This problem is getting worse, and I am making this appeal to Ross to consider removing the 'reply' button which some members hit automatically under every comment they receive, cluttering everybody's 'notifications' box with mostly irrelevant and impersonal messages.
I received a notification today addressed to me, containing a list of 51 @names and a generic 'thank you' which would have been just as effective - and far less irritating - had it been addressed simply "To All". I have removed that person from my 'following' list so that I do not receive automatic notifications from him in future, and will not comment on his photographs again. Another name was similarly removed a few days ago for the slightly lesser offence of 45 @names and an irrelevant comment.
I believe it is polite to thank anyone who takes the time to look at my work and is kind enough to make a comment (whether positive or negative) because that is what we are all here for - to learn from other people's views - but bombarding them with lists of names is quite a different matter.
I always respond thoughtfully, appropriately, and individually to any specific comment, but any general thanks are addressed 'To All', without adding their names to a long list, to avoid the nuisance of cluttering so many notifications boxes unnecessarily. They can read the comments next time they visit the album - if they are sufficiently interested to do so.
You have an excellent project here, Ross, but some people are trying to turn it into a 'twitter-facebook' chatroom, as was revealed by some messages in a recent discussion, expressing the 'thrill' of receiving so many notifications because it made them feel important!
Will you please consider either removing the 'reply' button, or restricting it to one @name per notification?
Oh dear, I always reply to coments with multiple notifications as I feel that I have to thank everyone, just to be polite, and individual thanks can be very time consuming.I will review this. Sorry Arthur! By the way I love your photos of Suffolk, they bring back lovely memories. Thanks
I have to agree with you Arthur and I'm guilty of group thank you's. I think your are right though and I'm trying to limit my comments to answering questions or responding with more than thank you to individuals.
I stopped thanking people a while ago and just go and leave a comment about their pictures instead. I noticed that many people here did the same and simply followed the trend. Hope no one thinks I was being rude not answering!
This has been addressed by a few people lately and some are getting the message. I always reply to a specific question and that's where I find the Notifications page helpful, if someone wants to know something in connection with a shot I've uploaded. But the huge mass thankyous are very time-consuming and I find it just as polite and effective to give the occasional group thankyou at the top of my posting every few days.
I don't feel the need to thank everyone for comments (but hope this isn't interpreted as rudeness) ... like you say ..... it becomes a bit Facebook-ish. My @s are usually grouped only if answering a particular point ... otherwise @ is to one person. The reply function is useful if someone asks a question so I'd not like to see it go ... but maybe restricted would be fine ....
@wordpixman i am sorry that you no longer follow my pics, didn't mean to offend anyone, i suppose it takes a while to work out how this whole thing works, i just love the photos and the challenge and learning, am not trying to annoy anyone. if i did it was not intentional. anyway, off to work! bye
@wordpixman I work full time and am a father of four and devoted husband so I feel so overwhelmed at times when it comes to spare time for just taking photos and feel so guilty when I just can't seem to find as much time as I would like just to peruse all my followers albums and leave comments
...I tend to let a photo I have posted sit for a couple to a few days before I respond
...a lot of my responses are individualized but for the masses of more generic comments I do find it time efficient to send one thank you en mass...I guess its just how I was raised to be polite and I am so afraid to hurt a follower who I consider a friend.
The funny thing is I do this also as to not loose a follower because when I do it does kind of hurt :)
I do have bit of an idea on how perhaps we can all go about meeting each other half way...perhaps those people who would prefer not receiving a bulk notification could tag their comment as no reply necessary (I am happily assuming you will and that is good enough for me)...perhaps if more and more people do this it will all iron out this issue
I think the main issue at the heart of this is most people are absolutely ignorant of how the mass notifications are affecting others so to drop them as a follower is a little blunt when a better solution could have been post on their most recent photo and just say something along the lines of
"love your comments however can you do me a favor? I would like to be put on an exclusion list of those names you include in a multiple thank you"
I know if for example you asked something along those lines I would certainly remember your name and exclude you and would most likely just take the time to comment on one of your awesome photo's
@loztsoul ... Thank you Trevor, I appreciate what you say, and I too was brought up to be polite and always say 'thank you' where due. That is why I explain my views in some detail in my profile, which I assume everybody reads before commenting, as I do when I find a new person whose work I enjoy and wish to follow.
Oh dear, guilty as charged!, I have just done a multiple thank you. I have not been on 365 for a couple of days and had a number of comments. I wanted to reply and say thank you to the people that commented . I have to agree with you Arthur, I think you are right and I am trying to limit my comments and responding with more than just a thank you. I dont want this project to end up like Twitter, but I do feel it rude not to say thank you. I dont think the "reply" button should be removed. Maybe we should just add our own comment on the bottom of our photos, thanking everyone for their comments.
@sciroccojade ... Thank you so much! I feel humbled by such a stream of positive comments. It was not my intention to start a revoluition, but I have to say that I find the response overwhelming.
I also make this point in my profile, hoping that anyone who reads it will not feel neglected if they are not mentioned by name in every response.
What an interesting world - people who don't thank, people who want to thank, people who don't want to be thanked, people who want to be thanked - this makes for a diverse group of people who all belong to the same "group", and a very successful group at that. Tolerance, respecting peoples viewpoints and meeting each other half way will help to ensure the group remains a great group. @loztsoul - well said Trevor
@kjarn ... Thank you, Kathy. Those two words, 'tolerance' and 'respect', are what make this group strong and it is a pity that lack of thought can sometimes inadvertently stretch acceptability to its limits.
I agree with you Arthur.
The idea of a brief policy statement on ones comments is good.
Sometimes thanks and replies are in order but should be direct not multiples.
Thanks.
I find the idea of people getting narked because I thanked them for their comments quite extraordinary.
Personally, I think a big part of this site is interacting with other photographers. I could easily take a photograph every day (or more than one!) without needing an account here - without even needing a computer at all, in fact! But far fewer people would get to see my photographs, without this community to upload to, and - crucially - far fewer people would talk to me about them.
For me, photography is a hobby, and as such, it is a social thing. The social side of this website is just as important as the photographic side, and I, for one, would be very disappointed to see this feature removed.
agree with kit marsden . "and I, for one, would be very disappointed to see this feature removed."
i dont mind the notification .... (not a big deal) but i like to SEE how people interact to each other even a simple THANKS means a lot .... ♥ PEACE!
(just my opinion)
I don't do group thank yous for that reason... Partly because I'm too lazy to click 'reply to' 47 times and partly because I prefer to thank people in my actual caption of the photo so that they don't get the notification. I do respond to specific questions and things though. :)
I used to do that because I thought that is what everyone else did. I was lucky enough to read a prior discussion thread about how annoying this is, so I stopped :) I still have a hard time not thanking people, but I realize that when I comment I do not do it to be thanked. I don't sit and wait for people to thank me for my comment, so why did I ever assume that others were? So silly. Now, when I have the time, I will visit everyone who comments on a photo and find a photo to comment on, instead of a thanks. I like to think that it is more appreciated. Thanks for posting this!
@wordpixman Arthur, I believe you interpreted the point of the other thread a little differently than from what It was intended. I don't think "thrill" was the operative word. I was simply stating that I enjoy seeing the little notification bubble when it's black...it means I have some connections who have either commented or who have replied. I thoroughly enjoy interacting with everyone here, given we come from all walks of life and from all over the world. From the comments on the thread - which was put there just for fun - a lot of folks feel the same way.
Now, regarding the mass thank-yous, I believe opinions vary greatly on this one. I tend to comment on photos with more than just "great job" and it seems any responses I get (which are NEVER required) are similar. I will say that if I go to a pic that is beautiful but already has so many comments that continual scrolling is necessary to get to the bottom, I don't tend to leave a comment. I hope that's not viewed as horrible practice. :).
I am thankful for this entire community and I am thankful we all DON'T share the same opinion about everything. How boring that would be.
I try to remember who does not like a generic thank you for comments but I do tend to get a bit mixed up somtimes!
I personally would never do a 40 person reply (not enough followers, LOL), but I feel bad on the days I don't thank people and personally I do enjoy knowing that my comments have been read and appreciated by others.
