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Having been told in effect to 'like it or lump it' in a rather headmasterly post from James Allsworth I have now worked out a scheme to avoid the whole childish thing - I won't bother to post and then I won't upset anyone - I won't pack my bags and go yet - I'll just set myself to a 'read-only' mode - and adjust my profile info as I gather that irritated some folk - just think of me as a friendly little puppy, out in the cold,  looking over your shoulder....

David, don't go. For many good, serious reasons (like continuing to annoy people with your profile . . . ummm . . . how did your profile upset people by the way?) . . .  if you go you'll miss the beginning of the very trendy habit of listing your equipment at the end of every bloody post. It'll go nicely with the other very hip Facebook-style goodies herein don't you think?

 

dd

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.... just think of me as a friendly little puppy, out in the cold,  looking over your shoulder....

 

Aaw! just can't resist feeling sorry for sad looking puppies :unsure:

 

I gave you an extra piteous vote :) (.... euh, " piteous vote" is that correct English?)

 

As MDM says, 'piteous' is not quite the right word.

 

Once upon a time 'pitiful' would have been correct but its meaning has been corrupted and now means something quite different.

 

I think probably a pitying vote is the best option.

 

Alan

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The problem with 'reputation' buttons is that they're available for use by morons as well as by sensible and thoughtful contributors.

 

A bit like polling stations in a democracy in fact.

 

Alan

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.... just think of me as a friendly little puppy, out in the cold, looking over your shoulder....

Aaw! just can't resist feeling sorry for sad looking puppies :unsure:

 

I gave you an extra piteous vote :) (.... euh, " piteous vote" is that correct English?)

 

Cheers,

Philippe

Forgive the pedantry but you did ask. As Ed says, piteous is a word but I don't think you are using it correctly. To say a vote is piteous means the vote itself is piteous not the entity that you are voting for. I'm not sure what this would even mean - it implies that the person voting is deserving of pity. A typical expression would be a piteous cry which means that the person crying or calling out is deserving of pity

MDM, I agree that you have two points here: piteous is perhaps not the best word to use, and it's a word one seldom comes across in British or American English. (I'll include Australian English, too, or Dusty might give me a red ticket. :)) Pitiful is a more common form. Online we use casual, conversational English. Clear and good enough is the goal. And, as far as green or red clicks being about the post in question and not about the poster, yes, that's what we are supposed to be voting on. But it is obvious that too many of us are in fact voting on the poster and his/hers passed reputation.

 

My assumption is that Alamy has created this new forum to wipe the slat clean and give us all a chance to begin anew. Why don't we all give that a try?

 

It's also my assumption (I've been wrong before) that Phillip may not have been born an English speaker. In my life I learned to speak Italian (I do, sort of) and tried and failed to speak some Vietnamese. Even though I have creds as a magazine copy editor, I try not to correct people here who have English as a second language. Frankly, I think they do an impressive job.

 

To drone on for a moment more, I'm presently rereading Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. All the dialog in this novel is put on the page as if it were translated from the Spanish, with thee and modifiers in a different position. I don't think this was his best book, but I'm very impressed by his knowledge of Romance language structure.

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I agree with you Ed. I wouldn't correct somebody's English on a forum like this unless it was genuinely open to misinterpretation. The only reason I said anything is that Philippe actually asked if it was correct. I think what he probably means in more colloquial English is sympathy vote.

 

I've never read For Whom the Bell Tolls - I must do so if I ever find time to read novels again - I go to Spain a lot and the civil war still hangs over a lot of Spanish life/

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All this non-sense surrounding the Red and Green button is something I've already mentioned in the original post about them when the new forum was launched. At the time I've mentioned that this feature would be used, not to reward good posts and protest against bad ones, but to punish unpopular ideas no matter how true and clear they were.

 

Many people simply cannot distinguish between a bad contribution from a good contribution that they don't agree with. Many people will use the red button as a negative vote against something they don't agree with, despite the quality of what has been written and the validity of it.

 

I cannot believe that you want people wasting energy on futile discussions over a self-gratifying like feature that only brings the worst in many people, and demotivate members that could give good contributions despite being unpopular ideas and not what some want to ear...

 

If you want to keep anything just be positive and keep solely the green and the report buttons. Good post will stand out - you can even put a bold frame around any post that goes over a certain number of votes like other forums do - and unpopular ideas will simply be there without consequences to the member who expressed them.

