Improving Image Share

[SpacemanSpIiff]

I entirely agree with most of what Kalia opened up with, Only thing I would add is an anonymous rating option, far too many times have i ticked a few people off by leaving an image an '8' rather then throwing yet another 10 to one of their images which i god honestly beleive does not deserve it. Thus causing possibly a 'report this post' against me, for such a silly reason. I always justify myself, and yet I still see people get angry at it.

 

Its an image rating on tesnexus. Not life or death.

 

:rolleyes:

[Sarya]

I don't think that's necessary. What is necessary is making people change their views on ratings. How can we tell normal good pictures from uniquelly outstanding, if the 10 is the only option which is not taken as offence? If 10 is all people want to see, then I vote for kudo system.

[SpacemanSpIiff]

I think a general problem with the kudo system would be that it would make it way too general. If someone minutely liked an image, they would + it.

 

I havnt seen too many ratings below a 5 on this site, so that adds up to alot of +'s. and then the top images would rely on the amount of people that actually rate alone.

 

*shrug* What happens will happen though.

[Sarya]

Well, no one had yet found a perfect solution. There will always be downsides. And yes, kudo system works much better for users who remain in sight rather than images which are drown quickly in the newer ones. However, why bother with picking an appropriate rate, if no one needs that?

[SpacemanSpIiff]

Thats just the problem, there is no perfect solution, there may be a better solution, and kudo system might be better, but we'll never know until we see the day it gets implemented.

 

Well, whatever happens in the end, I'll just go with. I really dont mind either way.

 

As long as something eases all the tensions in this community, Seems like alot of people are at each others throats lately. And thats whats actually pushing me away from even viewing the images and posting. Its not even fun anymore. Again, people are taking it way too seriously. :confused:

 

Oh well.

[Sarya]

Well, actually both too seriously and not seriously enough. The first for hating those giving low rates, and the second for not considering properly the rates they give.

[kalia]

Agreed with a *lot* of what was said.

 

sakura37, the tension is mainly why I started this thread, this general feeling of frustration. I'm someone who won't rate lower than an 8 because I don't want to discourage an up&coming screenshooter; you perhaps would rarely rate higher than 8 because you only want to give the very best possible ever shots high ratings. Both are valid points of view, both work. (Just database errors before, apparently - and Sarya, yes, one 7 now wouldn't but prior to the database errors being fixed one 7 would indeed knock an otherwise highly-rated pic into Oblivion, so to speak. :P But that's all done with now, and ratings are reflected *very* fairly I feel. ) However, I think we both from our separate corners are expressing a frustration with the general tone.

 

To speak to serious/not serious: I have a chronic health condition which severely limits my energy. I struggle just to still be able to hold down a job & support myself, and taking part in outside activities - well, that's a luxury I really don't have. So modding Oblivion, taking screenshots - that's my art, that's my creative expression. I pour my heart & soul into them. I may be the odd one out doing that, but that's how it is. So, yes, I do take it seriously.

 

I think a lot of the upset over low ratings *is* a holdover from when the formula didn't work. But it's never going to be pleasant to have someone say what you created is "poor". We're all human, that's a natural reaction. However, please note that nowhere in my original post do I complain about the low ratings. I do complain about the lack of ratings. If you're only gonna receive 3 ratings total, and someone with *completely* different artistic tastes than yours comes along & rates your pic a 3, that can be kind of upsetting. Like if you're going for a Beatles-esque vibe and a Rolling Stones fan comes along & says "Eh, that's crap" and you know you're not gonna get any Beatles fans along . . . . Now, if there were gonna usually be 20 ratings, easier to take that one 3 with a grain of salt, and if there are five 3s say "hmm, ok, that picture apparently didn't work".

 

I am *strongly* against anonymous ratings. There's another site that has that, and let me just say that it is not a pleasant place. Pics get rated down because folks have religious prejudices against the subject matter. Pics get rated down because they're *not* a nude girl. (This is only found out through pms from the formerly 'anonymous' folks or when a huge flame war starts - which is nearly every day.) It's just not pretty. However, having severely limited energy myself, I get how *having* to make some at-least-half-thought-out comment in order to rate really does cut back on the number of folks rating.

 

That's my main point on the "+" button, really - just lowering the effort needed to 'rate' without absurdly increasing the ease of trolling. I agree it isn't perfect.

