Walter Palmer
All-Pro
Here's an idea. Instead of just "Like" or "Winner", the forum should have something akin to Lightroom's Star Rating System. This would give the shooter actual feedback on the image or set.
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Feedback Rated feedback suggestion
- Thread starter Walter Palmer
- Start date
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- Tags
- feedback
- Location
- The Netherlands
I'd like that, would be very nice to get a feel for how a photo is received by the various folks here. I myself use the sequence Like - Cool - Winner to show how much I like a picture. A 1-5 star rating or a 1-10 school grade (Dutch system 
) or something similar would be better.
On the other hand, I fully understand when fellow members abhor this kind of rating. I'd like to know, but I must say that my judgment on my own photos hardly ever changes through valuations of others, be it members here or at my photoclub.
) or something similar would be better.On the other hand, I fully understand when fellow members abhor this kind of rating. I'd like to know, but I must say that my judgment on my own photos hardly ever changes through valuations of others, be it members here or at my photoclub.
My initial reaction towards this suggestion is "sounds like a nice idea".
But what I really would love to see is more verbal interaction and comments about pictures. The best photo forums tend to be those that have no emoji reaction systems in place.
And secondly we have our quiet and (too?) polite culture here. Would anyone dare to use stars 1-2 of a rating system of 1-5? Will "3/5" be the new "it sucks blah"?
Stars and numbers naturally lead to making averages and obsessing over ratings. At least currently you can't really make arithmetic over "thumbs-ups" and "groans".
But what I really would love to see is more verbal interaction and comments about pictures. The best photo forums tend to be those that have no emoji reaction systems in place.
And secondly we have our quiet and (too?) polite culture here. Would anyone dare to use stars 1-2 of a rating system of 1-5? Will "3/5" be the new "it sucks blah"?
Stars and numbers naturally lead to making averages and obsessing over ratings. At least currently you can't really make arithmetic over "thumbs-ups" and "groans".
tonyturley
Legend
- Location
- Scott Depot, WV, USA
- Name
- Tony
I often use emojis like "wow" or "groan" to respond to what's happening in the image, rather than what I think of the composition. But I've also used "wow" to respond to an image that I thought was excellent. So context can vary. I'd probably not respond at all if we went to a ratings system. Just my $.02.
My first reaction would be that for those who truly want to be rated on what they post that they use the "Critique Wanted" and "Advice Wanted" prefixes more often. That way they'll know beforehand that they may be getting some less than favorable responses. Opening all posts/images to an unsolicited quantifiable rating could be problematic.
I'd be interested in suggestions for getting members to be more aware of how to request critiques. Thoughts, anybody?
Like Ad I'm using Like - Cool - Wow - Winner to show my reaction in a graduation. And when in any way my feelings are especially touched it's the heart emoji.
What I appreciate in this forum - and this is far more important to me than any emojis - is verbal feedback.
And that's exactly where the difference between cam and other forums lies: the friendly appreciation and critique from its other posters.
No bashing or unfriendly comments, just appreciation signalled and friendly helpful remarks.
And when I see the
under one of my posts I take it as a signal that a little information might be needed about the "thing" shown.
So in my eyes we don't need any "school grading system" nor any more emojis.
For me the list of emojis is sufficient. And when I use the "groan" emoji it refers to the content displayed, never the quality of the photo.
It's just to express my very personal feelings that the photo evokes.
@Kevin: If I wanted critique for a post I just mentioned this in my posts ... and always got the helpful reponse. Nothing else needed on this side from me.
If at all one more emoji were needed imho it would be one saying "put this post on the start page asap" for those posts I find outstanding.
What I appreciate in this forum - and this is far more important to me than any emojis - is verbal feedback.
And that's exactly where the difference between cam and other forums lies: the friendly appreciation and critique from its other posters.
No bashing or unfriendly comments, just appreciation signalled and friendly helpful remarks.
And when I see the
under one of my posts I take it as a signal that a little information might be needed about the "thing" shown.So in my eyes we don't need any "school grading system" nor any more emojis.
For me the list of emojis is sufficient. And when I use the "groan" emoji it refers to the content displayed, never the quality of the photo.
It's just to express my very personal feelings that the photo evokes.
@Kevin: If I wanted critique for a post I just mentioned this in my posts ... and always got the helpful reponse. Nothing else needed on this side from me.
If at all one more emoji were needed imho it would be one saying "put this post on the start page asap" for those posts I find outstanding.
