Mostly quite good , thanks! - but a few concerns…
I certainly endeavor to post my best work, and that which I feel is “good.” I don’t care about EP’s, although it’s certainly rewarding to get one. Should we now post only our mediocre work? That doesn’t seem to make sense. How will you determine who is posting for a possible EP (not allowed) vs who is posting just to share work they are proud of, and get any further suggestions (allowed) ???
When I first joined, I was particularly drawn to the excellent work posted in the weekly and yearly awards. That, I suspect, is true for many new members. When I view the Naturescapes site, the Gallery of EP’s (largely weekly) is where I start. I want to see the images chosen as “BEST” -unique, technically excellent, different perspective, etc. By having only EP’s in the Banner, you’re really supporting showcasing only the “BEST” images, are you not?
And What is wrong with some friendly competition ? I don’t know of any site that doesn’t have some form of EP/WP’s.
When I first started on NPN 15+ years ago, I certainly aspired to post an image worthy of an EP one day - it took me 2 years for the first one, as I recall. I believe EP’s are an excellent way to award growth and improvement in the new people AND old.
If you remain concerned, why not limit EP’s to - say - 2 a month per person, or so? . That’s an option, although I believe many would not bother posting much any longer.
As far as posting re-edited older work - isn’t one of the points to continue to grow? As new software is released and we improve both our technical and editing skills, why should our re-worked images be of less value than new ones. ?
Most people here are working fulltime and/or otherwise not as fortunate as others who can travel a lot and have a continual influx of new images. Why should only those posting new images from the time and travels they have had, be more important than others who who have only an old stash of images they have not had time to edit yet.
As an example, I still have a couple hundred images from Africa in 2014 that I haven’t gotten to. Are these now ineligible?
Just my thoughts…
Sandy