Great subject an while I think you can't force people into commenting or voting, or faving, or doing all 3 at once. I think there is a certain ettiquette that people might want to think about. You are encourage to interact, comment, and or make a conastructive critique. After all That is what the site is all about. Otherwise there would be no reason to have built interaction into the design.

This should be a positive experience for everyone. Anyone who comments on something I did I try to always return the favor. I look at there stuff and anything that catches my eye I follow a set of general principle rules which are.

1. If I 5 star it I favorite it. It only makes sense that if its worth 5 stars then its worthy of a fav.

2. If I star something I comment on it. The reason being is that I like to let people know why I felt the need to star their work.

3. I've never starred a palette a one because if I I think its that bad I don't bother. If you do score a palette as a one you should comment on why. People deserve to know. A feature I would like to see is a required field for scoring a 1. This would eliminate or atleast keep down the number of malicious 1 votes, since you could no longer remain anonymous.

4. The other reason I always comment is because then people will get notified when I score their palette and the reason why. Every so often I'll just score and fav, sometimes on colors, because I just really like the color but don't have anything to say about it.

but even if you fav and score the user doesn't get the notification. A nice little who faved your palettes today application would be a great way to keep people notified of who is scoring and visiting their page.

Could you image if everyone on the site went by the principles above? I've noticed a few things I'm a little disappointed in. I seem to get more comments and votes at the beginning of the month, but not as many at the end. This may reflect from people not wanting to vote for a palette that is ahead of theirs in ratings. Or perhaps they are not as motivated to rate since it's so close to the end of the month. It shouldn't be about competition but more a community as we all feed off and inspire each other.

I was also disappointed recently when I went page by page on my friends list and commented on atleast one thing on each of my friends pages. I wanted to see how much feedback I would recieve in return. It was less than 25 Percent. I actually got more feedback from people who were not my friends who just happened to have a new palette when I was on. So be kind to your friends, you friended them for a reason, give them some love every so often.

This site depends on interaction.

onebreath wrote:

klip wrote:

how can you tell if people dont vote?

I think they mean people who fave or comment on palettes but don't vote for them.

It's up to people want to vote him or not

When I first came to CL I probably rarely voted on palettes that I commented or faved because I didn't really understand the rating system at the time. I'm not sure if the list you've collected is comprised mostly of newer colourlovers or not, but that may explain some of it.

Now I usually vote on every palette that catches my eye, and it's almost always a 5. I don't really see the point of voting less than that unless you give them a reason why. Likewise, if you hate a palette completely, the best thing you can do is not vote for it at all, as voting even a 1 will increase the rank of the user and the palette.

I happen to think people take the voting thing too seriously and it is harmful to some when people go on the attack or rally their friends to inflate something. I do vote. But I must say, I much prefer the comments because they show someone really did like the palettes, patterns, etc. I would encourage voting as a casual way to critique things but take the time to comment if you really like something.

If I start a blend series, it will get a lot of "1" votes. Some people hate them. I have even seen them go through the blends group one by one, dinging all that they find. My blends that were not yet part of the group were not touched. I also have some special palettes and patterns at the top of my profile. One morning, they all had received "1" votes. Zero is better in those cases. Several of us gang up on "1" palettes and vote them up. It is not as obvious now as votes are wiped each month.

twinklevango wrote:

To me voting is the very spirit of CL. And the CL system relies on voting as a way of rating accounts.

Not me -- the creating and the sharing and the loving are what COLOURLovers is all about. Voting is pretty minor (but, to be honest, I do love getting votes). But comments are much more important to me than votes.

I vote for any palette or pattern I favorite or comment on, but I don't think it ever occurred to me to vote on other people's colors I've used. I'll try to remember to do that. I've never given a low vote to anything. I just don't view the ones that don't appeal to me.