 

My other *main* point *is* how quickly pictures disappear. How there isn't really a good way to browse the "archives", which considering the variety & talent hosted on this site, would really be a pleasant thing to do. And if we could find a way to solve those two points - easy way to browse old pics, easy way to rate -- I think things would work much better.

 

An example I just stumbled across of a site with "+" and "random 5" stuff going on:

http://www.outdoor-photos.com/

 

I've no idea the point of the site. :biggrin: And again, not sure it's the best solution. Note too that they have a "+" & a "-" -- perhaps with a high volume of ratings, that'd be possible here. And perhaps it's coded so the minuses can't take a picture into the negative, I don't know.

[SpacemanSpIiff]

Hm, i see your point there, and you made a great point that nailed it on the head with the very few number of ratings/number of veiw ratio.

Making the rating system easier would possibly change that.

 

I was really happy to see the image rating formula be fixed, it really frustrated me back then to see a 10 ban me clean off #13 from the top 25 when two of my images were on it at the time, it seem entirely backwards to me.

 

You got me wrong with the way i rate though. I start everything out at 9, and then subtract from there accordingly. The 9 stays if theres nothing too terribly bad or wrong with it, but at the same time theres nothing so outsandinly special. The only images that get 10's to me are the ones that truely stand out above the rest. I dont take points off for no reason, i do my best to supply constructive criticism, and tips/tricks for improvement. It would be nice if everyone would do that, I do remember it was you who showed me the 'tm' command in one of my pictures way back, your rating was a....6 i think? but your comment entirely justified why, And i was entirely happy that atleast you backed it up with good reason, and even a method of improvement. on top of complimenting the good that was in the image. I kept the image up with everything wrong with it so i could look back and learn from my mistake.

 

(http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/image.php?id=6659) <--your comment here is what i refer to.

 

If everyone could be as helpful and *honest* as that. then alot of the problems here might not be..

[kalia]

Ah yes, my one attempt at rating in that style (not that one post, but one short period I did that for) - I felt *sooooo* horrible afterwards, I vowed never to do it again. :blush: Whether it was helpful or not to you (and I'm glad it was), it felt wrong to me. It just didn't fit into my own personal sense of beingness. That's not a judgment on others who do rate like that, it just didn't work for me. Honestly, I'm not sure I could call that pic a "6" again.

 

The thing is, what folks find to be helpful varies. Some folks are looking for tips to improve, some really do just need a place to host an image - and Nexus is so pretty & clean compared to Photobucket. Some just take a funny shot, and aren't interested in console tricks or anything like that. And sometimes the "helpful" can easily come across as patronizing, like the rater knows all about art & the ratee doesn't. It's a fine line to walk.

 

And I for one can't always *be* helpful, and assume it's probably the same for many others. Today is an extremely rare day energy-wise online, this is probably my quota of words for the month, lol. So sometimes I just wanna browse, give some props, but not have to come up with those pesky *words*. :wink: However, being able to just rate a pic "1" without having to justify it & with no accountability - I think that'd go downhill fast.

 

What if a certain range of ratings didn't require a comment but another did? Let's say anything 8 or above is considered "good" or "good+". (And with the ratings formula fixed an 8 or above *should* be a good rating, and should only help not hinder a pic in perhaps gaining visibility on some top list.) So that's a simple button-click. Anything 7 or lowers requires a comment, and the amount of comment being a moderator call if report button is used. I'm picturing like this:

"I rate this pic 7

Nice pic, but you forgot to toggle of the menu (TM in the console if you didn't know)"

or

"I rate this pic a 4

{insert much longer explanation of the pluses & minuses you saw in the pic}"

 

I still don't think this is quite the solution. It seems - well, it would certainly weight *commenting* towards the negative ratings perhaps, and that might just make those sting more. And then it's also weighted kudos-like towards just giving good ratings, which some here may feel is not an improvement. I also don't know if it'd be unwieldy from the coding side.

[SpacemanSpIiff]

Ah well, dont worry about the 6 at all kalia, dont worry, i assure you, i wasnt mad :thumbsup:

 

on another thing you mentioned, the "random 5" idea would be great. it would bring older pictures right into the spotlight again. hell id go so far as to add a "randomise" search, and the stie just draws in random images from its entire data base on a page. that would be neat!