Derek I think you're paying too much attention to something that isn't as big as you make it sound. Firstly, your images are still judged by the official curators. So, despite whatever some people might say in the curation by members process, it doesn't matter. If your photo is good, the crew members will publish it. On the other hand, you get an extra chance in case the 1x crew member finds your image not good enough for publishing. The comments, and publish/reject ratio of your photo in the members curation section might change the crew members mind. I saw the boatmaking photo of yours in the rotation yesterday, but if I remember correctly it had more positive comments than negative. And the fact that a few people didn't know what the man was doing doesn't really matter in the end, most of the people knew what he was doing. As far as comment ratings go, it started so-so, but know it is getting way better, and almost perfect. I rarely see any of my comments now getting judged and rated by the members depending on if they agree/like what I say, instead of judging the quality and technical accuracy of my critique. Check out my latest critiques for example here: http://abload.de/img/critiqued7jvu.png I fail to see the problem here, apart from the fact that I agree with you in some matters, which I believe will be fixed soon once the 1x site developers get their code ready. If they add "Photo title", "Description", "EXIF info", "Category" will you change your mind ?

Thanks, Bill. You surely are strongly supporting most of these changes, and you are actually making me see them differently. Thank you. I still think all members should get a clear notification of new changes and rules regarding them. hopefully it would help avoid upsetting some people. and i hope some of my comments will be helpful in tweaking things up. I will try writing some more curating comments and will be eager to see if ratings of them will be more coherent as you suggest. Surely it takes lots of tweaking to make a perfect system, and lets hope the final result will be fantastic. Red flags for me were: demands for "long comments" rather than to-the-point comments, suggestion of "reporting" users, negative points, and the fact that some changes took us by surprise (and because of that I did hurt someone not having a faint idea my comment will be visible to author). Blind voting without knowing genre or at least title, and some other things i described are also on my "problem list". But don't think I don't appreciate generally what is being done. 1X is really one of the finest sites of its kind, and I commented only because I really care. I also was a bit surprised at the "push" for curating activity, like it became the new way to go, instead of improving our portfolios. Like everyone now wants to be the "official curator". I am sure it will settle down and return to the right balance. Thanks again for your time and good will writing me back, your positive thinking and enthusiasm are impressive. 1X guys are lucky to have you here, I mean it. Cheers!

You're welcome Derek :) I believe that if we all do our best, the outcome will be great whatever the decision of the 1x.com founders & crew will be. Ralf said that they will send a mass e-mail out soon with the FAQ & all the rules and guidelines for the new "Curate" section and methodology. I'm not sure if that's going to be 100% successful because some people don't use their regular e-mail for site registrations and they won't see the e-mail if that's the case. We'll find out soon I guess. If some people continue to "abuse" the system I'm pretty sure that the site crew's going to take action and measures. For the time being I can more than fairly say that I have noticed who's usually providing good critique, be it outlining the positives, or stating what he/she dislikes and suggests some changes, etc. And I don't think I'm the only one noticing people :-) Good will :-)

Don't delete the photos from your profile. They could be very useful. Someone might check them out for example and post a comment with his likes & dislikes, suggestions and settings that would help you get the photo done right next time. I just checked your profile but can't say that I remember seeing any of the non-published photos in the curation section. By the way don't downgrade yourself. You may know more than you think. And there are also different variables, we're human after all. Take a look at myself for example, I'm more than glad to offer my suggestions, ideas, critique, comments and so on to others. A lot of them seem to appreciate it and like my suggestions. Others may not. After all, photography is a subjective thing, it's a matter of taste at least partially. On the other side, while I believe I'm a good critic, and usually I'm even tougher on myself, if the place I'm shooting at isn't something that excites me from the very first look at it, I do a lazy job and don't seem to think a lot in the process while I should be. And other times, when I luckily seem to stumble upon a nice site, I do think a lot, try lots of ideas, stop & think of my composition, what to change, what needs refining, etc. I guess it's because I'm an enthusiasm and challenge-driven person.

