Wow! Congratulations!

I think that the Critics Circle is the finest innovation to the site

since I became a member almost a year ago. It is simply a great idea,

well implemented. No complaints, suggestions, or improvements from me.

Thank you.

I know everyone like Mary, (well, almost everyone), but how does she have her few highest rated shots with 8's on them? Did she pay for that priviledge?

That would be a bug.

Incidentally, in case you didn't already notice, you can now go to any member's Gallery user page (reached by clicking on their name as a photographer or in the Rating Breakdown, or on a photo comment), and you will find a link to that person's highest rated photos pages.

OK I give up. How would one find this new feature? I looked around various parts of the gallery system but couldn't spot it!

Christ in a handbasket what a great idea! I went to scope out what Baily had to say. Half way through Baily's top 300 I came upon <a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=245008">Alex Coleman</a>...a "photographer of people" in every sense of that expression. Without the Critics Circle pointing towards him his photo's would probably languish...unfairly so. Well Done Alex, Well Done Elves!

Never mind... I found it! http://www.photo.net/gallery/ for those who are looking.

Nice addition. Congrats and thanks for continuing efforts.

I'm of course very flattered to be in the first batch of critics featured, but that's not the main issue... As metionned above, I also found out about Alex Coleman - whom I never heard about, and who seems to do indeed really great work... and number of other great pictures as well... Really a fabulous idea...

<p>

Still, since I'm always pushing for more, let me do it one more time...:-) I had one (small) regret... Let me just share it with you... I feel I have seen SOOOOOOOooooooo many other great shots on this site, which I have rated either 6/7 or 7/6, or at least 6/6... Now that I see this wonderful new feature, I would have a suggestion... What about extending the number of top-rated images shown for all featured critics...?

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I know that this is being greedy, I know... Yet I feel a bit sorry for all the other shots that I loved, which I'd love to see again, and which people aren't able to access through my pages yet, at this point... Of course, it would matter less for those who have not been around very long, but in a year and a half, and logging on pretty often, I feel I have seen a great number of other 1st class images, and there would be a lot more shots worth showing... So what about top 500 or top 800...?

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By the way, will there be new featured critics added regularly ? Will this list still show updates of the latest high-rated images by former featured critics...? How is all this going to continue...?

<p>

Besides that, I see another great advantage to this idea... When looking through my own top-rated images, I felt I actually slightly over- or under-rated 10 or 20 of them - besides Clifford...:-) So would it be ok for me to re-rate some of these shots accordingly ? If I could see my top 800 highest rated or such, I'd be glad to adjust a few things, so that the very best shots are featured on my critique page, in an order that satisfies me fully.

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Whether or not photo.net will take into account this new suggestion, I am truly very happy about all this. We'll all now have hundreds of ways to find the very best shots on the site.

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Well worth the effort, Brian ! Thank you... and now let me think of a way to pay these bloody 25 $ ! :-) Cheers.

Great new feature! Maybe the link could also be included in

the general community member page? (/shared/community-member).

That page already has a section called "/photodb ratings".

 

<p>

 

On a related note, there is also a page displaying the highest-rated

photos of a member (i.e., showing the member's photos) at /photodb/top-rated-photographer-photos.

Mine is here: <a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/top-rated-photographer-photos?user_id=22693">http://www.photo.net/photodb/top-rated-photographer-photos?user_id=22693</a> .

If the data for that page is still actively updated, it could perhaps be linked from the portfolio (/photodb/user) and/or

community (/shared/community-member) pages as well?

Marc I only joined in Jan2003 and put up a request in this Forum

(see below). To say I'm delighted with this new feature is a gross

understatement. Just looking at the most recent TOPs by the

Guest Critics including yourself of course has brought to my

attention a lot of great images I had missed. Thank You Brian

and others who implemented this feature and thank you to all the

members like the guest critics who have made the effort to do all

the ratings in the first place. A great St Patrick's Day present for

me!