To please both sides, maybe as well as a comment button we need a no reply necessary button that would prevent the reply tag from appearing next to comments made?
@sevinstitches ... Thank you, Amanda. I agree that it is sometimes difficult not to say thank you, although some people (not all, happily) seem to use it as a way of attracting attention in the hope of receiving further replies ... and so on!
@wordpixman I'm sorry but I don't understand your complaint... do you mean notifications received by email or those on the 365project website?
I get emails for comments on my photos, favs and follows, which is fine.
The notifications bit on the website also has the comments on photos and adds where people have 'tagged' me in a reply.
There is some duplication there but if it wasn't for those notifications on the website, I wouldn't see anyone's replies addressed to me at all, as I wouldn't just surf back to something I had previously commented on.
Sometimes someone writes a general 'Thank you' and tags everyone that commented on the photo, in which case I get one notification and see 'Thank you' which is fine... I'm happy to share it with the other users!
I admit I sometimes write short comments, and there's not much scope for a complex reply, even so I appreciate a 'thanks' and that's the sort of interaction that gives the site its community feel, in my opinion.
I don't think a 'thanks' is less if it's shared amongst several people, and if it's generally addressed 'to all' then no-one will be notified and no-one will see it, which seems a bit pointless. Have I got the wrong end of the stick? ;-)
@meredithwb ... Thank you Meredith, I hope I did not misinterpret your reasons for starting that discussion, but I remember that there were a number of replies rejoicing in what they saw as the 'Facebook' nature of the project, which I found disappointing.
Re commenting on photographs I entirely support the view that 'Great job' or similar comments which do not say anything about the photograph do not require a response, but those saying more than that usually do.
I also share your views on what a wonderful community this is, and I have learnt so much here from other people's comments.
I also can't believe that you asked that Ross remove the reply button, or limit it to one reply per comment. What if two people ask questions? Or two people ask the same question so you address a reply to both of them? Ok, so mass 'Thank you's are annoying, but I thought we sort of agreed not to do them. And if you do get one.. how much of your time did it waste? 5 seconds? Wow.
It's just polite.
Personally, I don't do them. I used to, but not since I realised that it was annoying. I think it is pathetic that other people's politeness can get so irritating that you remove them as a friend, and that you even post this thread.
Removing the @reply button would make this website harder to navigate. It would make it harder to interact with people and far less interesting. One of the main reasons people stick with this, as opposed to similar things on other websites and in other places is the community and social side of it. I have met so many fantastic people on here and I haven't even done half of it. If it weren't for being able to communicate with them in this way then I know that wouldn't have happened.
How about: we all just use some common sense?
Doing an @reply to 51 people just to say 'Thank you' seems a bit over the top. But replying to questions, comments; even just saying thank you if someone has bothered to write something nice on your photo is good. If someone just writes "nice shot" or "great" then I don't reply to that. It's good to get comments.. but I don't think that needs a reply. If someone takes the time to write about how they liked the lighting and composition, and how the caption was interesting, and something about the subject too, then I would feel rude just ignoring that.
The moral of this story: COMMON SENSE, MANNERS and UNDERSTANDING.
@pete21 ... Thanks Pete; received and understood, but as you know I do explain all of this very clearly in my profile which I assume everybody reads, as I always do when I find a new member to follow, so there really should be no need for a special button to do say 'Thanks, but no thanks'. I know you asked me whether I wanted to be thanked, after reading a discussiion started by Gill some time ago, and have respected my wishes, so thanks again for that, but I still read any follow-up comments by revisiting the album, without needing to be reminded!
@katiegc24 .. I am sorry you do not understand just how rude it is to clutter everybody's notifications with stuff that is not very helpful, which they can read very easily by visiting the album where the original comment was made.
I am sure you did not intend your comments to sound so rude, but this is a friendly group and misunderstandings are best healed by accepting that we have many different views here and survive by respecting the right to express them calmly, so thank you for yours.
wow. guilty of the mass thank you's too...i, as others have mentioned was only being polite, and i truly appreciate that people take the time to comment on my photos-especially since there is so much talent here, and far more interesting/experienced photogs...however, i see the logic and will try to just add a thank you to my picture from now on so as not to clog up the notifications for everyone.. that being said...a BIG HUGE thank you to all who follow/comment on my work....it means so much and i really appreciate it all!:)))))
I personally like to say thankyou but not annoy people with mass ones so .....
ive started commenting on the bottem of my own shots with "THANKYOU EVERYONE" in big capital letters so that anyone returning will see that i have said thankyou but without hitting the @ button :) ..... if people follow u they are most likely to see the thankyou without the @ tag anyways :) just say'in :D
@ukcam ... Thank you Cam. I agree that a simple 'thanks' is just as valuable whether sent to one person or 51 but I do object to having my name lumped together with a whole string of others when the message can just as easily be read next time I visit the album without being directed there.
I do mass THANK YOU once in a while. I understand the frustration, and try to visit each comment's photos instead.
However, I think the "reply button" is one of the strength of this site, otherwise i can just use tumblr for a pic a day without communicating with anyone!!!
@flamez ... Thank you; good suggestion, similar to my own which says it in my profile, but yours sounds more difficult to ignore, so I am tempted to try it.
This discussion has received far greater support than I dared hope for, so I must thank all who contributed with such goodwill, but I promise not to annoy you with a list of contributors, so will just say "Thanks everybody".
@4stories ... Thank you Liz. I am happy to note that so many people understand the annoyance that we have all, at various times, been unintentionally guilty of.
@viranod ... Thank you; I assume that means you would welcome a "one name at a time" reply button wich would give all the advantages without any of the frustration..
Ooops! I just did a "mass reply" this morning - even though I've recently stopped doing thank you's and instead am commenting on other's photos .....In my defence, it was only to about 5 people, it included a message other than just "Thank you" - and I was a little stoked about being on the pp:) Sorry peeps!
I am reading this at work, the boss is here so I had better be quick! I had NO idea that this was such an issue, obviously if it has been discussed before then I missed it, and I was just wanting to be polite and thank people for looking at my pics and taking the time to comment. But having read all of this I realise how annoying something that I have been doing has been. So I won't do this again.
For me photography has just become such a therapeutic thing, my husband passed away from cancer leaving me with two small kids and looking around at nature and birds and learning how to use my camera properly has become a way of life and a healing thing. I have embraced this community maybe too enthusiastically! Anyway I think I will take a back step from now on. I do love seeing pics from all over the world, especially bird pics, and the photographers are outstanding. I'll just keep my comments and replies to a minimum. Cheers
@jenrobcarr Don't take a step back from doing what you love! Yes, for the most part a lot of people have stopped doing the multiple thank you thing, for me it was so that I would have more time to comment on other's photos. But I think you'll find that the majority of people don't spend a lot of time getting annoyed at being thanked. I think it just saves yourself a bit of time to peruse the site a bit more if you don't have to worry about thanking everyone:)
@jenrobcarr ... Thank you Jennifer, it makes me feel a bit mean to have upset you, and hope all is now forgiven. Sorry to hear of your personal circumstances, and I know what you mean by therapeutic, so enjoy your photography and I am sure we will all enjoy following and commenting as approproate..
I do not understand why this topic keeps coming up. Really, how hard is it to click on a notification, scroll through it to see where it applies to you, and move on? Or to look at a message, notice it's just a mass thank you and move on. Even for the parents on the group, I wouldn't say this is very time consuming. Why should Ross curtail the website just because YOU find something annoying? Personally, I am thank you that anyone takes the time to look at my photos let alone comment, because I know they aren't that great. I in turn, take the time to personally thank each person because I am really grateful and I feel it's the least I could do. So here's a warning to all of you who find mass thank you's annoying; DON'T ADD ME!
Interesting to see that this thread is still chugging along! Obviously it has raised a few thoughts along the way .... but the good thing is that people recognise we're all different and react differently.
I was just wondering ... "if I make a comment ... and you thank me for my comment ... do I then thank you for thanking me for my comment .... and then you'd have to thank me for thanking you for commenting ... " It could go on a bit!!!
