Does voting still has a meaning for you?

[djwixx]

THANKS FOR THE CHUCKLES.

Personally, photographically and artistically, I know I'm crap so I'm going to take all the comments and votes I can to help my low self esteem!!!

Luckily I appear nowhere in the populars, so the voting system is working for me!!

[halesr]

I (of course) love and appreciate the comments..I feel the same about the votes. But what gives me even a bigger thrill is when days/months/years later look at something I've created and think "GOD DAMN, that's good!".. that it stands the test of time (my test).

I think the TEST OF TIME is it for me. I have been in a workshop where the recommendation was to print it, stick it up on the wall and if it stays there among your favorities over time it is one of your best.

I also love the feel of looking through the view finder, clicking that shutter and feeling, "DAMN, that is a good one!" Those usually turn out to be among my long time favorites. Back in the film days you of course had to wait and see it come up in the developer to really KNOW you actually got it.

I also really believe the Diane Arbus quote, "My best photo is the one I am going to take tomorrow."

Now here is to many, many tomorrows and many, many thrills when I click that shutter.--Rene

[clickaway]

Was researching this topic only to find that Victor Ginsburgh and Abdul Noury from the University of Brussels have already written a paper on voting behaviour in the Eurovision Song Conest where similar issues abound

http://www.core.ucl.ac.be/services/psfi ... 2005_6.pdf

For those unfamiliar with the contest, may I add that Eric Clapton has not come near a single vote

Ray

[adalberto_tiburzi]

My favourite marketing theory?

"Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong"
-Oscar Wilde

And don't tell me Oscar doesn't "sell"...

[1designguy]

we can vote for ourselves?
MOTHER FU*******!!

I did not know that... lets see, 1650 images, lets say 10 seconds per vote... I should be done voting for myself in say 4 1/2 hours with a coffee break worked in

Thanks Jude

[ronnie_14187]

I must say after reading all these post that you PAD members are really funny. I do get a good laugh every time I visit the popular photos page.
Also, it's not about friends voting for friends. It's about voters, voting for voters. If you don't beleive me, stop voting on your friends images and see how fast they stop voting on your images.

Just an opinion of a one person out of the 111,000 members here on pbase.

PS: I have to thank pbase for the huge amount of exposure and sales I've made in the last two years of membership. I would love to know how many images sales pbase has been responsible for over the years.

Ronnie Gaubert

[jude_53]

Absolutely none, Ronnie..

But I think I'm one of the minority.. I know quite a few people who have been contacted for photo purchases on this site.

[clickaway]

I've yet to receive a cheque as a result of this site, but at least I have had the pleasure of allowing one or two small charitable organisations use my pictures. I've had a publisher and a national TV company want to use my pics, but they didn't want to pay so that was the end of that!

I do have some aviation pics on a specialised site and have been more successful there with four or five sales, including one from Singapore Airlines.

I really just do this for fun, but I'm not going to let people rip me off and devalue photography.

Ray

[ronnie_14187]

Well stated Ray.
Plenty of companies out there prey on pbase for free images. I get 3 or 4 request a week to use my images for free. But they say, "we will give you credit for your work", Oh, Boy.
However I do give away a good bit of images to sites that do not finacially profit from that site or the use of my images.
Last week a woman had the nerve to ask me for free use of an image of mine to use on the front cover of her book that she was selling for profit.
OK, enough, I'm getting off the topic of this discussion.

[daanstringer]

I located this discussion because i wondered if people were telling they voted for my pictures, but maybe actually didn't, because i don't see them back in the ranking list, and that list seems to be update. can be, only three images will be ranked, could be an explanation.

well, wondering about that 'missing votes', voting had some value for me ('you want to share your pictures, so you want attention for them, being voted they can become popular'-line of thinking), but seeing that it probably is most of the time working as 'i vote for you, you vote for me kind of system, it has not that value anymore. (ofcourse meanwhile it can be true, people really like each others work, not that uncommon).

for me it is of far more value if people with very good pictures (in my opinion) gave some comments on my work, but then again you have to catch there attention.. so i try to gave them comments, but so you can read my english isn't that good.. gaves me the feeling i can't express accurate what i think/feel about pictures, and then it's far more easier saying not that much but simple tell them you voted for that picture.

anyway, i'm quite new to all of this, still collecting my thoughts about it.

bye!

[pierresphotography]

I agree, and I find network viewing and voting plain irritating.

View or vote for a photo because it is striking, not because it is ART or because it is part of the circle of confused friends.

[suzppc]

I have very mixed feelings about this question.

I do believe that as with anything else, marketing is a very important component. If no one sees your image how can they comment or vote. The people that have more time to market and interact on the forum will have their images viewed more often, thus giving them a headstart on the comments and votes.

I do notice a lot of photographers whose work I do not particularly care for, get an amazing amount of comments to the good. Even factoring in the difference in taste, it does not make a lot of sense to me????????

That being said, it seems when I post an above average shot (for me), I get more attention than just my everyday stuff. People I have never heard of somehow see my image and comment, which tells me that the shots that did not get that much attention, really were not all that good.

When I have time, I participate in the Cslr Challenge forum. I seem to get very honest critiques, good & bad, from artists which I admire.

I THINK WE SHOULD ALL TRY TO GIVE MORE CONSTRUCTIVE COMMENTS (instead of just pats on the back) AND THINK TWICE BEFORE WE VOTE.

BLA, BLA, BLA

[clickaway]

Susan,

I have just caught a brief selection of your galleries and studying your PAD for May, I see you regularly receive a good number of comments.

I think your work is of a good standard and deserves the attention, but of course any given PBaser can only comment on so many artists work!

There are some artists on this site that get very little attention yet their images, in my view, is very good and creative.

I think there is a natural tendency to link votes and number of comments to the quality of the work, but in reality this just is not the case!

Ray

[tikouka]

I've got to admit it, but I do like getting votes, however they do mean different things depending on who they come from. If it is from someone who comments on my photos but doesn't always vote, then I know they must like something more about it. The more in depth comments are much more useful to me though.

In terms of addressing people always voting for friends, how about this for a solution. When I used to work as a facilitator, one method of helping a group decide on priorities, was to give each person 10 jelly beans (votes). They could allocate the jelly beans how they liked to varying proposals (10 to one or five to two etc, or allocate none and eat them all). If people were allocated 10 votes a week (or whatever number) they could allocate them how they wished and maybe have to decide about choosing between friends. If they found a photos they liked but had already allocated their votes then they just need to come back next week. That way we'd see how much they really liked the photo. Just a suggestion.

[djailledie]

Something I noticed is that the best images of the popular photographers do not get more votes than their other images. Now that the voting system is biased, even the beneficiaries of the current way of voting do not recieve a proper judgement on their own images...

I think that they are not to be blamed for marketing their work. The voters are to be blamed for buying without wisdom.

And here you go. 2 more useless cents in this debate.