I've always wondered.. Some people's flickr pages are filled with tons and tons of comments, even when the photos are (ahem..cough cough) somewhat mediocre.
Whereas others who have some amazing shots have very few comments.
Is there a reason for this? Or is it just another one of life's mysteries ?
Activity really depends on your "status" in the community. If you are dishing out 1000 comments per day, then you are likely to get 50 back, even if your stuff is ... somewhat mediocre.
If you post a lot of comments on other people's photos and add them as your contact, you'll get lots of comments too, even if it's just the copy paste of a Flickr Group's code.
If you're a good looking girl you'll get lots of comments too, specially if say you're single in your profile, I suspect you'll get a lot of PMs asking to be your contact as well.
Some people are better at working Flickr strategies that result in lots of comments. These include:
- commenting a lot on other the photography of other Flickrites, many of whom then may feel obligated to comment back.
- Limiting posts to perhaps one per day.
- joining a ton of groups and posting in a lot of them.
- some comments are from folks who are "obligated" to comment or favorite a certain number of images once theirs is posted in certain groups.
- some subjects just seem to attract people, regardless of photo quality.
- the photos might be fine but just not in a genre that you like.
Dan
epuja wrote:
Sorry - if this is in the wrong forum...?
I've always wondered.. Some people's flickr pages are filled with tons and tons of comments, even when the photos are (ahem..cough cough) somewhat mediocre.
Whereas others who have some amazing shots have very few comments.
Is there a reason for this? Or is it just another one of life's mysteries ?
Yet another reason to host with your own web space or disable comments on a photo hosting service if you can.
It's just like the "website awards" from the late 90's. They would be awarded to just about any HTML that could load in a browser... the purpose was to drive traffic to the ad-laden "award" websites. I remember receiving some for a site I did in '97-'98... at first I was proud... then I learned the truth
Actually, I think it is fine to use Flickr - but you need to recognize it for what it is and approach it as something other than your real photo gallery. I do post on Flickr - roughly one photo per day - and I'm interested in the reactions that the photographs get from that audience. But I also have my own blog where I post photographs and other stuff, and I have a separate gallery site.
Flickr is not a bad thing. It just is what it is. :-)
Flickr has changed quite a bit in the past 9 months or so. Some users are "importing" their methodologies from social networking sites like MyFaceSpaceBook for example.
What is successful in garnering hits and "friends/contacts" is appealing to certain segments.
That being said: +1 on having a post with nubile young women. If I post a shot (portrait, etc.) of something obviously female, it gets hits a lot more quickly than most any other type.
I use flickr as my drive in the sky for archiving my personal photos... so I post a lot. I get very few views/comments unless I explicitly post an image to a group, or have real life friends view it from an email link.
Thanks a lot for all the feedback!
Yeah I use flickr, but have been comtemplating using something else (but not sure what).
for now I think I will continue to use it..
I think I have a better understanding regardng the comments thing now
epuja wrote:
Thanks a lot for all the feedback!
Yeah I use flickr, but have been comtemplating using something else (but not sure what).
for now I think I will continue to use it..
I think I have a better understanding regardng the comments thing now
1+
I had the same thoughts about those insane number of comments at some flickr photos, but now it seems obvious.
Pretty girls
Pretty girls self portrait
Bokeh
Proper labeling
Gear
Groupies
I hate Philippine buses. They tend to show up on interestingness at a biweekly basis
Basically pandering
Some people have no taste?
Flickr is Flickr. Don't expect the Louvre. Appreciate it for what it is. I think Pbase hosts better works but it is harder to get an audience.
In some ways it works like Facebook - the more people you "friend" (leave flattering comments) the more "friends" (flattering comments) you accumulate. Some people manipulate the process to increase their visibility, others don't bother.
n0b0 wrote:
If you post a lot of comments on other people's photos and add them as your contact, you'll get lots of comments too, even if it's just the copy paste of a Flickr Group's code.
If you're a good looking girl you'll get lots of comments too, specially if say you're single in your profile, I suspect you'll get a lot of PMs asking to be your contact as well.
No mystery.
+1: Fully agree with this statement, confirms my own experience with comments.
After being a flickr member and poster for more than 3 years, I changed my attitude on flickr towards selective commenting and avoiding having too many contacts. I am also not eager to receive a tremendous amount of comments - I rather like to have less comments but therefore more qualitative ones which state opinions on my posted photo(s). I don't see any sense in just copy&paste a group icon as comment. I only keep contacts (less than 40 people) with photos which I can screen on a regular basis and comment myself.
I highly recommend to disable the download picture function on flickr for general public. I only allow this option for selected friends and family members. Before I disabled this function - first I didn't know where it was hidden in the settings - at least 4 of my photos were stolen and added on other commercial websites. I only found this out after other flickr members told me - the photo thieves finally later removed my photos from their sites after I complained.
globalkiwi wrote:
In some ways it works like Facebook - the more people you "friend" (leave flattering comments) the more "friends" (flattering comments) you accumulate. Some people manipulate the process to increase their visibility, others don't bother.
Correct - crticism of photos or hints how to do better photos seem to be highly undesired by the majority of flickr members. That's why 99% of written comments are only flattering on flickr - unfortunately.
?
, but now it seems obvious.