Flickr explore

[chris]

Hi,

My Flickr account is fairly quiet, I don’t share much, don’t follow that many people and not that many follow me.. however, I put a couple of Autumn images on there last night, and it’s gone daft today, with no end of email notifications, over 300 “faves”, thousands of views and numerous comments, plus renewed activity on older images. This all because both images went onto the Explore page.

This just got me wondering, are explore features completely random? 2 simultaneously after just 1 in the previous 25 images seems odd, especially when they don’t have any particular photographic merit! If it is random, what’s the typical ratio of featured to not?

Chris

[Keith-369]

Re: Flickr explore

Explore works completely on an algorithm set by Flickr staff. Many complaints have been made, especially recently when 93 pictures of a yellow bus, taken by the same person, appeared in Explore in one day.

There is said to be ways of working the system in order to get your picture in Explore ..... if that's what someone yearns to do.

No one, except for Flickr staff of course, knows what the algorithm is ..... bu we all know it needs to be changed to stop the 'yellow bus' problems happening. Some even complain that Explore is all birds, food shots, lego, etc. etc. There is no explanation for any picture at all getting in Explore.

Hope that helps a little

Keith

[chris]

Re: Flickr explore

Thanks Keith, all a bit odd!
My notifications are still coming in!

[Keith-369]

Re: Flickr explore

Yes, your picture will, if it's in a high position, stay in Explore for a full day then things will start to slow down. There are only 500 positions in Explore for the day (out of the millions per day posted to Flickr). Some pictures go in, stay there for an hour or so then fall out, others stay in for the day.

You can go here - https://bighugelabs.com/scout.php put in your Flickr name and see the position your picture is and any other pictures you may have in Explore.

Nothing odd about it at all, just something Flickr has done for a long time. The algorithm does change from time to time, it has been called The Magic Donkey many times because no one really knows why it picks the pictures it does. Many like it, many do not like it.

The other problem Flickr has had for a couple of years now is that at one time a 'view' was counted when someone clicked on your picture to look properly at it. Nowadays a view is counted whenever a picture gets near enough to your screen to be counted as seen, ie. if someone was looking at a Explore pictures and scrolled down until they found a picture they liked, every one of those pictured he scrolled past would be deemed as a 'view', whether he liked them or not, he is counted as 'seeing' them. That's how so many views are logged onto every picture in Explore.

Good innit

edit ... off to watch a bit of telly now but will catch up tomorrow

[chris]

Re: Flickr explore

Thanks. Currently at positions 145 and 222 a day after posting.

[Ross the fiddler]

Re: Flickr explore

Well, those two autumn images are rather nice though.

[chris]

Re: Flickr explore

Thanks Ross

[steverh]

Re: Flickr explore

I have been on Flickr for years. Never had an Explore...

[jonesy]

Re: Flickr explore

I've just had this happen to me today... I thought my account had been hacked or something because my flickr account had sent me so many emails... it wasnt until I had logged on and seen an invitation to put it in the explore group did it make any sense.