Well, I've deleted almost all the photos. I used to let them stay in my profile but I started to delete them when they reached 100, a couple of months ago. Most of them had no comments at all and nobody was seeing them. I’m not downgrading myself, believe me, I’m just trying to be honest. I can't play a role I don't understand. I can only give my opinion, but if my criteria are not enough to have some of my pictures published my opinion is useless to others (and they may go in the wrong direction if they believe me). No, I'm not downgrading myself and this will not brake my enthusiasm. I just don’t like to play with rules I don’t know and can’t deduce, where changes tend to happen without notice, in a place where other curation systems would certainly fail… I’m not giving up, but being curator seems to make no sense. In spite of this, I really appreciate your answer. Thank you.

If you're interested I can suggest a few books that will help you understand the theory behind taking technically and compositionally correct photos. By the way, expressing your opinion is a good thing. As long as you express yourself, you get more chances to get better at this. You'll nail some right things for sure, call it luck if that makes you feel comfortable. You'll say something wrong. But in the end, you'll end up having conversations with other people, exchanging thoughts, hearing what you did or said wrong, etc. :)

Books are always welcome in my shelves. So, feel free to make your suggestions. By message if you wish. :-) With respect to the expression of opinions, you may be right... but I still think that's different from being curator. I'll think about the best way to try

I'll send you a few ( 2-3 ) very good books in PM later on or tomorrow depending on how my work on a customer's PC goes. For the curation system as it is right now, you're not, we are not ( the normal 1x members ) curators. The images still go through the 1x curation crew, we're just voicing our opinion and the curators might consider our opinion and perhaps even notice things they didn't notice initially ( we're all human after all ).

I rarely see good critiques getting less than 3 stars by the users. And even if like 10 out of every 100 have been downrated by some members who think that they should rate your critique depending on if they agree with you or not instead of judging the quality ( technical and non-technical ) of your critique, there's a wonderful team of 1x crew members behind the curation section awarding good critique posts with +10 points for each good critique post. So no harm done. Length doesn't really matter, but being expressive, thorough and reasoning your suggestions and/or the photographer's mistakes or issues is kind of required. Don't expect to get decent ratings by posting critiques like "Needs more contrast, more neg. space and a bit saturation". And in the end... who cares if for every 100 critiques with decent rating you get 5 with bad ratings ( if they're good sooner or later they will be awarded with the star +10 points from the 1x crew, so once again, no harm done ). And it's not all about the points. After all, you're not getting "screwed" by the point system. Your photos still go through the same curation crew.

I really find the system inspirational. It allows me to read comments by photographers with experience, where I often learn a lot. It also allows me to see some "awesome" (adjective for you Bill) images mixed in with others that are not as good and a few photographs that are terrible. The images are many and varied and this widens my exposure to trends, styles, etc. that I wouldn't necessarily expose myself to. What's more, before the introduction of this curating system I was very intimidated by the high level of quality because I am only an amateur who started putting her camera into manual 5 days ago... But photography is a funny thing... it is not just about technique. It is very much about creativity and observation and life experience comes into this as a consequence. When you think of it like this, it opens up the ball field. For this reason I find myself curating freely, without screwing my head up over the fact that I am not yet technically experienced. Through my comments I have had people writing back to me... and I like this interaction. Before I felt there was no room for people like me, but now I feel that learners are welcome and I think 1x has moved ahead because of this. I will always remember an anecdote by a well-known bow maker in Europe. He was very innovative and introduced a scientific system into a very traditional field that was embraced and at the same time hooted at. He was a very generous man and in his courses he gave everything he knew to his students while others jealously guarded over their secrets... He would laugh over this, because, he said, he learnt a lot from his students and their questions and when they got good they were inspiration to him and he got even better himself........ better stop before I begin rambling!

Yes, I've had that happen several times also Michael. I've learned the hard way to copy my comments, knowing this might happen. I lost a lengthy comment once and didn't want it to happen again. I particularly find this happens more when I have also faved (hit the heart icon) the image.

Thanks, Anne. This has happened to me six times now and I have been able to save the comments each time. I had not thought about the favorite button but I think you're right about that because all six of these photos have been ones that I really love and would certainly have clicked on the heart icon. I've sent Ralf an email about this.

