If anyone has noticed, whenever mentioning curators in whatever relation, we end up with the same critiques. Regarding the critique section being poorly visited, I think it is because there are photos, if I may say so, which make us wonder what kind of critique is expected. Amazing though, such photos get loads of serious critiques, until same realize it has been some kind of joke... It becomes boring, and I even started to withdraw my photos since I do not see any useful intentions this way from the curators side. I noticed clearly whenever posting a photo, they wait up to a whole day to submit it into the critique section together with loads of others. Other photos very clearly from what I have seen so far, are being uploaded by them separately, not in groups. Which means at least to me, they do it purposely. I wrote an email about this, but no useful answer. If you want the critique section to be taken seriously, curators should allow only photos which are good enough to them the same way they judge whether published photos are good enough to them. This will put more pressure on curators in the sake of a fair judging system since they do invite us photographers to participate on this site. Otherwise what would the site be without us...

 

Hello Riad,

 

in critique section we do not judge good or good enough or not good as our critique section has been build up for everyone to receive critique on a picture. Surely the pictures needs approval by a moderator only to prevent not allowed content is posted there.

 

Critique is give and take and up to the member it self how active he is there. I am sure that when you give useful critique you also will receive useful critique.

 

Best regards, Robert

Robert wrote:

Critique is give and take and up to the member it self how active he is there. I am sure that when you give

useful critique you also will receive useful critique.

 

Hello Robert,

 

My whole comment was not about the lack of critique regarding my photos ( I am very happy with the critique I received so far, especially not published photos ), I was responding to someone elses comment regarding the critique zone being less active. I wonder where from you got this idea?

For the reasons mentioned in my comment, I believe that could be a reason why the critique zone is less active, and in my opinion will not recover unless it is taken more seriously.. We participents can not make these changes!

PPS: Another edit, whenever adding a word, I check the post, everything OK, but after saving it changes the word or text back!

1x is a kind of gallery, where also curators make the choice, who is in or out.

It's also a kind of a photo contest, where a jury decides, you are winner or not.

In gallery or contest, impossible to contact or complain about acceptance or not.

 

We are not paid, spend a lot free time, doing our job the best we can, but if somebody would pay me 9 $ on my bank account, I will give comments with pleasure (LOL).

 

P.S.: Better use Critique forum (or Members screening) to receive FREE comments.

 

I think the new curating system has focused the attention of the members and has affected somehow the activity on the critique forum. The great thing about this is that it has filtered the critiques.

One of the advantages of having the curating system is that you can be a part of the curating process in the published section of 1X. Another advantage is that your photograph gets a wider range of views than in the critique forum.

For me the great thing about critique is that encourages us to go way beyond the simple "like or not" opinion and the vague comments. If you really want feedback, you can first submit one picture to the curating process, and if gets published, congratulations to you, if not, you can post it on the critique pool after giving three good critiques on other members work.

Cheers.

Hi Everybody,

 

You are going out of the main subject here, the question was about just feedback from curators and we did get the answer. We know one thing, with 1x, we do have feedback from members, and it 's great, you know why, it's not like all the other websites, where you put a picture and everybody saying, "nice shot" and the game of clicking all day for your picture to go up, of course easy to get 99.9% to be on the top.

What we like about 1x at least, people are honest, saying,what's wrong with the picture, helping to improve, since we subscribe, we learn something more about photography. Now it's up to you to choose to listen or to work out what is best for your pictures, published or not, the most important is that you like what you have done with your work.

Have a good weekend everybody.

Thanks Pier, Thanks robert, Thanks Riad. Thanks frederico, Thanks Ben, Thanks Perter.

Thank you, you too. :)

 

Don't worry, I didn't feel attacked. I also didn't want to hurt any feelings of all the hardworking contributers as you are or criticize the hole system. I just wanted to find an explanation why the comments in curation/member screening and in the critique section a relatively rare at the moment. My question is, do we want further discussion of this topic, here in this thread or elsewhere?

