Through a secret combination of page views, comments, and number of ‘favourites’,  Flickr will occasionally promote a photograph to their Explored page. On the whole this works quite well, and photos on the Explored page usually range from ‘great’ to ‘stunning’. This page is one of the main reasons I visit Flickr.

Unfortunately the quality of the Explored page isn’t always guaranteed. As you can see from this photo, there are (many) cases where the photographer’s popularity results in hundreds of undeserved comments along the lines of ‘great photo’ and similar gushiness. These in turn promote an entirely ordinary photograph to the Explored page. This devalues Flickr for the rest of us.

Apologies to Cees for singling him out, but just look at his photograph! The composition is ordinary at best, the highlights are completely blown, the lighting is harsh, and the background is frankly unattractive. How can this photo prompt 800 people to post congratulatory comments? Is it the quality of the photograph or the popularity of the photographer?