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 11/01/2004 07:34:29 PM · #1
Is anyone else seeing lower than expected scores in the October Free Study?

I posted an image that, I'm sure, should easily exceed a 6.0 rating. Yet it's getting trounced at 5.68 and dropping.

Okay, I'm no master. And I can turn in a stinker too (like my Music entry which, though I feel it is better than 4.9, is probably right about where it should be). But I would be hard pressed to rate this photo at anything less than a 6 or 7, yet enough people are voting so much lower that I can't even keep above a 6.0.

Oh well... I'm just looking for a little company in my misery. :-)

So... anyone else not getting what their photo deserves???

P.S.
Could it be that people are just too tired of scoring after so many pictures in this challenge? Any other thoughts on the low scores?

11/01/2004 07:54:51 PM · #2
yeah. Me too. I won't complain about too much since it is over 6, but I really thought it would be a 7 something.

The competition is very stiff in this one, so I guess it is understandable to see the 7s for any other challenge falling to 6s and 5s.

Oh well, I just ordered a print, and it will be going on my wall anyway. :)
 11/01/2004 08:10:52 PM · #3
Mine are maybe a little lower than I thought. Zero comments in both challenges as well : (
 11/01/2004 08:23:10 PM · #4
mine is real bad i was expecting it to be at least a little higher, there are some real beauties in there but im with you on that one.
like dar said though...stiff competition. i know mine wouldnt be the winner or even close but it was one of my better pics...a little blow to the ego. hopefully i will get some feedback soon.


Avg Vote: 4.6078
Comments: 0
11/01/2004 08:30:21 PM · #5
don't feel bad... every friend I have shown my shot to said "wow", but it's only scoring a 5.0954. Also, 2 "wow" comments, which helps. I'm kinda suprised by the score since it's the first photo I have posted in a long long time that I thought was any good...
11/01/2004 08:36:01 PM · #6
I'm in the same boat. I think the same trend is following for the music challenge too.
 11/01/2004 08:39:26 PM · #7
Are you hoping for an early April Fool's surprise? Remember what happened last April fool's Day?

Originally posted by dwterry:
Is anyone else seeing lower than expected scores in the October Free Study?
11/01/2004 08:39:43 PM · #8
I submitted my photo at the last minute so I̢۪m not complaining about my score BUT it was hard to see it drop from 7.000 to where it̢۪s at now.
 11/01/2004 08:48:22 PM · #9
Up, down, up, down...that's mine so far. It broke 6, went down, broke it again, then dropped again. At 102 I've got a 5.87 with 4 "Wow" comments...which is higher than any of my recent scores, but still not as high as I think it should be because this IS the best photo I think I've ever taken.
 11/01/2004 09:48:19 PM · #10
I think it's all the entries cuz my score is low too. I'm trying to comment on every single one, but geez, it ain't easy. Very tiring work. Hopefully you guys'll get something from my end soon.
 11/01/2004 09:51:02 PM · #11
Originally posted by PerezDesignGroup:
I think it's all the entries cuz my score is low too. I'm trying to comment on every single one, but geez, it ain't easy. Very tiring work. Hopefully you guys'll get something from my end soon.


I got one from ya! thanks :)
 11/01/2004 09:54:47 PM · #12
I've noticed that the first 50 voters thought mine was a 6plus and received two great comments. But the last 50 voters suddenly think its a 4 or lower. With no comments.
I am starting to believe the grudge voting syndrome
 11/01/2004 10:04:06 PM · #13
I'm with you Ken. My music entry, which I thought was going to do rather well is below 5. I mean - below 5 in my oppinion is below average and that doesn't feel good when you've put some effort into an image.

But I'm not really complaining about the score, if it's bad it's bad, but no one cares to tell me why. One comment on 65 votes so far, and although slightly helpful (stating an obvious subject flaw), I doubt that was one of the low voters..

Well, I guess it's time to think in terms of sexier subjects and not so much about technical merits.
11/02/2004 01:49:58 AM · #14
I have to whine a moment myself... I am just stunned at the 4.2 I have in OFS. The picture I entered is well-lit, pin-sharp, and nobody can say it "doesn't meet the challenge" (but believe it or not, someone DID say that in one of my comments). People are judging the subject of the photo and not the photo itself, for it's technical merits and uniqueness. I should have entered a damn boring sunset or landscape shot. It's pretty disheartening to have someone tell you that the shot that you believe to be one of your best of the months SUCKS.
 11/02/2004 01:54:01 AM · #15
Originally posted by laurielblack:
I have to whine a moment myself... I am just stunned at the 4.2 I have in OFS. The picture I entered is well-lit, pin-sharp, and nobody can say it "doesn't meet the challenge" (but believe it or not, someone DID say that in one of my comments). People are judging the subject of the photo and not the photo itself, for it's technical merits and uniqueness. I should have entered a damn boring sunset or landscape shot. It's pretty disheartening to have someone tell you that the shot that you believe to be one of your best of the months SUCKS.


A lot of people vote based on what they like or don't like. Technical merit is secondary if it even enters the picture at all. I've found that the ones that do rate based on technical merit tend to do their ratings later in the week.

On the other side I'm probably being knocked for something cliché. Technically I think my image is pretty good. I know some of the flaws but I have no comments yet so I can't say whether those flaws are also bringing it down.

