[kh1234567890]

The big question here would be have any images ever been posted in explore with no favs. Or with say less than 10.
I have 14 images that have actually been displayed in the PPG after having been voted in. All of those images are posted on flickr. Most of them have less than 20 views and no favs.

My last two in Explore had no faves at the time and only two or three views and a couple of tags. The last one I was in the middle of adding it to albums shortly after posting it when the notifications started pinging crazy. They weren't in any groups at the time either. Or hotlinked to from anywhere.

[normhead]

I guess I'll just have to face it.... I suck.

I've had images that got 750 facebook likes
I've had images that received over 700,000 hits on Phtoobucket,
I have images in the PPG.
But flicker explore ignores me.

Guess I'll go eat worms.

[Larrymc]

Interesting.... but inconclusive for a number or reasons. The fact that you get favs after, doesn't necessarily mean you didn't have to have a certain number of favs, views or whatever before to get listed on explore. So say the number required is 15 or 10 or something. And then people pile on afterwards. One on explore now, the Leopard cub has 16 favs, it would be interesting to find it in day or two, and see how much that's bumped up.

Your Leopard Cub is now up to 382 faves and 23,383 views with 30 comment. There is one there now a moth with 232 views 12 faves and one comment. I contend that what ever algorithm is its not faves. I've had some with just a few faves, maybe one or two the night I posted them and made Explore then the faves started to build. I have some now with 25 or more faves and no Explore invitation. It can't be a random selection either there are too many from the same person on the same day I had two of an old abandoned flat bed truck that made Explore on January 8, 2018. Its certainly not technically correct images as the ones I've seen, including mine, certainly aren't. So, as I've said its not faves, but some arcane selection process.

'Only the Shadow knows'??? keep up your search for the true selection process and let us know.

[Rondec]

I guess I'll just have to face it.... I suck.

Not at all. You take great photos Norm. I just think that we don't really understand the Flickr Explore algorithm. I used to think it had to do with favs coming pretty quickly after I posted an image, but my Monticello image literally had three or four favs and then was selected.

I do think the folks who do the Daily Challenges put images in explore a lot more. I suppose it helps to have a group of folks liking and commenting on your images, while you do the same for them. I did that for a bit, but I didn't really have time to keep after it with my kids growing up and work responsibility.

[Larrymc]

Not at all. You take great photos Norm. I just think that we don't really understand the Flickr Explore algorithm. I used to think it had to do with favs coming pretty quickly after I posted an image, but my Monticello image literally had three or four favs and then was selected.

I do think the folks who do the Daily Challenges put images in explore a lot more. I suppose it helps to have a group of folks liking and commenting on your images, while you do the same for them. I did that for a bit, but I didn't really have time to keep after it with my kids growing up and work responsibility.

Vince, I'm with you, Norm has some great images posted on Flickr, His images definitely don't suck.......

It may have something to do with the how active you are on Flickr. I use to be more active and commented on more photos, but like you, its gotten to be a time consumer for me. The past few weeks or so I've been more active with my comments so I'll see if my Explore invites go up. I never fave any photo, never have, my philosophy on Flickr is if the image is worth faving its worth commenting.

[Larrymc]

I guess I'll just have to face it.... I suck.

I've had images that got 750 facebook likes
I've had images that received over 700,000 hits on Phtoobucket,
I have images in the PPG.
But flicker explore ignores me.

Guess I'll go eat worms.

Chin up there Norm, when someone comments on your images reply with a message of appreciation that may buy you an Explore invite. Oh and comment periodically on other folks images.

[BruceBanner]

This one went into explore at the weekend.

Lovely colours!

LOL. That moonlanding shot - taken with a small plastic figure, self-raising flour and iPhone lighting - sat at number 7 on Explore for most of the day. Posted as a joke for a Macro theme group, it ended up by far my highest placing...

It's actually fantastic shot. Well done!

I guess I'll just have to face it.... I suck.

I've had images that got 750 facebook likes
I've had images that received over 700,000 hits on Phtoobucket,
I have images in the PPG.
But flicker explore ignores me.

