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DPChallenge Forums >> Challenge Results >> No more votes of "5"
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06/10/2011 10:17:46 PM · #1
Hey, I feel I vote pretty fairly and give out lots of 8, 9, 10's (you guys are amazing photographers). I don't often vote 1, but besides that I do use the whole scale. However, I think that sometimes I give out too many 5's because it's easy when I can't really decide where a photo should be. It's a so-so photo so I give a so-so score. But I want to stretch myself and really decide if I like the photo or does it need some work. So, for a little while I will go back to all my 5 votes and change them all to either 6 or a 4 if I think it needs more work. I am guessing it will be an even split up and down, but it may better help a photographer to not just be placed in the middle of the road. I'll try it for a little while and see how it works.

So, what are your thoughts on this? 5 or votes of 4 and 6 instead.
06/10/2011 10:27:49 PM · #2
It's an interesting concept. Five is a rather lazy vote. I vote five when I feel unmoved by an image. Technically it's good, the composition holds up, but that aside, it just leaves me cold. To get past it and not put any more thought into it (and this, I think, is what you're getting it), I press five and move on.

Maybe another (easier) way to go at it is to vote how you normally would, then go back and change the fives to either fours or sixes.
06/10/2011 10:32:51 PM · #3
Sounds ok unless you will be changing me from a five to a four.....
06/10/2011 10:38:07 PM · #4
Sometimes I have trouble deciding if I think I should vote something 4 or 5, or 5 or 6. Imagine trying to decide if I'll give out a 4 or a 6.
06/10/2011 10:44:27 PM · #5
I tried... for a few challenges I gave no 5s ( paulbtlwgot me started thinking about it).... the problem was that for me to give a 6 I have to feel the picture is above average. But to give a 4 means the photo doesn't cut it for me. IMO, a lot of the pictures are in the middle of that. So what do I do?
06/10/2011 10:45:12 PM · #6
I think lowering a vote is kind of mean. Why don't you bump up the ones you would have to a 6, and leave the 5's as is. There really is nothing wrong with a 5.
06/10/2011 10:45:53 PM · #7
Or maybe the answer is... I just have trouble making a decision and I should work harder at that.
06/10/2011 10:50:35 PM · #8
Originally posted by PennyStreet:

Or maybe the answer is... I just have trouble making a decision and I should work harder at that.


I love it PennyStreet! Straight to the truth!
06/10/2011 11:02:29 PM · #9
I understand why you feel this way, but I think the solution is a poor one.

Plain and simple, there are a large number of images that are just plain average. In actuality, we're already punishing them by giving them a 5. Average on a 1-10 scale is 5.5. Why punish them more by voting them significantly lower than average? Seems needlessly mean
06/10/2011 11:37:39 PM · #10
OK, didn't take much to convince me. I have reversed all of my changed 4 votes back to 5. I did leave the 6's that I had changed.

I will just spend longer thinking about my 5 pics before I vote and decide if I'm just being lazy or if they are really a 5 image.
06/11/2011 09:39:27 AM · #11
I'm still inspired. I may try this in a small challenge.
06/11/2011 09:51:21 AM · #12
Originally posted by vawendy:

In actuality, we're already punishing them by giving them a 5. Average on a 1-10 scale is 5.5. Why punish them more by voting them significantly lower than average? Seems needlessly mean

You and I tend to use 6 as the average, while others use a 5. The slightly generous voters and the slightly stingy ones average out to that 5.5.
06/11/2011 09:57:50 AM · #13
I don't get what so many people have against a 5 vote. It is not a 'lazy' vote in my mind. If I give an image a 5, which probably the majority of my votes would fall into on a graph, it means your talent on that image fits in with the majority here. How is that bad or lazy?
The majority here is a talented lot! I save the 4's for images that I see as more of a snapshot than a serious photographers work. The threes and lower are much rarer for me to give out.
06/11/2011 10:03:01 AM · #14
Originally posted by ShutterPug:

I don't get what so many people have against a 5 vote. It is not a 'lazy' vote in my mind. If I give an image a 5, which probably the majority of my votes would fall into on a graph, it means your talent on that image fits in with the majority here. How is that bad or lazy?
The majority here is a talented lot! I save the 4's for images that I see as more of a snapshot than a serious photographers work. The threes and lower are much rarer for me to give out.

Not to call you on your voting pattern, but with a vote given of 5.11 overall, I get the impression that you find most of the images here at DPC to be snapshots....and remember that a vote of '5' is actually below average on a scale from 1 to 10.

Message edited by author 2011-06-11 10:04:13.
06/11/2011 10:09:38 AM · #15
Originally posted by ShutterPug:

I don't get what so many people have against a 5 vote. It is not a 'lazy' vote in my mind.

But it's a lazy vote in my mind. Your mind works differently -- as it should. I wasn't suggesting that others should or shouldn't do this. For my own purposes, I think it would be a good exercise to consider images that I otherwise give the time of day. The point is, when I'm feeling lazy and just want to get to the next image, I hand out a five. I'm being lazy. I'm being lazy.

I'd probably end up bumping most of my fives to sixes. The ones that go from five to four -- in those case, the five was probably charity anyway. And in fairness, I'd make it a point to comment on those.

And there's no shame in a snapshot.
06/11/2011 10:10:33 AM · #16
Originally posted by bassbone:


Not to call you on your voting pattern, but with a vote given of 5.11 overall, I get the impression that you find most of the images here at DPC to be snapshots....and remember that a vote of '5' is actually below average on a scale from 1 to 10.


