I find Flickr really bizarre...

Ray said:
Its sort of like the old Groucho Marx line about not wanting to be a member of any club that would have me as a member, but times two because they make you a member without even telling you they exist...

-Ray
Click to expand...

Well the word "Explore" is one every single page of the Flickr website, so it's not exactly a secret or anything. But I suppose Flickr should at least give a notice, and give you a choice to accept or not.
 
I think "Explore" is really the driving concept of flickr. It''s a photo sharing website. You upload photos to share your creation with the world. I'm not sure why people would resent people viewing their photos. But if for some reason you don't like people viewing your photos, just make them private. You can still embed them here and share them that way.
 
Luke said:
I think "Explore" is really the driving concept of flickr. It''s a photo sharing website. You upload photos to share your creation with the world. I'm not sure why people would resent people viewing their photos. But if for some reason you don't like people viewing your photos, just make them private. You can still embed them here and share them that way.
Click to expand...

I guess I just have to get used to the idea. I was fine with the idea that I had a relatively small group of contacts, that some of them would sometimes tag one or two of my photos as favorites, other people might see those in THEIR web of contacts, and some number of people would find their way to my work, sort of organically. That never bothered me. As I said, I even put a few photos on some groups when I was relatively new to Flickr. But there's just something about the idea of some computer algorithm finding some of my stuff and broadcasting it to the entire enormous community and then being besieged by email notifications for a day or two, including a bunch of new people calling me a contact.

If it doesn't happen often I guess I'm OK with it. I'm just a little freaked out by the volume today - between comments and favorites and new contact notifications its probably around 100 or maybe more. I'm fine with sharing photos, even having my "web" of viewers expand somewhat by normal means, but this is something new to me. If, as Julien says, the word "Explore" is on every page, I either never noticed it or just assumed it was used as a suggestion, as a verb, not as a new PLACE I was unaware of. If it just happens occasionally I'll take it as a compliment and move on I guess - if it should start happening more often, I might change something, even as simple as how I get notified of stuff...

Didn't mean to sound like I'm complaining about people liking a photograph of mine - I just found the whole suddenly new (to me) process a little unsettling...

-Ray
 
Do you physically get an email every time someone faves or comments on a photo? That's crazy. If it's just showing up in your "recent activity" section on flickr, I guess you could just ignore it for a day. I'm not so foolish to think that when I get one featured on Explore that it means it's good. In fact, like you on this one, often times it's not even one I liked that much. Still, it's nice to have people look at something I did and say they like it (even if some are being disingenuous). I shoot for myself....I like the creative process. But it's nice to have others enjoy what you do. It gets me through the days when I feel like I'm just spinning my tires.

As a social experiment, the next time I get one featured in Explore, I may substitute a terrible shot.....something I pull from the recycle bin and see if the response is still the same.
 
Luke said:
Do you physically get an email every time someone faves or comments on a photo? That's crazy. If it's just showing up in your "recent activity" section on flickr, I guess you could just ignore it for a day. I'm not so foolish to think that when I get one featured on Explore that it means it's good. In fact, like you on this one, often times it's not even one I liked that much. Still, it's nice to have people look at something I did and say they like it (even if some are being disingenuous). I shoot for myself....I like the creative process. But it's nice to have others enjoy what you do. It gets me through the days when I feel like I'm just spinning my tires.

As a social experiment, the next time I get one featured in Explore, I may substitute a terrible shot.....something I pull from the recycle bin and see if the response is still the same.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I do get an email every time. I gotta change that. I only get a batch of new work from my limited number of contacts one a week, but I get these damn notices every time someone comments or favs one of my shots. Its honestly never been any sort of problem before today - I kind of like the occasional positive interruption. But today has been crazy. I thought it had chilled earlier today but now they're coming fast and furious again. Where do these people come from and do they really spend their time looking through that many photos every day? Or maybe just because it was a weekend or something... I like the idea of substituting a shot and seeing what would happen. I have a second one of the exact same scene but without the cyclist and the two women in the background taking center stage. I could easily switch that one in and see if anything changes...

-Ray
 
It's probably worse because it's a weekend.....and because it's b/w and because it's "street" and because it's great. Sorry Ray, it's a good one. Deal with it :tongue:

But definitely change your settings. You shouldn't be getting emails every time someone comments or faves a photo. The only time I get an email from flickr is when someone uses the flickrmail system to contact me personally.

And if you're gonna change it, you gotta make it drastic and ridiculous to see who is just blindly commenting. Substituting a similar, but different great picture won't do for the social experiment I'm picturing. Maybe substitute Kareem (in full color) doing a skyhook for the cyclist while leaving the rest of the shot as is. That's what I'm talking about. Some will say "How did this make it?" and some will blindly click the favorite button.
 
