I've received 17 comments in Textures II and all of them have been helpfull. I was wondering if I should just tick the 'helpfull' box and thank after the voting at the top of the comments, or reply to the commenters individually?
Why? I cant see any harm in it myself, the votes been cast a comment left. If you think you need to reply then ok. I have had people pm me regarding my comments. Some not very happy, some just to say thanks for the comment.
Why? I cant see any harm in it myself, the votes been cast a comment left. If you think you need to reply then ok. I have had people pm me regarding my comments. Some not very happy, some just to say thanks for the comment.
It is something that has been addressed in the forums several times. Apparently the posts have been too politely worded for everyone to get the message. Do not reply to comments while the voting is still in progress. After voting is closed feel free to reply as you like. Votes and comments can be changed after they are made up until the voting closes. Any contact between the entrant and the voter undermines the anonymity of the challenge and could be viewed as an attempt to influence the outcome. Hope this makes it clear.
I've received 17 comments in Textures II and all of them have been helpfull. I was wondering if I should just tick the 'helpfull' box and thank after the voting at the top of the comments, or reply to the commenters individually?
I was really asking if it was polite to discuss comments after the voting, if somebody takes the time to comment and it was helpfull I just wanted to know if commenters would be happy to get a reply. I'm sure the 100% commenters would not be to happy if everybody replied?
Ecce - If you feel the urge to respond to every comment, go for it. There's nothing saying you can't anywhere. I'm sure your commenters will be happy to see that you appreciate what it was you had to say.
Do what feels right. If you weren't supposed to respond, the admin's would not have revealed the names of your commenters until after the challenge was done.
Early on I did that for a while - out of gratitude, I thanked each and every commenter with a PM, usually trying to personalize each one with responses to specific points in the original comment. Two things put a stop to that: First, like you, I started wondering what it would be like to recieve 20, 30, 50, 200 emails from each person I gave comments to. I could see that getting overwhelming. Second... its just too darn hard! So I moved to adding a followup comment on my pictures page thanking commenters and answering questions. Don't know if anyone reads them, but hey, I only have to do it once. Occasionally I send a PM directly to a commenter if there's something specific I want to follow up on or point out.
As far as Coolhar's post, while it is a strong and common sentiment among some of the site's population, I don't think it's a rule or site policy. You just run the risk of angering them if the person you PM during the challenge happens to be someone who shares that sentiment.
Thanks for your all your feedback. I think I'll keep any comment feedback down to the really helpfull comments cos if I took the time to comment on 100% of the entries and everybody replied, it would be the last time I commented so much and as I'm here to learn I want as many comments as possible.
I think it's fine to PM someone to say thanks for the comment, I do this sometimes myself often. And I have also put a comment on the picture page thanking commenters. Both of these are also very good methods of answering questions about your image raised during voting, but use them AFTER the voting is finished. What ScottK says is true, there is no rule against replying during. It's just common sense. If you can't understand that maybe you can just refrain until after voting out of respect for the views of others. A few days is not that long to wait and the comment is still going to be there to remind you. Does any one really think that the challenge voting is not supposed to be anonymous?