Well, you actually are trying to call my out on my voting pattern - which fine...so just say so. But - when you do so, keep in mind that the average vote cast goes back to my beginning days n DPC 6 years ago. I voted much lower then. So unless you have a way to see how I vote most recently maybe you can refrain from calling a person out with such flawed statistics.
06/11/2011 10:13:33 AM · #17
Originally posted by ShutterPug:

Originally posted by bassbone:


Not to call you on your voting pattern, but with a vote given of 5.11 overall, I get the impression that you find most of the images here at DPC to be snapshots....and remember that a vote of '5' is actually below average on a scale from 1 to 10.


Well, you actually are trying to call my out on my voting pattern - which fine...so just say so. But - when you do so, keep in mind that the average vote cast goes back to my beginning days n DPC 6 years ago. I voted much lower then. So unless you have a way to see how I vote most recently maybe you can refrain from calling a person out with such flawed statistics.

I guess I did call you out on it - a badly worded message on my part. My apologies for not framing the opening statement correctly.
06/11/2011 11:34:27 AM · #18
What's more important than the absolute number you give to a specific photo is that you be consistent in your voting across all photos. So it doesn't matter if you give out only 1's, 2's, and 3's, where 1's suck, 2's are average, and 3's are great. Then maybe one 4 for your winning pick. If it makes you feel better to add 6 to all my above vote numbers, then more power to fuzzy thinking. Again, the key is relative consistency, not absolute value.
06/11/2011 12:07:29 PM · #19
Good luck selling that.
06/11/2011 12:12:05 PM · #20
Originally posted by weheh:

What's more important than the absolute number you give to a specific photo is that you be consistent in your voting across all photos. So it doesn't matter if you give out only 1's, 2's, and 3's, where 1's suck, 2's are average, and 3's are great. Then maybe one 4 for your winning pick. If it makes you feel better to add 6 to all my above vote numbers, then more power to fuzzy thinking. Again, the key is relative consistency, not absolute value.


I am all for people voting the way they see fit. A couple of photogs I respect greatly on the site score images generally very low. But I also trust their objectivity and consistency.

And in some respects I can understand why you vote the way you do during challenges. A quick review of images you have entered on the site suggest that you prefer to shoot nature shots that are generally not sharp in focus, underexposed, blurry, and or noisy. You tend not to find many of those on here....
06/11/2011 12:47:29 PM · #21
Ooh, ouch. I'd give bassbone's comment a 1, LOL.

Honestly, I think you mis-interpret me. All I'm saying is that people probably read too much into what a 5 means vs. a 7 vs. a 3. I don't see anywhere on the voting rules where it says what a number means other than it's a 10 point scale where 1 is "bad" and 10 is "good." In other words higher is better. It doesn't really matter what number you, as voter, choose as long as you are consistent in your voting methodology. It's going to be a gaussian distribution in the end.

To illustrate, in high-school, a 75/100 would be around a C. But in graduate school where grading is on a curve a 75/100 might be an A+. That's what's happening on DPC. A+ photos rarely do better than a 7.5, on average.

I prefer to vote low and leave a lot of headroom for really superb photos. I know the curve has a long tail and I want to be ready to reward the really worthy photos with an A++ 10.

@bvy, not trying to sell anything to anyone. The voting system is what it is and open to interpretation by all.

Message edited by author 2011-06-11 20:58:19.
06/11/2011 12:59:36 PM · #22
Originally posted by weheh:

@bvy, not trying to sell anything to anyone. The voting system is what it is and open to interpretation by all.

Indeedy. And I think we've come full circle. The OP, whose suggestion I liked, seems to have abandoned her idea, since it received a only a cool reception. She thought it was a good idea when she posted it -- she should at least try it once as an exercise. One voter changing a handful of fives to fours (or sixes) during a challenge shouldn't cause any riots. And who has to know?
06/11/2011 01:28:11 PM · #23
In that last year or two, the score considered average on this site has trended down from 6 to 5. If you utilize the entire scale, which is what it is there for, 5 is slightly below average. OK.

IMHO, if everyone is utilizing the scale in a semi similar manner, it works, but when there are those that choose to vote on a very different scale this skews the data gathered and renders the scores...given and received...inaccurate. By this I mean that someone scoring only low numbers, but consistently so, and receiving votes that are given using the entire scale....everyone those individuals vote on gets dinged for score received, but you still come out smelling like a rose based on your perception of what the scores mean with regard to photo quality. If most give low voters a 5 for a very average shot and those low voters are handing out 2's for the same, a 5 received would be like the rest of us getting votes of a 12 or 13!!!! The same goes for those that always score others much higher as their scores received will not reflect what their perception of a good photo should get based on THEIR voting style.

When I started, 6 was average. I am not going to continue to trend down because of these types of discussions. AND because of the down trending, the individual stats shown don't reflect 100% accurately based on current conditions.

*sorry, I'm a little stressed right now (other reasons)*

Message edited by author 2011-06-11 13:50:00.
06/11/2011 01:44:33 PM · #24
Originally posted by weheh:



As for your comment, assbone, come back in a day or 2 when I pick up my first ribbon (smells like a blue). Let's see, you have 8 ribbons out of 185 challenges entered = 4% yield. I'll have 1 ribbon for 7 pics = 14% yield. Seems like not only do you not understand different voting systems, you also seem to think overly highly of yourself as a photographer.



Not much to say about this except you put too much stock in ribbons. Your tone speaks for itself.
06/11/2011 02:14:28 PM · #25
Originally posted by bspurgeon:

Not much to say about this except you put too much stock in ribbons. Your tone speaks for itself.


About as much stock as I put in gassbone's comments. And you're right, my tone was chosen carefully -- to ridicule the ridiculous.

Message edited by author 2011-06-11 21:01:00.
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