An Objective Ratings System

[Nikodamus]

I thought of a way to encourage people to give more accurate ratings, rather than the constant 5's that everyone seems to be getting. It will also ensure ratings are given to all photographs in a gallery (unless you want to opt out of it), so you won't get some 5-point images and some without any rating at all. It should be really easy to implement as it's based on the photo faceoff, so only minor changes to the programming code need be made.

What would happen is that, like photofaceoff, you click on "Rate Photos" and are shown a random photograph, with a box allowing you to choose from 1-5 or 1-10. You can look at the image, see it enlarged and then choose the rating you feel is appropriate. You can perhaps even add a box below to leave a comment along with the rating. Unsure whether this should be anonymous or not. There are algorithms out there which remove malicious rating (someone who goes around giving everyone low scores out of spite), so even anonymous rating will be fair. There is for example a website, hotornot.com has perfected it over many years and could probably be contacted to share their experience with the webteam.

The idea behind this is that because it's very fluid (you see one photo after another), it makes the rating less personal than going to someone's page, looking at their gallery, then being faced with the "should I be honest, or should I be nice?" dilemma.

On the other hand, I'm not sure if it will be a good thing. Perhaps people like getting 5's all the time as it boosts their confidence and makes them want to shoot me. Personally, I'd prefer honesty - I want to know what works and what doesn't - but that might not be the case with everybody. I've set up a mini-poll below, but if the staff like the idea and want to consider it, perhaps you can setup a better poll on the frontpage.

P.S. If I'm being a pain in the ass (this is my second suggestion thread), please just say! A "we like your enthusiasm...just curb it, you're going overboard!" would be taken as an offense!

[patrick]

there have been a lot of ideas to change the rating system and this is also a interesting
and smart idea but, personaly i think that there is only one option and that is not to care about the ratings.
Making people smile when they view a shot is the most important thing.

The best option , i think is to give the possibility to chose to be rated or not. There are 1000 of photographers who
care more about the comments then about getting a 5* rating.

If you want shots to be noticed you need a " new shots " catergory. And if you are active on the site you
people will find you.

If you want the rating system to be changed than you need to get rid of the " top rated images and gallery" .

[Nikodamus]

I think you're absolutely right. This idea could be modified to be a comment system rather than a rating system. You are presented with a random photograph and you get to leave a comment before seeing the next shot.

[mikehirst]

I often find the rating system doesn't work anyway as if someone gives me below 5 stars I will check the comments and there will be no comment on how to improve they are basically just telling me the photo is rubbish with no way of improving it so I have learned nothing from the below average rating. I don't look at the ratings so I prefer to focus on the comments received.

http://www.dphotographer.co.uk/user/mikehirst

[lucy79]

I'm with Pat on this one, although the high ratings are a confidence booster it's the comments you look for, both to encourage you and teach you what you might have done differently.

As has been said before, the top rated galleries are often those with only a few shots (though I'm sure they are still great photographers!), it's harder to keep that average when you have hundreds of images in your gallery.

I would give a choice to having a rating system, but allow new comments to show as a colour change, asterix or email notification of new comments per image.

Thanks for listening

Lucy

[db1]

My suggestion is to scrap the numeric rating system altogether. As pat says comments are far more valued than the numbers which as has been said gives the dilema honest or nice. If you want to rate galleries why not simply divide the total number of comments and/or views recieved by the gallery by the number of images in the gallery. This would give a measure of the consistency/quality of a photographer based on the attractiveness of the images to his/her peers on the site. It would also mean that no deliberate down grading could take place since even an uncomplmentary comment would enhance rather than detract from tha rating.
Rgds David

[TPilgrim]

why not do it like other websites everyone can click 'like' (or any other positive word you want) on a photo, either click 'like' or not.
this leaves no option for malicious voting or deliberate downgrading, then you can keep the top rated galleries as the most 'liked' images, this way as well one vote could not put you top of the ratings, and new galleries with only a few images in would not go straight to the top.