Louis

 

"Surfing the pick of the crop

 

I'm a new member and I am very impressed with the high

standard of photos posted. However I do see that some photos

are rated which amaze me to the point that I wonder if some

people are having a private joke? It got me thinking that as I

stumble upon various excellent portfolios it would be nice to be

able to have a list of my selection of top photos (limited to 10

perhaps) the way one can have a list in Amazon. This would of

course be a list which would include photos from the original

inception of the site and introduce newbies to photos no longer

appearing on the top list for 1 month etc. More interesting would

be being able to see the choices of those photographers whom I

consider to have excellent portfolios and maybe even see their

comments on their choices. This would be another way for me

(anyone) to quickly surf their way through the site and also learn

from the critiques of those who inspire me the most. This facility

could be restricted to subscribers only and with other limits eg

"X" number of rated photos or some other method of selecting

those photographers WE ALL RATE. PS I know there may not be

the resource to do this but if its possible, GREAT.

-- louis mccullagh , January 27, 2003; 06:46 P.M. Eastern

 

 

Louis, don't know that this will satisfy, but I have a favourite's

presentation called Hot Links as does Peter Daalder. No harm

in checking it out.

-- Seven Stuartson , January 27, 2003; 07:40 P.M. Eastern

------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Thank you Seven

 

That is a lot of work you have done. Thanks. I think the option

shown at

http://www.photo.net/users/mottershead/Gallery%20Selections.h

tml was what I was originally thinking of. Perhaps as a

subscriber I can do this also but it looks difficult as I have never

done any HTML etc. Is there an easier way?

 

I have gone through some of your choices and made them

"Favourite USERS". THanks again Louis

-- louis mccullagh , January 28, 2003; 05:17 A.M. Eastern

"

to my concerns about ratings system. Now we can have the best photos in critics opinion, plus every option we previously had, plus highest rated for any given user. Great improvement, megakudos for Photo.net, specially for the people involved in bringing this one to us!

Wonderful work, I can't stop smiling!

This really is something to be happy about. I hope more and more people understand the need to support the community so we can have these good surprises from time to time.

What a pleasant surprise! It took me a while to find it, too, so at

some point, I hope we'll see a note on the home page. I think it

should be something that every visitor finds ASAP.

 

As Marc mentioned above, I may be tempted to second guess a

few of my own highest choices, but overall, I'm happy with what

others see. Visiting other portfolios now has this wonderful

added dimension of seeing both what they shoot and now, also

what inspires them.

 

Oh yes, Brian, you don't need to go changing the bug in Mary's

top images, they're OK the way they are :-)

 

Actually, I emailed her at the time. She somehow was still rating

on the 1-10 scale and had no idea what I was talking about. I

thought this ability to rate high was due to her well deserved elf

status :-)

Super move, Brian. Of course, you've killed the need for Hot Links now........thanks.

Funny Carl... ;-) <p>I love this feature for <em>two</em> reasons!! What fun it was to be able to click through all my own favorites.. some of which I have not seen for a while. I was so happy to "re-find" them. I was also fascinated to see others' choices. It sure points to the varied tastes on this site and there does seem to be a clear genre and similar images in each critic's favs...with some excpetions, of course. I particularly enjoyed finding some talent I had not discovered in Seven's folder. Thanks Seven!

I think Mary probably rated a few times on another server we used to have for elves only and the software on that server was still on the 1-10 scale for a while after we converted all the ratings. And those ratings never got converted.

Hmm - I didn't realize that Brian.. Thought those would be converted but that you were still working on things when I rated those. So - based on the scale of 1-10 as I was working on that premise when I rated.. I did have to go in and think on a scale of 1-7. Sorry to John Orr and Carl Root - but they are no longer 8"s.. Boohoo.. Anyway.. I didn't see the change reflected on my top rated page - Brian - does that get refreshed hourly?

The "featured" critics on the Gallery main page are recalculated daily, only because we expect them to get a lot of hits, and so their highest-rated pages are cached.

 

For the moment, everybody else's highest-rated page is computed in real time, and this includes the "featured critics" if you request it from their member page, instead of from the Gallery page.

Brian - How often do you intend to rotate critics into and out of the critics circle?

