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Flickr = Sad?
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I host all my pics on Flickr but never bother with it as any sort of C&C or feedback tool. For me it’s 95% hosting/organization and the odd 5% browsing around looking at other shots.
I’ve never seen anything as ridiculous as the Commentary feature in Flickr… it’d make you sick with all the crap ‘Awesome’, ‘Please Join My Group’,’Awesome’, ‘Please Join My Group’,’Awesome’, ‘Please Join My Group’ and on and on and on.
Anyway last night I tried a little experiment:
There’s a guy that that puts up pics that have a surreal wow effect about them.. at first I was amazed by the work.
Over time I got sick of looking at the same effect applied to every single photo (the law of diminishing marginal returns) and wondered did he ever try anything else.
He posted a new pic yesterday which was more of the same stuff. Now don’t get me wrong, the photos are amazing, but it’s the same thing time and time again. I looked at the comments on the pic and there was about 40 ‘Awesomes’, ‘Wows’ and ‘Please Join My Group’ posts. I decided to put up my own comment along the lines of:
“Whilst I initially found your images amazing, over time I am finding the whole approach a bit repetitive and a lot less appealing, do you do anything else?”
I was sure he didn’t even bother reading the comments because what was the point?
This afternoon I logged into Flickr…
* He’s gone from my Contacts list
* My posted was deleted
* I can no longer post on his imagesInitially I though ‘unbelievable’ then I though ‘what a sad place Flickr’ is. Maybe I was wrong by not offering any critique on the photo that was presented. I’m not really sure.
Just wonder what other people’s thoughts are on this?
I found a few talented photographers, who deserve the 40 ‘Awesomes’, but usually I have a similar opinion.
I did the same once. I followed the posts of a girl who made these retro, very sentimental, interesting photos, and quoted a poem under every picture, and I thought ‘Wow, Awesome’. After about two months I started feeling that the pictures were very similar to each other and all that kept them alive were the poems (they were not hers), so I asked her what she thought of my theory. She replied in a very angry tone and said that I couldn’t appreciate her art. I then removed her from my contact list, because I realized that I couldn’t understand the high art..
Flickr has some good features, like the slideshow, but I am generally not impressed with the community side of it.
Here’s a guy, whose pictures I think are awesome: http://www.flickr.com/photos/all_the_names_are_already_taken_pfff
Yeah, I really like the features and no doubt there’s some really talented photographers… but like you say… the community seems to totally lack any credibility.
It’s like a Temple of Love… if you don’t show love you are barred from the temple… which is what happened to me today.
This particular guy must get a great kick out all the love… because he’s obviosly not pleased with me denting his ego, which to be honest wasn’t the intention but seems to be the effect.
You can’t paint everyone on flickr with the same brush though. I know some talented photographers on there who abhor the monotonous comments aspect, try some very different things and both give and accept good critisism.
I agree, there’s nothing more frustrating than a comment on one of your photos like “wow” or “awesome”. I’d much rather get some constructive comments, even if it means telling me my shot is crap. But if you’re in the right groups, where people don’t HAVE to comment, or that don’t have a little icon to post advertising the group, then you can avoid a lot of it.
LOL – Dimitre spat you out?? Did you tell him the emperor had no clothes?? :lol: :lol:
Yes, that example is sad. But there are groups that you can gain influence from. Initially Flickr can be addictive but I have gone on record for knocking the culture before and the risk of similar here.
But as Randomway and Jody do point out it can be useful for your own interest.
As a side post what is the most peculiar group that you’ve been invited to? Two that stick out for me have been “Images with the number 1337 visible” and a group where you post an image that has predominantly the next colour in the rainbow following the last post. I’d always be curious about who comes up with these things and why they administer them. Don’t they have anything else better to do?Alan.
PS – Don’t worry John, you’ll always be on my contacts list. :wink:
LOL…
Yes, I agree about not painting everyone with the same brush and to be fair to myself “Flickr=Sad?” was a question, a feeler, as opposed to a statement.
I only tried this experiment on one user to be fair and I doubt everyone would react that way. I’ve never delved far into the community thing because I never found anything positive about it, that’s not to say it doesn’t exist.
I joined a couple of Groups in the past… but never really got what they were supposed to about. Maybe I should re-title this to “NFL is ignorant to Flickr?”.
J
do you mean Dimitri Depaepe ? his images are very striking and strong but thats really down to him using the same processing technique (action?) so fatique does set in
Flickr has its pros and cons as does everything but your pictures do index well on the search engines.
I am an admin in flickrsbest and i find that the admins there are great help for teaching me. If you ask u get an answer and a true one. The awrads were secondary
What i did find was repetitive type of photo for a while and decided to run a weekly theme competition and i would randomly choose the theme.
I taught it would get people taking different photos and in turn we could all learn from the ideas sent in by all members. It did work but
i lost the time to run it.this i think it what flickr is about. Getting out and learning from others. Asking advise and taking criticism and fixing problems then after.
well its my thinking anyway
Flickr just seems like another Bebo, Facebook, etc, to me .. just for photographers. It only seems to be about collecting “friends” and joining groups. Most of what I’ve seen on there aint all that. Don’t get me wrong, some of it is special, but it just seems like there poor-excuses-for-critiques are limited to one word as already expressed above.
I like flickr~~
I am surprised when someone comments on my stuff there because I know they really don’t expect equal admiration and reciprocal fawning.
They are not kissing up to me for any reason.
They are usually strangers who at the very least are being kind. It’s a nice confidence booster.
People who get mad and ban you from their comments and their site are no different from people on this and every other photography forum who leave when they get their ego bruised. They are everywhere…not just flickr???
Is there anyone here…c’mon…who doesn’t like to be told their work is good???
Be real.
A few samples from a random post just selected from Flickr…
what cuteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!
LOLLLLLLLLLLLLL……………………………………….
absolutely wonderful!
well done !!!!!!!!
many sweet kisses!
………………………………xxxxxxxxx
i love you!I am jaleous, because there are no sweet kisses in my stream! :-)))))))
I don’t love you!! LOLYour Photo Wins a Heart
From Heart Awards Groupwow!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS A MASTERPIECE~
Mark… can we get a ‘Blow Kisses’ Emoticon for PI please???? Please???
And I’d now like to officially launch the ‘NFL-Fan Award’ which I shall be distributing to photos that I really like from now on.
nfl-fan wrote:
And I’d now like to officially launch the ‘NFL-Fan Award’ which I shall be distributing to photos that I really like from now on.
Shouldn’t an NFL-Fan award relly not be called an “MVP”?
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