- Location
- Switzerland
- Name
- Matt
I was wrestling with a lengthy post yesterday that essentially boiled down to this - but Walter said it way more graciously than I would have. Thanks for that!Like Ad I'm using Like - Cool - Wow - Winner to show my reaction in a graduation. And when in any way my feelings are especially touched it's the heart emoji.
What I appreciate in this forum - and this is far more important to me than any emojis - is verbal feedback.
And that's exactly where the difference between cam and other forums lies: the friendly appreciation and critique from its other posters.
No bashing or unfriendly comments, just appreciation signalled and friendly helpful remarks.
And when I see the
So in my eyes we don't need any "school grading system" nor any more emojis.
For me the list of emojis is sufficient. And when I use the "groan" emoji it refers to the content displayed, never the quality of the photo.
It's just to express my very personal feelings that the photo evokes.
@Kevin: If I wanted critique for a post I just mentioned this in my posts ... and always got the helpful reponse. Nothing else needed on this side from me.
If at all one more emoji were needed imho it would be one saying "put this post on the start page asap" for those posts I find outstanding.
I use the emojis overwhelmingly to show my appreciation for what others put on this board - and I do actually appreciate that usually, they present their best efforts or are convinced for good reasons that it's right to show the images as-is, so I use "like" very frequently - which is made even easier by my habit to only look at images containing subject matter I'm interested in. I use "groan" and "angry" to comment on image content exclusively, never on quality - if the latter's the matter, I usually don't comment at all except if I have a very specific proposition to make (e.g. an obvious option to crop or a simple correction). I use "Oh?", "Hmmm ..." and "Neutral" rarely because they certainly can be misinterpreted (as I have witnessed a couple of times); however, "Hmmm ..." is the most nuanced to me and shows that I'm not indifferent to something but can't really make up my mind about it (see above ... Kevin's post I agree with in principle, but I'm not sure about how - or even if! - people should be encouraged to ask for critique). Walter's take on "Hmmm ..." is definitely more healthy than mine, to be honest.
I fully agree with Walter's view on this. Grading isn't going to make anyone any happier on the whole, but some will definitely be unhappy about it. If you feel the need to grade images, curate your own. That's definitely the best contribution to the overall quality of the images shown on this board you can make.
M.
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Coksic
All-Pro
- Location
- Belgrade, Serbia
- Name
- Mladen Čoko
I think grading system would give this forum a competitive edge/drive, which is something I'm not interested in, to be honest!
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Walter Palmer
All-Pro
Yes, after hearing your responses and pondering it a bit more, I agree I don't want to make this haven another competitive arena.
If I really care, I should ask for feedback, but mostly just see how others interpret the subject and, often, gain a bit of insight or inspiration from someone's imagem
Thanks everyone for thinking about the idea. Glad I'm here.
If I really care, I should ask for feedback, but mostly just see how others interpret the subject and, often, gain a bit of insight or inspiration from someone's imagem
Thanks everyone for thinking about the idea. Glad I'm here.
Coksic
All-Pro
- Location
- Belgrade, Serbia
- Name
- Mladen Čoko
It's nice to exchange opinions! You put it perfectly yourself - it's about inspiration and the exchange of photographic experience! Cheers!
- Location
- The Netherlands
Although I thought I was in favour of a rating system, I agree with almost everything that's been said here. So let's not introduce such a system.
When something strikes me in a photo that I can put to words, I will make a text comment, but only if it's something positive. I'll only post negative comments if the photo poster is explicitly asking for critique. In all other cases I assume that the poster is happy with what he/she has posted, so who am I to detract from that?
- Location
- Seattle, WA, USA
- Name
- Keith
My first reaction would be that for those who truly want to be rated on what they post that they use the "Critique Wanted" and "Advice Wanted" prefixes more often. That way they'll know beforehand that they may be getting some less than favorable responses. Opening all posts/images to an unsolicited quantifiable rating could be problematic.
I'd be interested in suggestions for getting members to be more aware of how to request critiques. Thoughts, anybody?
Sorry to dig this convo from nearly half a year up, but I missed this previously and I think this dovetails with the ongoing discussion about emojis.
I agree with Mike that I'd love to see more comments on images instead of just emojis, and that this forum might tend toward overly polite at times. I also think he nails it on the downsides of a rating system.
As for Kevin's suggestion, most of the images I share in this forum are in communal threads, where adding a tag is not an option. I like the communal nature of these threads — I've participated on other fora where the convention was to post a new thread for each image and I miss some of the sense of community the common threads engender.
