Flickr Group Spamming

rpsmith79

rpsmith79

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Rich
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This might just be a bit of the green eyed monster, but i see in the most viewed Flickr thread that there are a few people who post up average shots that seem to be getting massive amounts of views, so on looking into how they get such big viewing figures i realise that they have posted some photos in 50 or more groups :eek:

Is it just me or does that seem a bit excessive and just a hint of spamming :suspect:

I use groups for things i'm interested in and i regularly look through the dozen or so groups that i have joined, bearing in mind i could never take a photo that fitted into all of these groups, it seems some people must be signed up for 100's of groups at the same time, does anyone really get the time to look though that many groups on a weekly/daily basis, or are these the sort of people who take a lot and give back very little :(

Sorry if this is in the wrong location mods, feel free to move it if so
 
ChrisGilbert said:
It's a part of what might be considered the Veblen Effect ;)
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I did just have to Google that to see what it was :lol:, but yes it does seem to be the case

Another trend i see is people not posting correct images in lots of groups, like landscape shots in Macro groups, and daytime shots in "Blue Hour" groups, it's these little things that really get on my nerves :annoyed:
 
I used to do that when I had a Flickr account. Why wouldn't you put your shot in as many places as possible?

Being a successful photographer is about being visible.
 
London Headshots said:
I used to do that when I had a Flickr account. Why wouldn't you put your shot in as many places as possible?

Being a successful photographer is about being visible.
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I suppose so, but as i said, i post in as many groups as i feel ihave the time to take a good look round once every couple of days, so i feel i at least give back what i take, and i take the time to comment and favourite those i feel deserving

Surely the sort of people who spam 50 or so groups with every shot surely don't have to time to browse all those groups on a daily basis :shrug:
 
rpsmith79 said:
This might just be a bit of the green eyed monster, but i see in the most viewed Flickr thread that there are a few people who post up average shots that seem to be getting massive amounts of views,
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How many are we talking about? What is a "massive amounts of views"?
 
Ricardodaforce said:
How many are we talking about? What is a "massive amounts of views"?
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50 or more I would say is high, (seeing as the most I've had is 6), but once you realise that is only one view per group in some cases then the somewhat makes sense
 
If they're putting a few photos in a lot of groups that doesn't bother me in the slightest, how they spend their time is up to them. The people putting loads of near identical photos in one group do irritate me a bit when I'm trying to look at the group's photos though as it clogs the pool up and you have to go through several pages to find anything other than their photos. Excluding groups that are more catalogue-like in nature obviously.
 
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I wouldn't say 50 is very high tbh, I can get that easily when I post a new image.. certainly don't post to lots of groups and definitely no post 1 comment 3 ones.. more a combination of good contacts and tweeting new photos..
 
mich66 said:
I wouldn't say 50 is very high tbh, I can get that easily when I post a new image.. certainly don't post to lots of groups and definitely no post 1 comment 3 ones.. more a combination of good contacts and tweeting new photos..
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Well for me 50 views would be massive, but then I don't have many contacts and i don't get twitter :lol:

I suppose I'll just have to persevere and hope I generate some more contacts, but i certainly won't resort to group spamming :thumbs:
 
rpsmith79 said:
50 or more I would say is high, (seeing as the most I've had is 6), but once you realise that is only one view per group in some cases then the somewhat makes sense
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Easily possible to get that amount of views without putting the photo in any groups. When I upload photos I wait a couple of weeks before I add them to any groups. Seems to me that you are a little peeved that others have more response to their photos than you do.
 
Ricardodaforce said:
Seems to me that you are a little peeved that others have more response to their photos than you do.
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Yes I already said that (hence the reference to the green eyed monster) , but once I realised it was because they were signed up to so many groups I can understand why as it only takes one view per group

What I'm asking is whether people agree with the practice of what I consider group spamming

I'm not saying people shouldn't be getting so many views, i'm just curious as to how other people do it without the spamming
 
AFAIK the more groups you post in, the less likely you are to get explored, if you're interested in that sort of thing.

Personally, I've joined quite a lot of groups over the years. I put a photo in all relevant groups. No idea how many.

As London Headshots said, what's the point of not being visible?
 
I get that everyone wants to be visible, it's just more to do with how some people go about it

It would be just the same as someone posting up 5 topics on here all with one photos in asking for feedback, or posting one topic with 5 photos in (assuming they are all of the same genre)

Anyway, looks like I'm in the minority and group spamming seems to be acceptable, but that doesn't mean I'll be doing it myself :nono:
 
It's called promotion. I fail to see what's wrong with it. So what if your shots are published in 20 other groups? So long as the groups are relevant, and you obey their rules, put them in as many as you like.
 
rpsmith79 said:
I get that everyone wants to be visible, it's just more to do with how some people go about it

It would be just the same as someone posting up 5 topics on here all with one photos in asking for feedback, or posting one topic with 5 photos in (assuming they are all of the same genre)

Anyway, looks like I'm in the minority and group spamming seems to be acceptable, but that doesn't mean I'll be doing it myself :nono:
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I just don't get the point. You don't need to "spam" groups to get views. Some of my photos have been viewed thousands of times. I am a member of only 30 groups, and I can't add a photo to each group because one photo won't be eligible for all the groups. I think visibility mainly comes from effective tagging and having contacts.
 
Each to their own of course but IMO, a forum like this is a completely different thing to flickr.

