Query re. Most viewed, highest rated, most commented tabs.

[AmberFleur]

Hi,

I have tried looking several times at the 'Highest Rated' tab on the Digital Photographer of the Year Competition website, using both Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 browsers. However, the same photo's appear on different pages each time. For example, a photo on page 3 of Highest Rated photos, will also appear further on at page 7 and this happens with several photos. Therefore, how are we to work out how highly our own photos have been rated, as the results do not appear to be accurate?

I must say that I greatly preferred last year's website for the competition. Then, everything was clear - you could see how many votes you had and everyone also seemed to give each other more comments than this year (not sure why this is, though). Just the whole layout seemed much clearer than this year - it was easy to see HOW to vote (I had to ask on this forum, this year).

Was there any reason why the layout was changed this year and is there any chance you'll change back again for next year's competition.

Any advice, re. how to tell how highly rated our own photo's are, considering they appear on several pages, would be appreciated.

Thanks everyone.

[Reinardina]

Hi Amberfleur,

I agree that it was much easier last year, to see where your pictures 'stood' as you knew exactly how many votes each photograph had. However, you may remember that pictures with the same number of votes, were constantly moved around. One day you found your photo with X number of votes 'leading the pack,' while the next day, or even two minutes later, that same picture was somewhere in the middle of the group. I think something like this is stil happening; the pix that move around certain pages, probably have the same number of votes.
Maybe Amy Davis, or someone else from PhotoRadar, can put me right if I'm wrong?

I too think the number of comments have sadly dropped to an all time (?) low; at first I blamed the 'wobbly words' you had to conquer to be able to have your say, but they have been absent for a while now.

People do still vote, as some pictures do climb the ladder (some stórm the ladder, but not mine sadly, they make a slow progress. Or not), but I think a lot of people have not discovered the 'thumbs up' icon (or can't be bothered) and I wonder if the number of votes cast, has dropped significantly.

There's another thing I wonder about: for a non/poor English speaker, the sentence "Log in to like," probably does not make too much sense! "Log in to vote," is much more easy to understand.

PhotoRadar, is this worth a try?

PS The word "increse" in the subject/title line, should, of course, be "increase"! I don't seem to be able to correst the subject line.

[AmberFleur]

Hi Reinardina,

Thanks for your reply. I must admit I find it hard to see how a picture can be on page 6 for example and also on page 13, by the time you've moved through the pages from 6 - 13. I suppose it could have something to do with having the same number of votes as other pictures, but as no-one else has answered, I guess we'll have to wonder together!

[christinew45]

I think the voting is always in flux. People are voting all the time so it might be that photos are always moving position. It is my understanding that votes are not relevant to the final outcomes anyway but are just for user involvement?

[Reinardina]

Votes are not relevant to the final outcome, thank goodness! (I dread to think what would happen if the competition was judged purely on votes!)
But ... as people CAN vote, of course we all want to know where we stand, and that is virtually impossible.

[Cutter]

Originally Posted by Reinardina

Votes are not relevant to the final outcome, thank goodness! (I dread to think what would happen if the competition was judged purely on votes!)
But ... as people CAN vote, of course we all want to know where we stand, and that is virtually impossible.

Wow Reinardina , just looked at my photos in the comp and have received a vote from you thankyou very much. I am ashamed to say i did not know I could even vote for other photos ! just thought it was up to the judges

[highlandscenics]

I think there-in lays the source of the problem.......Because it is ultimately up to the Judges to decide the winner, folks simply cant be bothered to trawl through the 1000's of entries to vote, as they know that their vote dont mean a jot in the final outcome.

I have always believed that the whole "user vote"/"show your appreciation" thing is a to make the judges job easier and less time consuming. Think about it, all they have to do is see which shots got the most votes and short list those for the final selection process.

Someone could enter a great shot right at the start of the competition that accumalates a lot of votes over the course of it...yet someone who enters a shot of equal standard may enter a few days before the closing date and get less or none......judges look through the highest voted and the guy/gal who entered right at the end gets overlooked.....

I may be wrong...but thats the way I've always seen it...

[Reinardina]

Originally Posted by highlandscenics

Someone could enter a great shot right at the start of the competition that accumalates a lot of votes over the course of it...yet someone who enters a shot of equal standard may enter a few days before the closing date and get less or none......judges look through the highest voted and the guy/gal who entered right at the end gets overlooked.....

I may be wrong...but thats the way I've always seen it...

Photographers who made the short list in the past, have pointed out repeatedly that some of their pictures got only a few, or no votes at all.

Two or three years ago, most of the shortlisted photos were entered in the last few days/weeks of the competition; I thought at the time that you had a better chance of being noticed by entering late ... I have since changed my mind and think all photos get the attention they deserve; there will be a lot that get thrown out immediately because of poor quality or not fitting the category requirements.

The pictures with the highest number of votes will certainly be looked at more, because people will trawl the 'Highest Rated,' but I sometimes wonder (dare I say it? I am afraid I might trigger off a lot of hate mail) if some of the votes are generated by (cyber)friends or relatives.

Last year someone defended his/her very high number of votes by pointing to the link to social networking sites that was shown with the individual photos.

All this wisdom(?), I have gleaned from this forum, as the voting system is, I think, the most aired topic!

For me, the comments/votes are mainly a possiblility to 'show your appreciation' or ask something specific about the picture, and often result in a short exchange of thoughts or banter.

Good luck to all of you!

[Reinardina]

Not everyone seems to know votes don't influence the final result, and especially (relatively) new members are often puzzled. Nothing wrong with asking for an explanation.

As far as reciprocal commenting is concerned; yes, a lot of people take a look at the entries of someone who has commented on their pictures. Out of interest, or politeness and yes they then often leave a comment.

[moira2010]

Glad I found this forum thread as I was wondering about how to get noticed as none of my images have been looked at. They probably aren't any good but if you don't try you will never succeed.