How about an update of Phillip and Rajeev's old "Photo.net Critiquing System" tutorial?

Honest, I've tried . . . but I can't do it . . . Rate photos, I mean.

I need help.

<p>I joined photo.net B.R. (Before Ratings). I cut my teeth on the

rating system when it had its original 1-5 scale. I kept at it when

the scale was expanded to 1-10, operating on the assumption that

average was somewhere in the middle and that, while the whole range

was available, 1's were rare and 10's were perhaps even rarer.

<p>As the rating inflation got out of hand last year, though, I lost

my bearings. I didn't think my standards were changing -- but I

could tell that I was getting more and more out of step. Eventually,

I just quit rating -- even went back and deleted all the ratings I

had given (since they had become hopelessly out of whack with the

prevailing standards).

<p>Recently I tried to get back in the game. Couldn't do it, though.

Just completely seized up. The problem is, that I don't know what

the numbers mean any more. Is rating still on a 1-10 scale? Or is

the 5-10 scale which was introduced for the "<a

href="http://www.photo.net/gallery/photocritique/">Rate selected

recent photos</a>" feature now the <i>de facto</i> scale, with

anything less being considered a mortal insult? Is a 7, a score

which used to be cause for some sense of achievment, now a score to

whine about? Is a 5 now what a 1 was then?

<p>When rating of photos started here, people developed a sense of

what ratings, and ranges of ratings, were appropriate. Probably one

source for this was the kind of assumption I described above, that

average work warrants a rating somewhere around the middle of the

range. But another source that was probably very important was the

<a

href="http://www.photo.net/gallery/photocritique/standards/">Photo.net

Critiquing System</a> tutorial that Phillip and Rajeev put

together. It's funny to go back now and look at that tutorial. What

ratings do you think those photos would get now?

<p><a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?

msg_id=003ZCG">Normalizing the older ratings</a> may help to make

them more reflective of current standards -- but it won't necessarily

help to explain what those current standards are. How about an

updating of that "Photo.net Critiquing System" tutorial? Something

to help us old-timers recalibrate?