C'est la vie. Vive la DPC Voters.
 11/02/2004 02:08:36 AM · #16
Originally posted by laurielblack:
I have to whine a moment myself... I am just stunned at the 4.2 I have in OFS. The picture I entered is well-lit, pin-sharp, and nobody can say it "doesn't meet the challenge" (but believe it or not, someone DID say that in one of my comments). People are judging the subject of the photo and not the photo itself, for it's technical merits and uniqueness. I should have entered a damn boring sunset or landscape shot. It's pretty disheartening to have someone tell you that the shot that you believe to be one of your best of the months SUCKS.


ditto :( glum face here too. (though the fact you have a don't meet the challenge comment is quite hilarious).

Sigh. i thought at least i might get something better than the score i have currently (a smidgeon over 5.1). Obviously, as you said, it is what i consider to be the best picture i have taken in the month of october (as should everybodies, really) and yet, it's doing on the blander side of average. I don't understand, my implied lines shot was CRAP - fuzzy, blurry, not remotely worth of a 5.4: , and yet, that did a lot better. so dishearteningly frustrating...
 11/02/2004 02:13:08 AM · #17
For the open challenge, I think there might be three problems.

First: there are a huge number of pictures to vote on. I haven't finished the first pass yet, so, the early scores are going to depend more on who has voted your image rather than being representative of DPC as a whole.

Second: There are an awful lot of good pictures. That makes the relative score get closer to the middle making the relatively high scores lower and the relatively low scores higher.

Third: Because there are so many pictures, it is hard to be "different" and things like perfect dark brooding clouds, bug close ups or great fall colors probably aren't wowing people as they normally would.

Finally, I think this is a tough challenge to vote on. With no theme, people are essentially left with two things to use while voting: is the image well taken (most are) and "Would I hang it on my wall?" which is all about personal taste.

So, I recomend hanging in there folks. DPC has a way of evening any perceived unfairmness out over the week.

11/02/2004 02:33:42 AM · #18
Mine began as a high five but has dropped to a low five now that the first round of American voters have had their say. The shot is obviously of non-american nature and I have seen more often that those get lower ratings when people on the American side of the Atlantic vote.


11/02/2004 03:00:10 AM · #19
Originally posted by Azrifel:
Mine began as a high five but has dropped to a low five now that the first round of American voters have had their say. The shot is obviously of non-american nature and I have seen more often that those get lower ratings when people on the American side of the Atlantic vote.

Must have been the Bush voters...
11/02/2004 03:00:25 AM · #20
Mine began at just over 5 and has dropped to 4.8 :-(

I knew it was only a mediocre shot but I thought it was better than 4.8

The one comment I've had is that the shadows are far too deep and need lifting. When I looked at the image on my laptop at work the look almost black! But its fine on my monitor at home, which is a really good one. I think I'm going to suffer because of the poor hardware some people have to use to view the images :-((
 11/02/2004 03:01:43 AM · #21
Originally posted by Azrifel:
Mine began as a high five but has dropped to a low five now that the first round of American voters have had their say. The shot is obviously of non-american nature and I have seen more often that those get lower ratings when people on the American side of the Atlantic vote.


I was so shocked by this comment that I had to take the time to go back through the entire OFS challenge to see if I was guilty of such a thing, (being an American).

While I do see, (and, of course, have seen in challenges before), photos that are quite obviously from "overseas", I don't believe that I have ever voted based on this kind of, well..what would you call it?? predjudice maybe? The Icelandic group doesn't seem to suffer from that though - they seem to do quite well overall.

I would hope that people wouldn't be so shallow as to vote something down simply because it doesn't appear to be "American", but then again, I always hope that they aren't so shallow as to vote down just to try to raise the vote of their own entry.

I guess I am eternally hopeful, and yes, somewhat naive, but I'd rather be like that.

11/02/2004 03:04:39 AM · #22
Originally posted by dwterry:
Is anyone else seeing lower than expected scores in the October Free Study?


I am. I would give my photo a 6.5 and I predicted a 5.5 from the voters but right now I'm at 4.79 after 102 votes...I'm extremely surprised and disappointed. I hope I get at least one comment to explain what I could have improved!
 11/02/2004 03:10:07 AM · #23
With so many entries and such a wide range I don't think there are enough comments to go around!
 11/02/2004 03:15:10 AM · #24
I heard rumours of a dutch guy who was setting a world record for voting/commenting. He's already voted on every photo and he's in the process of commenting!

See this thread...
 11/02/2004 03:15:59 AM · #25
My photo started out at about 6.7 and has hovered since from 5.3 to 5.7. I don't have a winner by any stretch of the imagination but my own personal feeling is it probably deserves about a 6.5 to 7, but then I tend to score a little high compared to the typical DPC'er apparently.

Even winning photos usually don't score much higher than an average of 7, so that shows people are pretty conservative with giving anything much higher than that anyway. I look at it this way, if a photo is technically good, meets the challenge and has a good amount of artistic merit to it, I have no problem giving out 7 or 8's to reward someone for the effort. I mean, after all, that still leaves 2 or 3 points left for the photos that are just drop-dead extraordinary and I've often given them 9's or 10's.

I think the average person's voting routine is to look at the photo for about 2 seconds and hit the "5", especially if their perfect photo that should have won the blue ribbon isn't scoring like they had hoped.
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