@elizabeth ... Hmmm ... I am inclined to say "Thanks for the thanks, but no thanks"; I have learned so much from these comments, but am beginning to feel that enough is enough, so thank you, thank you, thank you one and all, very much indeed!
I'd venture to guess that everyone on here is grateful for any comments received on photos. Rather than arguing about the pros and cons of thank yous, why don't we make it a given that people appreciate our comments and leave it at that?
I somehow had missed this thread and am now sorry that it was brought to my attention. I agree with the comments made by @katiegc24 , and find them to be straightforward and forthright, not rude in the least. Even though I've not been guilty of said infraction (quite honestly I don't usually have 40 or 50 comments to respond to), nonetheless, I find the original post and the request/suggestions therein to be haughty and arrogant, and in the same vein as the author, will no longer be following him.
I agree with every word Gill says. It's a pity that there was a bit of bad-tempered name-calling near the end of this well-mannered exchange of views, but it was not unexpected and will in no way diminish the enjoyment of the majority.
I also agree withe Gill's comment about unnecessary notifications pushing genuine comments off the screen before they can be read, and hope that something can be done about it.
@wordpixman
Oh dear God, I don't believe this! So, you log into 365 Project, and you have a bunch of new Notifications - Notifications of people saying polite, innocuous "thank toys" to you. I fail to see how these people are being "rude"!
But if it really bothers you that much, just don't click on them! It's hardly obtrusive, is it, that small black speech-bubble icon, right in the corner?
Why should a feature be removed completely, because you don't like it? Other people do like it, and like using it; no one's forcing you to use it, if you don't want to - you can just ignore it.
I honestly fail to understand how anyone can get this worked-up over such a non-issue...
And then to start having a go at other people who have the nerve to come in her to voice their own opinions on this? Unbelievable! If you didn't want to have a discussion about it, then why start this thread?!
By which I mean: I don't actually have anything useful to contribute that hasn't already been said, but wanted to join in anyway. Wahay!
But no: the root cause here is that this place (and the internet in general these days) tends to attract "real world" people, not internet people, and these "real world" people come here with their "real world" attitudes to things such as being overly polite, and such. They simply don't have enough experience of internets and getting along with others on them, others in different boats to them, to know that what they're doing is "wrong".
So, it's just a case of politely replying to a @massreplier on their photo and saying "Ay yo mayne, we all up in hurr frown on this y'dig, 'cos t'all be wastin' me an' me breadbins' time be readin' all the thankses an' ting, yeah?" and they'll then, having been shown the mild folly of their ways, see why it's "wrong", and refrain from doing it in future.
No need for further discussion, or for removing the @reply feature completely. Education, baby. Education.
Now, as I have decided is my new "thing", I shall close with another all time great movie quote.
Also, I really hope no one has registered a 365 account with the username "@name" - 'cause if they have, that person is going to be getting a ton of Notifications about this thread!!
@gill Agreed, but the discussions arise because nobody knows how to deal with it, and you can't have technical solutions to societal problems. Nothing that could technically be put in place would prevent the annoyance without making proper use more annoying too.
It really is as simple as educating people on why it's annoying as soon as someone does it to you. Maybe a FAQ page/entry that could easily be linked to, but that's as far as it should go.
And trust me, I get as annoyed as anyone when I get "thanks" replies on here, or "thanks" emails from colleagues, or any empty communication at all. But the way to deal, is to enlighten.
If anyone staunchly refuses to stop doing it, don't comment on them. It's that simple.
@gill Sorry if this has been addressed previously in the thread because I've only skim read it but how else is the system not working? I think @eyebrows 's suggestion to educate people to stop using the feature for mass thank-yous would address the OP's complaint and leave the notifications for more useful comments and conversations. I'll admit that I've been guilty of throwing out the occasional mass reply with nothing more than a simple "thank you all." Although in my case we're talking 5-10 people, nowhere near the 51 mentioned here because I'm not that popular. However, after reading this discussion I now know better than to ever do that again and will assume anyone who leaves a comment knows I'm grateful for it. I guess this has never been an issue for me because I don't follow so many people or comment on so many photos a day that my notification box gets full when they reply. I would also hope that if it bothered anyone s/he would have said something to me before taking the drastic step to stop following or commenting. Communication is key in all relationships, people! Now to get my husband to understand that...
You know, I rarely get these mass thank yous. I used to, but I really don't anymore. And, I think I comment a fair bit on people's photos. I guess it just hasn't bothered me that much, in all. I AM noticing that I'm not getting replies to specific questions. Maybe it's because people aren't checking them out of annoyance of generic thank yous? I would like to think that's it, because I was just considering them rude! Ah, the joys of online miscommunications. :)
@gill Aah, I see. Yet another problem I've never had so it never occurred to me. Guess we're back to that popularity problem for me. :) I can see how that would be annoying and how "real" comments could be lost in the shuffle. Hope someone can come up with a solution that everyone can be happy with but I still think a general memo about not using the reply feature for mass thank-yous is in order. I think I'm pretty savvy when it comes to internet communication but even I hadn't realized that I was being rude.
@gill Right, well that's a separate issue, and needs a separate solution :)
Yeah, the solution to that can only be technical, because it's a technical problem, not a social one. Easiest way is to solve how facebook solved the same problem, and group the notifications - so if you have an unread notification about an activity on a specific thread/photo, and another notification event gets generated, instead of creating a new event it increments a counter. So you'd see "9 people responded on your thread" instead of 9 separate "a person blah blah".
Whether @scrivna has more pressing things, I don't know, but I suspect he do :p
@gill nah that wouldn't solve the "thank you" issue because each person being thanked still needs an individual notification about it - so your notification box still gets the unwanted notification. Only way the "grouping" thing would change anything there is if someone else had mentioned you on the same photo, or you'd got two thank yous or whatever, then you'd only get the one notification - but you'd always get at least one.
@gill ... thank you ... oops! now I am doing it to you! I think this discussion has been very worthwhile and the problems have been noted and appreciated in good humour apart from a short spate of juvenile tantrums which did not merit a reply, and now that it seems to have settled down again and some more measured comments have been forthcoming, honour is satisfied and I can call it a day because as you discovered recently, the notifications box becomes unusable when there is such heavy traffic.
Not going to get into any ins and outs, pros and cons, who's right, wrong, polite or otherwise ...
... but just so's my voice is heard ... I really, really like the Reply button and the Notifications tab - I remember when we didn't have them and you had to have workarounds to answer people's questions, get answers to your questions and generally build up relationships - which is now so, so much easier because of these functions. If the functionality can be tweaked to make things work a bit smoother - great stuff - but if not, having to 'cope' with the odd mass thank-you is a small price to pay.
I have not had a problem with the reply button at all, and in fact like it. It makes sense to me in that when I go to read responses, I can message back to the person right from where I am instead of leaving a reply on one of their daily photos were the response doesn't fit in. I think the fix is to only let the reply button reply to that person. It seems like a simple fix and I hope you don't take it away.
@tolpol LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. Ohwait. Did that clog up your notifications? My sincerest, most apologetical apologies.
@wordpixman I intended it to sound as it sounded. It is up to you to interpret that how you want. If you consider it rude to "clutter everybody's notifications with stuff that is not very helpful" - and you are referring to a simple "thank you" - then I don't really know if there is anything I can say that you won't see as rude. I am sorry for .. whatever I did wrong. Ohnowait. That was rude.
I can definitely see where you are coming from. I dont agree that it is turning this site into a twitter or a facebook because its 365, utterly impossible ;) but I see both view points. I am not usually one to go click on 8749571093451 replies just to say one word: thank you. I just dont have the time lol
but... no matter what. I dont feel that the reply button should be removed. I feel like if you weigh out the pros and cons... the pros wheigh out the cons.
Now... if Ross added IM... THEN that would be like facebook and could get quiiiteee annoying hahaha
Its good that you are bringing up the issue. Its only then that the issue can be fixed or made less irritating.