For those of you with iPads, the FlickStackr app is a very pleasant way to view the posts of your contacts, your groups, and even - (shudder) - Explore. It's one of my top five favorite apps.
 
pdh said:
I found this a while ago when I first got a snap into Explore ...

How to get your photos Explored on Flickr | MostlyLisa.com

I found two of her recommendations especially pleasing: "Hot chicks" and " Photos with interesting and tragically bohemian titles"
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That's a pretty funny piece - I particularly liked this paragraph:

Being chosen as one of these elite few can mean a huge increase in your photo’s views and the number of comments and favourites you receive. Land on the front page of Explore, Flickr’s home page, and magical things happen, all of which having to do with increasing your ego, none of which actually leads to earning money as a photographer. But who cares, when you are royalty on Flickr for a day. :p

I guess that's the thing I find a bit bizarre. I mean, it's nice to have decent photography recognized and seen. And I've liked Flickr for making it easy to share it with the people I choose to and maybe a small circle beyond that (and to get to see their stuff as well), but this Flickr "royalty for a day" thing just strikes me as weird. Particularly if people are just commenting or "faving" just to satisfy some automated algorithm and increase the odds of getting their own stuff seen.

I guess I've always seen Flickr as a sort of handy tool, but this experience is showing me how many people treat it as an end in itself, which I just done get. As someone else mentioned, it's a lot like Facebook, which I also like as an occasional tool to stay somewhat in touch. But some people treat Facebook like a new home and basically move in and spend all of their time there. Which I don't get either.

Anyway, thanks for all of the input in this thread. I had no idea what "Explore" was before asking about it here. Now I know it's one of the central features of Flickr for a lot of people and how it works. Good to know. What, if anything, I'll do with this information I don't know yet. But if it should ever happen again, I'll at least know what's going on!

-Ray
 
Having looked through the Explore a few times, numbers 1 & 2 are definite ways of increasing your likelyhood of getting there. People seems endlessly "interested" in flare (both real and software induced), and bokeh (usually as the subject).

pdh said:
I found this a while ago when I first got a snap into Explore ...

How to get your photos Explored on Flickr | MostlyLisa.com

I found two of her recommendations especially pleasing: "Hot chicks" and " Photos with interesting and tragically bohemian titles"
Click to expand...
 
Congrats Ray, you have mastered "the man riding bicycle in grainy b/w". Prepare to work on homeless man sleeping next to a sign for an upscale consumer brand (bonus points awarded for well dressed woman chatting on cell phone while she passes by).

I'm joking, of course. But cliches are cliches because many people find them pleasing. We don't call beautifully lit landscape shots cliches even though they are all over Explore as well. Shoot what you like and people will like what they like. Sometimes they will intersect.
 
Late to the thread here.... Ray - it is a great image and congratulations on Explore!

I remember when I looked into the Explore process, can't find the link now, but seemed to remember the keys were: (1) post one or a few images at a time, (2) make sure your best image is the most recent posted (at top), (3) fill out keywords and geolocation, and the big one, (4) the image has to look good/strong features as a 1:1 thumbnail.

I think the ego comment hits a little close to home for me :eek: ... I was a little too focused on getting on Explore for a while there. I don't think it helps me to learn how to be a photographer. The analogy that makes sense to me is that Explore is like having a hit single track on iTunes... the artist that creates a cohesive album is not spotlighted.

On the other hand, I have very much liked all of the images from people here that have made Explore!
 
Favouriting is the thing I find weird ... Not when a contact does it (which is naturally flattering) but when a total stranger does ... And you look at their account only to find they've got tens or even hundreds of thousands of favourites ... One person who still favourites shots of mine has over two and a quarter million other favourites ... To my mind it rather detracts from the value :rolleyes:
 
pdh said:
Favouriting is the thing I find weird ... Not when a contact does it (which is naturally flattering) but when a total stranger does ... And you look at their account only to find they've got tens or even hundreds of thousands of favourites ... One person who still favourites shots of mine has over two and a quarter million other favourites ... To my mind it rather detracts from the value :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Favoring is another form of "like".. sometimes people do it so that the photogs know their photo was liked.

Flickr for me is.. a strange service. I liken it to a photo garage. There's nothing aesthetic about it's layout, portfolio-wise anyway, there are no levels of expertise [as in snapshots to pro photos get posted all the same] either. I have an account but in general I use it for hyperlinking and have not built up anything of worth on it. I still like to link up to friends accounts as it is a popular service and of course I want to see what everyone's done :)
 

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