As far as other suggestions, I've added a note requesting comments and critique in my signature, but I can't recall the last time any image I posted got more than an emoji, so that approach hasn't worked. Perhaps adding a request for comment in the text of the post itself would be the next thing to try on that line.
Another idea might be a special C&C forum specific for posting images on which one wants feedback. Perhaps emojis could even be disable in this forum (although I'm not sure that's technically feasible.
- K
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- Location
- Minnesota
- Name
- Chris
- Location
- Switzerland
- Name
- Matt
"Overly" by what measure? As long as we can't determine that, there's no such thing, especially not on a board with a diverse membership from different places all over the world, not all of which call English their mothertongue. We may be a bit more careful than necessary - but that's much, much better than carelessness or rudeness, even if only out of a lack of consideration or understanding.
I also think what you can - and should - expect in terms of comments depends heavily on who actually could do the commenting. If I wanted to comment on all images I find worthy (or lacking), I'd have to be here all day. Short, mostly friendly reactions are a good compromise, and besides, a tendency to be nice is much better than the opposite ...
M.
- Location
- Southeast Idaho
- Name
- Dan
I understand the desire for conversations and since coming back here I've been trying to spend a little more time commenting on photos instead of just giving a stealth 
and moving on. But, like Matt has said, if I were to comment on every photo that I find interesting it would take most of the day to give feedback.
I do want to say that this is a fun forum and I am often inspired by member's photos. I also like the collegiality here and hope we can keep it going.
and moving on. But, like Matt has said, if I were to comment on every photo that I find interesting it would take most of the day to give feedback.I do want to say that this is a fun forum and I am often inspired by member's photos. I also like the collegiality here and hope we can keep it going.
Irene McC
Legend
- Location
- CPT, South Africa
I am very new here, but would like to weigh in with something that I have noticed.
Nobody seems to caption their images in the 'show' ongoing threads. (That's mainly where I've been looking)
They just place a photo into the stream and let it flow - which often leaves me with many questions.
Mostly "WHERE was this taken", especially if it's a beautiful church / building / city street / street art or general landscape view
Surely it would help many viewers to enjoy an image more if there was some context given?
(to be more on topic : I am not at all in favour of rating systems - this is not a "I'm better than you" type of contest)
Nobody seems to caption their images in the 'show' ongoing threads. (That's mainly where I've been looking)
They just place a photo into the stream and let it flow - which often leaves me with many questions.
Mostly "WHERE was this taken", especially if it's a beautiful church / building / city street / street art or general landscape view
Surely it would help many viewers to enjoy an image more if there was some context given?
(to be more on topic : I am not at all in favour of rating systems - this is not a "I'm better than you" type of contest)
- Location
- Southeast Idaho
- Name
- Dan
Yes!
- Location
- Seattle, WA, USA
- Name
- Keith
I agree completely that excessive politeness is MUCH preferred to a lack thereof. It's obviously not a binary thing, and it seems pointless to argue about where this forum sits on the continuum.
Still, I think hearing only positive feedback limits one's ability to grow and improve.
And you're absolutely right that no one has the bandwidth to comment beyond the level of emoji on even a small subset of contributions. Hence the suggestion of a place where more expansive feedback could be solicited.
- K
- Location
- Switzerland
- Name
- Matt
Don't think that I can't see your point; I'm trying to reach my "10'000 hours to proficiency" myself, but I don't have the time to put in more than I do - so, only twenty years or so to go ...
But did you actually know that you can prefix your threads with "Critique Wanted"? I'd actually like to have labels or prefixes like this for individual posts - that'd be a real asset. I don't know if Xenforo can be "taught" to allow for this. That's something @Kevin may be able to find out ...
M.
- Location
- Seattle, WA, USA
- Name
- Keith
You're right, Matt, that using the existing "Critique Wanted" thread tag is probably enough of a solution. My idea of a separate forum, particularly one where emojis were verbotten, is half-baked (at best) and likely overkill.
Being able to apply tags to individual posts would be great, but I'm not sure how that would work in practice.
Now all I gotta do is go out and produce at least a single image I wouldn't be embarrassed to submit to such scrutiny.
- K
Being able to apply tags to individual posts would be great, but I'm not sure how that would work in practice.
Now all I gotta do is go out and produce at least a single image I wouldn't be embarrassed to submit to such scrutiny.
- K