 

Honestly this feature will only make good member stop participating, and worse, soon some will find funny to have the biggest negative score in the community and start posting useless comments, that still inside the rules, will irritate people to collect red arrows...

 

Again, this is a useless waste of energy for every parts that will only create more frictions and kill different ideas and opinions, which is the opposite of what a forum should promote.

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I think someone mentioned that he had voted someone down by accident -- which is easy to do on a smartphone. It would be well to bear that in mind. I decided to check on my "reputation" and I have two bad marks. One is for this....

 

"I keyworded some images yesterday and expected them to go on sale Monday or Tuesday. Just checked --Sunday 11:30AM New York time-- and they are on sale. Thank you, Alamy."

 

And the other is for....

 

"Hooray Wim! I love all your suggestions."

 

So either somebody can't stand my goody-two-shoes attitude or they did it by mistake. I am not worried. I'm going to ignore the whole thing.

 

Paulette

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I once had a fat enough bank balance to treat myself to a five-month holiday in Mallorca, mostly in Port d' Andratx. And, oh yes, that civil war was and surely is still there just below the surface. And this, of course, was in the Balearics, where they are Catalans, who were forbidden to speak their own language by Franco. Hell, you can still find people in the American south who are ready to fight again our own Civil War. 

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Come on Alamy.......surely you can't really think this reputation button is a good idea?

You obviously want to encourage young blood to the forum but do you want to do this at the expense of the old timers who are doubtless not going to hang around in this 'playground'.

 

Do the right thing and remove it asap........please!

 

Yes, we do think it's a good idea, otherwise we wouldn't have implemented it.

 

Lots of people (yourself included) are using the vote buttons regularly to show approval or disapproval of posts. We hope that the system will promote people to think carefully about their posts before commenting which in turn will lead to a more constructive and friendly environment than what we had on the old forum. Lots of people are already saying that this seems to be a friendlier place so perhaps it's already working.

 

You say that we "obviously want to encourage young blood to the forum" - Yes, you are absolutely correct. We don't want this to be at the 'expense' of 'old timers' but there is a new system here and you can either embrace it, ignore it or not use the forum at all - that's your call.

 

We've said numerous times that we will be monitoring the effectiveness of the reputation system and if it doesn't work then we will make changes. For now, it's staying and this is our last comment on the matter.

 

Many thanks

 

James Allsworth

 

Alamy

Hi James, 

 

I started my OP because obviously it wasnt working. As mentioned, I was voted down for asking a question, thanking someone, and stating my QC waiting time. That felt like a few people had personal issues with me, rather then intellectual issues. I am sure thats not what you had in mind. I understand your goal for the system and I appreciate that. This is not the only forum that uses it.  But if you do not acknowledge the system is being abused, then you are not really open for honest critique towards the system. 

 

Anyhoo, I am glad I started the debate on this, and it seems for once people agree with me, which is a victory on its own  ;)

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I'll ignore that remark, John.  B)

 

Now that's just plain ignorant... ;)

 

Alan

 

An avatar of you as an adorable child WITH A DOG. No one will dare vote you down now!!!!

 

Paulette

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This morning I had a driver of a car behind me flashing their lights and driving so close two cars nearly merged into one.

They then decided to undertake me only to have to slam their brakes on at a red light. In this instance a vote down button would have been

useful to apply to the driver in front for dangerous driving.

On here I don't see the point of such buttons, If Alamy are going to leave this feature live then they need to take to task

the members who are abusing it.

 

 

Regards

Craig

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An avatar of you as an adorable child WITH A DOG. No one will dare vote you down now!!!!

 

 

Oh Paulette, I hate you! After all I've said about the reputation nonsense, you've caused me to demolish my principles and give you a dose of my green button.

 

Alan

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humor .....or humour.

 

Paulette

 

Oh, come on. Now, I'm really confused :wacko: Why is English sooooooo complicated :huh:

Sorry Paulette, that'll be a big -1 for you for forcing me to spend (or is it " spent ") a whole saturday morning figuring out when to use "o" or "ou". And I already have so much keywording to do :blink:

 

Cheers,

Philippe :P

 

Just my attempt to be funny.....or funny. Let's not even talk about hoods and bonnets or elevators and lifts.  AAAARRRRGHH. I have to do some keywording today.

 

Paulette

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If Alamy are going to leave this feature live then they need to take to task the members who are abusing it.

 

Exactly. :)

 

This thread has run it's course now, thanks for your comments.

 

Alamy

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