Author Topic: "Liking" photos and "Most-viewed" gallery  (Read 4153 times)

Offline Steven Collingwood

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"Liking" photos and "Most-viewed" gallery
« on: March 16, 2021, 01:32:52 PM »
I have found that sometimes, those of us on this site can be well...  clickish and judgmental.
For example if the photo isn't from a friend of you or of the "right" type of ship or from the "right" place most of us (including me) could care less if it is a great photo or not.
Also, sometimes (not all of the time) we can be quick to criticize or otherwise show displeasure at other's photos...  sometimes justified, sometimes petty.
I challenge us all (including me) to at least once a day or however you get on this site to give POSITIVE feedback to our fellow photographers.  A like.  A comment.  Simply opening someone else photo to increase the photos count.  Even the photos from places we are not familiar with, that are not of our favorite type of ship, or not of our friends/group.
I am not saying we should lower our standards or such.  I am just saying, if it is a good photo, say so.  We ALL like praise and recognition or our efforts.  And to support our fellow ship spotters and to show appreciation when they get a good photo or show improvements in their attempts will make us all stronger.

Thanks and Hope Everyone is Good in these Trying Times
Steven Collingwood

Offline Dеnis

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Re: A Challenge to All (Including Myself)
« Reply #1 on: March 16, 2021, 06:10:43 PM »
People would be more willing to post comments if others not go on controlling the quality of those comments.  Nice/great/excellent/amazing/awesome/fantastic/etc shot/photo! If one would receive if only that kind of comment he should consider himself lucky he ever received a comment at all, than the person leaving the page without a like/comment or not even clicking on photo cause it wasn't special for him.
Of course many comment mostly when they REALLY have something valuable to add, like ship infos or some helpful stuff.
Regards,
Denis

Offline pieter melissen

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Re: A Challenge to All (Including Myself)
« Reply #2 on: March 17, 2021, 07:54:25 AM »
People would be more willing to post comments if others not go on controlling the quality of those comments.  Nice/great/excellent/amazing/awesome/fantastic/etc shot/photo! If one would receive if only that kind of comment he should consider himself lucky he ever received a comment at all, than the person leaving the page without a like/comment or not even clicking on photo cause it wasn't special for him.
Of course many comment mostly when they REALLY have something valuable to add, like ship infos or some helpful stuff.

My prime reluctance to make comments, is that it greatly determines the ranking of the most viewed photo. This incites people to comment on otherwise mediocre photos to "help" the photographer. Abolishing the competitive element could be a good thing, which might also improve the friendly tone of some of the comments. So let's get rid of the "most viewed" categories, and remove the comments from the home page. This gives you time to scroll through all the photos rather than through those on which a comment is shown on the home page.

And Denis, all those qualifications that you suggest to use as a comment have no added value if your comment is restricted to just that, and forget to explain why you think a photo is amazing etc.... and it will take a long time here before a critical remark on a photo will be seen as constructive, something the photographer can learn from to improve his skills. As the German saying goes: Better is the enemy of Good.  In this respect it is telling that the forum topic about photography and camera advice was visited for the last time in December 2019.
« Last Edit: March 17, 2021, 07:58:08 AM by pieter melissen »

Offline lappino

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Re: A Challenge to All (Including Myself)
« Reply #3 on: March 17, 2021, 09:36:12 AM »
I second the idea to abolish the "Most viewed" category, maybe to be replaced by some sort of random generator that would change the photos on the home page every x minutes...
« Last Edit: March 17, 2021, 10:30:54 AM by lappino »

Offline Tomas

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Re: A Challenge to All (Including Myself)
« Reply #4 on: March 17, 2021, 11:05:43 AM »
I have found that sometimes, those of us on this site can be well...  clickish and judgmental.
For example if the photo isn't from a friend of you or of the "right" type of ship or from the "right" place most of us (including me) could care less if it is a great photo or not.
Also, sometimes (not all of the time) we can be quick to criticize or otherwise show displeasure at other's photos...  sometimes justified, sometimes petty.
I challenge us all (including me) to at least once a day or however you get on this site to give POSITIVE feedback to our fellow photographers.  A like.  A comment.  Simply opening someone else photo to increase the photos count.  Even the photos from places we are not familiar with, that are not of our favorite type of ship, or not of our friends/group.
I am not saying we should lower our standards or such.  I am just saying, if it is a good photo, say so.  We ALL like praise and recognition or our efforts.  And to support our fellow ship spotters and to show appreciation when they get a good photo or show improvements in their attempts will make us all stronger.
Thanks and Hope Everyone is Good in these Trying Times


THIS!

