Total Anonimity for a short period of time!

<p>Ploughing through <strong><a href="../site-help-forum/00T41Q">this posting</a> </strong>made me think of a couple of things that I am sure will have been suggested before. <br /><br />Generally I comment on photos that are in the queue. Personally I don't like commenting on the work of others if they don't comment on the work of others themself. (I don't like selfish people!) However, if I want to rate something a 7 I should be able to do so. Perhaps total anonimity is a way round this. I will admit it is not a perfect system. Some photographers (including myself) put their name on their photos. However, if we encouraged anonimity then people commenting on photos would not know who the photos belonged to. (I know... not perfect!) Also the photograher would not be allowed to see who has commented on their photos for the period of anonimity. <br /><br />Personally I wouldn't like the system I suggest because I might end up commenting on the photos of selfish photographers. Maybe there would be another way of encouraging selfish people to comment on the work of others. Anyway! It is just a suggestion. The period of anonimity could be anything from 3 days to 2 weeks.</p>

<p>Nothing is perfect!</p>

<p>With email communication, there is no such thing as anonymity. People will do a batch email to their friends to say "Hey, I just uploaded a photo.... rate it high."</p>

<p>David,</p>

<p>While not the exact same system that you are suggesting, I've got something in the works that is similar.</p>

<p>This was my first suggestion in PN forums. The anonimity of the photo. You may find it somewhere.</p>

<p>Stamoulis - there are many suggestions on photo.net. They are never ignored. But not all are considered. Photo.net listens to all and weighs the consequences... In some cases it may be something they consider down the road and some suggestions have already been tried here and didn't work - and some suggestions they've seen on other sites that work or don't work... Bottom line is that there is no one system that is going to please everyone. The important thing that photo.net does is pick ideas or think of ideas on their own - or use ideas that are modified from user ideas that is going to generate the "least" complaints and/or are the most fair to everyone. </p>

<p>Mr. Root, I look forward to your next move in this chess game. It will be fun to watch and see what happens in response.</p>

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<p>It will be fun to watch and see what happens in response.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Fun? *sigh* I don't know. Perhaps. I just hope I can improve things and help those who want to learn and enjoy the site. We'll see.</p>

<p>"Fun" was a bad choice of words..... maybe intriguing, in terms of observing human behavior</p>

Perhaps they are not selfish photographers who don't rate or comment on other's photographs. Maybe they just don't want to.

Do you really look to see if a person has critiqued someone else’s photograph before you critique theirs? That seems like a

questionable reason to deny someone your help to becoming a better photographer. That sounds a tad selfish to me. <br>

<br> Mark

<p>Mark, there are so many people that "take" from the system without giving anything back, it's pretty natural for users to say "If you can't be bothered to participate, I can't be bothered to help you". I think it's a pretty legit feeling to have.</p>

<p>I don't differentiate between frequent and infrequent commenters/raters. For one thing, it's too inefficient to check on the patterns of everyone whose photos appear in the Rate Photos queue. For another, it perpetuates a certain dynamic: the popular photographers and cliques stay popular while others are neglected. It gets into reification. If anything I'd rather be able to identify the less active photographers and bias my ratings and comments toward them, in hopes of stimulating them into becoming more active. Adding yet another rating or comment or rating to a photo that's already received a dozen or more such hits seems superfluous.</p>

<p>Lex! You are correct. It is extremely inefficient to check whether contributers comment on photos but it is something I continue to do. I disagree with your statement of it perpetuating a certain dynamic. There are photographers whos work I follow but most of my comments go to images I find in the queue. You may have a point that certain photographers stay neglected but if they don't contribute to the work of others they deserve to stay neglected. I do offer comments to new members in the hope that they take up commenting.</p>

<p>I disagree with adding a comment to a well commented on / rated photograph is superfluous. This tells us the populaity of the photograph which is what the rating and commenting system is designed to do. It would be a strange site if people were not allowed to rate or comment on a photo if an image received a certain amount of comments or ratings although this might encourage us to look at other images. Rarely do I see photos in the top rated photos that I think don't deserve to be there but there.</p>

<p>I could go on but you get the idea... I hope!</p>

<p>This idea of 'total anonimity for a short period of time' may be proved to be a very effective rating process.I strongly support David's proposal. I'm really happy to know that PN administration is thinking positively about this. This suggestion is not a new one but this is the high time for thinking about it. Expecting a new and truely effective rating system. Best regards.</p>

<p>I like the idea of having newly posted photos be anonymous for the first 24 hours after they are posted. After that time they have disapeared from the rating and critique forums. The point of that is to not have people respond to the photographer's name and/or previous work and just to that image.

 

 

<p>I think that most rating is done with the raters immediate reaction: Do they like it or not? Do they like it (or hate it) a lot? The really bland or uninteresting images hardly get a glance.  While it would be unfair and inaccurate to suggest that there is no thinking involved in the rating process for everyone, I think that that generally is true. So, ratings should mostly be taken as involuntary, spontaneous reactions, not as critiques. A 3/3 means someone disliked an image enough to tell you about it in the shorthand of the ratings system, not that it has no general appeal or is a poor image, just that THAT person didn't like it at that moment. Of coures if that image only gets 3/3s you probably need to improve your process.

<p>I try to rate photos before I look at the name of the contributor. However, I know from experience, if I do see the name of the contributor, I will sometimes let my previous experiences with a person effect my rating by a point or two. Likewise, how many DOM on the site give bonus points to the photos of women who have a pretty picture of themselves posted in their profile? And, are there any of us who, as we post photos for critique, go through the critique queue and dispense a few high ratings in hopes of receiving some recipricol ratings. Short term anononimity of the poster seems to be a partial solution to several problems. GJ</p>

<p>When I go to the critique forum, I browse each category. I scan the thumbnails. If something catches my interest, I check to see if the poster is a paid member. Only then will I rate and/or comment. I try not to not let previous raters influence me but sometimes I am guilty of it. Don't want to be the bad guy. My comments are usually made without reading previous comments. I NEVER rate anonymously because if I can't be positive, I won't rate at all. I mostly rate a 6. My only gripe is that I am prevented from rating as many 7's as I'd like. I have no ulterior motive so this limit is my one pet peeve. I have tried to gently give constructive criticism but a few people react by telling me they like their photo just the way it is which makes me wonder why they entered it in the critique forum. I have had my share of 3's. It keeps me humble and I try sometimes to be a mind reader as to why the low rating. Sometimes I am successful and I repost and the rating goes up. My philosophy is this: Will it matter in 5 years? No! It's just a photo. I plan to renew my membership next month for the 2nd year. I learn a lot here. Life is good.</p>