Terms To Know
Notes?
Notes are a way to outline an area of a pic to draw attention to it, identifying people in a picture, or comment on an element of it. When someone rolls over the picture it will show the shapes to then rollover to show the notes. Some people like notes, some don’t. You can choose in your premissions tab in your account screen who can or can’t leave notes. I let everyone, if I get one I don’t like i just remove it. It will say who left the note, so readers can tell if you left it (yellow note) or someone else did (green note, with name and link to person’s Flickrstream).
Here are samples of notes on a picture. (roll over the pic, then the shapes you see)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/w9jim/3235520142/in/pool-noteworthy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/verybigjen/191377487/ – One of mine, you can see my comments and other people commenting on them!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/verybigjen/7353231/
Flickrstream?
This is the name of a user’s Flicker pages, since they always display chronologically by newest. Also called Photostream.
Interestingness – Is that a word?
On flickr it is. Views, comments, and the number of times people mark it as a favorite all roll into a picture’s “interstingness” (http://flickr.com/explore/interesting/) and get it it possibly “Explored” here http://flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/.
Explored?
The level of it’s “interestingness” can elevate it into seriously major exposure on the Explore – last Seven days Page (see above) where the best an brightest of Flickr appear and you can get thousands of views and hundreds of comments in not much time. It’s the best of the best, but it’s also not an easy thing to achieve, however so don’t go stressing out about it 95% of flickrites will never be “explored” even once. It’s not juried, it’s all picked automaticlly according to something called the “algorithm”.
The one constant to making it to Explore is that you have really excellent pics, but even then it’s crapshoot many excellent pictures never make it. As with anything with a “formula” you can manipulate a little by NOT overexposing your pics. I know it’s oxymoron, let me explain.
You can use groups to get your pictures seen, but put your pic into too many groups and you LOWER your chances to make it on Explore, if not completely remove it from the running. It’s like averaging. Word is if you keep the amount of groups you submit your pictures to under 10, you don’t hurt yourself in the algorithm and still can get it out there, but the algorithm is being tweaked constantly so don’t stress. It’s a bragging right, that’s all. You can get even more views just from your contacts and it NEVER make explore. It’s just a bonus prize in the game of Flickr! Kinda like the Megaball on the lottery ticket. It’s rush when you get it, but don’t go hoping for it.
For even more on this see: http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/faq.php?section=scout
They explain it all far better than I do and can also tell you when you’ve made it to Explore!
Whew! That is pretty comprehensive.
People should know though, that even if you set your photos so that no one can download and print them, they still can download and print them. It’s just a little more work but any photo from Flickr can be saved to someone else’s computer and printed. Their “spaceball” trick will only slow down a determined image thief, not prevent them.
If you really REALLY don’t want anyone saving your photos, it’s best not to put them online at all.