Ultimate Photo Battle

User-Submitted, User-Voted Photography Competition

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Ultimate Photo Battle - FAQ

Photo Battle

What is Ultimate Photo Battle?

Ultimate Photo Battle is a User-Submitted, User-Voted, Online Photography Competition.


Who can enter the competition?

Anyone who is a member and has at least 1 upload credit can submit a photo for the competition.


How to I become a member?

It's easy. All you need is a valid email address. Enter your info on the New User Page and a confirmation email will be sent to you. Follow the instructions on that email to confirm your account and you will be awarded 5 upload credits. After that, click on the Submit a Photo link and you are in the competition.


What are Upload Credits?

Upload Credits are what you need to enter the competition. Each Photo you submit costs 1 Upload Credit. New users start with 5 Upload Credits, but more credits can be earned by participating on the site. Credits are awarded as follows:
Voting on a Photo Battle: .015 Credits
Voting on a Caption Battle: .025 Credits
Voting for a Tag: .02 Credits
Submitting a Tag: .05 Credits
Submitting a Caption: .25 Credits

* You must be logged in to earn upload credits


What is the best way to earn upload credits?

Firstly, check and see if there are any Upcoming Caption Battles that you haven't entered yet. Enter them all. Then click on Tags needed, and submit as many tags as you can think of for a selected picture. Once you have submitted the tags, you will be taken the Photo Solo screen where you can vote for the tags. I usually vote in favor of the tags 2 or 3 times each. Doing this for a few pictures will earn you a lot of Upload Credits and helps the site out by adding tags to the system.


What are Weekly Battles?

Every Sunday, all the photos that were uploaded during the previous week are entered into a Weekly Battle. Those photos compete for two weeks against other photos in the same battle. At the start of each month, all the winners from the completed weekly battles are entered in a Monthly Battle. Once a year, the monthly winners will enter a Yearly Battle. At the end of the year we will be announcing our Photo Of The Year!


Can I enter older photos into a Weekly Battle?

Yes. If you have a photo that was uploaded before the Weekly Battles were implemented, you can find it in the My Photos section of the site. Once there, you will see a link that says 'Add to Next Week's Battle'. Simply click on the link and the photo will be entered. If you already have 5 photo waiting for next week's battle, any other photos you click on will be queued for Weekly Battles in future weeks, so you don't have to worry about missing any battles.


How many battles will my photo get to be in?

Currently, photos are turned off from battle after 1000 battles, but that number is always changing depending on demand for battles vs. number of photos uploaded.

Caption Battles

When we come across a photo that we think will make for an interesting / funny Caption Battle, we add it to the Caption Battle queue. At any given time, there should be 10 photos accepting captions. Members can add one caption in each caption battle and can change their caption as long as the battle hasn't started yet. All captions are scanned for to make sure they are clean and not too similar to existing Captions for that battle.

Once a Photo has enough captions, currently 15, the Caption Battle will begin. All you have to do is go to the Caption Battle page and select which Caption you like better from the two that will come up at random. When a Caption Battle has enough votes, currently 400, the battle ends, winners are emailed, and you can view the results on the Finished Caption Battles Page.

Tags

What are tags?

Tags are just a word or phrase attached to a photo that help to classify the photo. Good examples of tags are: Trees, Sand, Blue, Funny, Black and White, or Close Up.
Bad Examples of tags are: look at this guy, what a dumb photo, dfljgoier, swear words

Can I add tags?


All members can add tags to any photo. In fact, it is a good way to earn Upload Credits and build up Ultimate Photo Battle world. To find photos that need tags, simply click on "Tags Needed" in the Nav Bar.


What is a Tag Vote?

When you are in the Photo Solo view, you will see all the tags listed for that Photo. If you click on a tag once, it will turn blue. This means you agree with that tag. Click again and the tag turns red. This means you disagree with the tag. A third click will change tag back to it's original color. When you click on the Submit Tag Votes, your votes will be added to the total for each tag. If a tag get too many negative votes, it will be deleted.

Submitting Tags and Voting for Tags are good ways to earn Upload Credits

Flags

What are flags?

If you see a photo that you think is inappropriate, contains obvious advertising, is too photoshopped, etc, click on the 'flag' link at the bottom of the photo to send a flag to us. One flag by itself won't get a picture deleted, but if enough people don't like a photo we will look at deleting it, especially if it on the bubble in terms of votes. All photos get manually approved before entering battle, but once in a while one sneaks through. Flags also help us determine the overall expectations of Ultimate Photo Battle Members.

Flags

Moderator Approvals

When a user has participated enough in Ultimate Photo Battle, they will find a 'Mod Menu' section on the left Nav Bar. This will enable them to enter the Moderator Photo Approval section. This allows members to earn upload credits by approving photos that have been uploaded. Currently to become a level one moderator, you need to have uploaded 10 photos to Ultimate Photo Battle. Also, extra Upload Credits are awarded for doing Moderator Approvals on Sundays. This is allow photos to be ready for the weekly battle faster.

Future Plans

We've tossed around the idea of each user being able make "Photo Blogs" and add photos to them. For example, if you take a vacation, you could make a blog called "My Vacation" and add photos to it
Photos added to blogs could still be entered into battles, they would also be included in your blog

If you have any ideas that would make Ultimate Photo Battle awesome, feel free to Contact Us and tell us your ideas.