How does 'Not on brief?' work?
This feature has been re-launched on 24th March 2021 and works as follows:
Sometimes an image is entered into a contest that it shouldn’t be, as it doesn’t meet the criteria outlined in the contest brief.
Photocrowd’s 'Not On Brief' system is designed to ensure that the Photocrowd community can successfully moderate contest entries, so that images which are not on brief will be removed from a contest before that contest’s results are announced.
Flagging an image as Not on Brief
During the open phase of a contest, when images are still being entered into the contest, Photocrowd paying subscribers (Challenger, Pro and Master) have the opportunity to flag any entered image as not on brief by pressing the “Not on brief?’ button on the image. That button will then turn green.
When a certain number of subscribers have flagged an image as being not on brief, the owner of the image will be sent a message to tell them that their image is scheduled to be removed from that contest in 24 hours.
(Please note that we don’t make public the number of subscribers who need to flag an image for it to be removed. And we restrict this feature to paying subscribers to ensure that it is not open to abuse by anyone attempting to create multiple free accounts.)
It is also possible to flag an image as being not on brief during the rating phase of a contest. if you are a paying subscriber, this will count towards the tally of 'Not on Brief' flags which may result in an image being removed from the contest. If you are on the free Crowd tier then your 'Not on Brief' flag for that image will count against its rating score in the contest, but will not count towards the tally of 'Not on Brief' flags that may result in the image being removed from the contest.
The right to appeal
When an image owner is notified that their image is scheduled to be removed from a contest, they can do one of three things:
(1) Nothing - in which case the image will be automatically removed from that contest 24 hours later. If the contest is still open to entries, another image can be entered in its place, but not the same image that has just been withdrawn.
(2) Withdraw the flagged image from that contest themselves. If the contest is still open to entries, another image can be entered in its place, but not the same image that has just been withdrawn.
(3) Appeal the decision, saying why they believe that the image is actually on brief, and should remain in the contest. Our community moderators will then assess the appeal, and the image owner will be notified of their decision. Either the appeal will fail, and the image will be removed immediately and automatically from the contest, or the appeal will succeed, and the image can be left in the contest. That image will not then be scheduled for removal again, regardless of how many users flag the image as being not on brief after that point.
Can Expert or Community judges remove images from a contest they are judging if they think they are not on brief?
No. Only paying subscribers flagging an image as being not on brief have the ability to remove an image from a contest, once the threshold figure has been reached. A higher degree of consistency and accuracy is achieved when a quorum of the community is required to mark an image as being not on brief, rather than relying on a single judge to do so.
If I disagree with the outcome of the appeal process, what can I do?
If you don’t agree with the outcome of the appeal process, and still consider your image to be on brief for the contest from which it has been removed, please send a message to support@photocrowd.com including the URL of the relevant image, and the contest which it has been removed from, along with any supporting words.
How many 'Not on Brief' flags does a photo have to receive before it is removed?
We don't make this figure public. It is constantly being monitored, and will be high enough that very few 'false positives' occur, meaning images that are removed are very likely to be not on brief, but not so high that it takes too long for a not on brief image to be recognised and scheduled for removal.