Dear Andy,
As Stephen posted in the “Sticking my Neck Out” thread,
The moderators choice POTW is selected as follows:-
Throughout the week we scan and keep a note of any photo(s) that we consider to be outstanding according to our own taste and interest. Each of us moderators then nominate ONE and if two or more moderators choose the same photo then its is declared as POTW. If there are no matches then we nominates our second choice, often one or more moderators second choice is a first choice of another moderator.
The simple fact is that each of the moderators has very different tastes, styles and opinions. We are not clones, we do not suppress our personal opinions in order follow central edicts, or hive mindset if you will, when choosing PoTW. As such, it has never been the case that I can recall so far that we have had a unanimous decision will all moderators agreeing on our first choice. As Stephen has explained, it is more usual that one moderators first choice is backed up as another’s second choice to win that week’s selection process. There have been times when no-one’s first choice has been selected and it has been entirely fought out on second choice with sometimes a third choice picture being brought into the mix for discussion. This is the nature of compromise and concession, qualities that are necessary in all walks of life if progress is to be made and decisions taken.
I cannot speak for others, but there have been selections picked for PoTW that have left me cold, do nothing for me (no names, no pack drill), but in the face of votes from others, I’ve had to let it be. I strongly suspect that the other mods have had to bite their lips at times too.
You, and others, have asked for justification from the moderators as to why a particular picture is chosen. As Stephen explained, it is according to our own taste and interest. Given the nature of the selection process, it is going to be very difficult for the moderators to put together a justification. Each moderator will almost certainly have very different opinions and ideas about why they like a particular picture, there are times when I cannot explain why I like a picture, shortlisted for PoTW or otherwise, I just do. There would be times when my input to the justification text would be “I can’t for the life of me understand why the other two like this, it leaves me completely cold”. I hope you can start to see the difficulties associated with your demands.
The act of trawling through an entire week’s gallery posts, and reviewing them to shortlist for PoTW is an extremely time consuming job, particularly so if we have been away for a few days, we do have jobs and other commitments in life. The discussion amongst the mods to thrash out our selections takes another few hours usually. If the masses then demand that we come up with a collective justification which all the mods agree on then that is several more hours of effort to put in.
Regardless of which picture is chosen for PoTW, as Robski and others have implied, it isn’t going to please everybody, as I’ve explained above, it may not even please all of the moderators. Any justification given will simply provide fuel for argument, negativity and division. Such discussion will simply build cliques and promote rival camps, your own comments on Scott’s “Scribbles” is one such example of this.
To quote a WPF member “It amazes me how touchy we can get sometimes”. I don’t care about the thought process behind a picture, or the equipment used; all I care about is the end result, I choose a picture that I like. I am not prepared to put several hours of my free time into the forum just to act as someone’s punchbag, I know other mods feel the same. This would be the overall effect if we were to provide justification for out PoTW choice. To paraphrase your sig file:
"We select pictures of what we like - if someone else likes them - that's a bonus"
That’s all the justification we need for PoTW, let’s leave it at that. Thank you.
Regards,
Duncan
|