This idea has been discussed in various forms before, and it's a good one. The main problem that I see with volunteering, though, especially in a forum atmosphere, is that everyone would volunteer (that's why most people are here...to get comments, right? ;)) If everyone submits their photo to the critique forum, it's really no different than voting (or photosig, for that matter). Everyone would want the comments, but the number of submissions would be too great for people to really go in depth.
I think what may be more manageable would be if a few pictures could be picked from the results each week...randomly, or by a certain designated number ranking (maybe we could have random one from the top 25th percentile, a second 25th percentile, etc., or to be even easier, #25, #50, etc.) Link them to the homepage somewhere, and let people continue their comments from the voting. It would give people a chance to really go in-depth about the comment they may have left during voting, it would give the photographer a chance to respond with more information about the photo or certain questions they may have had, and it would give people a chance to see what others were saying so that they could have examples of critiqueing. It would provide an opportunity for those who didn't make the top 3 to get a little attention, and it would provide a more constructive use of time for those of us addicts who post about lightbulbs all day :) |