@lauren211 ... Thank you Lauren for summing it up so well; I am sure there will never be total agreement but these discussions do help us to understand other prople's preferences, and it is so valuable to be able to discuss them in this measured way.
Since this topic is so utterly ridiculous, I shall contribute some more. Aren't you glad? :P
I was actually mildly insulted by @wordpixman's reference to "cluttering everybody's 'notifications' box with mostly irrelevant and impersonal messages". If you consider good manners - a simple "thank you", when someone pays you a compliment - to be "irrelevant", or "unhelpful" (another word that was used to describe these comments) then you're a lunatic.
More than that, it is absolutely not up to you to make a value judgement on the comments I write.
Unhelpful? To whom?! I am not trying to be "helpful" - I am merely acknowledging that someone has taken the time to comment on my picture. The idea that this offends you - to the point where you would unfollow someone - is absurd!
Let me tell you a bit about myself... I am a professional musician, so for me, photography is just a hobby - I don't have a fancy camera, and I don't always have time to spend ages getting a shot right - my photos are, at best, mediocre. (I have said before, in discussions, that I wouldn't follow me, if I were another 365-er!)
The fact that people take the time even to look at my photos at all means a lot to me; that they would take the time to write a comment, to pay me a compliment, to give me advice on how to improve, even (occasionally) to "fav" one of my shots, is something I appreciate enormously.
Many of these people are just as busy as I am, in their own jobs, or with their families, and many are much better photographers than I am. I don't take a single picture view or comment for granted; these people don't have to comment on my photographs - they do so because they want to - and I feel that the right thing to do is to thank them for taking the time and effort to do just that.
The crux of the matter is, if you don't want to talk to me, don't comment on my pictures. Because, if you do, I might *shock! horror!* respond to you!!
I'll admit, I've done mass replies. But I don't see how it is that big of a deal. You get one notification and see a 'thank you'. It is NOT that big of a deal. It also brings you back to that person's photo, you get to see it again, see some of their new work, and get a question answered if you had one.
And as to the overflow of notifcations that come from discussions and such, maybe there should be an option for that. It might be easier if you could choose what you do and don't want notifcations for. Or have the notifications groupled, like on facebook. e.g. "@soandso, @name, and @blah have commented on your photo."
Oh boy so many replies I don't know what the general consensus is and I don't have time to read all the replies, but will admit I do that trying to be polite. I appreciate the comments and I try to write a little more than thank you. I also try to answer any individual question I receive also. I gather in future I won't bother as it appears it only annoys ppl.
@manek43509 thankyou, you have said what I feel, I was a bit shocked to see this thread as it feels negative to me and that is something I have never, ever felt on the site, which is why I love it so.I love the reply button for the very reason why it is called that, I can reply to someone cause I want to, just as they wanted to comment to me in the first place.
I never knew this was an issue... sorry to anybody who is annoyed by my mass thank you's and super long answers...
it doesnt bother me personally but was wondering if its possible maybe to add aditional buttom "thank you" which would still send notification to person but just saying "this person thanks you for the comment" and the reply buttom would be then for answers on questions or longer thank you's etc... just a suggestion....
@wordpixman I think we must be using a different site because I still don't understand what the problem is...
You said "I agree that a simple 'thanks' is just as valuable whether sent to one person or 51 but I do object to having my name lumped together with a whole string of others when the message can just as easily be read next time I visit the album without being directed there. "
* unfortunately, replies that are meant for you, whether @tagged or not, appear under the image where you made a comment. So, unless you revisit that old image frequently, you won't see those comments. If you visit the album just a day later you will see a different image, and the comment is elsewhere - you'll miss it.
* unfortunately, your replies are public and are 'lumped together' with everyone else's on the same page. That is kind of how the site works. Everyone gets a chance to comment; it would be more inconvenient if multiple comments were laid out in individual boxes - the webpage would be much longer
* no, I disagree. As explained, "Thanks everyone" is lost, no-one is notified. You might as well say it to the cat :) It takes no time at all for the eye to skip over those names.
I think I have a solution though, I'm not sure if @Scrivna would agree. Let people enter as many @names as they want; then when the page is displayed, show them differently; hide all the names except the viewer and add a little text as a clickable link:
I love how people are all 'blah blah community blah blah' and then so quick to tell people to stfu when they have a suggestion and/or opinion that doesn't suit them.
There's no right or wrong answer here - it's just a matter of who likes the feature vs. who doesn't. No need for anyone to get their knickers in a twist :)
Utterly ridiculous? Mildly offended? Lunatic? Are these the words Ross @scrivna has in mind as representing what is good about this project?
Thanks to everybody who has contributed to this discussion in the spirit in which it was intended, but I think I'll bow out now because as a senior college lecturer for many years I know better than to compete with someone who assumes the right to lecture me in such terms on what I may or may not say. I am sure that the multi-talented young pop musician who made these comments is really a much nicer person than his belligerent attitude suggests, and hope the reputation of this friendly and fair-minded community has not been damaged, but must ask Ross @scrivna if he would kindly look again at the problems arising from the notifications system , as has been suggested by other contributors to this discussion.
....I just want to say, this is a bit ridiculous. I love when people are kind enough to include me in a mass thank you, even though I like it even more when they "thank me" by stopping by and looking at my shots. Either way works for me.
Like Annie (and others) said, there isn't a right or wrong answer here. Let's just all hug each other and gaze at the stars, and somehow act like grown ups that appreciate each other's gratitude, no matter how one shows it.
@wordpixman Wow! Arthur Loosley, loosen up a little. It's just a "thank you". If I were following you I'd unfollow you. Life is too sweet to squabble about such petty things. If you want to build a wall around your world, try bricks.
@manek43509@katiegc24 I agree with you two. I like the notifications. I use my e-mail more though. If I start a thread and get a zillion e-mails about it, I delete them immediately and open the thread to see the responses. Then, I can see individual comments on pictures with the e-mails that are left. If someone replies to something I've said, it will be in my notifications. It's easy to find once you've already done the other things. That sounds WAY more complicated than it actually is. I had 64 e-mails from 365 today and it took not even 30 minutes to read everything, including replies to the thread. I don't see why people are making such a big deal out of this. If you don't like the notifications, don't click on it. If you want the icon to go away, click on it, give it a second to load, and voila! It's gone! I don't have a ton of friends in real life, so it's nice to see others take the time to look at my "work" and if I want to thank them for stopping by, I will. If that offends any of my followers, please, un-follow me.
@mandyj92 I'm completely with you on this one. I believe I lost a follower over it too. I thanked people who viewed my images and was told to go read a thread about how thanking is not necessary and just go post on a photo instead.
I personally do both. Why? Because I'm a polite person and was raised that way. If you don't have the time to click a notification where I thank you and it wasted your day, I don't really mind you unfollowing me. Seriously? Getting berated because I thank people? Even if it's in a list of others? Even if I have 5@'s at a reply of a thank you it doesn't mean I'm just responding like a robot. I am truly grateful and saying thank you. I try to add more to the conversation as well but generally that's not necessary. So you say neither is the thank you. Well good riddance to you then.
I ALSO go post on their images afterwards as well if I haven't already. Out of kindness yes, to give them views yes, and because the photography on here is genuinely remarkable. Are you going to yell at me when all I say is "This is amazing" as well? Since I apparently don't have the vocabulary to post 5 paragraphs about your photo?
Maybe an ignore button. It's been this huge thing for a couple weeks now. Maybe I just don't have enough followers/posts for this to be "annoying" in my life. Or maybe you need to learn to appreciate thankful people.
It worries me when people claim that it is 'polite' to ignore a request not to thank me for every comment I post. I do not make comments in the expectation of being thanked, and especially not in an impersonal mass mailing such as the one I complained of in my opening message, which contained 51 @names with a generic thank-you and appeared in 51 people's notification boxes, but I do appreciate an individual reply occasionally if I make a specifc point that requires an answer.
I am fortunate enough to have numerous followers posting meaningful comments every day, and that is fine, because there is plenty of room for them in the albums, but I also have a note in my profile saying that mass mailings of generic thanks are not appreciated because they take up too much space in the notifications box and can cause more important messages to be missed or drop off the page on a busy day, and it is impossible to know which ones are worth opening without actually openng them.