It has happened to me as well, both with the heart and without. Yesterday it happened about 3 times and I was wondering on one occasion if this was caused by the size of the picture being downloaded. When it "hangs" I have also gone to have a look at what happened and found that it is always rejected... while on various occasions I had asked for publish.

I have to say thanks to the people that graded the comment higher. And apparently the Crew members appreciated the comment because it has been awarded in the meantime. So my big investment in time to write the comment was not useless. Thanks.

Don't you worry about the rating Hans. It isn't that common either. I have like 150 comments and only 10 or so of them have been rated badly obviously because the rater disagreed with my opinion and rated my critique that way instead of the appropriate quality based rating system.

Indeed, I have the same remark. The quality in the curation section and in the published area doesn't seem to be at all at the same level...

The reason for that is that in the curation section are displayed only the SD files, i.e. most of the time auto-compressed images. On the other hand, when browsing the pictures normally, it is often the HD file which is displayed, that is to say the highest resolution image available, with a less stronger compression.

You do what you do best Michael and let the spammers spam. They'll hit a hard wall at entering level 6 without awarded comments & endorsements :D Keep critiquing properly like you do mate ;)

I agree wit you, Michael, that comments should be of valuable feedback to the author. Unfortunately, your last comment on my photo is nowhere close to that goal. You're only preaching from an ethical point of view, without any photographic comment whatsoever, while massive volumes of photographs get published everywhere around on 1x, without any similar/negative comment from you. For more details, please see your inbox.

Adrian, you are correct that the curation comment section should be about the quality of a photo and not about general ethical concerns, so I am guilty of misusing it in that way. You have my apology and I have replied to your private message as well.

Very good point :)

First of all, leveling up shouldn't be the motive behind curating or critiquing in the curation section. Whoever goes with that being his only motive will never get anything out of it and may never become a better photographer. Writing comments is kind of encouraged, why ? Because you get +20 points if your comment gets top award by the 1x crew. And even the "click publish or reject spammers" are encouraged to write sooner or later, as soon as they realize that to go to level 6 or higher they need a lot of awarded comments and endorsements from other 1x users :p

Bill, you talk like you are behind the new changes, and know it all. unfortunately your comments are not always in pair with what we were told. For example we were told comments must be LONG. which is plain silly. i believe comments must be good, and if giving points at all for comments - it should be for quality, not for the size. even a very short comment can be very good. and i already wrote - on two very similar, medium sized comments - i got 5 stars, and 1 star. totally random. so, i rather don't see such silliness than have to worry about possibly getting NEGATIVE points. I pay for my membership, i give 1X my best and free time, i give my 40 + years of photo experience - and i actually may get punished for it! Or someone will "report me" if they think i am off the mark. Another thing - people have different reasons for being on 1X. I for example want to have more exposure on a good site, and meet some top photographers. AND I don't give a damn about comments on my curated images. I don't create my images to please people curating them. I may get rejected, but spare me the drama. not once i entered Critique, because I don't want it. I do my work my way, 1x is just a small addition to what i do with my images, and if i need critique, i ask one of friends-photographers who know my style for years, know what i want to say and show. Random critique is NOT why i am on 1X. and there are many people like that. and while i just don't give a damn, others could actually be offended or hurt. and they may not to pay for membership in order to be hurt. let people have what they want. If They enter Critique page and ask for opinion - blast them! Tell all what is to be told. but leave alone people who are not interested in such opinions. we are not in elementary school doing our homework. So, while i have trust in the 1x crew and know they will select good images for 1x, our comments are just extra, some more extra drama. 1 to 5 star system was more effective, gave a chance of showing how much you like a photo. now if you want to express your opinion - you need to write LONG stories, or you risk being punished. and showing all curators' comments to authors may hurt many, and since unsolicited - it is plain rude.

I've noticed that too Bill - although I just a bit ago rated one of yours a 5 :) You take your time with your commentary. I'm getting some of my long rantings with lower numbers too. I think we have to give leeway to human nature, even if we don't agree with or like it.

Haha, same here Anne. Can't help but notice that you are consistently giving good advice and proper critique ;)

Thank you, I appreciate that :) You're not doing too badly yourself.

Bill are all your comments even being rated. I've written some lengthy ones that no one has even bothered to rate. I hope the curators check that everyone's comments get some kind of feedback.

