Flickr Awards
Jakob Lodwick recently posted (in his isolated Jakob Lodwick way) a link to one of Mareen Fischinger’s new photos. He asks whether or not obnoxious Flickr awards can drive off “creative people” like Mareen.
I’ve thought for a few months now that people give those awards because, upon viewing a photo, they experience a rush of appreciation for it, but either don’t have the energy or ability to write out a comment that captures their reaction in an original way. Commenting takes effort, and in my Flickr travels, it seems like a lot of people save Favoriting for photos they find truly special. Since the only actions a user can take to show their appreciation for a photo are to comment it or favorite it, people give awards as sort of a middle ground.
I think it’d be interesting to see if the number of awards given decreased if Flickr added optional rating functionality to each photo. My guess is they would. Low-grade initial rushes of appreciation could be expressed more easily and no one would have to put up with all that visual clutter.