 

A nice weekend everybody from me as well.

 

Thanks Dalida and Andrew,

Good weekend to you too.

I was on 1X a good few years ago.. I got frustrated by rejection and no feedback.. AND what seemed like a success rate of published for a certain style.. I came back because there was bit of it that intrigued me.. I came back and frustration has kicked in again...time to go back to enjoying photography and not get hung up that my images are not good enough for a small lot of people.

 

Of ye, and a mate said if I joined and paid they are more receptive to your images..pmsl

 

 

Hi Joe,

 

Why do you give up? It's not because you are not published that people don't like your pictures! Published or not, we keep going on, not published and what? few of our pictures are on our wall in the house and we love them.

Do not waist your time about this, the most important is that if you like your pictures, it's all good.

Do not listen what the others say.

Hope that's helped on your decision.

Cheers

Yeah... I know what you mean J! Sometimes I make a picture, everybody tells me how frustrating it is, then it gets published, I get even more frustrated since I feel somebody is playing me, then I just play

music of Love and Life with all its good and bad aspects all day long! Then everybody else around me 100 of meters away get frustrated too, then they tell others to publish frustrating pictures, then the obedient get even more frustrated when looking into the mirror seeing two faces and so on :(

 

 

Hi Mario. Actually, the artist whose photo you comment on can in fact see the critiques you have provided.

 

Go to your photo directory http://1x.com/directory, click "edit" on any photo, scroll down to where it says "curation info" on the right. This is where you can view any comments that were made on your photo by member voters during curation.

Following points should be reconsidered: (update once again , system keeps deleting added text...

( in case critique is seriously welcomed ) ( point one to four have already been mentioned)

- more fairness when curating

- a second page for qualified rejected photos

- freedom of choice for visitors and buyers

- no privileged behavior in the favour of paying account owners ( they should be privileged with better site options instead )

- this would create general harmony, not only among certain followers for whatever reason. would make photography on ths site a real joy!

- discriminating photos/ disturbed-made up usernames according to all website rules should be disqualified, account closed. I don't like it when someone with reproduced photos of dead people adds my cats photos to his/her favourites. More attention and common sense to keeping the site clean.

Thanks

 

Ben already told you, where the photographer can find the curator comments.

There is also one more possibility to provide feedback on photos.

If you want to help out photographers by giving long and extensive critique, there is also a critique forum here, if you haven´t seen it before. There people post shots in order to get critique and you can be sure you will be heard as well. Just click on "Community" and then "Critique".

 

Yes, I agree, it needs to be more apparent and visible.

 

However I understand they put it there to encourage more users to fill out the photo information forms.

 

Thank you Ben and Meike for helping Mario.

 

Mario..

I just want to restate what has been said before to be sure that there is no misunderstanding.

You say...

 

In act everybody is now curating with this new level system.

 

This is not quite accurate. lx has always had and continues to have Official Curators. These are the people who choose the photographs which are published.

 

Members are now being given the opportunity to Screen photos, rate them, and even leave a comment if they choose to. They are not official curators. It is possible that the Official curators may at some point take some of the information given by members into account when making a decision. However, this is not mandatory. Keep in mind the Official Curators would not have the ability to read every single vote and comment. It would be virtually impossible.

 

So just to be clear we have Official Curators - look at the section on Crew...and then we have the Unofficial ones.

 

As for Critiques...we can see what is written, so it is not a waste of time. Of course some could decide not to look; that is their choice.

 

As has been suggested, the best place to have a give and take exchange on a photo is in the Critique section.Once again this is all voluntary.

 

I hope you have at least understood that members are not choosing the photos which are published.

 

Thanks much,

Phyllis

Forum Moderator

@Phyllis

 

"Members are now being given the opportunity to Screen photos, rate them, and even leave a comment if they choose to."

 

How do we rate pictures ?. Only options at present are Publish/Reject which is a bit coarse.