This discussion has identified some confusion between 'followers' and 'following'. Followers post directly to the album, which is always appreciated, and can be read and answered at leisure, but the real problem comes from some of those I follow, who hit the reply button under every comment and send them all off in one mass mailing, and that is not polite.
I shall be interested to see what @scrivna can suggest to minimise this problem,
Wo-ho...... you certainly stirred up a hornets nest here Arthur!
Thanks. I now understand the problem and agree with your suggested response approach. This will certainly make my life, with very limited time, a whole lot easier.
Well done Arthur for enduring this thread!! It is such a shame to lose the more fuller comments for the 'unecessary' (or irrelevant etc) thanks. I understand your 'unnecessary' to mean that you know people are thankful and therefore don't need people to state it. I also think when you have been on here for six months, the volume of all the notifications and replies gets unmanageable and takes away from the most important purpose of this site, which is taking, processing, uploading and receiving and giving feedback and LEARNING about and improving your photography - this alone can take several hours a day. And yes, it is lovely to have the social interaction - but a generic thank you is not social interaction.
This site has become really slow and so if you get 50 thank yous in one sitting and each of those take 15 seconds to upload and at the end is a mass thank you, I relate to your frustration. If you get 70 (95 on one photo and I know others get way more) comments, then thanking all of those is also detracting from what this site is about. I am sure I might have offended a few people by giving them my link to a thread on this recently but my request was also to release them from feeling obliged to thank as I had felt to be the culture here to do. I also knew what it was like to feel compelled to do it due to my 'politeness' and I even find it hard now not to thank but it is no longer practical and I now know why people would rather you didn't. I love the comments and encouragement and wanted people to know how grateful I was for them. I also liked how polite people were being with their thanks too, but when you are here for a while and the volume of thanks knocks out the important notifications (ie, comments) it is just totally unmanageable and overwhelming to the point where I was up to 2am- 3am in the morning. Those who have got annoyed at the truth of this situation well, I wonder who they are serving when they thank ...when someone says I appreciate your thanks but don't feel the need to do so with me' offends them ...well, they are not prepared to move from their own viewpoint ...and so be it. However, I appreciated your reminder to people that we are all grateful for all the comments and this does not need to be stated. Now, to get back to the commenting and photographing.
@flyden@miranda .... thank you both very much for standing by me in spite of some rather juvenile comments we have been reading. I am not sorry I opened this hornet's nest but hope that reason will prevail so that we can get back to the real purpose of this excellent site as soon as possible.
@miranda maybe it was you who directed me to the thread. I did get offended the first time I saw it. I couldn't understand how someone wouldn't want to see who says thanks to them. And it's always hard to tell with just text to try to understand polite or stern. I'm on this fence now where some of my followers like to be thanked and others don't. Should I respond? Or not? And it's just now at the point where I have more followers than I thought I would. So I'm super confused and really just don't know how to respond anymore. Either way I didn't really mean to help stir the hornets nest. I guess it's just an overall touchy subject.
@silverdraggin Don't worry. I know exactly where you are coming from and when one day the same frustration strikes you, you can feel OK about it and just thank people once in the subsequent picture. It'll feel wierd for a week or two. I'd be delighted if any of my followers/commenters were to tell me they'd rather I thanked them individually and I will do it , but none have.
@wordpixman
"but the real problem comes from some of those I follow, who hit the reply button under every comment and send them all off in one mass mailing, and that is not polite"
Suggestion. Stop following them. Issue resolved. Reply button stays.
I honestly don't understand why this causes such a strong reaction from both sides of the opinion.
I generally respond to people for their comments and sometimes it is little more than a thank you and sometimes there are more than one person in the thanks, however I also try to comment on everyone that I follow at least twice a week and those that follow me once a week if I have the time.
I like the reply button and the only time my notifications get so clogged up is if I start a disscussion that is popular. I persanally do not mind getting comments that are just a thanks and if my thanking people bothers them then I do not mind if they unfollow or do not comment on my work anymore. I will not stop thanking people for their comments unless they specifically request me not as I would hate them to think that I did not care, but equally if someone takes the time to ask not to get thanks then I would not want to offend them by doing so.
The thing that I love about this site is how generous people are with their cc, praise and most importantly time! and it would be a shame if the community spirit was lost due to something like to Thank or not to Thank.
I have followed the comments on this thread since the start of it and I think that I can see how both sides of this argument can feel offended, I think peopel on both sides have been quite un-understanding about each others opinions and it is time perhaps to close the thread.
If @wordpixman has had enough and wants to get rid of the thread deleting the original post will remove the lot. The problem with doing that though is that I don't think @scrivna would be able to see all the suggestions for changing the way the reply function works.
Your Call Arthur, to everyone reading this I say Lets have Peace now :D
@nathantology ... Thank you. That is exactly what I had decided to do, but delayed doing do when somebody said that would be unfair because "everyone likes to have a lot of followers". Job done now; most if them now deleted, so thank you for your suggestion.
@wordpixman See? Your complaint have been easily resolved. There is no reason why the Reply Button has to be removed simply because YOU don't like it. I like it, and I'm sure that a great majority does. I don't have many followers as you do so every chance I get I thank each and everyone who drops a comment even if it is just "great job," "nice work," "wow." If the reply button is such burden to you then I suggest you put up your own website where you can set-up your own rules. Yes, I am being rude and I will not apologize for it.
@cazink .... Thank You Carla, I have now adopted a very simple solution suggested by another contributor to this discussion and removed all known offenders from my 'following' list, which should solve the problem, and I will think very arefully about whose photos I comment on in future. I was reluctant to do this because there are so many excellent photographers who really do deserve comments or Favs, but of course this project was not intended as a competition.
@wordpixman And by the way, to suggest that someone's opinion has little or no value just because he's a young musician or juvenile as you put is not just rude; it is arrogant. Plain and simple.
Oh dear! If you are referring to the little drummer boy, it was not because he claims to be a professional musician, some of whom I know to have have exceptonal talent, but his abusive manner, and if you had read carefully you would have seen that you have quoted me out of context and might think twice before attempting to justify the words "utterly ridiculous", "you're a lunatic" and "absurd" in response to an honest opinion. I sincerely hope that @scrivna will read the message and say whether this is the image of his site that he wants the world to see.
(I have looked at your album and read your profile )
Crikey peoples, the reply button isn't going, people should use it sparingly, but i'm not putting any limits on it, everyone is welcome to their opinion, can we all be nice about it. Thanks
@pete21 'To please both sides, maybe as well as a comment button we need a no reply necessary button that would prevent the reply tag from appearing next to comments made?'
That would be a very interesting new feature and I second the suggestion.
@katiegc24@manek43509@eyebrows I mostly agree with all y'all. I think it's a matter of telling people you don't want to be mass-thanked, though to be honest, I really don't see how that's such an issue. I mean, everyone DOES get the emails too right? So regardless of what happens with the notifications, if some are pushed out before you can see them, you can go to your email and see them (something that, now I've read a few of the other comments, I can see has already been suggested). And maybe this is only because I don't have a lot of followers, but I notice that when I go to 'view all notifications', I've got all of the ones from about two weeks ago still there. Do they start to get pushed out after a certain number, or a certain date? @wordpixman I've only been skimming (WAY too many comments to read them all) so I may have missed it if you said this, but do you TELL people you don't want to be included in mass thank-yous? Because I'm sorry, but I did find it a little hypocritical to call Kate rude, when you delete a follower just because they thanked you. Did you give them advance notice first? Actually telling them that you'll delete them as followers if they don't cut it out may help them realize that you REALLY don't want to be thanked that way. I personally never do a mass thank-you, and I've only done a 'To all' thank you once, but after I did it, I realized that the people who commented (they were not followers of me) would likely never see the thank you. So while I can see where you're coming from, I don't think it's very fair to just get rid of the reply button. I can see that other people have already come up with various other solutions, so I won't say any more about that.
