To Adam .... giving point more sense ....

[oochappan]

Maybe it is a foolish idea but at least an attempt to upvalue the pointsystem if it is not to drastic to program out this following approach.

What I notice, people upload a new photo and points are given to the newcommer,
but not always
sometimes the new photo is like an invitation to wonder around in someones gallery and then to pick out an elder uploaded photo that seems to them really outstanding in this gallery.
This choice has a more enlarged value then chosing only the last, it epresses at the same the target of the voter what he is looking for in photographie.
So to mark this upvalue of choice it could be expressed maybe with a yellow or golden smiley, at a same time a galant way to extend the pointsystem not with points but with a differant color to put spot on elder photos sometimes unjustly forgotten.
Possible this drastic upvalue ?

[adam]

Are saying a smiley given for an older photo should be a different color than others?

[oochappan]

Indeed, if it possible or a differant border on the smiley. Maybe it can stimulate people more to go through someones gallery and the critique given then is of much more value as more outstanding photos of a gallery will be chosen. The points can remain.

Possible ? You like the idea ?

[kikvel]

Other possibility is to clasify the smiles in two groups: a) smiles for low rated pictures that "neccesarily need to be given" to help new members or low rated pictures to identify their weaknesses to improve. This can be 5 per day. Once these 5 smileys are already given, you are "enabled" to grant your b) daily smileys to whomever you prefer to as usual.

So, 5 smiles to critique low rated photos...and only then you have your common smiles.

The question is how can be identified a "low rate photo"...The low rate photos should be in a page where pics older than 2 days (period can be redefined as 1 day or more) without receiving any attention or critique.

Once they receive a critique at least they should be removed from the category of low rate or unattended.

In this way, all TEr will participate and critique "first" five unattended pics before spending their pennies where they may want to.

just an idea...I got no clue how difficult should this represent in programming the site...html and php geniouses shall know...

K.

[kikvel]

for the TErs when signing in to be critiqued first...

K.

[kikvel]

does not contemplate different kind of smiles...once they are given they are similar...they do not differ in colors or other type of visible sign...

They should be only differentiated internally by the software code. In other words you can "only" critique low rated pics, if you do not do this first task, you can not critique photos which do not fall into this category...

This system will have a lifetime...should work as long as within the database remains unattended pics...

Then again the definition of low rate pic can be redefined...

K.
There is no easy solution for this. But only are two possibilities 1) To kindly ask the old members to critique low rated photos. And to leave this as a voluntary task. 2) To request as a mandatory thing the critiques to low rated pics before having your pennies...

[kikvel]

maybe 1 or just two is enough

K.

[kikvel]

can chose 1 or two or more pics that remain unrated...and guide you to rate...only after you finished your daily quota you have permission to give your pennies...

I guess is feasible but it surely will involve programming and maintenance...
Somehow this was already though with the uncritiqued link which is "voluntarily" chosen. The only difference would be that this link shall be visited as a necesary step to use your points.

K.

[AdrianW]

It's not a bad idea, but nor is it a good one IMO. One of the reasons that people don't get critiques is because they don't write any critiques themselves.

I went through a phase when I tried to critique only orphan photographs - but I found the whole process sufficiently unrewarding that I stopped - mainly because I rarely had any response at all. Often I had the feeling that people were only posting images because they wanted to share them with friends, rather than because they were interested in photography or learning about it...

It's particularly noticable over TN - there are quite a few uncritiqued shots, but if you look at most of them they belong to members with between 30 - 50 points, but no stars or boxes to their names. Most haven't even written a single critique!

It's a two way street, people can't expect to recieve critiques to all their pictures if they haven't critiqued or workshopped a single image IMO.

I find it interesting that I've written roughly twice the number of critiques that I've recieved... I wonder what everyone else's ratios look like?

[kikvel]

Its true what you mention...sometimes you do not get any response...and it is quite normal when you are new to log in post a photo and wait...I mean to do nothing. To only expect rewards and not to critique others.

K.