[Seosaimhin]

That's one I've voted for before, and will again the next time we meet to discuss the website - I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, please keep your suggestions coming!

Josie

[krayamh]

I find that both the ratings and the comments systems are failing to work for me.
Everybody seems to give a 5* regardless of the quality of images. And people pussyfoot around the comments as not to upset anyone.I see alot of people will say well done 5* for that , but ive never seen a comment saying great work 4*. does it really offend people. I have shots that to me are not perfect in many ways, DOP may not be as good as i wanted or colours a little over the top. but 99% of people dont want to bring these points up. I would be learning alot more alot faster if people were more honest. saying not only what they like about the picture but also what they dont. I could take an awlful shot of some cute puppies and get 5 stars because they are cute puppies not because the image itself was any good or any time and effort was put into the shot at all . I like the idea of only judging one image at a time as it can be a litttle unfair judging two. for example if im a big fan of landscapes the chances are im going to choose the landscape over say a picture of cute puppies that im not interested in. and vise versa.
and for my final moan whilst on the subject of comments it would be nice to have a system that would allow us to check our most recent comments on our profile page. if you have a lot of images on your profile page it can be a pain to check what image has recieved the latest comment/s unless i write the ammount of comments each image has been awarded then i have to basically open every image until i find the one with the new comment. i hope all that made sense
rgrds Kray

[RedEyes©]

why not do it like other websites everyone can click 'like' (or any other positive word you want) on a photo, either click 'like' or not.
this leaves no option for malicious voting or deliberate downgrading, then you can keep the top rated galleries as the most 'liked' images, this way as well one vote could not put you top of the ratings, and new galleries with only a few images in would not go straight to the top.

i have mentioned that a couple of times now. Its a simple system that seems to work best out of all the systems i have seen on any photography based site. Sure its not flawelss as you still end up with click "cliques" but for people just browsing it gives them the opportunity to show appreciation for an image by being able to vote for it for whatever reason.

The other side of the coin then becomes people moan about not receiving any feedback to go with the vote, as they then can't equate it to what it is the person that voted for the shot actually liked about it etc etc

[JimW]

If I remember rightly this was the big issue when I first joined the forum and it does crop up fairly frequently. So far nothing has changed despite sone very good ideas.
If the current system is to continue and to stop people moaning about downrating then at the very least the rating system should - as with comments - display the user name of the person rating the image. The anonymous rating system has led to conflict and bitterness so its time it was ended. Personally I would be happy with a comments only system but I don't see it happening soon.

[chrisburns]

I believe I mentioned this one some time ago as well..

the best option i've seen out there as tpilgrim mentioned is simply a 'kudos' or 'vote for' option..
you can only vote once per image or not so there is no multiple voting and it takes away any downrating and scores.

the typical example is from www.ephotozine.com
it seems to work very well and people never complain about this type of thing on that site....


comments are a seperate issue because if you FORCE someone to comment with the vote then what you will get is simply people leaving ...... ' ......' or other useless messages instead of proper feedback...

I like the feedback the way it is as an option to leave it or not but I would like to see GALLERY feedback ...

there have been many instances where I have wanted to leave feedback to the photographer / artist simply to say I like their portfolio or group of work.......

unfortunatley you have to leave that on an individual image.......

but i'm all for scrapping the rating system and simply adding the kudos option

[JimW]

Some comments about how people don't use the forum much and the desire for some type of messaging option on the gallery pages led me to this thought.
Why cant there be a 'Forum Member' line on our gallery homepage? The forum already has a messaging system so this would alleviate the need to reproduce the system on the gallery side of things and might generate more use of the forum if people knew they could easily find a member on the forum and leave messages there. Anybody have any opinions on this?
Hmm maybe posted this in the wrong place, sorry

Jim

[bigfra]

Its a good idea Jim, like it my friend.

Perhaps worthy of a thread of its own, or reposting on Website Suggestions