What is abuse?

[fergus kane]

Thanks for the nice comment Michael.... I'll go and give you lots of nice ratings now. I jest, of course. However, your comment did make me go and have a look at your photos. (nice variety by the way, very diverse). And looking at your microscopy experiment led me to look at Bobby Douglas's page of landscapes....and perhaps I will email him about panorama techniques.... Now that's what I like about photo.net

 

As to the mechanisms behind my observation, I'm not sure.... people are pretty good at adapting to novel and even artificial situations. I am sure that a game theorist could have some fun with photo.net. Hopefully photo.net will find a way to evolve its codes to human psychology, if not perhaps it will become redundant?

 

Tom, well I'm pretty immune to the occasional bad rating now. It does seem that on average, the ratings represent the relative quality of my photos (compared to each other). It's interesting that our ratings are expected to average 4... I tend to only rate photos that grab my attention.... and if they do that, they probably deserve more than an 'average'. That said, many artists would suggest that it is important to get negative feedback -- in a kick up the backside kind of way. Perhaps true, but I still don't like giving bad ratings... I'd much rather give constructive criticism.