I'm not sure how I feel about the voting system yet--part of me thinks it is very fun, and part of me... well, part of me doesn't. I just wanted to ask other people if they are voting on the same scale every time they vote--I've already seen some pieces of art that I think are judged WAY off the mark both high and low. I suppose I want to know what are other people taking into consideration when they vote--are they voting lower or higher because of pairing? Humor? Purely skill based? Becuase someone is your friend/out of spite?

For the most part I don't see the voting as being a problem at all, more like being something fun, but it's something I wonder over too! Of course everyone has different opinions, which I fully know, but still! These are the questions that plauge our young minds ^_^;;

Also, are you voting what you think the image deserves, or if it was a 5 are you giving it a 1 becuase you think it deserves a 3? I personally try to judge with similar marks in mind each time, and to vote what I think it deserves, if anyone was wondering/getting the ball rolling!

~Cheers!

Hmm, well I personally tend to vote high on everyone's! I'm seriously amazed at the talent I've seen in the Gallery. I've always wanted to be able to draw, and honestly my stick people turn out looking weird!... so I have a lot of admiration for all the artists. I guess I do tend to vote higher if the picture has a lot of detail in it. And maybe if it's a picture of a certain pairing of characters that I really like. Or if it's colored in real nicely. Or if it has a lot of depth. Or humor. Or if it's unique. It all depends on personal preference and the picture as a whole. I don't vote any lower if it's a character or character pairing I don't like though. If the picture is good it's good, ya know? As you said, I also try to vote with similar marks in mind each time.

I definitely think the voting system is supposed to be fun. I wouldn't take it too seriously. Trolls could visit the site and vote "Awful" on every pic they see just out of spite. The comments are what I love. They give you a chance to interact with the artist, and say what you liked (or didn't like) about their art. It gives the artist some feedback, rather than just a rating.

I agree! I hope most people try and take the time to comment if they really have something to say, though I have noticed whenever I click 'read more' to read more than three comments they all vanish on me O_o I am curious if I'm the only one with this problem!

I hope most people think like you do <3 Thanks for replying!

I agree with ~Mrs.Brisby~ on this one . It is supposed to be fun, but unfortunately it can be abused. The thing to hearten any artist who is showing their artwork in the Galleries are the comments - and every single one has been positive .

You aren't the only one with the comments problem Calcaneal, it's affecting my moderators too . It's a glitch we know about and it will hopefully be fixed soon .

Thanks, MaraudingDon! I'm glad to know the glitch will be cleared up and I can browse the lovely comments <3

I kind of have a love-hate relationship with the whole voting thing, ahaha.

I find myself checking back in an almost obsessive-compulsive manner to see how much my own personal rating has changed (or more specifically, has gone down). I don't really mind if people don't like certain pieces of my artwork, that is totally their perogative. But if I do have to know about it and have it broadcast to everyone else, I'd rather have a way for these people to tell me what they didn't like as opposed to an anonymous and abrupt rating system.

You can't help but compare yourself to your fellow artists, right? Or maybe that's just me? *hee*

The thing with the voting system is that the pictures get rated according to high or low votes, but not number of votes. So it keeps happening that someone uploads their picture, and immediately votes 5 on it, so it's top of the list (la la la, don't look at me...). Getting a high for one or two votes doesn't say that much, but still getting a high vote after 20 votes does. The system allows for a lot of fluctuation that way - there are a few 'constants' on the first page, and newly uploaded/rated pics that sink pretty quickly (*sigh*).



You're not alone, glockgal...

I was going to pick a part to agree to, but mostly I just want to second your whole post <3



I very much can agree with all of that-- I've seen some pieces already in places I don't believe they belong--both high and low. I'll see something with a 2-something vote with a quantity of about 1 or two votes that I think is great but completely buried. I know it will never see the light of day again for more votes to bring it to more people's attention, either, so that's just too bad. I think the voting system is all for fun, but it can bring out the nastiness in people as well ;_;

Thanks for the reply (And I heart your art )

~Cheers!

I personally don't like the voting system. It's too bias, and people don't tell you what they don't like and like about it. Plus since most people aren't professional they'll just vote because it's their fave artist and or, they just like the style and the composition. But something that is brilliantly drawn, which may not be to everyone's taste might be a 4/5 on the vote, but many will rate it a 2/3

It's the lazy person's tool, and it's too easy I reckon. I like people to actually comment and give you their crit.

I definitely agree that a comment is always better. I'm not an artist myself (though I love looking at it - I'm perpetually in state of stunned amazement at the talent of all of these people), but I can imagine that a well thought out comment is more helpful than a rating - and as MaraudingDon and ~Mrs.Brisby~ said, it's really not something that can be taken too seriously, as people can go and vote one on every single picture, or five on every single picture, or whatever, and completely throw the rating off. It's just for fun!

well, personally, i think this fan art stuff is brilliant! kudos to leaky for finally giving us a place to daydream.
speaking of which, any of you artists want to do me some young sirius stuff? or the twins?

