Do you find it easy to comment?

Truth to tell, I often struggle with making comments and so often quietly move on. Although sometimes the author will hit just the right mark and make it easy for me, at other times, there will be elements of a piece I want to applaud, but there's something about the whole that doesn't quite work for me,... and despite an opening request from the author for feedback, I generally don't really feel that there's scope to enter into any meaningful dialogue about the piece.

I've played with 'Context Free' and appreciate the thought that can go into creating work with this sort of program. Still, beyond face value, I find it difficult to judge the merits of one piece of fractal work against another, simply because I don't know what went into the making of the piece... and so I try and see something that indicates where the program finished and the author has taken another step to produce a finished piece.... On the other hand, with the sort of works that Kenwas creates, I give extra credit for my not wondering how the piece was produced, I feel the 'how' of these should fade into the background and I just want to enjoy whatever feelings the scene evokes.

Normally what I'm really looking for is the personal touch. I like to know if an element has been produced by a default plug-in setting, or did the author use their own brushwork, that sort of thing. Yet after all this angst and searching for just the right thing to say, mostly when I do comment, I often seem to fall in with the forum shorthand, traditionally ranging somewhere from 'Cool' all the way to Woot & 'Kudos Dude'..

So why do I comment?

Before this week, I think I bothered for 2 reasons. The first being simply that something was so clearly well designed, that I wanted to congratulate the author. The other reason being, that I've had some sort of previous dialogue with the author, and so wanted to take an opportunity to offer some small level of support. I don't give bump up ratings, or comment favourably on a piece that I don't feel has some merit, just to be supportive or curry favour, there has to be something that appeals. I am though very aware, that I haven't really been as supportive as I could be of people's work and am trying to improve in that field - and here's why.

I recently had a brainstorm while experimenting in Photoshop and as a result uploaded a wall that's a little different from the norm. It's very minimal, avoiding textures etc makes Hockney seem overstated (not that at this stage he was panicking) , I can't argue with downloads, it's not been a universally popular style and I doubt unless something particularly strikes me as fun or interesting, I'll upload this sort of piece again. I am fortunate in that some members appear to have seen it as I hoped it would be perceived, and been very kind about it. It was these members that made me really understand the true value of comments and why I should make more effort to support others.

The first time I saw my wall in the gallery, it had a 1.5 stars rating, which if I'm honest was unexpected. I thought at worst it would be largely ignored and sit there with maybe 3 stars and a WTF? comment..... the thought at the time, was that at least I'd have uploaded something and better understand some of the process from having gone through it personally.

Initial pain absorbed I began to try and work out what the figures actually meant - The rating itself doesn't really tell me a lot. Okay it's a hint, and in my case a good one,... but it didn't say what rating the wall had gone in at, or how many votes it had attracted - there's no obvious way to know unless you're watching it from the very start. The downloads were (and still are) a good indicator that viewers felt from the preview that it wasn't their sort of thing..... At this point the delete button was a definite option, not out of pique, but just because as the only item in my gallery, it didn't feel so good.

Then came the comments, which although they don't by themselves affect the ratings, they do apply a welcome salve to a bruised upload. Every comment was gratefully received, one comment in particular was particularly valuable to me, simply because it reflected something I actually needed to hear at that time. In essence it kind of reinforced that elements I was beginning to doubt could be identified, were actually visible.

What I realised, was that for me personally, 'with this particular wall' as it climbed to the dizzy heights of 2 stars, was that I was actually happier with 2 stars and community comments, than I would have been with 3 stars and no feedback at all.

So it's been a tough week, on what passes for an ego around my home, but it's been a great lesson. I've come to understand how important comments can be, and so resolved to make this post and encourage more members to take the time to support authors through commenting in the galleries.

If you are like me and commenting doesn't come easy, then it isn't so tough to find a gallery you like and start off small. You don't have to try and cover everyone in the first week, I've not begun to scratch the surface, just a piece here, an author there. Pick something that appeals, don't worry about why you like it, just throw in a smiley to let the author know you appreciate their work. I think it's probably like anything else, just keep practising and it gets easier in time.

Pretty soon as you become more practised, you may find that you're the one whose comments are worth more to the author than a star. If you'll take it from one who knows, that's a pretty cool gift to receive.

If you got this far - thanks


* Just wanted to take a second to thank Fuzzy Logic for offering great feedback behind the scenes.