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The last two photography contests have had many fewer entries than the first several -- campsite, 6; homemade gear only 3 so far.

Is interest intrinsically waning, or are there other reason(s), for example:

  • onset of hiking/backpacking season leaves little time for posting photographs;

  • not many people have photos for the last two categories;

  • people feeling need for sabbatical from the contests;

  • other.

Someone mentioned that he would like to see more pictures of fauna (critters), and a suggestion that this category be split into insects and other was favorably received.

What to do?

[Confession: I love the pics, but have not posted any because I need a simple tutorial on how to do it. Duh.]

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  • Speaking only for myself, I've had a busy month or two lately with work and other activities, so all my online participation has dropped. That doesn't explain a trend, though!
    – Toby Speight
    Commented May 22, 2019 at 10:03
  • I only discovered the photo contest's existence today.
    – whatsisname
    Commented May 22, 2019 at 19:21
  • Hi ab2! I didn't realize you were having trouble posting pictures. That's so frustrating, you've probably had/have awesome ones!! Do you get an error message when you try to upload? What does it say? Are you using the desktop, or one of the apps, like the Android version? Are your pictures in computer files, or an app like Gallery or Photos? Tell us where the glitch is so we can get to the bottom of it!!
    – Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL
    Commented May 30, 2019 at 20:13
  • @Sue Thanks, I will in a few days. Right now, I am dealing with having the rear of my car smashed in by a Distracted Driver. Not hurt, but what a mess!
    – ab2
    Commented May 30, 2019 at 22:06
  • I didnt know there was a photo contest until I clicked on meta. Maybe try linking to it on the main site?
    – SurpriseDog
    Commented Aug 28, 2019 at 16:22

1 Answer 1

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I think it's just that the last two are narrower topics that got fewer responses. Personally, I don't have any good pictures of my tent or campsite so I didn't post any.

The other thing is that interest in the main site is dropping, we are on a downward slide of questions, answers, and votes ever since last July and it shows no signs on stopping. For example last April there were 284 posts, this April there were 100. Less main site traffic means less meta traffic.

With the Fauna contest, I went around and posted invitations in a bunch of chatrooms and we got 3-4 answers entries from that plus a couple of main site questions.

I guess from all my experience with asking questions on the main site, its almost impossible to predict in advance which questions will do well and which won't and the same applies the these.

With the template, it takes me like 10 minutes if that to create the new post (and it doesn't have to be me) so I think it's worth doing.

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    Charlie - I'm afraid your analysis is off on the traffic. We are pretty flat on traffic and new visitors, which is a critical metric. We are tracking well at 2017 numbers overall, which does imply last year was a good one. I'm with you on the narrow topics though - I have less pics available
    – Rory Alsop Mod
    Commented May 19, 2019 at 17:47
  • @RoryAlsop Ever since they messed up the traffic numbers, I haven't considered really paid much attention to them since you can't see past Feb-2018. We are dropping in answers and questions though.
    – Charlie Brumbaugh
    Commented May 19, 2019 at 17:53
  • @RoryAlsop Unless you have a way to see the traffic that's only participating members.
    – Charlie Brumbaugh
    Commented May 19, 2019 at 17:55
  • If the narrowness of the recent topics is part of the problem, let's revisit fauna as @Paul Paulsen suggested here and which was upvoted four times.
    – ab2
    Commented May 22, 2019 at 12:40

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