I can't say I'm a big fan of it.

I can understand the need to give the gallery surfers a "handle" to latch on to and to give them a place to start, but it doesn't seem to make much sense in itself. Its not obvious how many votes were cast to create the rating (at least until you look at each individual image) and there's no clue as to the criteria used in the votes (and, seeing as that's different for each voter, that probably isn't possible to gauge).

Now, I don't think the voting system should be done away with entirely, I just don't think it should be given such a prominent place in the fanartist directory. It can stay within each gallery, attached to each piece of artwork, I'm sure some people really like it, and its also nice to see which artwork from a fanartist seems to be most popular, but used as an overall objectifier of an artist's talent and capabilities (or even popularity) it falls short.

An example--two fanartists, the first with one image and a rating of "3.5" from one vote, the other with 10 images and a rating of "3.0" from 40 votes. What does this mean? The former is better than the latter? More talented? More popular? Does it mean anything at all?

One idea for replacing it could be to show a "featured fanart" from each fanartist's gallery, chosen by that fanartist, seen as a thumbnail next to their avatar and info. This way someone surfing by could get a small peek of the type of fanart inside each gallery, drawing them in if they're interested, or letting them know its okay to move on if they're not. (Of course I noticed the directory layout has been changed somewhat recently, so this idea may not be possible.)(Also each artist's avatar could be used for this purpose, but I'm not sure everyone would like that.)

Well, just my two cents.

I was wondering, how does the system work? I know how to vote and all that, but whats the highest rating possible? Because the highest I've seen was only 4.03 or something like that. Is it out of 10? Or 5?

You can find both young Sirius and the Twins in my album!

I've been kind of disappointed with the whole voting affair (and I'm not the only one from what I read elsewhere). I believe a mandatory you-vote-you-comment script added to the gallery would be nice. If you vote, you *have to* comment. I may be wrong here but I feel some people are voting way off what some artworks are worth and those get buried so no one gets to see them.
Just my 2 cents .

The highest rating is 5. Sorry it took a while to get back to you, but we had to check with the techies!


Only those viewers who are registered on the Lounge can leave comments, whereas any viewer can rate the pictures. What many viewers like, however, is to Browse by Artist. Since those are listed alphabetically, everyone sees those!

I've been noticing that a lot lately. I've worked hard on some pictures and got marked very low and since Rubies on Rails has a glitch I'm stuck with a lousy two, it's very disheartening.

Actually--the glitch is even deeper: many new uploads will only allow a single vote and then the system locks up. It is a devilishly difficult problem the tekkies have been working on for several months now. When the problem is finally resolved, the info will be posted in the FanArt Gallery news thread.

Thanks to everyone for your patience in this matter.


Hagiographer13
TLC Galleries Moderator

I'm not a huge fan of the voting system; I think it's good for seeing what type of my art people like the most by comparing the ratings pieces within my gallery get, but for comparing fanartists it's not so good.

I think it should definately be made clearer if possible (like making what it's out of more obvious, and being able to see how many people have voted).

This glitch has now been fixed, and the voting is working again! I've already voted for a bunch of my favorite images today in celebration!

Sorry this took so long, and thank you everyone for your patience in this matter

Kimberly Blair
Galleries Manager

Hmmm... I still can't vote. I've tried refreshing my browser, deleting my cookies, logging out and then logging back in, and have rebooted my computer. I'm not sure what else to try.

~Pia'Sharn

:sigh: while our voting was fixed, it's now broken again.

Once again our tekkie's are on the case.

Sorry again for the inconvenience

- Kim

I know I'm not DaVinci. I know, as a matter of fact, that I've never had a moment of formal art training, and I work with a lot of difficult subjects, angles, postures, and media. I have NO problem with critique of my work, and in fact, value that a lot more highly than empty praise, especially since it's something I'm actually currently surviving off of.

That said, it's incredibly frustrating to see my stuff keep getting voted at 1, 2, or 3 and having no explanation of why, especially when the really low numbers are on sketches that I happen to think are some of my technically best. What I'm asking here is not for more votes, more comments, higher votes, or anything like that, but am I way off-base in thinking that it would be really nice that if there's something wrong with an artist's work that you feel strongly enough about to want to vote it a one or a two, you should say something? "Shading looks flat." "Hands are stiff." "I had to look at the notes to know that was Ron and Hermione." Whatever it is, I just think it would be courteous to say what your reason is if you have a problem with someone's sketch.

Of course, I may be wrong. I just know that I'm a perfectionist, and though it's not annoying to be carrying this many low ratings, it's VERY annoying to not know why! C'mon, people, tell me what stinks so I can try to fix it! No frustrated artist. Better art for you. Win-win, really....