PXL Shots

These guidelines and rules make sure everything runs smoothly on PXLshots. Please take the time to read them so you can get the most fun out of your stay here! If you have any questions, mail a moderator or administrator or visit the chatroom or the forums and you will find your answer quickly. Each time you violate a rule, your name will be reported and after several violations, your account can be disabled.
These guidelines are quite simple and violating any of them is pointless :)

When you participate in a contest, you are bound to certain general guidelines. If you violate these guidelines, your entry can be removed from the contest and your account can be deleted.
To get to the point, here's a list of big NO NO's on PXLshots. Avoid all this so we can keep all the contests fair and legal!

• DON'T use copyrighted images Use only your own photography.
  
  No idea what exactly copyright is? Head over to the http://www.whatiscopyright.org/ and read up.
• DON'T claim you are the owner of an image from someone else.
• DON'T use extreme violence, terrorism, extreme gore, extreme blood, ... in your entries. Some people are very sensitive for this, some are not. Keep your entries suitable for everyone, including children.
• DON'T use pornographic material in your entries. There is a difference between artistic nude and pornographic nude. Your entry should not be offensive to anyone, including children. If you have doubt, you can ask the administration or a moderator first. If we have a contest for adults only, we will have them in an adult-only section.
• DON'T use watermarks on your entry.
• DON'T submit entries to promote your business or website.
• DON'T submit 3 crappy entries to each contest, just to reach the max. number of submissions. It's better to make 1 good entry than to make 3 bad ones. You'll get more satisfaction from it and others will respect your work more :)
• Don't submit an entry with the same "subject/object" more than once - this includes the same contest or any of the other contests current or future. Each photo entered during the same contest or in each different contest MUST be an original composition.
  A). Changing the tone, hue, saturation, cropping etc of the same composition does not constitute an original.
  B). Using the same exact subject/object in more than 1 photo reveals any subsequent photos entered with that same subject/object as being from the same photographer which violates anonymity of the contests.
• DON'T mention your name in your image, image name, description or anywhere else. This way the contests stay anonymous..
• DON’T ignore warning messages. You have received it for a reason so act on it. Once you have done what is asked, red flag your entry and explain the changes so that the moderators know.
• DON'T create multiple accounts unless you have permission for it.

In general, you should try to avoid editing your photos. Being a good photographer also means being able to take good shots without having to edit afterwards.
However, we do allow some basic editing for your entries. The following lists a set of tools that can and cannot be used. Most of these tools are similar in all image editing applications.

What tools/alterations CAN I use?

• Basic Adjustments (levels, curves, hue, saturation, ...)
• Minor filters (slight blur, noise reduction, sharpness, ...). NO sketchy or chrome effects or any effect that alter your photo significantly.
• Crop and rotate.
• Lens correction.
• Panoramas.
• Camera raw editing.
• Remove dust and scratches from a scan.

What tools/alterations CAN'T I use?

• Brushes.
• Clonestamp.
• Patch.
• Masks.
• Adding objects manually.
• Liquify.
• Vignettes, watermarks or frames.

Keep in mind that editing your photos should be kept minor. Too much editing can result in removal of your contest entry. This is a photography website, not an image manipulation website.

People want a fair evaluation of their entries. Voting unfair will result in loss of votepower and can make your votes obsolete. In addition to that, moderators monitor your votes and can report suspicious vote behavior. This means that even if your votepower saldo is positive after a set of contests ends, you can still lose votepower if moderators decide that you vote very unfair on purpose on only a few entries. Good voting means voting fair ALL THE TIME. If you really don't know what to vote on an entry, simply don't vote at all on that entry. Also, a reported vote means the vote becomes INVALID and will not count in in the score calculation of an entry. Plus, you will lose a significant amount of votepower for each reported vote. To keep your vote reputation up, try to stick to these simple rules:

• If you really have no idea how to vote on a specific entry, it's best not to vote on that image.
• If you decide to red flag an entry, don't vote extremely low on it because your vote may be reported for the wrong reasons and you'll lose votepower.
• If you have family or friends in a contest, it's best not to vote on their entries.
• If someones askes you to vote on specific entries to increase his/her chances to win, don't vote on these entries or make up your own mind about them. 'friendly voting' is strongly discouraged.
• Don't tell anyone which entry is yours. This might influence this persons vote behavior.

When you comment on an entry, don't do anything on this list:

• DON'T mention the name of the author in your comment. Contests are anonymous and mentioning the authors name makes voting less fun and less accurate.
• DON'T personally attack anyone. (no flaming or bashing)
• DON'T offend anyone by making political or religious statements.
• DON'T make negative comments without suggestions for improvement. (eg. "THIS SUCKS", "WHAT A MESS", "LOW VOTE FROM ME", ...) The author will be discouraged by these comments can do absolutely nothing with them. There's nothing wrong with critique. But, it should come with a suggestion.
• DON'T talk about your favorite holiday destination in someones entry.
• DON'T start discussions in someones entry that are totally unrelated to the entry.
• DON'T ask someone for dinner in someones entry. Keep this private!

It's simple, just be nice and write constructive comments. Comments such as "nice" and "great" will not be removed, but the author is probably expecting a little more. Violation of any of the items on this list can result in removal of your comment and all violations are logged.

If you manage to get banned (which is hard if you follow all the simple guidelines!) and really, really, really want to be active again, the best thing to do is sending a mail to the administration and explain what went wrong. Maybe you will get a second chance! :) If you get banned, your IP will also be banned, so you can't make a new account. Don't try to make a new account on another computer, because you will be caught. Another thing that will result in an immediate ban is having several accounts to manipulate the contest results. All IP addresses and all vote behavior will be monitored, so we can keep everything fair and smooth! We don't like to ban people and it doesn't happen alot either. But sometimes, it's absolutely necessary. If someone keeps breaking the rules or simply annoys the hell out of everyone, he/she will get banned.

The more people who follow the rules and the more people we can satisfy, the higher the prizes we can give with each contest. PXLshots is a place to have fun and to meet new people with the same interests!
So, if you follow all these simple guidelines, PXLshots will stay fun and everyone will be happy! :))

Good luck!