Guess I'll go eat worms.

haha of course that's not it! Your shots are great! hahah.

What annoys me more is when I take a BTS of a shot, such as my camera tripodded up for a waterfall shot and I take the shot with my crappy LG phone and it makes Explore whereas the real shot with the K-1 never makes it in! haha

Or when it picks up a shot that's 'ok'... but the one right next to it on my photostream is 1000% better but gets missed!!

But here's what I think assists with getting images into Explore;

1) Be a productive member of flickr. Comment on other peoples work, fave other peoples work, get conversations going in the comments section, add your image to a few groups (but not too many). Explore seems to bias and reward those that actively support the community, so simply uploading images and not engaging at all with other members or groups comes at a cost. What a surprise I get 1-2 Explores per month... I have a big mouth

2) IQ is not as important as composition and colour schemes. 'Interestingness' is actually a great way to think about getting an image in Explore. Like that toy moon figure (interesting) or the Beech and bluebells (restricted repetitive colour tones) gets you in (as does BTS shots... because 'interesting').



There are some oddities though, some 'hacks' or 'cheats'. I don't understand it but I have seen these two instances before;

1) An account that ONLY has Explored shots (and seemingly hundreds of them, and they are in the views of 100k each or more per pic, like top 10 Explore stuff, more than 1k of favs per pic, each and everyone, and all landscape i nstyle. Either this guy is deleting all images that never made Explore or he/she uploads and knows it will be Explored (my ignorance might mean this is a famous tog etc, no idea). Either way it's a bit suspect if a user is essentially guaranteed Explore every time. I mean think about it, Explore is 500 pics per day from around the world, how many people are like 'this' and basically guaranteed entry, makes that figure drop from 500 per day down to something else.. :/

2) I have browsed Explore a few times and have seen an entry from one account getting 20+ submissions in the same day. One particular example I recall was these 'phone selfie' kinda shots, this guy and his gf walking around town, taking pics of themselves as they hugged each other and walked around (kinda like a selfie stick shot but no selfie stick). The shots were awful, like snapped on a phone from 2008, pixelated beyond belief, nothing interesting or good about any of these images. He had about 25 images in Explore that day from this 'walk around town' set. Odd indeed.

So... we must remember that Flickr is an algorithm and therefore prone to bugs perhaps. I thought it was impossible to get more than 3 in at once (I've had 3 in one day before, often 2 but never more than 3), but 25?!

There is also a 'tidy up' after things get Explored. Lego shots are often removed, as are many other 'themed' specialist photography shots. Some Lego shots remain, but Lego seems to attract the 'interestingness' bias of the algorithm to the point that 10yr old iphone pics of Lego get in (and sometimes in top 10!), which are them removed after the fact. So we must remember not to take offence when our images do not make it into Explore but 10yr old iphone 5c lego kid shots do.

My only advice if wanting more shots into Explore is to engage the community more, and also perhaps ease on the volume of shots you submit to flickr. Instead of 5 images of the same thing, pick the very best one, increase the quality of your photostream vs quantity (this is good advice in general) I tend to upload a lot at the moment and rarely see Explore (yet outputting some of my best work), for a time I was getting into Explore almost every fortnight from just 1-3 shots per fortnight being submitted... (sometimes you are the flavour of the month for a while lol, then get dumped! )

[Rondec]

I guess I'll just have to face it.... I suck.

I've had images that got 750 facebook likes
I've had images that received over 700,000 hits on Phtoobucket,
I have images in the PPG.
But flicker explore ignores me.

Guess I'll go eat worms.

I'm not sure how serious you are, but if you really want to get images explored, find photographers that you enjoy their images and like and comment on them -- on Flickr, not on Pentax Forum. It is a bit of a game and if you play it, you'll get more people to pay attention to your images, although how important that is in the whole scheme of things is debatable.

[normhead]

I'm not sure how serious you are, but if you really want to get images explored, find photographers that you enjoy their images and like and comment on them -- on Flickr, not on Pentax Forum. It is a bit of a game and if you play it, you'll get more people to pay attention to your images, although how important that is in the whole scheme of things is debatable.