 

I spend a lot of time on the curate pages and would say that around 1:10 receive a written comment. So the other 90% have no feedback at all which is something that so many people are wanting.

 

My solution would be to offer a set of "reasons" that would either pop up when the Publish/Reject button is pressed or be a new panel in the curate area. These reasons could be:

 

[ ] Cropping

[ ] Focus

[ ] Composition

[ ] Exposure

[ ] No area of interest

[ ] Sloping horizon

etc

 

And a submit button at the bottom.

 

I accept that this will not provide in depth feedback but it is a start. The information would only be available to the photographer. If they receive say 100 negative responses for Focus and a smattering of others then this would at least point them in the right direction.

 

This method is quick and easy which will encourage more people to respond. The option to provide writen curation will still exist of course.

 

The statistics may also be useful for the crew and could be published anonymously each month.

 

This message may be better in the suggestions forum but don't want to double post.

 

i think she just misspoke. you used to be able to rate them when it was only available on the mobile site. 1-5 stars.

 

the rest of your comment I will let Phyllis or someone else respond to because it will likely need an extended conversation that i am not willing to be a part of at the moment. (Things to do, places to be!)

Hi Mario

 

I think you are looking at this the wrong way or have the wrong idea. The votes from the "members" do make a difference. Most if not all of my published images have had very high acceptance percentage from members during curation.

 

The ones sent to curation that have had a low percentage have been rejected.

 

I think if you post an image and have lets say a 85% acceptance with lots of votes from members, that image has an excellent chance of being picked by the official curators.

 

One other point, when a comment is made, it can influence other voters one way or another. From comments, you might see the image in a different light or perspective. Again need to see who is making the comment. An image with a couple of positive comments will fair better than one with a couple of negative.

 

Either way having anything published is an accomplishment, standards for publishing are high and official curators have many high quality images to choose from.

 

al

 

Hi Pat,

 

Thanks for your questions.

What I am thinking is that what we have now is a pretty sophisticated system compared to all the other systems we have had in the past.

 

In the years I have been a member here we have had different types of ranking/rating systems. One of them was quite like what you are suggesting. It worked for a while, but then members felt it had problems. Actually, when I think about it, all the systems were liked by many but not all. I think the Founders listened to the feedback and from time to time would change the system. I am not sure ow long you are here so I do not know how many of these ranking systems you have experienced.

 

One of the issues with the list is where to start and stop. Also, just checking a box or example on Exposure does not tell me much. What part is not exposed properly? Why is how I cropped the photo an issue. If I don't now the specifics how can I evaluate your critique and perhaps fix it. Each and every area one could list will still leave the recipient wanted more information. That means writing comments in addition to checking boxes.

 

Since we now have a comments section - what is stopping you from using it to be more specific? I ask because in the end the info we offer should benefit the receiver. So why now write more comments if you think more specific information is helpful? Or of course you could make your own list and just say I see issues with:

l.

2.

etc.

As or ranking the word was probably not the best choice - the place where ranking came into play was when ranking other members comments.

 

Over time, I am sure that additional adjustments will be made to the system. However, I want to end by saying that in my time here this is by far the most comprehensive system offered to members to participate in the process.

 

I hope this helps a bit.

 

My best

Phyllis

 

 

That little criticism or help is given is probably because it needs to be given in English Since not everyone speaks English or even write, many people will not participate in "members screening" and "Critique" section. It might be an idea to let people answer in their native language, and by adding a translation option in 1x, the owner of the photo translate the text him/herself.

What I like most of 1x is the high density of great photographers that form it, which I think is due to the main concept behind the site, which I think is unique nowadays.

What I like least is its functional design (not aesthetic design, but how options are distributed on menus, and how some things work... I find the site is not as intuitive as others. Of course, this is only an opinion (from someone who has been here only for some weeks...).

About this particular subject, I don't feel it works fine: curation process is quite obscure, and information submitters get after the process is quite poor. Critique forum should be the solution to that, but it doesn't provides valuable feedback often.