You're a lecturer? Forgive me for saying (again, I skimmed so maybe I misread what you said), but the way you referred to Kit seemed really condescending, and I'm wondering (if indeed I read that correctly) if you're thinking you're better than he is because he's a young musician and you're an experienced lecturer. Neither he nor Kate seemed rude to me, it seemed as if they were merely stating their opinions. Admittedly some of the way they said what they did could be taken the wrong way, but then, if someone's not blatantly being rude, then I try to assume the best of them, unless their typing is atrocious (see: netspeak). Now, I'm a cynic and a pessimist, but this is a practice I try to always keep because I've inadvertently insulted others because I assumed they were insulting me, when, in reality, they weren't. If, after I do my best to give them a polite reply, it becomes obvious that they were indeed being insulting or condescending, then yes, I'll probably be rude right back at them. I'm not saying I know better than you do, since you do have more experience than I do, I'm just saying-something to think about. And in case you think I'm being condescending or rude or whatever-I'm not. I realize it's very difficult to get the right tone across when you're using the internet to communicate, so just letting you know I'm not trying to be rude. I'm honestly curious, and simply wanted to get my opinion across.
Thanks for reading. Oh, and I also agree with everyone who says they were raised to be polite - while I don't thank everyone who comments on my photos, it's only if they say something like 'great job!', or 'love the photo!' If someone thanks ME for when I say something like that, while I appreciate the gesture and the time it took (whether it was a few seconds or a few minutes depending on how many people they were thanking), I really don't feel anything from it. So I try to keep my thank-yous of that sort to a minimum.
Thanks for your participation, this thread has now been closed.
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(Oops! ... now I am hitting that reply button - but with suitable restraint)
...I tend to let a photo I have posted sit for a couple to a few days before I respond
...a lot of my responses are individualized but for the masses of more generic comments I do find it time efficient to send one thank you en mass...I guess its just how I was raised to be polite and I am so afraid to hurt a follower who I consider a friend.
The funny thing is I do this also as to not loose a follower because when I do it does kind of hurt :)
I do have bit of an idea on how perhaps we can all go about meeting each other half way...perhaps those people who would prefer not receiving a bulk notification could tag their comment as no reply necessary (I am happily assuming you will and that is good enough for me)...perhaps if more and more people do this it will all iron out this issue
I think the main issue at the heart of this is most people are absolutely ignorant of how the mass notifications are affecting others so to drop them as a follower is a little blunt when a better solution could have been post on their most recent photo and just say something along the lines of
"love your comments however can you do me a favor? I would like to be put on an exclusion list of those names you include in a multiple thank you"
I know if for example you asked something along those lines I would certainly remember your name and exclude you and would most likely just take the time to comment on one of your awesome photo's
I also make this point in my profile, hoping that anyone who reads it will not feel neglected if they are not mentioned by name in every response.
@loztsoul - well said Trevor
The idea of a brief policy statement on ones comments is good.
Sometimes thanks and replies are in order but should be direct not multiples.
Thanks.
Please don't include me in multiple replies. Thanks.
Personally, I think a big part of this site is interacting with other photographers. I could easily take a photograph every day (or more than one!) without needing an account here - without even needing a computer at all, in fact! But far fewer people would get to see my photographs, without this community to upload to, and - crucially - far fewer people would talk to me about them.
For me, photography is a hobby, and as such, it is a social thing. The social side of this website is just as important as the photographic side, and I, for one, would be very disappointed to see this feature removed.
i dont mind the notification .... (not a big deal) but i like to SEE how people interact to each other even a simple THANKS means a lot .... ♥ PEACE!
(just my opinion)
Now, regarding the mass thank-yous, I believe opinions vary greatly on this one. I tend to comment on photos with more than just "great job" and it seems any responses I get (which are NEVER required) are similar. I will say that if I go to a pic that is beautiful but already has so many comments that continual scrolling is necessary to get to the bottom, I don't tend to leave a comment. I hope that's not viewed as horrible practice. :).
I am thankful for this entire community and I am thankful we all DON'T share the same opinion about everything. How boring that would be.
And, Arthur, thank you.
I personally would never do a 40 person reply (not enough followers, LOL), but I feel bad on the days I don't thank people and personally I do enjoy knowing that my comments have been read and appreciated by others.
To please both sides, maybe as well as a comment button we need a no reply necessary button that would prevent the reply tag from appearing next to comments made?
I get emails for comments on my photos, favs and follows, which is fine.
The notifications bit on the website also has the comments on photos and adds where people have 'tagged' me in a reply.
There is some duplication there but if it wasn't for those notifications on the website, I wouldn't see anyone's replies addressed to me at all, as I wouldn't just surf back to something I had previously commented on.
Sometimes someone writes a general 'Thank you' and tags everyone that commented on the photo, in which case I get one notification and see 'Thank you' which is fine... I'm happy to share it with the other users!
I admit I sometimes write short comments, and there's not much scope for a complex reply, even so I appreciate a 'thanks' and that's the sort of interaction that gives the site its community feel, in my opinion.
I don't think a 'thanks' is less if it's shared amongst several people, and if it's generally addressed 'to all' then no-one will be notified and no-one will see it, which seems a bit pointless. Have I got the wrong end of the stick? ;-)
Re commenting on photographs I entirely support the view that 'Great job' or similar comments which do not say anything about the photograph do not require a response, but those saying more than that usually do.
I also share your views on what a wonderful community this is, and I have learnt so much here from other people's comments.
I also can't believe that you asked that Ross remove the reply button, or limit it to one reply per comment. What if two people ask questions? Or two people ask the same question so you address a reply to both of them? Ok, so mass 'Thank you's are annoying, but I thought we sort of agreed not to do them. And if you do get one.. how much of your time did it waste? 5 seconds? Wow.
It's just polite.
Personally, I don't do them. I used to, but not since I realised that it was annoying. I think it is pathetic that other people's politeness can get so irritating that you remove them as a friend, and that you even post this thread.
Removing the @reply button would make this website harder to navigate. It would make it harder to interact with people and far less interesting. One of the main reasons people stick with this, as opposed to similar things on other websites and in other places is the community and social side of it. I have met so many fantastic people on here and I haven't even done half of it. If it weren't for being able to communicate with them in this way then I know that wouldn't have happened.
How about: we all just use some common sense?
Doing an @reply to 51 people just to say 'Thank you' seems a bit over the top. But replying to questions, comments; even just saying thank you if someone has bothered to write something nice on your photo is good. If someone just writes "nice shot" or "great" then I don't reply to that. It's good to get comments.. but I don't think that needs a reply. If someone takes the time to write about how they liked the lighting and composition, and how the caption was interesting, and something about the subject too, then I would feel rude just ignoring that.
The moral of this story: COMMON SENSE, MANNERS and UNDERSTANDING.
Thank you. That will be all.
It really just makes it easier to keep track of your conversations.
But it also becomes a nuisance and tbh, I skip the "such and such mentioned you in a comment" unless I think it'll be something directed at me only.
It also helps not to shoot down other people's suggestions and/or opinions... that's what the community is about, in my opinion.
I am sure you did not intend your comments to sound so rude, but this is a friendly group and misunderstandings are best healed by accepting that we have many different views here and survive by respecting the right to express them calmly, so thank you for yours.
ive started commenting on the bottem of my own shots with "THANKYOU EVERYONE" in big capital letters so that anyone returning will see that i have said thankyou but without hitting the @ button :) ..... if people follow u they are most likely to see the thankyou without the @ tag anyways :) just say'in :D
Hitting that 'reply' key may be easier than writing a comment, but in my view a simple "Thanks everyone" would be pertfectly acceptable without that long list of @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name (51 here ... see what I mean?)
We can all learn by noting other people's views, and get along here very well by respecting them, so thank you fot taking the time to share yours.
However, I think the "reply button" is one of the strength of this site, otherwise i can just use tumblr for a pic a day without communicating with anyone!!!
This discussion has received far greater support than I dared hope for, so I must thank all who contributed with such goodwill, but I promise not to annoy you with a list of contributors, so will just say "Thanks everybody".
