A Push for Useful Ratings

(Sniffing for carrots)

In Treegonk's departing blip he commented about his annoyance with blipfoto's popularity system:

One of the things I find most annoying here is that there is some incredible talent that isn't recognised because of the way the popularity system works. Loads of once-in-a-lifetime pictures have gone virtually unobserved and many of the best photographers seem to have faded into the crowds.

I tend to agree with his point and it got me thinking. Is there anything we can do to improve this?

Although the secret algorithms that determine the popularity of an image will not likely be released by blip-master Joe, I can only assume that they are based on number of comments, total views, and rating. This is a logical system and in theory there is nothing wrong with it. In general excellent photos will get more comments than average ones. In general they'll also get more views, and higher ratings.

But of course blip isn't just about photos, it's about words too. Often time a blip will get extra views, comments, or high ratings based on its words as much or more than the quality of the photograph. Maybe it's funny, or spurs a lively discussion.

Which thumbnails people decide the click on and whether or not they choose to comment on that image isn't going to change. But I think the rating system is something that perhaps could be improved, and maybe it would be a first step in highlighting the often-overlooked gems that get lost in the blipfield.

As far as I can tell, most people don't bother rating images, and when they do it's almost always a 4 or a 5 star rating for an exceptionally good image. What would happen if everyone rated every image they looked at, and they rated it honestly making use of the entire scale of 1 to 5? That would be a whole different ballgame.

This blip is meant to act as a starting point for the discussion of possible improvements to that system, and also as a proposal to blip HQ to think about how to best utilize the ratings.

I would propose that rating an image 1 through 5 should be a mandatory part of the comment procedure. It takes 1 second to do, but it would provide a lot of value. All users should be encouraged to rate honestly based on the quality of the photograph and not be afraid to vote 1 star. It's an anonymous system and it will only be useful if used honestly.

My second proposal would be a re-development of the 'Rated' page to include the specification of a timeframe: Today, This Week, This Month, All Time. The 'Rated' page is useful as it is--it's a great place to go for inspiration and it's a nice ego booster if your photos shows up there--but I think it would be useful if it was more fresh. I want to see the highest rated images from today, or this week. I don't care how many views or comments the image has or who posted it, I just want to see the images that people think are the best photographs. If I could only look at one thing everyday it wouldn't be my subscribed list or the spotlight page, it would be this daily ratings page.

But this whole thing will only work if all images are rated often, and rated honestly. Do you think we can do it? Do you think it's a useful goal?

Thanks so much everyone for your kinds words yesterday on my blipday.