Feedback and voting discussion

[ghanimasun]

Let's talk about voting.

This post contains examples of votes, advice on voting and technical aspects to consider when voting. Please read and leave any thoughts you have regarding this topic.

Comments will are screened (unless requested unscreened) and anon commenting will be turned on as well.

Comments

[jsfunction]

Sorry for commenting super late, nobody will probably even see this post now which sucks cause I have a lot to say!

Thanks for making this useful post :)

I fullheartedly agree. It's important to vote in a way that corresponds to the quality of the icons - not which ones you like the most, but the icons that show most skill - or the least amount of lack of skill. The skill can be very technical like how seamless a blending or cutting out of a background is, or it can relate to the impact of the icon like how skillfully the maker conveys the intended effect (like how well the coloring fits). I've often voted for an icon I didn't really like if I thought it had the best image quality/sharpening, and against icons that showed lovely creativity and design but the execution didn't come through.

This is first and foremost an icon community, so by being here you imply that you're interested in icons as graphics rather than as images of Farscape. If you're interested enough in image enhancement to want to participate, then surely you have at least the minimum amount of eye for graphics that tells you which icons have decent quality. If someone for example uses an LQ compression method when saving their icons, resulting in bad image quality including jpeg artifacts, they should be voted out no matter what the icon looks like otherwise. IMO, to go 'hmm, that icon has jpeg artifacts, but then again that other icon has bright colors and I don't like bright, so I'll vote against it instead and actually give a plus for the artifact icon because it's simple and I like simple', then that is disrespect towards the effort others put in their icons. ^^ That type of voting also favors those with the most popular/generic/commercial styles, discouraging experimenting and risk taking.

One method to improve in voting is asking yourself 'why' enough times. Don't just write 'I don't like the coloring', ask yourself why you don't like it. If the reason is 'I prefer warm colors to cold ones', then think again. If it's something like 'it's too dark', then continue asking 'why is the darkness a negative thing in this specific icon' (cause sometimes darkness does work, when it's obviously intentional). 'It doesn't fit the subject, makes it hard to see the subject and makes it look dull when there's not much brightness variance in the icon' is a perfectly good reason. You don't need to voice it like an experienced icon maker ('the lack of contrast looks unintentional, obscures the subject and leaves the icon flat'), it's the same idea in the end. Everyone can do this much!

I don't want to sound too ranty here cause I think this community is splendidly run and the votings last tround weren't mostly that bad, in the end they did result in the person who showed the best command of the technical aspects winning :)

tl;dr - please don't vote for the icon that's trying to be the sort of icon you like - vote for the icon you think does the best job at being the sort of icon it's trying to be :)

Please don't hate me, I don't think my votes are superior and it's not really that important who wins since we all play just for fun. As long as it's the same rules for everyone, I can just as well go with subjective voting - just expect a lot of 'too dull' votes next round if this is what we decide on ;)
I do think that voting, especially negative voting, is difficult and I appreciate the approach that some comms like turbo_rumble take where the concrit votes don't actually count and the winner is just determined by who gets the most positive votes. sayuri_x's idea is interesting too.

//on and do unscreen! ^^

[kungfuwaynewho]

Late too, but I really liked the way you broke this down. Your tl'dr summation especially really made me think, and it's something I'm going to try and apply to my own voting in the future.