For me photography has just become such a therapeutic thing, my husband passed away from cancer leaving me with two small kids and looking around at nature and birds and learning how to use my camera properly has become a way of life and a healing thing. I have embraced this community maybe too enthusiastically! Anyway I think I will take a back step from now on. I do love seeing pics from all over the world, especially bird pics, and the photographers are outstanding. I'll just keep my comments and replies to a minimum. Cheers
I was just wondering ... "if I make a comment ... and you thank me for my comment ... do I then thank you for thanking me for my comment .... and then you'd have to thank me for thanking you for commenting ... " It could go on a bit!!!
PS: did I remember to say "Thank you"?
Just sayin'.
@meggageg yes. I wish I had just written that now!
I also agree withe Gill's comment about unnecessary notifications pushing genuine comments off the screen before they can be read, and hope that something can be done about it.
@meggageg I hear that ;)
The solution to this is not complex.
It's simple;
Kill the Bat-man.
Oh dear God, I don't believe this! So, you log into 365 Project, and you have a bunch of new Notifications - Notifications of people saying polite, innocuous "thank toys" to you. I fail to see how these people are being "rude"!
But if it really bothers you that much, just don't click on them! It's hardly obtrusive, is it, that small black speech-bubble icon, right in the corner?
Why should a feature be removed completely, because you don't like it? Other people do like it, and like using it; no one's forcing you to use it, if you don't want to - you can just ignore it.
I honestly fail to understand how anyone can get this worked-up over such a non-issue...
And then to start having a go at other people who have the nerve to come in her to voice their own opinions on this? Unbelievable! If you didn't want to have a discussion about it, then why start this thread?!
But no: the root cause here is that this place (and the internet in general these days) tends to attract "real world" people, not internet people, and these "real world" people come here with their "real world" attitudes to things such as being overly polite, and such. They simply don't have enough experience of internets and getting along with others on them, others in different boats to them, to know that what they're doing is "wrong".
So, it's just a case of politely replying to a @massreplier on their photo and saying "Ay yo mayne, we all up in hurr frown on this y'dig, 'cos t'all be wastin' me an' me breadbins' time be readin' all the thankses an' ting, yeah?" and they'll then, having been shown the mild folly of their ways, see why it's "wrong", and refrain from doing it in future.
No need for further discussion, or for removing the @reply feature completely. Education, baby. Education.
Now, as I have decided is my new "thing", I shall close with another all time great movie quote.
Who told you you could eat my cookie?!
It really is as simple as educating people on why it's annoying as soon as someone does it to you. Maybe a FAQ page/entry that could easily be linked to, but that's as far as it should go.
And trust me, I get as annoyed as anyone when I get "thanks" replies on here, or "thanks" emails from colleagues, or any empty communication at all. But the way to deal, is to enlighten.
If anyone staunchly refuses to stop doing it, don't comment on them. It's that simple.
Yeah, the solution to that can only be technical, because it's a technical problem, not a social one. Easiest way is to solve how facebook solved the same problem, and group the notifications - so if you have an unread notification about an activity on a specific thread/photo, and another notification event gets generated, instead of creating a new event it increments a counter. So you'd see "9 people responded on your thread" instead of 9 separate "a person blah blah".
Whether @scrivna has more pressing things, I don't know, but I suspect he do :p
... but just so's my voice is heard ... I really, really like the Reply button and the Notifications tab - I remember when we didn't have them and you had to have workarounds to answer people's questions, get answers to your questions and generally build up relationships - which is now so, so much easier because of these functions. If the functionality can be tweaked to make things work a bit smoother - great stuff - but if not, having to 'cope' with the odd mass thank-you is a small price to pay.
For what it's worth (which, apparently, is not a lot!) I completely agree with you. :)
@wordpixman I intended it to sound as it sounded. It is up to you to interpret that how you want. If you consider it rude to "clutter everybody's notifications with stuff that is not very helpful" - and you are referring to a simple "thank you" - then I don't really know if there is anything I can say that you won't see as rude. I am sorry for .. whatever I did wrong. Ohnowait. That was rude.
but... no matter what. I dont feel that the reply button should be removed. I feel like if you weigh out the pros and cons... the pros wheigh out the cons.
Now... if Ross added IM... THEN that would be like facebook and could get quiiiteee annoying hahaha
Its good that you are bringing up the issue. Its only then that the issue can be fixed or made less irritating.
Thank you!
(Oh dear God, what have I done?! Please don't be offended - pleeeeeaaaase...!!)
And thank you :)
signed,
She who doesn't care if her appreciation is considered bad form
I was actually mildly insulted by @wordpixman's reference to "cluttering everybody's 'notifications' box with mostly irrelevant and impersonal messages". If you consider good manners - a simple "thank you", when someone pays you a compliment - to be "irrelevant", or "unhelpful" (another word that was used to describe these comments) then you're a lunatic.
More than that, it is absolutely not up to you to make a value judgement on the comments I write.
Unhelpful? To whom?! I am not trying to be "helpful" - I am merely acknowledging that someone has taken the time to comment on my picture. The idea that this offends you - to the point where you would unfollow someone - is absurd!
Let me tell you a bit about myself... I am a professional musician, so for me, photography is just a hobby - I don't have a fancy camera, and I don't always have time to spend ages getting a shot right - my photos are, at best, mediocre. (I have said before, in discussions, that I wouldn't follow me, if I were another 365-er!)
The fact that people take the time even to look at my photos at all means a lot to me; that they would take the time to write a comment, to pay me a compliment, to give me advice on how to improve, even (occasionally) to "fav" one of my shots, is something I appreciate enormously.
Many of these people are just as busy as I am, in their own jobs, or with their families, and many are much better photographers than I am. I don't take a single picture view or comment for granted; these people don't have to comment on my photographs - they do so because they want to - and I feel that the right thing to do is to thank them for taking the time and effort to do just that.
The crux of the matter is, if you don't want to talk to me, don't comment on my pictures. Because, if you do, I might *shock! horror!* respond to you!!
I'll admit, I've done mass replies. But I don't see how it is that big of a deal. You get one notification and see a 'thank you'. It is NOT that big of a deal. It also brings you back to that person's photo, you get to see it again, see some of their new work, and get a question answered if you had one.
And as to the overflow of notifcations that come from discussions and such, maybe there should be an option for that. It might be easier if you could choose what you do and don't want notifcations for. Or have the notifications groupled, like on facebook. e.g. "@soandso, @name, and @blah have commented on your photo."
Happy Snapping 365er's
it doesnt bother me personally but was wondering if its possible maybe to add aditional buttom "thank you" which would still send notification to person but just saying "this person thanks you for the comment" and the reply buttom would be then for answers on questions or longer thank you's etc... just a suggestion....
You said "I agree that a simple 'thanks' is just as valuable whether sent to one person or 51 but I do object to having my name lumped together with a whole string of others when the message can just as easily be read next time I visit the album without being directed there. "
* unfortunately, replies that are meant for you, whether @tagged or not, appear under the image where you made a comment. So, unless you revisit that old image frequently, you won't see those comments. If you visit the album just a day later you will see a different image, and the comment is elsewhere - you'll miss it.
* unfortunately, your replies are public and are 'lumped together' with everyone else's on the same page. That is kind of how the site works. Everyone gets a chance to comment; it would be more inconvenient if multiple comments were laid out in individual boxes - the webpage would be much longer
You said "Hitting that 'reply' key may be easier than writing a comment, but in my view a simple "Thanks everyone" would be pertfectly acceptable without that long list of @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name @name (51 here ... see what I mean?)"
* no, I disagree. As explained, "Thanks everyone" is lost, no-one is notified. You might as well say it to the cat :) It takes no time at all for the eye to skip over those names.
I think I have a solution though, I'm not sure if @Scrivna would agree. Let people enter as many @names as they want; then when the page is displayed, show them differently; hide all the names except the viewer and add a little text as a clickable link:
@yourname (show 50 others) or
(show 51 names) - if you aren't the lucky recipient
Editing the reply would just show the normal list of tagged names.
While you're at it the user's name could be highlighted in a special colour so it's even more recognisable.