Have to be honest, I use flickr as a hosting site with the added benefit of the possibility of some other people seeing and liking some of my pics. I have absolutely no social or emotional connection to flickr and I certainly don't take any notice of "feedback" from it.

A forum like this is a completely different matter.
 
its all down to personal choice I guess.. adding to lots of groups and taking the time to look and comment on other photos is better thought of than just dumping and running.. as for explore.. i'm far happier for my images to never get on that.. my most 'we heart it' tumblr, pinterest and blogged images all made explore!

but think its more a combination of the right groups / comments /faves received in a time frame to get on there..
 
I don't see how it's spamming. If, for example, I take a new landscape image, and I put in on Flickr, what's wrong with posting it in.. let's say 25 landscape photography groups? Everyone who sees it will be interested in seeing it. Some people may be subscribed to more than one of the groups and they may see it several times, but that's not really my fault. When I freelanced in London.. a very long time ago when such work was still plentiful, I used to take my portfolio to LOTS of design houses and agencies, and got lots of work... Was THAT spamming? (not that you'll get any work from Flickr of course, but raising your profile can never be an entirely bad thing).

If you just stick in on your Flickr account, and do nothing, the only way people are going to see it is because they happened to search for something that you put in as a tag, and unless you're very clever (or even dishonest) with your tagging, that's never going to get your images seen by a wide audience.

If you just use Flickr as a hosting site, then fine, but it sounds to me like you'd like more views. Well.. people can only see your images if you show it to them! :) You expect them to come to you?
 
But if you are a member of so many groups (in these cases they are probably members of hundreds) there surely isn't enough time in the day to actually browse all the groups you are a member of one a regular basis, I like to think that at least with the manageable amount of groups I'm a member of that I give back as much as I take from Flickr

It doesn't help either that there are so many duplicate groups either
 
I guess people have very different opinions on what flickr is for.

I see where you're coming from Rich if you see flickr as a social and sociable entity.

I don't, therefore I don't waste time browsing groups I'm a member of.

I do sometimes look through groups for inspiration though.
 
rpsmith79 said:
I like to think that at least with the manageable amount of groups I'm a member of that I give back as much as I take from Flickr
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How is posting images into groups "taking" from Flickr... surely it's giving?
 
Sorry, poor choice of words on my account, but i'm sure you know what I'm getting at

I like to browser and comment on the groups I am a member of (which is a choice few for each genre I shoot) , no one would have to time to browse and comment on every group if they were a member of hundreds surely
 
rpsmith79 said:
Well to some of us amateurs 50 is a massive amount, do you post in 50 or so groups to get explored though
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Take a look at Marks Flickr and you'll see why there's so many views....brilliant quality images!

But....I can see where you're coming from, I had 40+ views on a shot and was over the moon :lol:
 
rpsmith79 you could put a link in your posts then the people on hear can click on, I just use it to host my shots as said in an earlier post.
I'm only in two groups but still get people viewing, as said above if you want people to view & comment post your shots in as many groups and make yourself visible
 
Each to there own I guess.

I might add a shot to a group now and again if it's a group I want to be part of but I'm not in the slightest bit bothered how many views they get. I rarely even check.

Some people do go a bit mental in the hunt for maximum views and whilst the number of views means nothing - for all I know others may operate in different ways and benefit from spreading their images far and wide.
 
It annoys me when they put them in groups that are inappropriate because they are in so many it's too much trouble to even select the relevant ones.
 
4wd said:
It annoys me when they put them in groups that are inappropriate because they are in so many it's too much trouble to even select the relevant ones.
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O/T but where on the moors are you? A lot of your pics are of familiar places. My girlfriend's family are from Castleton and I spend a lot of time on the moors.
 
To some people it's a game I think. I know I went trough a period where I was trying to beat my own "score". Not because I thought it means anything... it was literally a game of sorts.
 
I'm a member of 308 groups (just checked) but on average one of my photos probably ends up in 3 or 4 at most.

I guess it depends how you use Flickr. I might browse a Utah group because I want to look at photos of Utah, so I also share my photos on a similar basis, if I've just been to California I will more than likely join a relevant group to add some of mine to that pool. I might not visit that group again but rarely bother quitting it.

Views are almost completely irrelevant in my opinion (I browse using Flickrstackr, which I believe doesn't register a view when I look at a photo anyway), my highest has over 15,000 but is average at best and just happened to show up highly in Yahoo search results. Sorting by most favourited (or interesting) generally puts some of what I consider my best stuff towards the top, but posting a single set of images on here for critique generates more useful feedback in a few days than Flickr has in the 7 years I've been uploading to it.
 
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4wd said:
It annoys me when they put them in groups that are inappropriate because they are in so many it's too much trouble to even select the relevant ones.
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I used to do specifically that.

One I remember most was putting a portrait of an MMA fighter in a group about fire hydrants.

I figured it would ire people into replying, or at the very least in viewing the shot because it stuck out so much.


If I recall, it didn't work, but if I still had a Flickr account, I'd do it again.
 
I don't post to Flickr much there days, but when I did I had the odd photo that sort of snowballed and kept getting invited to groups. I always think it is churlish to ignore an invitation, so I have the odd photo of that type which is in a lot of groups and has a lot of views, but I certainly wouldn't 'spam' groups as you put it, although it might appear I have for the odd photo.
 
rpsmith79 said:
50 or more I would say is high, (seeing as the most I've had is 6), but once you realise that is only one view per group in some cases then the somewhat makes sense
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I have a photo today that so far has had 166 views. It's not in any groups.
 
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