I was reading this thread when it dawned on me that an excellent feature would be the ability to compare user-selectable pictures side by side. (No more than two across but as many down as the user selects.
The pictures could be constrained to a viewing size somewhere between full and thumbnail.
This would have helped me immensely during the "Childhood" voting. There were so many "swing" pictures, I would have liked the opportunity to compare them side-by-side. (When I vote on pictures that have the same subject matter and nearly the same angle, I tend to vote on them use a subjective "curve" in order to give the best of the group the highest number.)
Subjectivity to each photo has been talked about before on the forums and generally discouraged.
I will admit that I even catch myself comparing similar photos but ultimately have to choose simply based on what I like or don't like..regardless of how many similar photos exist.
I doubt this site will ever use a format that encourages subjective/comparative voting and I would have to agree with this policy.
I agree that comparison can be helpful. I also agree that it can be a bit unfair. To get around it here is what I did this week with the swing photos:
I scored each one as I thought appropriate without consideration to the others, making notes of which got what.
Then I changed them all to ones (since I don't generally have a lot of ones) for a few minutes so they'd be grouped together and I could analyze the form, composition, etc as a study on "swing". I then scored them all without consideration to the previous score I'd assigned (and believe me there were too many to remember which got what, except for my favorite few). Then I compared my two scores for each photo and made minor score adjustments as I thought necessary.
So, it was interesting for me, and I think I scored them more accurately as a result. The problem for me of not using the comparison is in the weight I give a particular flaw. For example there might be a background distraction that I take off for in one photo and lighting that I take off for in another. When I compare them it makes it clearer to me which flaw is really more pronounced or detrimental to the photo, then I am able to make adjustments to my scoring rubrik as I find necessary.
I don't think I want the site to accomodate this because I don't want it to replace the current voting method. I think it is a good tool in ADDITION to the current method, but if the site offered it I think it may be over-used, if that makes any sense.
Originally posted by just-married: I agree that comparison can be helpful. I also agree that it can be a bit unfair. To get around it here is what I did this week with the swing photos: I scored each one as I thought appropriate without consideration to the others, making notes of which got what. Then I changed them all to ones (since I don't generally have a lot of ones) for a few minutes so they'd be grouped together and I could analyze the form, composition, etc as a study on "swing". I then scored them all without consideration to the previous score I'd assigned ...
2 cents in a dollar's worth of space, Dawn
Very clever technique -- since I don't generally give ones or twos I could easily create two customized groupings, if needed. And, no code modifications or rules changes needed! Seems like you could skip keeping track at all of the initial score given...
Worth at least 89¢! Paul
* This message has been edited by the author on 8/30/2002 4:27:28 PM.
Glad to help. Although, while I was doing it there was a thread about how a few people's scores were jumping up and down. LOL. I think I might have been partly to blame. But I figure they may have ended up with a better score in the long run as a result.
