Great plan, hope we end up with something like this in the end

Votes could be done by the standard voting in the gallery perhaps? Although everyone would have to sumbit at the same time to have an equal time in. 

And by letting the average FMer do the voting it should keep those happy who don't like the idea of people winning on the size of fish alone. As at the end of the say it would be down to everyone to pick.

Good article John, well done mate! It looks to me like a very good starting point and an idea which we can develop further!

I do think that we should consider regional variations however, and ensure that the spirit of the comp is not just about the biggest fish! 

Maybe time to put a bit more meat on the bones then, I take it FM would want exclusivity Graham?

Exclusivity? Not necessarily; it depends on what the prizes are and how far we take it. I'm still not convinced it's the way to go but I think John's proposal is a damn good starting point.

Where we need to go from here is discussing how to make it workable.

Also, we don't need to make any rules regarding regionalisation. If it's FM members who are voting for the entrants then they can impose their own standards regarding regions, and any other things they think need taking into consideration, by virtue of the way they vote. If, as we suspect, that regions need more consideration, then that will be proven as the votes reflect it.

Don't forget, if we take on board John's proposal then it won't be me, or anyone else working for FM, who will be deciding on the winners, it'll be YOU, the FM members, so whatever the outcome it's not going to be a case of FM management showing any bias. If there is any bias it will be all yours.

The big difference between a quality fish competition on here rather than in a weekly or monthly is that we can discuss the fish, and the voting, as the comp progresses through the competition period.

So are we looking at a weekly or monthly comp then Graham?

Will we be looking at one winner only, or winners for several species?

Somehow a 1 member 1 vote system might be needed Cakes!

Cakey, my idea assumed that only trophy shots would be allowed, although quality, time, story, merit and all the other value judgements would be 'owned' by the membership.

The two pictures I used to illustrate the article provide two completely different storylines, but both are actually trophy shots. Each has different merits, but one is not necessarily better than the other. If the FM team had selected these two as the 'best' of the month, then it would be up to the membership to apply their judgement as to the merits of each.

I'm not an IT buff, so I don't know how a system of one member/one vote could be set up.

Cakey: "there are some superb photos in the gallery that dont get votes yet a pair of tits gets loads ,the compo gallery would have to get over this some how if you see what I mean..... "

There would be a special album set up in the gallery where only geniune trophy shots would be allowed. Each trophy shot submitted would automatically be considered as entries to the competition. If someone submitted a shot that obviously wasn't in the true spirit of the competition, ie, a pair of tits, it would be deleted.

The gallery allows only one vote per member per image as it stands but obviously there are ways around that if someone is desperate for votes, but I'm sure that any cheating could be detected if the tech lads were set on it. That is definitely something that will have to be looked into.

Or, we could go along with the panel idea, who will taking voting into consideration but make the final judgement.

One of the aspects that will be taken into consideration is the quality of the image, in that it has to be good enough to be used on the home page if it wins.

I suggest that it's a monthly competition for a winner and runner-up prize, and that leading entries (by vote) could be featured on the home page, with a link to the 'Fish of the Month' album.

I think it will also be a good idea if we have a trial run with a couple of minor prizes to begin with. I dare say this will restrict the entries initially, but this will give us chance to be sure it all works and will give us a better idea if it's all worth the effort.

Overall, if we go ahead with this idea, I reckon it needs developing gradually, according to what response we get. It doesn't matter if it's only site regulars or even just forum regulars who take part at first, for if we're onto something that the majority want, word will get round and people will take part.

It isn't just a matter of offering a substantial prize; there is also the prestige factor of winning an established weekly award and the annual trophy such as the weeklies offer.

Something like this is much more difficult to break into than you could imagine. Don't forget that 99% of those who already win weekly awards in the weeklies (including FM regulars) don't submit their reports and pics to FM even after they've been published in print. Which is a pity as there are plenty of anglers on here who don't buy a weekly angling newspaper.

Anyway, let's keep talking.

ok can see where your coming from Graham and all sounds good but as you say the picture needs to be good enough for the homepage ,so now weve taken it away from the fish and it down to the picture !

example yesterday I went for the perch and I had a superb time 6 between 2 and 3lb and to me a superb catch but with no one around I couldnt use the Nikon so I used my camera phone the pictures are ok as proof but no good for gallery let alone the home page so now the catch means nothing.

Cakey, there are very few really poor pictures of superb fish that ever won a weekly award. Yes, I know it's down to the definition of a poor picture, but let's say for the sakes of argument, a picture that was too poor to make the front page. Usually one goes with the other.

However, where the web is concerned it doesn't have to be as good as what is needed for print. I can use a good mobile phone picture on the home page that would never make the front page in print.

Email me one of the best shots from your phone of your perch taken yesterday and let me see what I can do with it.

I think that almost by definition a competition of this typre requires pictures to be of publishable quality. 

One way of scoring this sort of competition is to score on, say, 3 criteria.  You could rate the photo, the fish and the merit of the capture out of 10 and add the scores together to give an overall score out of 30.  If this scoring was done by a panel and then the top 5 were presented to the membership for voting on a one member one vote basis we'd have a pretty fair competition.

A prize could be awarded for the top scorer in each category (decided by the panel) with the overall winner decided by the members. 

It would be an easy competition to administer as the panel could review the pictures and vote by email with the top 5 scoring pictures then being presented on a seperate page for member voting.

No problems with an image like that Cakey, and certainly no problem using it to judge a fish competition.

By the way, I'll keep the blackmail shot you sent in reserve in case she doesn't behave herself

Onr thing you may want to insist on Graham is that all fish must be held close to the body.These shots of anglers holding fish at arms length are both dangerous to the fish and give a distorted view of size in relation to the captor.

Graham ....dont look so bad now youve put it up

Paraman......Im all for the panel because I think the fish will be judged and not the picture so much