinion and if they like their shot as one of the top 3 they should be able to. 

The reason for three votes is so that the one vote that you might cast for yourself does not screw up the results. There is no way other than honor to implement that system.

I am going to say that if I thought my shot was one of the best three then I would vote for my shot. You will notice that my shot is one of only two that have no votes so I am just going to say that I am an honest voter. Two of the three current leaders are shots that I voted for. One is not. That means that so far a majority agree with me on two of those shots. The one that everyone didn't sure doesn't look like it is going to make the cut.

What I am saying is that if I voted for my own shot then I would have cheated one of the more deserving, in my opinion, shots out of one vote. But I would still be sitting here with one single vote. I knew when I posted my shot that it was not going to win but I operate by my own set of unwritten rules and I won't post my best shot from the last year or whatever. I challenge myself to get out and take a shot. That is just me but I am not asking to make it a rule. I am just saying that these are the ways that I operate. If we "suggest" that you not be allowed to vote for your own shot then we will all have to trust that everyone will follow that suggestion. I am not comfortable with that honor system as I am thinking that I might be the only one to play by the rules.

Just my humble opinion.

Damn it. Failed to enter again!
In my defence I have been ill for a few days and not had any real chance to shoot anything worthy of a submission this month.

I agree that its impossible to police the not voting for yourself system. I have only ever voted for myself once as it was the only time I thought it the best shot to be honest. I also have my own rules of using the comp to get creative and take new photos. I don't think we can force anyone to only submit new stuff, and I don't think that would be healthy for the forum either as we would probably end up with only 3 or 4 submissions! But I think the spirit of the comp is to promote ideas and shoot new exciting things. I'm always weeks behind the pace so will now concentrate on March and try to get something to enter within the next month.

Complements to all that entered, there are some lovely shots in the bunch and not a single dud IMHO.
Good work!

Oh... almost forgot. My voting has adapted over the last year to think more about what will look good at the top of the page and not always which shot is technically the best. Just think about that when voting as thought and imagination really do trump technical expertise I feel.

you can only vote 3 times on the first round though...

Quote from: Ctwo on February 22, 2012, 09:39:59 PM

you can only vote 3 times on the first round though...

Right. And really I think that is what keeps us honest in getting a majority to pick the correct photo. So far I have no issue with who won. Twice that I can think of I did not vote for the winner in the final round and each time that happen it was a very close vote. One of those times I did not vote for my very own shot and I could have been the decider to force a tie. All I am saying is that I think it always shakes out to where at least one of the most deserving photos wins so at this point I don't feel the need to change anything.

Again, I don't feel like anyone has to play by my own self imposed rules but I know that some do like Skierboy for example. He never digs up a great shot from a few months ago and neither do I. Maybe that is wrong though as both of us have slept though a sub a few times as we never got around to creating the shot. That is why we are now naming the theme an entire month ahead of time. Unless you have not been paying attention, you already know that March is "Night Photography". Winner of this round will name April.

I am actually really excited for this theme since it's going to be really challenging for me.  I just shot my camera for the first time outside at night a couple days ago and it freaked me out!  It took forever to take the picture and I thought I broke my camera, lol!!!  It should be fun to see what everyone comes up with!

Quote from: Chelie on February 23, 2012, 06:21:05 AM

Quote from: Skippy on February 22, 2012, 11:48:39 PM

Quote from: Ctwo on February 22, 2012, 09:39:59 PM

you can only vote 3 times on the first round though...

Right. And really I think that is what keeps us honest in getting a majority to pick the correct photo. So far I have no issue with who won. Twice that I can think of I did not vote for the winner in the final round and each time that happen it was a very close vote. One of those times I did not vote for my very own shot and I could have been the decider to force a tie. All I am saying is that I think it always shakes out to where at least one of the most deserving photos wins so at this point I don't feel the need to change anything.

Again, I don't feel like anyone has to play by my own self imposed rules but I know that some do like Skierboy for example. He never digs up a great shot from a few months ago and neither do I. Maybe that is wrong though as both of us have slept though a sub a few times as we never got around to creating the shot. That is why we are now naming the theme an entire month ahead of time. Unless you have not been paying attention, you already know that March is "Night Photography". Winner of this round will name April.

I am actually really excited for this theme since it's going to be really challenging for me.  I just shot my camera for the first time outside at night a couple days ago and it freaked me out!  It took forever to take the picture and I thought I broke my camera, lol!!!  It should be fun to see what everyone comes up with!

I know exactly what you mean...that first time I started to panic as well.

It's scary!!!! LOL!

You can take a torch with you of you're scared of the dark you know.

The dark doesn't scare me, lol.  It was the camera taking forever to take the shot because it was so dark outside.  When the shutter didn't close right away I thought I broke it, and I almost cried...LoL!

We are down to our top three. Great job to all three of you as I can see any of them winning. As for the rest of you, thanks to those that entered but now we need to pick our winner for the month of February 2012.