DOWNGRADING OF PHOTOS

[JOANNE]

I know that I may upset one or two people or there may be a few who will think that I have no right to place a blog such as this. However, during the last few months in particular there seems to be trend where certain members are deliberately down grading the ratings on certain dogs. When I first joined this site it was a wonderful place where true Irish Setter lovers exchanged words of advice, encouragement and congratulations with each other, exhibitors and pet owners alike.

Now I love my dogs but I am not so blinkered that I cannot see their faults and I am sure that most other members on this site feel the same. But I can also appreciate the qualities of many Irish Setters on this site and leave lots of comments on the photo of the dogs, top show dogs and the lovely couch potatoes too. Why are people feeling the need to down grade photos or is it a personal insult to the owner of the dog ?. If you do not like a dog, comment in private and move on, why upset a fellow lover of our wonderful breed.

I notice too that there are members who seem to no longer have the ability to share a nice word with other members on the site unless it is to thank someone for a comment on their own dog or to place a comment on the progeny of their dog, why become so blinkered ?. In this world of rising petrol costs, rising costs of living and the general decline of both exhibitors and breeders in all breed of dogs all around the world we maybe do not realise how much we are going to need one another in the future !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

[Carmel Murphy]

No need to down grade a photo!! What does that achieve?? Nothing;o)) I thought that once a photo had 5 stars you could not change it, so I tried it on my own photos and yes I could downgrade my reds pics;o(( I could also regrade them to 5 again;o)) So if you see a pic that has less than 5 stars then upgrade to 5;o)) All our dogs deserve 5 stars!!!!!!! Would prefer the star system was taken away or a 5 star only grade;o))))

[dorota fronczyk]

I agree with what you say. I always say "when you do not have anything nice to say just do not say anything" and i do not understand people who do such things.

[David McIlveen Wright]

,,, and it's still going on! I think this feature should be turned off, or only be active as part of a comment. This would mean that the rating would no longer be anonymous, and give the downraters the opportunity to explain their views, hopefully constructively. If someone doesn't like one of my photos, and tells me it's underexposed, or has poor colour saturation, then that's fine by me. But if they simply give me one star, then I could assume that they were attacking my dog, or the location, or the light ... it hurts me without telling me the reason.

So, if this feature is going to be allowed to continue, I think we should subvert the hurt a poor rating can cause, by simply giving 5 stars to all pictures that we see having less than this! Vive la revolution!

[Cornelia]

I absolutely agree!! This feature should be turned off!! Or turned on five stars only!! I've never given anything less and I never shall!!! As Carmel said: All our dogs deserve five stars. It does not matter if it is a champion, a hunter , a house pet or all together; it is precious to the one, who put the photo up!
Then there are some ladies on this site, who go through the trouble of spoiling us with taking a photo of each dog in a show; oh, I know how much work this is!! How can anybody give them anything less than excellency? For downrating their photos does put a damp on their effort as well!!!
As to photographic skills, I have seen many that are underexposed, poorly saturated or out of focus and stil given them five stars - why? Because something in it was just sweet or put a smile on my face and just made my day!! I can only hope that all those, whose photos got downrated will not stop posting!!