I recently replied to a post under the forum topic *"IS IT JUST ME"*. The topic I replied to was referring to the perception of several members that the current POTM section is flawed and often unfair. I happen to agree with this opinion. I thought it was deserving of it's own topic on the board. Below I will copy/paste my original reply explaining my personal view of the system, which includes some suggestions that might make it better. I hope to see you all post with your own suggestions. Perhaps we can refer the site admin to this post in hope that the POTM section will be revamped.

Original Post:
I COMPLETELY agree with this! Seems the whole voting system is flawed. It is definitely an issue. I ran for pic of month sometime last fall. I did end up winning, but it was a quite grueling process.

I started by asking my friends and contacts to help vote for me. It soon became clear, however, that my competition was going on a site wide campaign asking for votes. My reaction? Well... what the hell?... I've come this far. Might as well go big or go home. I crafted a polite message asking for votes and offered help in return. Most members were awesome about it, but I did encounter some who were offended by my asking (including a few who blacklisted).

I was, essentially, scrolling through the "members online" section on a daily basis towards the end, frantically sending out requests as fast as I could. I only just barely came out on top. My competition didn't bow out until the last few hours of voting. It ended up being a very trying experience!!

On the plus side, running for pic of the month gave my page more exposure on the site than I've ever had. The pic I was running with still has the largest number of views to date. On the down side, feeling like I needed to relentlessly ask for votes on a daily basis took all the fun out of being here. It was so exhausting that I took a break from the site for a few months. Sure, I could have decided it wasn't worth it and left it at that. However, I was still relatively new here and felt challenged to win my first POTM trophy. I've yet to re-enter for POTM for these reasons.

Hopefully something can be done to even out the playing field, as you say. I think part of the problem is that unless a member requests another to vote, most members don't seem to visit the POTM section or feel motivated to vote in general. Aside from the lead 2 or 3, most submissions have less than 50 overall votes and the majority are less than 20. Perhaps the site could provide some incentive to all members, such as offering a once daily point bonus for voting for POTM. This would drive traffic to the POTM section and possibly negate the need for people to feel that they need to ask for votes. I also agree that something needs to be done with the [NOT] vote. Either remove it completely, or perhaps they could design it so that giving a [NOT] vote would require spending a certain amount of points. Well... those are my thoughts on the matter!

Hope to hear from all of you in regards to your suggestions for improvement!