I'm sure the magic photo monkeys would be able to weave some HTML to do that...
There's no right or wrong answer here - it's just a matter of who likes the feature vs. who doesn't. No need for anyone to get their knickers in a twist :)
Thanks to everybody who has contributed to this discussion in the spirit in which it was intended, but I think I'll bow out now because as a senior college lecturer for many years I know better than to compete with someone who assumes the right to lecture me in such terms on what I may or may not say. I am sure that the multi-talented young pop musician who made these comments is really a much nicer person than his belligerent attitude suggests, and hope the reputation of this friendly and fair-minded community has not been damaged, but must ask Ross @scrivna if he would kindly look again at the problems arising from the notifications system , as has been suggested by other contributors to this discussion.
Like Annie (and others) said, there isn't a right or wrong answer here. Let's just all hug each other and gaze at the stars, and somehow act like grown ups that appreciate each other's gratitude, no matter how one shows it.
I personally do both. Why? Because I'm a polite person and was raised that way. If you don't have the time to click a notification where I thank you and it wasted your day, I don't really mind you unfollowing me. Seriously? Getting berated because I thank people? Even if it's in a list of others? Even if I have 5@'s at a reply of a thank you it doesn't mean I'm just responding like a robot. I am truly grateful and saying thank you. I try to add more to the conversation as well but generally that's not necessary. So you say neither is the thank you. Well good riddance to you then.
I ALSO go post on their images afterwards as well if I haven't already. Out of kindness yes, to give them views yes, and because the photography on here is genuinely remarkable. Are you going to yell at me when all I say is "This is amazing" as well? Since I apparently don't have the vocabulary to post 5 paragraphs about your photo?
Maybe an ignore button. It's been this huge thing for a couple weeks now. Maybe I just don't have enough followers/posts for this to be "annoying" in my life. Or maybe you need to learn to appreciate thankful people.
I am fortunate enough to have numerous followers posting meaningful comments every day, and that is fine, because there is plenty of room for them in the albums, but I also have a note in my profile saying that mass mailings of generic thanks are not appreciated because they take up too much space in the notifications box and can cause more important messages to be missed or drop off the page on a busy day, and it is impossible to know which ones are worth opening without actually openng them.
This discussion has identified some confusion between 'followers' and 'following'. Followers post directly to the album, which is always appreciated, and can be read and answered at leisure, but the real problem comes from some of those I follow, who hit the reply button under every comment and send them all off in one mass mailing, and that is not polite.
I shall be interested to see what @scrivna can suggest to minimise this problem,
Thanks. I now understand the problem and agree with your suggested response approach. This will certainly make my life, with very limited time, a whole lot easier.
This site has become really slow and so if you get 50 thank yous in one sitting and each of those take 15 seconds to upload and at the end is a mass thank you, I relate to your frustration. If you get 70 (95 on one photo and I know others get way more) comments, then thanking all of those is also detracting from what this site is about. I am sure I might have offended a few people by giving them my link to a thread on this recently but my request was also to release them from feeling obliged to thank as I had felt to be the culture here to do. I also knew what it was like to feel compelled to do it due to my 'politeness' and I even find it hard now not to thank but it is no longer practical and I now know why people would rather you didn't. I love the comments and encouragement and wanted people to know how grateful I was for them. I also liked how polite people were being with their thanks too, but when you are here for a while and the volume of thanks knocks out the important notifications (ie, comments) it is just totally unmanageable and overwhelming to the point where I was up to 2am- 3am in the morning. Those who have got annoyed at the truth of this situation well, I wonder who they are serving when they thank ...when someone says I appreciate your thanks but don't feel the need to do so with me' offends them ...well, they are not prepared to move from their own viewpoint ...and so be it. However, I appreciated your reminder to people that we are all grateful for all the comments and this does not need to be stated. Now, to get back to the commenting and photographing.
"but the real problem comes from some of those I follow, who hit the reply button under every comment and send them all off in one mass mailing, and that is not polite"
Suggestion. Stop following them. Issue resolved. Reply button stays.
@ukcam @katiegc24 I agree with you.
@manek43509 I couldn't have said it any better. You rock!
I honestly don't understand why this causes such a strong reaction from both sides of the opinion.
I generally respond to people for their comments and sometimes it is little more than a thank you and sometimes there are more than one person in the thanks, however I also try to comment on everyone that I follow at least twice a week and those that follow me once a week if I have the time.
I like the reply button and the only time my notifications get so clogged up is if I start a disscussion that is popular. I persanally do not mind getting comments that are just a thanks and if my thanking people bothers them then I do not mind if they unfollow or do not comment on my work anymore. I will not stop thanking people for their comments unless they specifically request me not as I would hate them to think that I did not care, but equally if someone takes the time to ask not to get thanks then I would not want to offend them by doing so.
The thing that I love about this site is how generous people are with their cc, praise and most importantly time! and it would be a shame if the community spirit was lost due to something like to Thank or not to Thank.
I have followed the comments on this thread since the start of it and I think that I can see how both sides of this argument can feel offended, I think peopel on both sides have been quite un-understanding about each others opinions and it is time perhaps to close the thread.
If @wordpixman has had enough and wants to get rid of the thread deleting the original post will remove the lot. The problem with doing that though is that I don't think @scrivna would be able to see all the suggestions for changing the way the reply function works.
Your Call Arthur, to everyone reading this I say Lets have Peace now :D
Oh dear! If you are referring to the little drummer boy, it was not because he claims to be a professional musician, some of whom I know to have have exceptonal talent, but his abusive manner, and if you had read carefully you would have seen that you have quoted me out of context and might think twice before attempting to justify the words "utterly ridiculous", "you're a lunatic" and "absurd" in response to an honest opinion. I sincerely hope that @scrivna will read the message and say whether this is the image of his site that he wants the world to see.
(I have looked at your album and read your profile )
That would be a very interesting new feature and I second the suggestion.
@wordpixman I've only been skimming (WAY too many comments to read them all) so I may have missed it if you said this, but do you TELL people you don't want to be included in mass thank-yous? Because I'm sorry, but I did find it a little hypocritical to call Kate rude, when you delete a follower just because they thanked you. Did you give them advance notice first? Actually telling them that you'll delete them as followers if they don't cut it out may help them realize that you REALLY don't want to be thanked that way. I personally never do a mass thank-you, and I've only done a 'To all' thank you once, but after I did it, I realized that the people who commented (they were not followers of me) would likely never see the thank you. So while I can see where you're coming from, I don't think it's very fair to just get rid of the reply button. I can see that other people have already come up with various other solutions, so I won't say any more about that.
You're a lecturer? Forgive me for saying (again, I skimmed so maybe I misread what you said), but the way you referred to Kit seemed really condescending, and I'm wondering (if indeed I read that correctly) if you're thinking you're better than he is because he's a young musician and you're an experienced lecturer. Neither he nor Kate seemed rude to me, it seemed as if they were merely stating their opinions. Admittedly some of the way they said what they did could be taken the wrong way, but then, if someone's not blatantly being rude, then I try to assume the best of them, unless their typing is atrocious (see: netspeak). Now, I'm a cynic and a pessimist, but this is a practice I try to always keep because I've inadvertently insulted others because I assumed they were insulting me, when, in reality, they weren't. If, after I do my best to give them a polite reply, it becomes obvious that they were indeed being insulting or condescending, then yes, I'll probably be rude right back at them. I'm not saying I know better than you do, since you do have more experience than I do, I'm just saying-something to think about. And in case you think I'm being condescending or rude or whatever-I'm not. I realize it's very difficult to get the right tone across when you're using the internet to communicate, so just letting you know I'm not trying to be rude. I'm honestly curious, and simply wanted to get my opinion across.
Thanks for reading. Oh, and I also agree with everyone who says they were raised to be polite - while I don't thank everyone who comments on my photos, it's only if they say something like 'great job!', or 'love the photo!' If someone thanks ME for when I say something like that, while I appreciate the gesture and the time it took (whether it was a few seconds or a few minutes depending on how many people they were thanking), I really don't feel anything from it. So I try to keep my thank-yous of that sort to a minimum.