On 2012-08-01 06:35:44 -0700, otter said:

On Jul 31, 7:20*pm, Robert Coe wrote:

I take your point. Maybe I phrased the issue in terms too black and white
. But
most contributors to the SI participate in the expectation of receiving f
rank
comments, and I think most welcome them.

I think some do expect, and welcome criticism of their submissions,
and some don't - they just want to share their creative efforts with
others.

I suspect that those who don't particularly want their submissions
criticized are also the the ones who don't offer criticism themself,
and the one ones that do are the ones that give long detailed feedback
on each picture.

The commentary is an important part of the SI, and regardless of the
individual motivation for sharing images, the thing to remember that in
this game of semantics we are using "comments" rather than "criticism".
Those commenting should think of themselves as well meaning, honest
writers expressing opinion and advice, rather than NYT "critics" or
photo competition judges sometimes maliciously picking at that which
displeases them.

There is no judgement in the SI as it is not a competition, it is meant
to be fun, sharing, learning and inspirational experience for all.

Another thing to remember is, the nature of everyone here on the
Usenet, and those submitting to the SI is a need for some sort of
recognition. It is just part of human nature. So I suspect that if
consistently nothing is said about a particular photographer's SI image
submissions, that photographer would soon be absent from the group.


Since it take time and effort to give that kind of feedback, perhaps a
reasonable compromise is to just do it for others who do likewise.

Then who starts the ball rolling with the first comment?

How does that commentator select the first image that is comment
worthy, without knowing if it is available for comment or not?

I am prepared to wait for the first word to be dropped, rather than
grinding through all of them and wasting my time when only two or three
want to hear any opinion on their image.

So using your suggestion, for the next SI, "On the Road" we should
anticipate zero comments, followed by Usenet post asking why there are
no comments. Followed up with the next SI with a drop in image
submissions.

I am prepared to give each of those who have stepped up to share images
via the SI recognition that they had done so, sometimes in the face of
the withering scorn of those who deride and condemn the SI.
We have been fortunate in the past few months to see some newcomers to
the SI, but we have also had our dropouts over the years. Then we have
those who for whatever reason will not share, or doing their best to
discourage entry to the SI.

....but maybe I will just wait this time to see what comments appear.


--
Regards,

Savageduck