Regarding Reciprocity
and Gather's Current
Photo Pandemonium
Beginning with yesterday's announcement:
Picture More Points! Earn 10 Gather
Points for Every Image You Upload!
Gather has again been thrust into paranioa and pandemonium!
This time it is photo points pandemonium ... all and all it is well and good, and this too we will survive. Though the email server may collapse from exhaustion trying to
deliver all the plaintive pleas of "come see and vote for my photos" ... I don't know what you got in your email yesterday and this morning, but I had a page and a half of these requests. Many from people that aren't even connections.
There were emails promoting different schemes to view certain photos and vote for them (photo point whores might be the species of this animal). Others suggested that they would look at mine if I looked
at theirs (I remember this game from childhood ... we hid in the bushes on
the farside of the yard ... I think some called it playing doctor screach from someone's mother and everyone scattering with their pants around their knees!) A few opportunistic members tried creating new groups for the Ten Point Photos and marketed them with varying degrees of success...
Some tips for survial and maintaining overall sanity:
Completely disregarding the photo point pandemonium and the resulting paranioa, I will continue to operate in my usual modus: I first read and view those that read and view me. That is only fair! As I read comments I click
open their pages and check what they have been posting on Gather. Next I check other connections and members of my groups. And if time allows, the email requests may get a look. I believe you have to dance with the one that brought you, and I know who brought me, because they left me a comment!
When uploading your photos please remember that many groups have themes and it is not nice to blast all the pics you have stored on your
hard drive to every group you belong to. Posting content to themed and moderated groups that does not fit the group is inconsiderate the rest of the group. It also creates a lot of extra work for the group moderaters to clean up the mess. It also uses up system resources when gather sends out notifications of new content to the groups members and requests to moderaters to approve newly submitted content. There are many open-topic or no-topic groups that claim to accept anything and everything, but they have their down sides too.
If not everybody, you can count on a whole lotta other folks are getting into the photo point pandemonium if not the accompanying paranioa ... you only add to the point paranioa by emailing everyone to come see your pics. Reserve your group mailings for something important, like a special event or a significant article that involved lots of time, research, and effort to write (it would be wonderful if the pet contest would get onboard with this too...).
And the best way to get me, and many others, to look at your photos is to leave a comment on their and my photos (the same holds true for articles) Some refer to it as paying it forward ... it is also called reciprocity.
So lets all be good to each other and check out as many photos as you can, but fair to your friends and connections and leave comments for everyone!
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Comments: 69
I appreciate your level-headed-ness (is that a word? but you know what i mean!)
I am of the school that says if you snap 100 pictures one of them is bound to turn out. Sometimes it doesn't work out though and I'm left with hundreds of poor photos and nothing worth keeping.
Post the Moon is fine for picture spamming. It's a free for all group. But, please not my other groups unless the photo involved their content.
Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy
Oh and I'll be hunting Spartan down this afternoon because he usually has some of the best pics on Gather. At least in my opinion.
As with you...I'm going to remain true to myself and post as always...and comment on my connections...and then peruse to see what else is of interest if I have time.
Mr. Bill, I may have played your game of "I'll show you mine if........" LOL
GREAT tips and advice. I'll be stopping back by to see all of yours. ;)
I am working on a photo essay of my hubby and son's camping trip, so those pictures will be posted over the next few days, with an actual photo essay to follow shortly. I need to figure out how to do all those pics in one article, but the pictures are too good to let just sit while I boggle my mind...
If you want to check out my pics, you know where to find them. Follow the link of my name below this comment to check out my homepage.
Thanks, Mr. Bill, and I am going to look into your pics as well. If you didn't know, too, photo essays (those with pics included IN the article don't count toward the point mania. They have to be downloaded and published as pictures not as articles. Hope it helps and many points to all who strive for them!
I'm off to look at some more of yours.....
It can be pandemonium, but you have a great guide to keep it less so.
Thanks.
I go through my connections' work first and then as time allows, will look at others. I'll be gone for part of this time so will miss out on the last 4 days. Oh well.
know! ;-)
To be fair, it's not as if I emptied my recycle bin on to the site for points. The pictures of flowers may be pedestrian, but some of my digital art work is kind of cool.
Your rules of etiquette are superb, Mr Bill.
Thanks.
I usually post a few photos daily anyway, so I'm not changing anything there. I also always return any comment that someone has left me, so once again - no change there. This photo promotion hasn't changed my behavior in any way, so that's a good thing. Right?
Thank you for the reminder of etiquette, Mr Bill.
I enjoy and appreciate the high quality of your photos and articles.
I also try to respond by reading articles or viewing images from people that comment on mine. It seems like common courtesy. Sometimes I miss people but I try not to. I gave up being perfect about 10 years ago!
I also go through the images and comment on the ones that draw me into them. There are some strong images and I love to discover new photographers in my searching.
Pat, you hit the nail on the head!
Yep, we are talking manners and etiquette.
Keeping elbows off the table and chewing with our mouths closed.
Saying please and thank you.
You know, all the things you were supposed to do when visiting grandma's house ... ok, the things we should do everyday, but seem to get lost in the rat race and are much less prevalent in cyberspace.
The point frenzies seem to rob us of our civility. Things started getting out of control with the triple-points week. The next two weeks were filled with a lot acrimony and hurt feelings over ratings in general and specifically the drive-by ratings (of course no one complains if masked riders click on the ten ...) and the current 10 point photo promo could overwhelm the community. So just a reminder to be good to our friends and neighbors and hopefully we can have a photo parade instead of pandemonium! (-;
I enjoyed the photos of your family.
we'll have to figure something out ... (-;
I think the points are per photo, anyhow, and the other points are all the same???
I didn't have a hot date - however, I lost ten pounds in just about two days.. (that should give you a hint).
I will come by and sprinkle some stars on you!
So now I guess I won't ask you to vote. Even though it has nothing to do with this picture/point thing. I really wanted by pic to win and the moderator of the contest asked us to 'contact all your connnects and ask them to vote', so I did. I was going back to those that didn't vote or answer at all. But now I see that everyone is busy with this picture thing. So never mind.
There are all kinds of events, contests, and many other things going on all the time in the Gather community. Some of these events trigger pandemonium (such as the Photo Points and the recent Triple Point Week) and create an accompanying deluge of email.
One of the purposes for having groups is for people to Gather together around a shared topic of interest. Group events are probably better served by group-mail to the group members. The pet tournament is a novel group, but not one I belong to, and it generates an awful lot email by both its moderator and from group members, which is why I mentioned that particular event. Voting for pics, and in general the rating of articles and images, has become very contentious on Gather. I hope that people playing the pet tournament have fun and don't get their feelings hurt with the rating of their pet.
Except for the thumbs up all the images are ones that I have taken.
well ... maybe I better say lovely skin!
And eyes too, Anne Marie!!! (-;
... when do we get to see the rest of you?
Thanks
Blessings
(-;
I like you idea about "paying it forward" and that's what I've been trying to do....still having troubles keeping up.
Great article Mr Bill!!
Moggy~Spartan is just being funny.....poking at those of us who take pictures of EVERYTHING. ;o)
me to look at his mug mold ... my nose is all a twitch!
Hopefully more folks will start leaving
comments so you know they visited.