Dumb comments
 

My photoblog has almost 5 months since opening and I had a lot of visitors. Many of them left a comment or two and at the beggining I was happy because people appreciated my hobby, but now my enthusiasm starts to fade. Why? It's a simple thing: 98% percent of the comments are something like "wow, great picture!", "I like the picture!", "nice colors!", etc, etc. Nobody ever said something like "I don't like the picture, you could use a b&w instead colors and crop it that way...", "you could capture the picture from another angle, this one is not that great", "i've been there, I know that place last summer and we might of met...". The only comments that didn't contain words like "great picture", "awesome shot" or "amazing colors" were the spam comments. Now that I don't get spam anymore on my page, I really miss those days. :(

Why people just throw these kind of comments? At least if they don't have something to say why they don't just look at pictures? I know, perhaps they want comments back on their blogs too, but if someone brings critiques to a picture of mine, that doesn't mean I won't visit his blog and comment their pictures/articles in a positive manner...

I believe I'll disable the comment feature. Or someone, please develop an addon against dumb comments...

Unfortunately, in order to give worthwhile comments on a photo you have to have some idea of what you're talking about. Most people, even photobloggers, aren't sure how to talk about photographs authoritatively. Those who are knowledgeable, probably aren't sure how well criticism will be received, so they tend to do what their mama told them and if they can't say anything nice...

It's tough, even photography sites that are supposed to specialize in critiques don't do a very good job of providing constructive feedback. The only place I've really found good feedback on my photos is from groups where I actually know the people in person and can show them prints.

I know what you mean, but this isn't half as bad as it is in the some of the "Blogger" photo circles, where everything is wonderful, even when it's crap. I used to participate in some groups where I eventually thought to myself "if I see one more person saying how wonderful a really bad photo is, I will barf on my monitor."

I think it really boils down to comments. People like return visits and lots of positive comments, and they believe that if they say nice things, that will draw return visits and nice comments in return.

I've been guilty of the same thing many times. Where I like a person, but their current photo isn't so great, and instead of letting them have it, I say something short and meaningless, just to let them know I stopped by.

Of the times that I have left actual constructive criticism, I have gotten mixed responses, from no return visit at all, to returned sharp criticism. Sometimes it turn out just fine - depending on the person.

I do think there are people out there who's feelings are easily hurt, so whether to speak freely, or not, is sometimes a difficult line to draw.

I believe that some photobloggers leave these so called 'dumb comments' simply for the link to their site. This could mean though that they like the photo generally but dont have anything particularly specific they can focus on. Some people may be put off writing constructive criticism, feeling this could be taken the wrong way.
However it is always nice to recieve praise for a high quality photo just as it is nasty to rip into some photos.

I am used to receiving undifferentiated comments and I don't mind them. Of course I appreciate it when someone takes time to write their thoughts about my work properly, these are the best comments. Nevertheless, I am not especially interested in receiving critique from someone I don't know and whose photographic ideas might be different from what I want.

I can agree mostly with what Dakwegmo, Oswegan and Scarabaeus have said, however what you call "dumb comments" can just be a message to let you know this person is - still - following your blog. Sometimes I receive an email from someone who never wrote a comment but has been visiting my site regularly since the beginning. Having regular visitors over a long period of time who might write short, long or no comments at all, is a form of positive feedback.


p.s.: When I started with my photoblog, I wrote critical comments sometimes and had to learn that some people just were not able to deal with it, even with constructive criticism. You never know what the person behind the images is like and why they have started their blog. Now I am writing either a positive comment or no comment.

Ran across this article and thought some might be interested in Neil Creek's opinion on commenting on images, whether on your photoblog, Flickr, or elsewhere:

How to Win Friends and Influence People - A Guide to Commenting on Other People’s Photos

I suspect a lot of comments are due to people thinking that leaving a comment and link to their photoblog will drive up their Google pagerank (and I hold hands up here as one guilty of this).

Actually, because the URLs (for Pixelpost comments, as for Blogger, Wordpress etc.) include the "rel=nofollow" attribute, crawlers don't pick them up as reciprocal links. I wonder whether, if this secret was exposed, you would discover your flood of comments dropping off?