I suggest you write in your profile in bold letters that you don't want to receive PMs during the challenge about photos. That way you stop the problem before it happens.
And you are not supposed to do it be sending PM's about your current photo.
There's no "rule" against it.
Most people just ignore such PMs if they don't want them. However, if there's a comment which asks a question then a response is not always completely unwarranted.
If you're going to give an "automatic" one for any response, you run the risk of violating the site TOS yourself. And you ought to put a disclaimer in the body of every single one of your comments warning them of your penalty for violating this personal policy of your's
If the message is "nasty" enough to violate site TOS, forward all the correspondence to the admins/SC.
There's no hard rule about this, and since the capability exists, its a bit harsh to give out a 1 for somebody using a feature allowed by the site. It is often discouraged by some for the reason you mentioned (annonymoty), but I'm sure not everyone knows that, and I believe there have been enough discussions that have left the issue open.
Not knowing what you deem a "nasty message" (not saying you did or didn't get any, its just in the eye of the beholder), I don't know whether its reasonable for you to give someone a 1 based on the content of their message. But it seems the "higher ground" would be to stand behind your score and your comment, good or bad, regardless of the tactics the other individual has taken.
If you're going to give an "automatic" one for any response, you run the risk of violating the site TOS yourself.
And those people who think his comments are terrible enough to send him back harsh PM's should then also report the comments to the SC as a violation of TOS.
Judging by your avg vote cast, your scoring is certainly reasonable, but to penalize without warning for violating an unwritten rule won't win you any friends. Some people may feel the compelled to plead their case, and you'll earn their respect if you either stand by your decision or rethink your point of view rather than resorting to a sucker punch. You're likely to get FAR nastier PM's with that approach. Nothing will suck the fun out of a game faster than poor sportsmanship.
Because I don't need to be slammed with nasty messages. Plain and simple.
And you are not supposed to do it be sending PM's about your current photo.
I like people that take time to respond to my comments on their work. It means they actually care about what I said. It means they actually want more information from me because they value my opinion.
If someone wants to PM me, I could care less. I took the time to write a review and it's nice to know that they care whether in defense mode or not. The only thing that bothers me is those who only check "this comment was helpful" on ONLY nice comments -- and when you are actually pointing out something that could have improved the shot, they won't check the box.
For that reason, I try to point out the nice things in a photo as well as list anything that I think could have helped. It's not good to leave only bad comments on an image that you do like something about.
An example would be for this image...
a BAD comment is: That line on the copper part looks like crap and I hate the shadow.
A GOOD comment (that still gets the point across) would be: Very good idea and the composition is great. The line on the copper is a bit distracting to me and the image could have been improved by more lighting reducing that shadow.
The second example is likely to be found helpful (whether they check the box or not). And the first example is likely to not be found helpful whatsoever even though it basically offered the same 'advice' as the first.
Sure, it takes a little more time to write it the second way, but your opinion will be taken more seriously and won't put someone directly in defensive-mode.
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That being said, I have NEVER recieved a defensive PM from any of my comments. If you are receiving a lot, you should probably re-think your method of putting things.
welcome to the club, I had trhe same problem too last week. see here
People please STOP explaining your photos in PM's, they should explain themselves alone. If your message is not clear to many viewer, maybe your message is not clear enogh or that viewer doesn't see well. In any case your action is useless, he won't see better if you PM him, but many people get anoyed by your whining PM's and this site sees less and less comments every day. Quite honestly my incident in the calendar challenge, even if I didn't planned to take actions like not to comment anymore, somehow ruined my mood for commenting and I didn't since.
I say it again there should be rules against this, because it is a breaking of one of the most important features of this site, the anonimity and because it causes a dramatic decrease in the number of comments. If you look at the thread i started last week, you will see quite a few people who admit they stopped commenting because of it.
Question is does it worth it? And another question is if your image needs additional verbal explanation, is it really a good one? Personally I want your image to say the words you are trying to explain in your PM's.
I think that's a great idea!!
You just see comments and you don't know where it's coming from and you can't PM the person!
Now people are making sense for a change!
I can understand your not wanting to receive PM's during voting. I can also understand your wanting to take firm action to prove your point and position on the matter. However, I disagree with the possible implementation of giving a 1 because of a PM (for reasons GeneralE already addressed).
At first conception of this site, the commenters were anonymous. Later it was determined that commenters should be revealed during voting. There are 2 sides to this issue, and seems there always will be. However, this current thread is exactly why I personally disagree with having the commenters shown during voting. I think people can just wait until after voting is over to see who made the comments. This allows people to sleep on it.. think it over... see that maybe the comment was more constructive than they first emotionally thought. I understand it can also go the other way, and has.. i.e. really was a rude or inappropriate comment. But there is also policy in place to take care of such things.
In the long and short of it, I would suggest, as others have, to ignore the emails until after the voting is over, or forever if you want to.
Perhaps, too, there is another way to show your disapproval. There must be others (we have heard from some in this thread) who agree with keeping completely anonymous during voting. Perhaps if enough speak out about it in a constructive way, it can become a taboo.
