[RobG]

congrats on your image being explored! that said, I have always been puzzled as to how that works and am not one to play the popularity contest game as ive seen others do. I have a friend on there that plays a few tricks to increase his # of views and faves which I find self defeating in the first place.

Thanks! I'm not interested so much in a popularity contest, but I was thinking that it would be nice to get a few more hits.

It's only spamming if you post to inappropriate groups. Otherwise groups are simply a way to make your photos visible to people with specific, shared interests. I routinely have a look at many Pentax and macro groups to which I also post my photos, and I find it enjoyable and enlightening. If the EXIF is available, it's also a way to learn about technique and exposure choices. And it's a way to see what other people like. Anyhow, I do realize that posting a photo to many groups makes it less likely to be Explored. I've seen pics of my contacts explored - though never one of mine - and it always happened shortly after it was posted and a few of the poster's contacts had immediately starred the photo and made glowing comments...

As others have said, it seems to be related to the number of comments received in comparison to the number of views and favourites.

Yep, totally agree. Flickr is also a great way to find out about good locations btw, using the map tool at Flickr: Explore everyone's photos on a Map - you can search a map by keyword (ie ruin, in area round you). I love that feature!!!

Of course popular tourist spots will have the most hits, but that's an interesting use of Flickr - at least provided that people map their photos, which I generally don't, and although I have an O-GPS1 I usually only use it for astrophotography.

[Schraubstock]

How to get on Flickr's Explore Page: Learn how Interestingness is ranked

Reading this makes me even less likely wanting to join Flickr

[Rondec]

Reading this makes me even less likely wanting to join Flickr

The chance of getting explored is pretty small, unless you actively pursue it (which it really isn't worth pursuing). I use Flickr because it is a cheap way of having high quality photos on the internet -- mainly for posting here. I seldom post in flickr groups and find the "social" aspect of it pretty worthless. Favorites are a little like "Likes" on Facebook. I guess they let you know that people are paying attention to your photos, but the bigger question is whether or not you, personally, are satisfied with your work.

[dcBear78]

Reading this makes me even less likely wanting to join Flickr

I find the other major alternatives worse in this regard.

[Nass]

Flickr is pretty good value for money considering it's free . People get soooo ludicrously hung up on explore. It is of course nice when a photo makes it but I can honestly say it doesn't bother me in the least when I don't, as I never expect to. I'm quite lucky because for me the difference between an explored photo and a non explored photo isn't all that much. Ie this was posted yesterday, it didn't make explore but it did just fine thank you.

All in all I like Flickr very much although I'm not a huge fan of the way they keep fiddling with the interface to make it work better on mobile (but worse on desktop). There are some genuinely very good photogs on there and it's a great source of information about how to do stuff. If you have a question then if you mail them most people respond. The thing is I'm not sure if it's really aimed and enthusiasts like us, maybe more at people just sharing snaps. The discussion forums and groups could be a lot better for example, they seem like ugly stepchildren on there. It's also quite a convenient way of having snaps online to post to forums etc. So all in all not too shabby - could be better but hey, so could a lot of things. I'm sure there are newer and triendier photosharing sites around but I can't be bothered to change to the latest trendy site all the time, this is good enough.

[Clavius]

I feel that I need to balance this discussion with some positivity about flickr. More flickr members have noticed and disliked the must-post-something-positive-or-don't-post-anything-culture. (And lets face it, the users at PF are often too nice to really critisize pictures too.) That's why I like the flickr group "DeleteMe uncensored". (And its many copy-cats/clones like the Icebox, etc.) All members vote and comment on the photos in the pool. If they find anything in a picture to nag about, they will, uncensored and without mercy. But if your photo reaches a certain amount of 'save'-votes before it reaches 10 delete-votes, it will be posted in their hall of fame. If you want to have a reality check about how others view your photography, that's the place to go. Very usefull!

What's even better is that flickr isn't just about photography, or snap, but there's also vast sub-communities showing each other their heavily processed digital art, brilliant home-made CGI, people's own paintings that they have scanned, statues that they made and photographed, food-stylist groups with recipies on how to cook for the best pictures, collectors of [insert anything] showing their collections, pictures of custom built WWII Lego-projects, so literally anything.

They sadly removed the option of displaying the most recent uploads. I often got completely lost in there.

[RobG]

Clavius - I agree - Flickr is a great place for sharing many kinds of creativity, and it would be sad if it was all judged and only for the "best" in the judgement of a small group of people. Having said that, the group facilities allow things to be collected together in more specific ways.

[stevebrot]

Congratulations!

I have never been "explored"


Steve

[kh1234567890]

Congratulations!
I have never been "explored"

I did something bad back in 2005 and have not been explored since

[mikeSF]

I did something bad back in 2005 and have not been explored since

huh?

.