Bob, my thought was to add three or four new critics per week until there are around twenty, then to start scrolling critics off the list as I add more. Thus, a person will probably stay on the list for at least a month or so, enough time for them to change their "exhibitions" to some degree. I've removed the ability to manage ratings, but I'm going to change the sort of the photos so that they are in order by total score, and then by the date of the rating. Currently they are in order by score, and the date of submission of the photo. The new sort will mean that a new 7/7 rating will be first followed by older 7/7's, followed by new 6/7 or 7/6 ratings, followed, by the older ones, until the limit of 300 is reached. By the way, only ratings of at least 6 on both dimensions are shown.

 

As for how people will get added, I will select them mainly based on numbers of ratings, especially recent ratings, and the overall interest and quality of the photo exhibitions that result. I will probably supplement this with some people who have rated a small number of photos but have chosen well, and some people who aren't so active any more but whose "exhibitions" will feature older high-quality work that has sunk from view. I will probably be prejudiced against people who have been too indiscriminate in giving high ratings to work that isn't so good, in my arrogant opinion.

Sounds good! I prefer the "arrogant opinion" to the "lowest common denominator" approach most of the time.

 

Let's just hope nobody starts suggesting the critics should be elected by a vote, where candidates are given a score from 1-7 but only existing critics or those who have rated at least 500 images and left at least 50 comments are allowed to give out 7's, except on Mondays or National Holidays between 11am and 2pm Eastern time unless the month has an "R" in it.

I should have added that one of the things that I will be looking for is people who have discovered "hidden gems" in our photo database. It is harder than it should be for somebody to become visible in our Gallery, especially if they are unwilling to rate and critique heavily themselves in order to cultivate the attention of the generous raters on the site. I am hoping that this new feature will help bring the work of these hidden photographers to light.

 

So a "critic" who searches out this kind of work will be especially valued. There isn't a lot of point in designating as "critics" people who only rate high the work that everybody rates high. You only have to go to the Top Photo Pages to see those photos.

 

While many of the signature images of photo.net are visible in this week's critics' selections, there is also a lot of good work that most people will not have seen before. There are photos in these lists that are great, despite having only a few ratings. Others are photos that old-timers will recognize as past favorites, but which have been lost in the mists of photo.net time. This is the main thing I am seeking from the "critics".

I've seen some member pages that dont have a "highest rated" link. Is there any filter set to sort who should have it or not? Or is it just a feature that will disapear when this is fully implemented?

2 ideas...

<p>

The 1st one was already exposed in my 1st post in this thread: simply showing more of the top-rated images, especially for those who have rated a lot of shots. If you were to disclose my top 500 or 700 or even 1000, or so, you'd actually find a lot of hidden gems.

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The second idea could be to later open a "hidden gem" gallery. For example, there could be a checkbox on each photo page of the gallery, and each meber could add a checkmark if he feels he's found a hidden gem... The picture's thumbnail would then appear automatically in the hidden gem gallery... or something like that, if this is too complex technically...

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Side-note: I'm running around the site like a maniac looking at all sots of people's critique page - can't stop clicking...:-) Fascinating feature, really. Thanks again.

Indeed this is the single best feature in photo.net since the comments posting facility! It has really helped me find photos I have never seen before by looking at the high-rated galleries of people of similar style and taste with what interest me. This is a real community power-tool. I think it will also contribute to better ratings. I already changed a few of my rating which, on hindsight, I found to be a bit high or a bit low. And I'm sure some people will be more reluctant on giving 7/7's on reciprocation knowing that their first gallery page will end up looking weird.

 

Bravo photo.net - this has sure boosted my trust and expectations of the site. I'm sure all active members here share my feeling that the site is doing progress and becoming increasingly more useful.

 

About the hidden gems: On each member's high-rated photos page, highlight (or even separate on a different page) those images that the member has rated high but which few other mamebers have viewed/rated/commented. They would mostly be good candidates for hidden gems. Such a feature will diversify the focus of attention, help us see more, comment more and bring to the surface little-known photographers with minor participation but exceptional work. I am eagerly looking forward to it.