Yep, you and I have been on the same page with this one for a long time, Steve.
One thing, however.
New captions can be posted for 24 hours from picture reveal. Cutting off new Finds after 24 hours would give very little chance for late captions to be counted as Finds.
I’m wondering whether this might discourage votes on later captions if finder points are still counted after the 24-hour mark. Voters may wonder if others will look back at older photos to cast votes, making them hesitant to vote on a late caption if they think it won’t get enough attention to become popular—and therefore their vote may lose them finder points. As a result, some genuinely good captions might end up being overlooked.
If people were able to vote sooner — within 25 to 36 hours — without it affecting their finder points, then new (late) captions may have a better chance of being noticed by others before the voting period closes?
Yeah, it’s a good point, Kate. Savvy Finders may be reluctant to make new Finds even after 24 hours given the likelihood that some voters won’t revisit photos.
Here’s the timeline of vote frequency for reference (pulled from another topic):
This doesn’t directly mean voters don’t revisit pictures, but it does show that voting drops off significantly after 24 hours, suggesting new Finds are a lot less likely to do well.
Personally, I’d still prefer Finders have the opportunity to gain Finder Points from late entries, but you’ve swayed my thinking a little too, so I’ll change my vote accordingly.
Just on the overall topic (to make it clear for those new to it), the suggestion is not to close Finder Points early, just new Finds. Captions that have been Found before the cut-off would continue to earn points for the Finder throughout the voting duration. There would just be no new Finds after the cut-off, meaning later voters could vote for zero rated captions without committing Finder Point suicide.
PS: As our resident expert Finder it would be good to hear @Karyn_Harrison ‘s thoughts too.
Apologies for taking so long to respond. Got rather a lot on my plate at the moment.
I’ve noticed a big change in voting patterns and the type of captions getting the most votes over the past twelve months or so, with puns, on the whole, being the most popular. This is probably due to an influx of new captioneers, who, as Dave suggested, are probably unaware that a lot of these puns have been recycled multiple times. Having joined Caption.me seven years ago, I can’t deny that I’m getting more than a little tired of puns, yet the best ones are guaranteed to get votes, which is why I continue to post them myself. I feel like I’m becoming lazy in my captioning, seeing little point in trying to think up something more creative when it will more than likely go down like a lead balloon. Once half a dozen puns have received two or three votes the chances of a well-crafted caption being noticed are pretty slim. I preferred it when we knew which photo was coming next and could prepare our captions in advance. I need a little longer to come up with an idea and put it into words. The pressure to create something half decent in that first half hour when a photo is getting the most attention hampers my ability to do so. I often risk losing Finders Points by voting for captions posted later on and this is reflected in my lower scores at the end of each week. It’s disappointing when a great caption goes virtually unnoticed and does not receive the votes I feel it deserves. I am very much in favour of late finds not counting towards Finders Points and would hope that it would encourage others to vote for those hidden gems which are so often overlooked.
Personally I much prefer the dynamic nature of the blind photo format, but I agree with you 100% that it does handicap well-crafted captions. Often, by the time they appear, quick and easy puns fill the top spots and are snowballing.
Many of our newer members are generous voters, which is great, but they do seem to prefer puns. That’s fine, each to their own, but I’d urge them to try and appreciate the creative effort involved in narrative captions, which are harder, and take longer, to write.
Anyway, like you say, cutting off new Finds early would prevent later voters worrying about damaging their Finder Points, which would hopefully encourage votes for deserving captions that were missed early.
