People who rate 3's

I am sick of posting an image only to have it instantly rated 3 by some

anonymous dweeb. It would be nice if you had to have at least 10 images on this

site with at least an average rating of 4 or higher before you could rate others

work. Are there any others here that feel the rating system here is wacked?

 

~b~

I have given my share of three's, although not many, for poor focus and DOF. I don't rate photos much anymore nor offer mine for rating, precisely because of the issue you raise. Your portfolio is very good.

Byron: I suppose it's all about who you think your audience is. Leaving aside, for the moment, the possibility that people are rating your work a 3 because they specifically have some axe to grind with you personally... wouldn't you rather see the numbers that represent what people are actually thinking anyway?

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I agree that sometimes it's frustrating when it seems that perhaps the most prolific "raters" are the people with too much time and not enough critical thinking on their hands... but that probably also defines most of the people that would stroll past your work hanging in a downtown gallery window. Maybe Adorama should start selling thicker skin! I could use some too, some days.

I too can relate all too well...

Something that is not obvious is that in the past, people who abused the rating system were not necessarily untalented. If you have a bunch of dweebish photos posted under a different account, it doesn't do you any good to go low-rate other's photos. It's if you have a bunch of pretty good stuff posted, that it begins to look attractive to down-rate others, in hopes of getting your own work into the top photo spots.

 

I have experimented several times in the past with the "instant 3" theory. Yes, you can get an instant 3 when you post a photo. But it is not consistent at all, generally the top photos don't have any 3's on them, and I've had fairly mediocre shots that didn't get any 3's. And the 3's don't always come first or instantly.

 

Also keep in mind that anonymous ratings are not anonymous to the administrators, so if you think some one person or a certain group is low-rating your shots, by all means email the abuse-address and let them check it.

I just checked your three most recent shots. First one has zero 3-ratings. Second one has one 4-3 rating. Third one appears to be unrated. So it hardly seems they're getting zapped by instant 3/3's.

<P>Posts complaining about 3-rating are common on this forum and I have to say I don't understand the thinking. It's an open rating system, and the site administrators intervene as little as possible, so inevitably all ratings on the scale are given. If you submit a photo for rating, you get what you get. If you don't know the rater, you can't evaluate the rating, so why agonise over it?</P><P>The rater may be some dweeb who wouldn't know a good photo if it reared up and bit him, on the other hand it may be some skilled photographer who marks mediocre photos harshly. But since you don't know, don't sweat it.</P>

Death, taxes, and if you submit your photos for ratings, add 3/3s.

 

BTW, you have a very solid portfolio. Don't sweat it dude.

"Are there any others here that feel the rating system here is wacked?" Yes there are and they never seem to complain about gratuitous 7's, that's the funny thing in my opinion.

If you are certain that your photo is good or at least average, there is no need to submit it for feedback from others. If you submit work that you are so certain is good that anyone rating it less than such must be doing it for some ulterior reason, then what you are doing is posting your work for adulation and you might want to consider what it is that makes you want to do that.

 

If you are not certain that your work is good or at least average and you are submitting it for honest critique/ratings, then maybe you should consider the idea that the 3/3s are legitimate, and look at your photos a little more objectively.

 

I have gotten tons of 3s and all of them have helped me keep a more open mind about my work.

"they never seem to complain about gratuitous 7's"

 

Thats because there are no gratuitous 7s. They are all well deserved....everybody knows that :-)

 

Something that "amuses"(?) me is that many of the "rating bots" hand out just as many 4s, 5s, 6s and 7s as they do 3s, but only the 3s generate complaints. It's just random whether you will be blessed with a 7 or cursed with a 3.

 

Of course ratings from "bots" or other malicious sources are usually removed from the system pretty fast as the site does check for for them. That can result in your average rating either going up or down.

I think my initial point has been lost here. I don't mind getting a 3 if it is legitimate but I would like to know who left it. Is it not fair to know who you are being judged by? I would only like to know so I could ask how I could improve the image. The point of sharing our images, at least in my case, is to learn and become better. I don't have any insecurities in regards to my photography, I just think it is fair to be able to ask the people who rate my images a question or two. If thats not reasonable then why post your images at all then? It's nice to hear good things about your work but I also enjoy hearing whats not good as well and when you get a low rating and have no way of asking why then I have a problem with that.

 

~b~

I call them the 3/3 bandits. I too have noticed an increased amount of ratings of 3/3. Not just my photos, but there seem to be about two or so users that just go through rating at 3/3. I've been looking at a lot of photos lately and there are usually two 3/3 ratings in a large amount of them.<p>

If the system went back to allow 1/1 i'm sure we'll find the bandits there too (I have seen a few pictures that deserve them, a line drawn in the computer and saved as a jpg is not a photo or taking a NASA photo and putting your camera as the equipment).<p>

In the few years that i've been a member of photo.net I've rated 8 photos as 2 and two photos as 1 (that's if they were actual photos).

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Ok, I'll stop my rant... In any case, lets keep sharing and learning from each other.

You might be interested in reading <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00JrIi">my suggestions for improving the rating system</a>. Thank you!

Raymond: 'Course, three minutes to Wapner.

Charlie: You'll make it.

Raymond: Yeah.