It seems that moderators have to post this rant from time to time to remind folks that they are participating (or not) in a critique forum. Without comments our forum becomes stagnant and not much different from Flickr. Starting with Nancy's Bosque Sunrise post and counting up to the last post by Stuart, I see 178 views with only one single comment by anyone other than me. Is anyone out there? I believe that everyone posts here with the expectation of some critiques, at least that is the stated purpose of the forum. It is not that difficult to type a few lines stating what you like or don't like about an image and I really would like to see more participation by those who view the images. The moderators have discussed this issue for years, and I don't really know what the answer is going to be, but we need to do something to encourage comments. I post to another image sharing site, Pixoto, where you have to earn "credits" in order to post images. Guess how you earn these credits - you earn them by voting on images. I would hate to see BPN find the need to go that route, but without feedback and discussion we end up being just another picture sharing site and nobody here wants that to happen. Please don't expect the moderators to be the only ones to comment on images.
Please comment, especially if you are posting images yourself. That is all we ask.
Thank you, I will be stepping gracefully off of my soapbox now.
I'll second that. Commenting is an excellent way to learn to see and think about an image. Even if some people disagree with you, most of us here are reasonably civilized most of the time, and a little give and take adds to the learning. And you, the commentor, are the first beneficiary.
I agree with both Diane and Kerry. I want comments, even if the comment is that the image doesn't work. I try to follow the rule of thumb: for every image I post, I comment on at least 5 others. I've taken to commenting only on the images of people who comment on mine.
Having said that, over the past few months I've not been as active as I'd like, and I was gone all last week, so I'm rather behind in commenting.