Offline simonwp

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Re: A Challenge to All (Including Myself)
« Reply #5 on: March 17, 2021, 11:31:54 AM »
Agreed, get rid of the most viewed photographs. They don't seem to have any real value. Last week I posted a routine photograph of the coaster Lilbo. Someone added a comment, and it went to the top of the most viewed category. It certain didn't merit that, there was nothing special about it.

I agreed with lappino, random photographs would be better.

Offline Tomislav Raymondi

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A Challenge to All (Including Myself)
« Reply #6 on: March 17, 2021, 03:07:12 PM »
I totally agree with Steven and Lappino, there are photos that really deserve a comment about their good quality, their composition, the place and the landscape that surround it, etc., personally I like it and it relaxes at the same time to find out the particulars of a ship especially if they are old ships and in all frankness I dislike everything related to the concepts of best seen in the day, week, month, year etc, what's more, I don't even see these categories, it is much better to put photos at random , it is more beneficial for all.

Regards

Tomi.

Offline teachers

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Re: A Challenge to All (Including Myself)
« Reply #7 on: March 17, 2021, 08:34:05 PM »
Very well said Pieter,lappino and Simon, i am in total agreement with what you are all saying.

Offline Captain Ted

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Re: A Challenge to All (Including Myself)
« Reply #8 on: March 17, 2021, 09:32:28 PM »
I was very active on the site till rough 4-5 years ago. My main reason to
« Last Edit: March 17, 2021, 09:34:28 PM by Captain Ted »
NOW!!!,,,if we could get rid of the sailors,,how safe shipping would be !!!!!!!!

Offline GERALDINEnz

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Re: A Challenge to All (Including Myself)
« Reply #9 on: March 18, 2021, 12:51:22 AM »
Yip, totally agree on the most viewed coments, as I see it as a ego thing.
The most viewed numbers are only created by the number of coments to which some are very left field.
I posted a photo of a lifeboat ,coment followed ,then up over 500 views, on a lifeboat!!!!
Posted a nice panorama of a ship entering port under a rainbow and it gets deleted.
The imbalance of photography.
So ,get rid of the viewed numbers which removes the disappointment, and maybe members may use the "like this photo" button more rather than endless coments of "great shot,Joe".
Keep snaping and onya to all.

Offline davidships

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Re: A Challenge to All (Including Myself)
« Reply #10 on: March 18, 2021, 12:10:30 PM »
The discussion is much appreciated.  Just to recap from previous discussions:

1) There has been general agreement for some time that the present "Most viewed" is not ideal, and doesn't meet the original object of indicating the members' favourite photos.  

2) A desire to improve that many years ago led to the introduction of the "Like" button, but for some unknown reason that was never linked the the "most viewed" gallery - and almost nobody actually used it from the beginning - perhaps that is not surprising since it was placed too inconspicuously and doesn't link to anything else.

3) There was an significant issue with inward links being created on, for example, Facebook, which artificially inflated the number of views.  The previous IT management refused to do anything about that, by limiting the count to on-site clicks or to logged-in members (or if they did, we were never told).  I have not seen evidence of that happening so much over the last year or so.

4) The exploitation by a few of the Photocomments system to generate additional hits remains a fundamental issue - the "no first comment on your own photo" rule was a big improvement and is rarely broken.  But it is clear that there are some "buddy groups" still active, aiming to keep a comment in the current list.  

5) Proposed changes seem now to be more in favour of randomising the selection, though the positive feelings that many members have when a good image of theirs reaches the front page is not to be dismissed.

