Sometimes it's fun to have voting contests. And yes, popularity can help, but it's mostly just CAMPAIGNING. It's the nature of the beast and can't be avoided whenever community voting is involved. Those who entered who did not campaign, did not understand the type of contest they were entering. There is nothing shiesty about campaigning for votes. These type of contests require advertisement. I think the top three were very nice. I am dissappointed that liteluvr's was not one of them, but I saw no advertisements done by liteluvr personally, other than what I put out on liteluvr's behalf. In a professional judging kind of contest, yes, I'm quite sure he/she would have taken first or second place. I do feel that my entry would have placed among the top 5 at least had it been a judged contest. I do not appreciate, DragoNegro, the insinuation my entry was substandard, although I'm sure you meant what you said in a general sense, not pointing to my entry specifically. You see, I'm the 2nd place winner of this particular contest. For a Christmas card, I think mine was right on the money and it is the greeting card like style I was shooting for. The reason the winners have such a margin, is they advertised and, yes, they advertised A LOT, to the point of exhaustion in some cases (I know I was dead tired by the end). The rest did NOT advertise. The rest had between 1 and 20 votes out of thousands of possible ones, because people didn't all clue in that there was a contest to be voted on. It's up to the contestants to put the word out, and, of course, they're going to be plugging their own entries. What judges think is good and what the community thinks is good are often not the same thing. Judges look at skill. The community looks at what they LIKE.