ratings and comments

[tedrttr]

This is the first time I have used this forum and I like this site

very much, I appreciate the opportunity to post photos that

basically the whole world can look at. I frequently ask for

critiques just to see what other people think of my work.

Most responses are favorable(above 4)but sometimes I get an average

rating of 4.8 or 5 and there will be one rating with a 1 or 2 in

both categories, I also am aware that photography in itself is very

subjective and most people will rate a photo on an emotional

response rather than it's technichal aspects and thats ok,the only

thing I would like to see change as far as critiqing photos is

concerned is that respondents give an explanation as to why they

rated the photo as they did, for instance if someone rated a photo a

6and7 and someone else gave it a 1and2,let us know why you rated

this way, otherwise I have no idea, other than you just did not like

the subject. If anyone on the site staff sees this, I would like to

see a requirement that people have to comment along with the rating,

I think this would help many of us improve and understand a little

better and eliminate most of the ambiguity in the rating system.

Thanks for hearing me out.<div></div>

[h._p.]

This one runs and runs. There used to be a requirement to post a comment for 1s or 7s but it was dropped because people didn't like it (or at least, that's my understanding).

 

But I have to ask the question: why should someone HAVE to make a comment? That they're prepared to rate it is already a commitment on their part. I write as someone who used to take the opposite view and who seldom rated without commenting. The responses I got from some people have cured me of that :-)

[mottershead]

The requirement for a comment on extreme ratings was dropped. While it reduced the number of these ratings slightly, it also resulted in a lot of one word "Ugh", or short, comments that added no value to the rating itself and just made the photo commentaries tedious to read.

 

One rating on your photo could mean anything, since even though there is a rating tutorial, plain language labels for the values like "Good", "Bad", etc, and a lot of discussion about how to rate, everybody has their own interpretation of the scale and there is no consistency at all from one person to another in what they say their ratings mean. The 1 rating could mean anything from "the absolute worst picture I have ever seen in my entire life" to "Since I'm an emphatic kind of guy, I rate everything 1 and 7, and this gets a 1".

 

The site uses the ratings as a statistical device to rank photos, and if a photo gets several ratings, even though we have no idea what those people meant by them, we can average them and this produces a somewhat useful display of "Top Photos". That is all. So, please, don't fret about the individual ratings. For that matter, don't get all puffed up about a single 7 either, because one by itself doesn't mean much more than a single 1.)

[james_oneill]

I'd one thing to what's been said, and that is click on the name of the person giving the ratings and see what they post and like and decided if you care what they think.

Everything Brian says is right up to the last half sentance. You won't getter better advice than "please, don't fret about the individual ratings. For that matter, don't get all puffed up about a single 7 either". However if you have a picture which is averaging 6, and someone spitefully slaps a 1 on it, you need to pick up 5 scores of 7 to undo it. They're hard to pick up so its quite easy for a top rated photo to get dislodged. But if you have a picture which is averaging 5, and some generous person puts a 7 on it, not only won't that push it into top-rated, but redressing it only takes a couple fo 4s which are easy to pick up.

 

Put simply, the further the wayward score is from your average the more impact it has. 1's matter as much as 7s for a picture whose mean is 3.5, if it is more than that 1s matter more, and if it is less 7s matter more.

[oliver_indra]

I do not care too much about ratings but am happy of course if people show me that they like my pics quite obviously with good ratings. Brian, you may be right, one 7 is like one 1 and someone said anything about average ratings here already. BUT: I find it really annoying and sometimes frustrating if you spent lots of time and creativity in your pics, start to get good ratings and to pad on your shoulder (which of course you never should ;), and then along comes some freak that posted a crappy holidays snapshot or, worse, nothing at all and rates some 1/1 or else without leaving any track!

Naturally, you ask this person for more feedback, friendly, via e-mail, just because you don´t want to start a public fight or because you are aware that all of us have good and bad days and maybe that´s why the person let´s you know that you produce trash only and you do not even hear anything!

 

OK, Brian, photo.net is not going to be of any value for decisions about my career but I do not know why I should invest anything personal here if lots of people just don´t care! I am not talking about some "black sheep" amongst the crowd, I am talking about a growing problem. I think it was not a good decision to delete the 1,2,7-rule.

Grees,

[erin_____grasshopper__rice]

I agree with Brian.

[moe_p]

By forcing comments it should be obvious many will be short and unrevealing, filling up the page. Because that is how ill-considered most of the ratings were in the first place.