wwp@yahoogroups.com:
Re: Comments
Roger Howard 2007-Jan-03 20:50:00
On Wed, January 3, 2007 11:52 am, Pat Swovelin wrote:
> And isn't adding a comments are a form of competition (because you're
> suddenly doing your work to get better comments vs. fulfilling your
> vision of the event's theme)? If people want to comment on a pano they
> can send mail directly to the photographer through the e-mail link on
> that particular contribution. It's really easy, will cut down on the
> negative comments (because the sender will know who it came from vs.
> "anonymous") and there won't be the mindless threads like "me too" and
> "I think Bob's right."
No, I wouldn't call it competition, though if someone is motivated in that
way (to get better comments) I'd really ask - what's the problem with
that? Though realistically, given the 3 month latency between projects, I
hardly think it's realistic to expect people to even be able to pander to
the audience. But ultimately that's how the creative process works. We
shoot, we publish, we get feedback, we improve. Repeat. I've found the
vast majority of feedback in other creative communities to be
productive/constructive, and a critical part of the creator's growth. And
I simply don't see having public comments as such a detriment.
We can already receive feedback via email, but that's a very different
type of communication. I post images and other works on other forums and
sites and the vast majority of the interesting feedback comes from public
comments in the light of day, not via private emails.
I really see the benefits as far outweighing the drawbacks (and think
those drawbacks are being overexagerated), but that's just my opinion of
course. I'm willing to consider it an experimental idea, one that can be
retracted if it proves problematic, but I don't think, given all the
precedent out there, that the idea of in-situ two way communications is
uncommon or unuseful. It's a huge part of the Web 2.0 (hate the name, but
the concept is sound) movement, away from static one-way web presence,
it's all about engaging with the audience. I don't see that as competition
at all - I see it as providing a mechanism for meta-conversation related
to, or instigated by, the content we publish - which is right now trapped
in a one-way push.