I think having both functions is a waste and it creates some doubts ¿should I submit a photo to critique or to curators? when and why? My time is limited, should I spend more time on the critique forum or curating?... I think it would be better if both functions could be joined in one unique process that most people could easily understand and participate.

Some ideas:

- Force members to make 3 comments on the curation process before they can submit their own photos to curation (something similar to how critique forum works... well, probably paying member should be an exception).

- The function which allows to vote critiques from others is quite useful, in my opinion. It can avoid to see many times the same comment on a photo, and the submitter can know how many people agrees with a particular point of view (voting to others comments could be another way to get allowance to submit your own photos, for those who doesn't feel right writing extense critiques).

- All of this information should be easily found by the submitters, not scrolling down in a particular option.

 

 

Hi Carlos.

 

While this encourages more participation, i don't think force is the solution. we have to keep this first and foremost a photography community. some artists do not want to or cannot (language) write curation comments. this would be unfair to those individuals and place too much emphasis on commenting (more than there already is).

 

Your other suggestions and thoughts are on point.

 

Thank you.

Hi Ben,

In my second suggestion I pointed out that members who votes other critics could be also allowed to submit photos, although now I see this could lead to members voting others critiques indiscriminately ... no system is perfect.

Other way to encourage members to write critiques could be increase the number of photos that they can submit , and sure other people can think of other ways...

These are only ideas (I haven't meditate too much about them, its more a kind of brainstorming...). And I am not saying that the actual system is bad (in fact, I can't think of better systems on other sites), but, as getting published here is harder than in other sites, maybe here is more important that people could get more feedback about their photos.

I just woder?

 

How is it possible that pctures popularity is 25% when it has 2 votes?

Thank you Mario :)

 

but an other picture: 127 views 105 votes and 46% popularity. My mathematics is rusty but it seems that the first impression (8/2 = 25%) doesn't work.

Different level members have different weight on the scores. a level 1 has very little influence where as a level 8 will make a much larger impact on that percentage.

I would like to know if it is possible to get rejected within 2 seconds to upload?

 

Hi Monica,

 

Images get a minimum of 100 votes before rejection.

 

If it was rejected before that, send a personal message to a moderator or e-mail [email protected].

 

Thank you! I will

That is quite interesting (new) information. In the recent past I had rejections within 20 minutes or so following upload. The last one took more than two days, and I was thinking that my picture was in the process of discussion among the offcial curators. Now, I can assume that the rejection was decided within short time (as usual in my case), but postponed until the picture got its 100 votes (102 exactly). That is not very encouraging and on the edge of being taken for a fool.

The curation info about the 100 votes is interesting and new to me. All of my photos were rejected before, best of them got stalled and rejected after 1.5 - 2 hours with 42% (64 votes) and 41% (70 votes)! Then I started to put frames and watermarks.. Yesterday, I sent a watermarked photo to curation, and it is still in the process till today (wohoo- 1 added favourites :) This time it seems it will stay there until the 100 votes, but in advance disqualified due to the offence of putting a watermak! Hmm.. either way, we seem to always lose..

 

Hi Thomas,

This was as of only a few weeks ago now so it in fact is relatively new. Ralf announced it in a blog post entitled 'At Least 100 Votes.' Previously, photos were rejected after 40-70 votes (this was taking only 30'-1hr), members felt it was far too quick and not a large enough pool, that is the reason for the increase in voting and time.

 

Blog post (21 days ago):

 

"There has been some concerns that photos are not in curation long enough. Therefore we have now made sure that each photo will get at least 100 votes before the official curators take a decision about publishing it or not. This means that photos will stay a lot longer in curation.

 

It also means that we are going to need a lot more votes than before to ensure that all photos get at least 100 votes, so please go ahead and spend some extra time in curation and help out to find the most sublime photos in the world."

 

You are certainly not being 'played a fool,' it's allowing your image to be seen by more eyes and have a larger voting pool than previous. If your votes go well past 100, you may assume it is being discussed or contemplated by the official curators.

