While I agree holding a contest would be fun, one of the problems I'd face is confirming real ownership rights to images that have been sent to me by anonymous forum members. That could turn into a major bit of work.
While most people are honest and on the up and up, I have receieved user pictures for the members image forum that were lifted from web sites (one person even sent an image that I posted of a clothing model from the 80's that some other users recognized and cued me on). And I occasionly get 'here are my feet being tickled, can you post this' e-mails. Most are wonderful shots, but a few I've recognized as shots from about the web. So I just cannot be sure if what I'd get is indeed the property of who sent it. I have no desire to do all the detective work to prove ownership, and do the legal document dance of form signing to transfer rights either. I like to try and pretend this is still a 'just' a hobby 🙂
The last thing I need a year or two from now is a webmaster dropping me a line that says "Ahem, I'd like to talk about the copyrighted image you have stolen from me". 🙂
So I've used an image that I know is issue free, and conveys the idea of tickling. So no contest.
But you have given me a good idea for a Special Golden Feather Category for '02. 🙂... Best amateur image.
Myriads