I just think it's funny. Sorry if anyone thought I was at all down. It was all tongue in cheek. I'm not the type to do something different over something like flickr explore. If for 20 minutes a day I could get every image on flickr explore, I probably wouldn't bother.

[kh1234567890]

I guess I'll just have to face it.... I suck.

I've had images that got 750 facebook likes
I've had images that received over 700,000 hits on Phtoobucket,
I have images in the PPG.
But flicker explore ignores me.

Guess I'll go eat worms.

Google maps is the place to post if you want views ...

[BruceBanner]

Seems also if you just type in this thread you get into Explore

This just in;

[robgski]

I don't question how or why a shot of mine hits Explore, I am just happily mystified when it does. Taken with my newly acquired FA 24-90 on K-1. [IMG][/IMG]

[normhead]

Google maps is the place to post if you want views ...

The only reason I post on flickr is so I can link the images to this site. I really haven't much involvement with the flickr stuff. I have no ambitions to be a flickr rock star. All my "celebrated" images on other sites have been for the most part complete accidents, and not the result of any special effort by myself. Except for PPG of course, where you have to format to their size, use a clunky submissions process, and then wait 6 months to see if you go in. I submit those on rainy days when I'm bored.

[kh1234567890]

The only reason I post on flickr is so I can link the images to this site. I really haven't much involvement with the flickr stuff. I have no ambitions to be a flickr rock star. All my "celebrated" images on other sites have been for the most part complete accidents, and not the result of any special effort by myself. Except for PPG of course, where you have to format to their size, use a clunky submissions process, and then wait 6 months to see if you go in. I submit those on rainy days when I'm bored.

I don't think that I have any 'celebrated' images anywhere. I just take snaps for fun and don't really care if no-one ever looks at them. Flickr is mainly an useful off-site archive, should all else fail. At least it doesn't mangle photos like Google etc. do. The social side of Flickr died many years ago.

It just surprised me that my very boring pano got 1.3+ million views on Google Maps.

As for Flickr Explore - I suspect that there is a human involved in the final selection.

[BruceBanner]

The only reason I post on flickr is so I can link the images to this site. I really haven't much involvement with the flickr stuff. I have no ambitions to be a flickr rock star. All my "celebrated" images on other sites have been for the most part complete accidents, and not the result of any special effort by myself. Except for PPG of course, where you have to format to their size, use a clunky submissions process, and then wait 6 months to see if you go in. I submit those on rainy days when I'm bored.

I honestly think that will be why norm, nothing to do with quality of work. I'm sure I have read about the algorithm and how it rewards those that engage in the community. By browsing other peoples works, faving/liking, leaving comments, asking questions, all that stuff increases the chances of a shot being pulled in.

I too use flickr for linking here, it's useful for forum posts for sure. I even make some images private and just link here so that my photostream stays looking decent to the public but a sale shot or whatever can be viewed here.

I also use flickr for client work, making private albums of potential shots for them to review, and if they are savy enough the final paid for shots can be given to them via a zip file. Definitely a useful resource.

I don't think that I have any 'celebrated' images anywhere. I just take snaps for fun and don't really care if no-one ever looks at them. Flickr is mainly an useful off-site archive, should all else fail. At least it doesn't mangle photos like Google etc. do. The social side of Flickr died many years ago.

It just surprised me that my very boring pano got 1.3+ million views on Google Maps.

As for Flickr Explore - I suspect that there is a human involved in the final selection.

I still socialise on flickr, a few flickr emails here or there, comment conversations etc, it's just harder to find those kinds of people who engage back. Sadly I find the discussion parts of groups a ghost town, you can ask a question and no one responds in a group with 1000k members etc. Real shame because it could be good and useful resource (like here) to ask quirky specific questions towards people with the know-how (lens etc).

Yeah I'm positive a human tidies up the Explore group which accounts for a few entries into Explore and then your image gets kicked out (better ones replace the crappy ones the algorithm picks up).

Well... another Explore shortly after the last;