Ego boost?

[ben4321]

Lately I've been wondering about the motivation of certain members, who although very talented photographers, refuse to participate fully in this site. They post well taken, sometimes inspirational images, but rarely, if ever critique the work of others.
That's a shame because these are talented individuals, and they clearly have a lot to teach the less experienced members of this site.
A case in point is a certain highly accomplished landscape photographer; 202 images posted, 138 critiques written. That's just one example, there are many others.
Perhaps they use this site to boost their egos, soaking up the praise of others for their work. If so, this strikes me as rather parasitical; taking without giving anything back.
I think a more likely explanation is that they are using this site as free advertising for their commercial activities. I personally don't have a problem with that, I just think it's a shame that these people don't share the benefit of their knowledge and experience.
Come on guys, you know who you are!

[danielswalsh]

AdamBurton?

[ben4321]

I didn't want to name names, but yeah. As I said though, he's just one example, there are many others.

[jinju]

Ignore them. Ive made it a point long time ago never to critique such people

[Keitht]

I agree totally with both Ben's original observations and Rafal's reply.

[oochappan]

Please some diversication here ...

I do agree for those who are sitting home with a fast internet-connection, they can participate easily with one post/20 ratings a day

but

travellers reporting their encounters, hot from the needle, having slow internet-connections doesn't fall in this category at all

some examples
Gloria, travelling for years already

Caleb Colbeeman, when he was travelling during a long time, you can read in his profile, he didn't do that much ratings neither, you can compare the attention while he was travelling and when he came back home

another category are the people who know only a language that no one can understand here on TE, they even don't understand your comment, should they stay away for that ? their only capacity is reading out smileys cause writing comments in their native language no one would understand.

... on the hand another kind of boosters is also there, I wouldn't worry about all these, simply enjoy and attend to what you like when you got the time, even if they don't participate at all, it doesn't matter here on TE, a shot that tells you more about the world in a pleasing way has it's value even when you make abstraction of the poster, don't look back, just enjoy.

[Keitht]

Henk,

I accept that there are a few who due to personal circumstances don't critique much. The only truly valid argument I can see is that of language difficulty, but even then what is the point of posting images to a site where you don't understand what is being written? I wouldn't post to a Russian language site for example.
The argument of slow internet connection doesn't wash for me. If they can spend the time posting their own images, and in most cases I suspect also reading critiques, I don't think it is too much to expect them to put some return effort into other people's work.

[don_narayan]

what is the creedo of the site again? "Learn about the world through photography"... or is it now learn about photography through the world?

Not everyone that makes a good photograph is able to teach someone how to make a better photo... especially since I think most members here are self-taught. Someone can learn from looking at photos and learning to understand what they like about certain photos probably more than someone commenting on their own photo.


And really, how many "critiques" does one need that say "nice shot, good composition, great moment" or "maybe a if that person weren't there or if you had a mountain in the back ground and shot it from space." So many times people leave comments that are just praise... and I am also guilty of that. But I also wonder, how much do most people here really want to learn how to make a better photograph? Now, I know there are people who really want to learn... but I think that's the minority.

[AdrianW]

Fully agree Ben. I think your advertising theory is probably on the mark too.

Another one has over 1000 crits in, but has only written 7 :(

Yet people wonder why there are so many uncritiqued - simple, it's these for want of a better term "black holes"... They soak up critiques, without giving anything in return.

I'm not talking about people whose languages are making things difficult - not that there should be many, we have sizable populations of most nationalities here now, so you could critique one of your countryfolk anyway. Nor am I talking about those who are travelling. It's just those who don't participate that bother me.

If you just want to share your photos, please go to pbase.

Actually what I'd like to see is an i/o meter - shows what ratio of critiques in/out the photographer has. Unfortunately Adam won't implement it, as he thinks it'll just encourage empty critiques. I disagree, but does anyone else have a better suggestion?

[oochappan]

Hi Keith,
if someone would write 40 up to 60 rated comments for each photo posted, are we talking then of an intens participation or something else like the title of this thread ?

I proposed Adam to set a minimum of about 3 comments before you can post and a maximum of 20 rated comments for each post, comments unlimited, that would balance TE tremendously, no ? But that would slow down the system most probably ...

I don't understand your logic,
if you post, you have to rate, not to travel
or
if you travel you're not supposed to post if you don't have the time to rate,
I just enjoy watching a bit more then loosing time to rate on a slow connection,
I don't worry about less or more attention if I can show something typical from here.

if you will excuse me now, my Tamil friends gave me only 5 minutes on the internet to reply you, they want to go home, to bed ... you allow me to say goodnight to them ?

Enjoy shooting, you learn also from chosing your own shots, your own creativity, always looking for better, new barriers to show the typical world in your unique way, points doesn't matter that much, one good critique or a WS can, Didi for instance is one who did the most WS, speaking of altruism, that's a good help and a joy too !
greetings