You Love Flickr, But Does Flickr Love You?
Flickr has a very interesting stream called "Explore," in which they give a shout out to what they think are really cool photos. Needless to say that you guys rock some seriously and consistently cool photos. Which means that some of you get Explored more often than Paris Hilton.
But how do you know when you have been featured in Explore? Simple: You just go to this site and enter your Flickr screen name and it will tell you how many times you have been chosen by the editors.
I scored a 25 (including a lighting diagram -- wtf?) and I am sure many of you are more Exploratory than that.
UPDATE: Be sure to click through to "include dropped" to see your full number. My number jumped up to 44 that way.)
The photo up top, BTW, is reader Jason Lee's most recent of 15 Explorations. Click on the pic for more info.
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Posted at 12:51 AM.
34 Comments:
Yeah, I scored a 7!
That is a great link. I have always wondered if I made explorer, thanks!
James Hamilton Photography
Cool, I managed a 56 with one image but I'm still wrapped! Nice, thanks for the Heads up DH.
What a wonderful blog. So well organized and well written. Glad I found you.
in the other hand most explored photos are just flashy pictures…
David,
You actually scored 26. Look again.
I haven't checked the explorer part of flickr so far so i was surprised to see i scored a 9 :D
sharky_rol
3, now i´m sad again.. ;)
simon_cornils
13 for phlezk.
Waaaay OT- David, pleeeeeze give background/details about how you happened to capture red fox photo in your photostream. I can't believe I never saw that before. Did I mention pleeeze...
flickr has no love for me.
I suspected, but now I know it's true: I'm underloved, and underappreciated, AND underpaid.
(Sigh)
Fortunately, I don't post for Flickr points, so it's no big deal. Really.
I show 44 for you today....
It's only 13 for me, but oddly enouugh a pirate ship made it in there with no comments and only 18 views so who knows. Or rather, ARRR....
I have three. If you check, don't forget to click the "include dropped" link, to see photos that have been there, but not anymore.
I do enjoy seeing my photos being liked (who doesn't?), but one thing that I only did once, and won't do anymore, is posting on groups like "Score Me", or "Comment any five", which are just "explore machines".
It didn't felt good to have empty comments with ridiculous animated gifs, left only in the hopes I'll leave some in exchange.
I post my photos on related groups now, and if they're good, people will (hopefully) look at them. And I do try to comment on all pictures that I appreciate. As Thomas Hawk's said, "give love, and it shall be given to you". But I only like true love.
Flickr Explore's "interestingness" is largely hinged on whoring out your photos. You need to get a relatively large number of hits, comments, and favorites in a short amount of time, and even then it's a stab in the dark. A lot of the featured shots are also in groups where ever photo you post you have to "give 5 gold stars" to 5 other photos or some junk.
Of course, getting linked on Strobist is a sure way to get that kind of exposure too, and exposure that I think is very well deserved.
If you don't get featured in explore often (or at all), don't take it too personally. Blame Dave for not linking you!
One!!! Sweet, that's all I needed. A little encouragement that I AM still cool, sort of anyway.
One is the loneliest number...
I got a big fat Zero. YAY!. Flickr hates my guts!
No, I'm with MM; I don't flickr to have a bunch of people I don't know tell me how great my photos are, when what they're really saying is "boy is she hot."
I put photos up on flickr so I can show them to family and friends. Right now my website is under repair (and has been for about....oh, two years), so I do send clients there, too.
And I don't care what Flickr thinks. Google thinks I'm the greatest living photographer.
I like Google. Google is my friend. Google is lying through it's teeth, but that's okay.
i4-
That's fantastic! How did you manage that? LOL
DH
I'm at 145.
:p
Ok,,Dave has had a lighting diagram go higher than any photo I have ever put on flickr!! I feel so slighted! What am I doing wrong?
I think the point here is that I am an amazing Sharpie artist. I mean, isn't that so obvious?
-DH
:)
I had 5, thanks for the tip!
I've had 10 pics in explore, one of which made it to number 8. Needless to say, most of my explore shots are stobisty! See?
And to think that until just moments ago I thought Sharpie Artists were being ignored by Flickr.....my faith has been restored!
I disagree with the statement that you only get on the Explore page by whoring out your photos. I don't think that is a valid argument. I don't whore mine out and somehow 9 made it up there.
I think that any exposure you can great is, uh, great, but Flickr's Interestingness ranks change radically for god only knows why. I've had photos show up on the Big Huge Labs page with a rank of 35, bounce out, bounce in, and then nevermore. I have a handful of shots which are reliably erratic on this measure. Generally, I run about 32 or so, but still, I'm constantly amazed at how some pop in and out on some seeming whim.
Hugh said "most of my shots are strobisty".
The strobist group is, by far, the group that I participate in that generates the most views. In the case of strobist, I think it's a good thing though - it seems to be a community genuinely interested in learning about something, so people check out the pics (and presumably click on them to see the accompanying lighting explanations).
That said, I went through a brief period where I was scout addicted. That explore stuff is like crack. I swear. Then I realized that pleasing an algorithm and producing good images aren't the same thing. So. There you have it. Just echoing some of the comments above, I suppose, but yeah. I kinda think Explore is way too gameable to be really relevant.
I got 19, it changes drastically though.
I've had some at #11 and higher but now they are #300 and below.
ShaolinTiger in Explore
Oh yah for those that say the "Score me" and animated gif type groups helps, they don't really.
They are weighted right down in the explore algorithm, those groups that fish for comments have negative indexes.
Those that are related and people comment if they want to give more "Explore juice"
Those people that get in Explore most frequently are those with thousands of adoring contacts, they don't post to any groups and get hundreds of comments and favs.
Those are guaranteed top #10 explore material.
You can get into explore with something like 7-8 comments and 4-5 favs if your pic isn't in any groups and it just got faved/commented from your stream and contacts.
(Sorry for the double post Mr. Dave)
They use some kind of algorithms
to put pictures into explore. Who comments on your pictures rates the highest. The number of comments you get also rates. However, if you have 100 comments but have the picture in 100 groups, that is rated less than 100 comments and in 10 groups. Favs also rate quite highly I think. Views don't rate that highly.
Cheers,
Leggova
I don't understand what people mean by their "score" -- what does that number mean?
ONE !! Yay. Better than nothin' :)
davidonabus
i'm at a nice, humble 24
WT#... seems everyone has a foul mouth in print or public these days.
I got a big fat 0 also :( However, you've inspired me to start updating flickr again! Now I just have to take a few decent photos...
Sweet! I have 7 photos in explore, the highest is 31 and the lowest is 480.
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