 

However, it is (as you stated) ultimately up to the curators to make the decision. I do believe member voting and commenting is mainly for the members, not the curators and their decision making. Though it is certainly not ignored by them, it can be taken into account but i wouldn't be surprised if it's a case by case scenario.

 

Member curation is just another way for members to participate in the community.

 

still all smacks of elitism and curation craves if you ask me. some great images get rejected on here.. but that's just my subjective view. :)

So, each picture get minimum of 100 curation votes. After that starts the real caration. Photgrapher is informed if the picture is acsepted but he/she doesn't NEVER EVER get picture rejekted. It's simply just not published. It would be friendle to tell about rejections also.

 

"Not Published" means it was rejected.

 

This can be seen by going to your photo directory (hover over your profile icon in the upper right hand corner, click 'photo directory'), clicking 'edit' on the chosen image, scroll down to the bottom of the page. Here is a screen shot of what you may see: http://tinypic.com/r/2mhd7v4/8

 

Otherwise it will say "In curation" in yellow font if it is still getting votes or the curators are making a decision.

Ben, a big THANK YOU for the way you answer all kinds of questions.

I would like to say that the CURATE tab is a great way for all the members to see all the different pictures sent to curation, and then see what is published.

It is a great learning process.

We can of course not see the name of the photographer when the picture is in curation, but then i would like to know if the official curators can see the name when curating? Just curious..

thank you Ben for explaining the edit button on photo directory. Never knew that and Always waited without knowing how or why. I also now see the comments from curation. A big help!!!

Thanks again!

 

You're welcome :)

 

Yes, it is a great way to learn. I hope members do not dismiss it, it is a very valuable learning tool and I say that from personal experience.

 

To answer your question: Yes. The OC's can see the name of the artist in their own curation.

 

 

No problem :) I'm so glad you're able to see this now. I wish it were more visible and not so hidden because I am sure there are so many more members out there who have no idea it exists.

 

Have a nice day everyone!

 

I think that I might have been doing something wrong when submitting images for curation as I simply punched the "submit for screening" button.

I submitted no information on the image and, when I hit the edit button in the "Photo Directory" screen there is no descriptive information available...dah!

Should I have entered the appropriate info at some point...where?

Should I have specified a category...how?

 

For all posting in this thread.

 

The thread is identified as Info on Curators.

 

Therefore when excellent information is offered on various aspects of the Curation process having nothing to do with Info on Curators it is then lost only to be asked again and again.

 

So, first if you do not have a question or an offering about info on curators I suggest you start a new topic or look for one which is more closely related to what you would like to know.

 

Most important please read the FAQ 'before' you ask any questions about how to do this or that. Some of what has been asked in the Curation related threads is actually answered in the FAQ.

 

I write this to you in order to try to help make the entire process more understandable for all.

 

As of now..no one will every find most of the great info here two months from now when this thread is dead. :)

 

The answer to the OP is here and it is clear and it is from a Curator.I am copying and pasting it...for those who have arrived late. All other questions not related to comments from Curators please put them someplace else. Thanks...:))

 

This post is from BenGoossens..who is an Official Curator.

 

___________________________________________________

 

1x is a kind of gallery, where also curators make the choice, who is in or out.

It's also a kind of a photo contest, where a jury decides, you are winner or not.

In gallery or contest, impossible to contact or complain about acceptance or not.

 

We are not paid, spend a lot free time, doing our job the best we can, but if somebody would pay me 9 $ on my bank account, I will give comments with pleasure (LOL).

 

P.S.: Better use Critique forum (or Members screening) to receive FREE comments.

 

__________________________________________________________

 

IF your question is not in response to comments from curators..do not post in this thread. :)

 

Thank you,

Phyllis

Forum Moderator

Who are 1x curators?

Go up to 'More.'

Then go to 'Crew.'

Best wishes,

Leigh