6) Lastly, when the new IT team took over about 15 months ago, a full revamp of the site on new servers was put in hand.  The server change happened, but the site refresh project has not yet reached Beta stage, partly due to unsatisfactory 3rd party developers, and no doubt also affected by Covid pressures. I hope that additional members will add comments on this thread, which I am moving to the "Site-related" forum with a modified title (I hope you don't mind about that, Steven)

« Last Edit: March 18, 2021, 12:19:09 PM by davidships »

Offline Steven Collingwood

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Re: "Liking" photos and "Most-viewed" gallery
« Reply #11 on: March 18, 2021, 12:29:21 PM »
I don't mind at all the move or retitling, I struggled honestly on trying to choose which category was best.

It was not my intention to cause a conversation to bash a group or the site.  Though the conversation on possible site changes is probably healthy.

It was my intention to challenge everyone (including myself) to try and be more supportive of other photographers and recognize that this is truly an international site and being more encouraging to our fellow members can actually make the entire stronger.

Thanks.
Steven Collingwood

Offline Tuomas Romu

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Re: "Liking" photos and "Most-viewed" gallery
« Reply #12 on: March 18, 2021, 12:35:53 PM »
At the moment, our front page has a total of five photographs: three most viewed, one latest, and one random photograph. The sixth is a screenshot from the latest video.

If you compare it to FleetPhoto, which could be considered as the Russian equivalent of Shipspotting.com, the difference is striking:

https://fleetphoto.ru/

- 11 "most popular" photographs
- one photograph from a "photo contest" (no idea)
- 63 recently added photographs
- 21 random photographs

Could we develop our front page to a similar direction?

I like the "most viewed" section regardless of how the views are generated - it's just this site's "what's hot today" collection regardless of if it's due to high quality photographs, topical content, or hot discussion. Instead of the top three, that could be expanded to, say, top ten? Or include the other "most viewed" categories as well (day, week, month, year, ever)? I wouldn't count out external referrals - is that really a problem?

Showing a wider spread of fresh photographs would mean that more shipspotters would get attention to casual visitors before their work is buried in the archives.

Similarly, a bigger selection of random photographs would attract more attention to the 2.7+ million photographs currently uploaded to the site, especially those buried deep in some less-visited or more-populated categories.

edit: ...and yes, it's possible to view photographs by diving deep into the site, but personally I'd prefer stopping by at the front page from time to time just to see if the great lottery machine has given me a prize in form of an interesting photograph. That's actually what I do with FleetPhoto...

edit 2: As for the original topic, yes, it doesn't hurt to use the site with a positive spin and give people comments when their photographs spark joy, not to mention starting an actual discussion under the photograph...
« Last Edit: March 18, 2021, 12:39:23 PM by Tuomas Romu »

Offline pieter melissen

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Re: "Liking" photos and "Most-viewed" gallery
« Reply #13 on: March 18, 2021, 03:07:32 PM »
Tuomas, I took notice of your first edit.

"edit: ...and yes, it's possible to view photographs by diving deep into the site, but personally I'd prefer stopping by at the front page from time to time just to see if the great lottery machine has given me a prize in form of an interesting photograph. That's actually what I do with FleetPhoto..."

I did because I might be wrong but you may not be aware of the function : Comments to my photos (in combination with "comments made by me"). You will find that by clicking on "My Photos"on the very top of the page, underneath your name. It helps me answering late comments and dealing with late reactions to a discussion I was involved in.

David: The like button I will never use. It reminds me too much about social media, and the way "likes" are being used by "big tech".   


Offline Tuomas Romu

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Re: "Liking" photos and "Most-viewed" gallery
« Reply #14 on: March 18, 2021, 05:11:33 PM »

I did because I might be wrong but you may not be aware of the function : Comments to my photos (in combination with "comments made by me"). You will find that by clicking on "My Photos"on the very top of the page, underneath your name. It helps me answering late comments and dealing with late reactions to a discussion I was involved in.

Thanks for the info! I was not aware of the possibility of "tracking" past discussions in this way. So convenient!

 

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