Not all mine get rated as well Anne. At least not by members. The 1x crew though seems to be hard at work. Keep getting awarded curation comments.

Yeah, I've gotten nice gold stars too :) They are particularly gratifying on those comments that have been rated low by the members - haha - back to the human element aren't we.

Sometimess I feel sad for the "bad" people out there ( on & off the internet )

I noticed the same problem five or six times. And in one case I stumbled upon the same image three times.

Paul in that case, just do not comment (as to avoid a repetitive long comment or 1 star short comment). Either Publish or Reject and move on to the next photo.

It pays to get there first :) I also don't comment if there are many comments ahead of mine - especially if I agree with them - and if I don't agree, then I really get long-winded.

Sorry about the trouble, we will try to find a solution for this. We are likely going to add a required minimum length, which should help a bit in a situation like that.

This would be very helpful. Not only for comments in healing, but also in any comment made on this site. It would be Great to have the opportunity to correct an error.

I too have had various unfinished comments published and I tried to go back to them without success to finish them off. 3 to be precise. I think it is about pressing "enter" by mistake that these comments went ahead before I was ready for them to go... So I have no idea if they went ahead with "publish" or "reject". Also, I came back from a period of not using 1x and it took me quite a while to understand the process. At first I thought that "publish" meant "publish my comment!" and "reject" meant "I don't want to curate this photograph, go to the next one". !!! So the suggestion about sending an email is not a bad idea in my opinion and I only arrived to this section via the forum section, selecting a forum about curating to learn more about the process.

I just checked on one of the photographs that I didn't manage to finish curating. The comment was not published and it was rejected. In fact the photograph is one of my favorite images, with two geese flying, seen from the back. I managed to open this photo and put a heart on it, but under my curating section it appears rejected.

There has been a lot of discussions about this previously, one big advantage is that if you are unsure, you are forced to think twice and actually make a decision. This will make it easier for you to decide about a similar type of photo the next time you come across it, you will learn about photography and develop as curator. You can also read comments by others if you are unsure.

I, too, do not always feel competent about commenting or making a decision on Publishing or Rejecting. Sometimes my feelings are strong and I like to express them, even when they are in direct contrast to the general remarks. But when I don't feel competent or I am unsure about something, even after reading the comments of other people, I prefer not to throw words to the wind... but in this case my only decision to press Reject or Publish can only be a gut reaction and not an informed and objective decision. How much does my opinion weigh in future... perhaps mine and other ignorant people have pressed Publish to see a photograph of dubious worth, or worse still a good photograph has been rejected because it was not understood. While I am writing, how does the star system work? who processes it? I have seen that one of my opinions was rated at 1 and then it became 1.5 and another was rated at 5 and then it became 4.5. I would be grateful for your answer to understand the process better.

es I would love to opt out on curating subjects that are of no interest to me whatsoever. I feel quite competent to comment on traditional photography but not on highly tweaked artwork all I could say would be incompetent on my side. As I would not be able to judge cricket or rock'n'roll dancing. Especially I would appreciate to be spared from pretty disrespectful nudes Came upon one with a women in chains and found it shocking that people commented on the crop or lighting I found it did not deserve to be rammed down my throat. Yes I did comment but was shocked to find that no other woman had said anything about it.. probably to get a 1 rated comment star. IO have been seriously disenchanted with the system.. I you say that there is nothing in the image for you ( like 100% blur) but you are not allowed to say so because you get downgraded what is the point? Also I found myself taking a lot of time on a bad 3g connection in the evening writing and commenting ( can't often do this during lunch break @ work) but nobody ever bothers to comment on my pics if I submit them all I ever get is refused and the only comment I ever had was 'not sharp' on an image which is very sharp and won 3 awards instantly elsewhere the same day I took it. Further with the new system I can't find time for the usual comments so after all I'm losing a lot of quality.

The photographer can see the comments. You just need to go to your profile, click on the photo that is being under curation, click on the cog and click on "Curation info".

Ohhh, wonderful... I didn't knew that! thank you Bill! : )

Thanks for the suggestion we will send out a mass email about the new features soon.