Log In or Register
Discussion Board -> Desktop Wallpaper, Art, etc. -> Low voting
Overflow mode, hiding 2 messages. [View]
Now I will offer an apology to whomever I offended. Please understand that I come to Caedes to get ideas about how to improve my work and to help others improve theirs. I assume others come here for the same reason. I know for a fact that I have never intentionally insulted someone or their work, so if it appears that I have done so to you, please accept my apology, my promise that it was unintentional and any criticism was given to help not hurt, and my promise to always write comments that I would not mind seeing under one of my own photos.
This is why I post them! Recently one of my friends looked at one of my photos and he told me about an architectural maxim that describes the use of light and dark. He said of my photo that although the diagonal between dark and light wasn't exactly in the center that the image still worked because the light that came in through a window balanced out the darkness. Hmm. I have used that advice as well as other suggestions I've received here at Caedes to improve my work and make me a better photographer.
I have a long way to go. I want to learn about ideas that are new to me. I will never "vote down" an image below what I honestly think the image is worth, so please put me on the list of people who can take criticism. I want criticism.
1) Graphic images tend to get rated a lot higher than photographs. Now I am a photographer, so I may be biased, but I am aware that there are other photographers on this website whose work is quite professional who wind up with 86's while fractal images often get 92's and above. This is quite uncommon among photos.
2) Most "ordinary" images are ignored and age off this site without comment. Most images that get c-indices are good enough to get sufficient attention in the flood of images to allow them to receive five votes. The images that receive c-index of seven or more are good enough to be considered "art" even if not great art. They aren't just average snapshots.
3) What is referred to in this thread as back-patting is really just the good manners of those kindly teachers who realize that criticism is best accepted when it's offered with praise.
Now I too feel sometimes that I'd prefer to get more detailed explanations of why someone likes or dislikes my work, but I'm really just happy that they do like it. This is all so new to me that I'm a little overwhelmed by the acceptance I've received here, and I like it. I'm not sure I want to see Caedes fix problems that stem from the warped personalities of some users. Perhaps if we all just ignore them they will go away to a place where others of their kind lurk.
That's not what Caedes is about. This is a site for people to learn, and part of learning is praise. I get criticism from almost everyone who comments on my images. That's not to say that every comment is critical, but most everyone who comments on my images eventually leaves constructive advice. I like that, and I don't want that to change. Also I'm really not qualified to judge who's "lower down the food chain" as you put it. It might be me for all I know.
Now this part isn't directed at any one person, but I'm hearing a lot of anger and spite on this thread . This is very un-caedes of us, and I think that it goes against what I like to see - us demanding that the person(s) who give us this delightful sandbox fix with technology the problems we are having with each other.
However, recently I have looked at a few of my submissions periodically to see how they fare. A number of times I have seen a similar pattern - the first one or two votes I receive are high and then suddenly it plummets.
Take one image I uploaded recently for example: I checked it soon after submission and found it had one vote and a raw voting score of 100 - a generous person had given me 10/10 for that image. A little while later I had a look and found that I now had 3 votes and a raw voting score of 60. My mathematics isn't great but that aggregate total suggests that the next two voters gave me an average of 4/10 for that image. Even worse, one of them could have given me, say, 7 or 8 out of 10 which means that the remaining voter had to have voted 0 or 1 out of 10.
Now: I'd like to say for the record that I can't claim my images are great - that would be arrogant. I don't expect high votes, though I am pleased and flattered when people do give me decent scores. However, I would say that my images aren't absolutely terrible so I am surprised to get scores below 5/10 - the average mark. Maybe I am getting negative voting for having annoyed someone, or perhaps I am being paranoid. Maybe my images really are that bad, I don't know...
Then again, maybe my mental arithmetic is off the mark...! Has anyone else experienced similar things, or does anyone have any suggestions or ideas about this issue?
[Edit: Shortly after posting this topic, I had a look at the image again. By this time I had 4 votes and a raw score of 70, so that last voter had given me a 10 - once again I am flattered. But it just highlights again the gulf between the votes. Now: everyone is entitled to vote freely, but it is clear that one or both of those two middle voters gave a very low score.]