Snapzilla: What's up with Unimpressed Avatar?

All these comments recently on Snapzilla griping about people's snapshots.... does Unimpressed Avatar just need a hug or something?

Poor Toast. Every pic he posts "make my soul die a little each time" according to Unimpressed.

*snickers*

That was such a bizarre comment I'm really tempted to add it to my sig.

I am the Unimpressed Avatar!

SLPics is overrun with couple-hug pictures, look-at-my-hair/outfit/vehicle snapshots, and Barbie dolls in swimsuits/hoochie outfits. Beware my one-star rating, oh, unimaginative masses!

~Ulrika~

sooooo....far be it from me to judge, but looking at this photo http://www.sluniverse.com/pics/pic.aspx?id=17746&sort=PictureID+desc&Name=Ulrika+Zugzwang
of tiny munchkins gasbagging in Alexanderplatz I fail to see much difference.

same here:
http://www.sluniverse.com/pics/pic.aspx?id=17268&sort=PictureID+desc&Name=Ulrika+Zugzwang

Posed stock Barbie dolls or stock Rocky racoons ... what's the diff?
[beerhaus promotional opportunity aside]

Most people are not photographers and have no interest in learning, they just snap as a form of rememberance/fun. Could be why it's called...snapzilla?

Maybe you should put more energy into your own photography?
or start an art gallery with your favourite photogs?

or...stop rating your own photos?
{heh...just yanking your chain...we know no one does that on snapzilla now, don't we?

I noticed!

Check out this breathtaking oeuvre: http://www.sluniverse.com/pics/Default.aspx?Search=Komuso+Tokugawa

All of the top five are look-at-Komuso-in-this-outfit/vehicle with him standing smack dab in the center of the picture looking like a slab of beef.


Now maybe it's the Tinies photo series that culminated in an Editor's Choice Best of Snapzilla that distorted my ego or my disappointment that the true prodigy of SLPics, Torley, is no longer with us but one day I just couldn't stand to see another look-at-my-hair photograph. I snapped.

Look at my hair/sword/car/house. Look at us hug/kiss/have sex. I'm half naked in a swim suit posing by a pool/lake/waterfall. I can't take it! Your collective mediocrity is killing my soul.

~Ulrika~

That's not to say that there's not some very interesting stuff going on on SLPics right now. My current favorite is Trep Cosmo. She's on a very interesting bicycle tour of SL which she started almost nine hours ago!

~Ulrika~

You know, before you even admitted it, I knew it was you, Ulrika (and not from my EVOL IPS HARVESTING). I just had a feeling - the comments were way to witty and caustic to not be from you. I will give you credit, you riled up a bunch of people - I had several emails from the past few days about your comments.

Unfortunately, anonymous comments in general have led to some very hurt feelings - and one user asked to have all their pictures removed because they kept being targetted by someone. No one should feel unwelcome sharing pictures, so I switched the comments to registered only. It at least gives people accountability for their comments.

As far as the quality of pictures, like other things, it is subjective I suppose. Yes, I get tired of seeing certain things, and I dearly miss Torley's pictures which were always fascinating. However, I don't think shaming people into taking "better" pictures is the right approach, just continue to lead by example.

PS - Ulrika, Komuso won Best of Snapzilla multiple times - including taking one of my favorite pictures so far, which is this one:

http://www.sluniverse.com/pics/pic.aspx?id=5388&sort=PictureID+desc&Type=BestOf&sourcename=best+of+snapzilla&source=Snapshots.aspx%3ftype%3dbestof

I'm actually quite disappointed you modified your code. I was hoping to gain infamy as a "Unimpressed Avatar" and then make a dramatic reveal in a few weeks.

Unfortunately, SLPics is 95% look-at-my-hair and only 5% Torley. While I don't doubt there are those who revel in the thousands of look-at-my-hair/outfit/vehicle and look-at-us-hug/kiss/hump photos, I would argue that they are of diminished value simply because of their abundance. In fact, there's something funny about the fact that SLPics' number one photo is the look-at-my-hair shot. So funny that I can't help but jump in and have some fun.

I mean, that's what ratings and comments are for aren't they?

~Ulrika~

Yes I know.

I was just returning him the favor of selectively examining photos to make a point. That post above was supposed to be his. Sorry Komuso.

~Ulrika~

I was loathe to put anonymous commenting into Snapzilla in the first place, but the registration system wasn't ready at the time of launching the site. I have seen them abused way too many times on other sites, and more frequently on Snapzilla of late. Anonymity gives someone impunity, which can lead to some pretty revolting things being said. Now that the registration is in place, it made sense to finally switch to non-anonymous comments.

Sorry that it knocked you off your game, but I actually didn't do it because of you - I had been planning it for a few weeks. I think it strikes the right balance - it doesn't stop you from saying something snide if you want to, you just have to stand behind it with your avatar name.



What would be your suggestions to help improve the quality? It is so completely subjective. What one person enjoys is very different from another, and there is a value in the act of simply sharing. Upcoming features on Snapzilla will allow you to set up ignore lists, and also make custom pages where you can choose who appears, so that should at least help to mitigate some of the volume of pictures you don't like.

As Komuso said, most people are not professional photographers - they are just taking a quick snapshot of what they are doing in SL to share with their friends and the site. Yes, a lot of it can be boring - but then when your own pictures appear for all the world to see, then you appreciate that everyone has that chance.

tsk, tsk...Ulrika...what's that old saying? Never ASSume anything, because....

All those shots are portraits of other people I snapped on the fly while on my virtual travels [I really must add their names when I snap them, I used to but these were all opportunity shots um...Racer Plisskin is the car maker kitty, Number of the Beast ? is the handsome devil, the other two uh/uh2 + fox I snapped in the tinies store...sorry guy's/gals for not crediting you]. I like taking one of these types of shots and then feeding the snapzilla link to the subject...they usually get quite a kick out of it. Sometimes I'm in a hurry and just do some anon street shooting and move on through.

So the context is not me showing of my sexy AV [though I have done a few of these set pieces] but me taking snap portraits of what I see as a "nice portrait shot" in a particular style.
There are many types of portraiture..."slab of beef" is one I happen to be working on atm.

I shoot a lot of styles and experiment with many more...sorry they don't give you a woody, but ya can't please everyone.

Not every shot can be a good one, and if you are not failing you are not learning. Best thing is...snapzilla = instant processing/cataloging + no film processing.

My advice ...let the kids have their snapshot fun...all that energy going to feed your bile can put put to better use, I'm sure.

PS: BUT I REALLY HAVE TO CONTROL MYSELF WHEN I SEE PEOPLE SHOUTING IN THEIR COMMENTS AND GOING HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEEE AARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH..

ah...that feels better

ps: and more to the point...this type of strategy to impart good photo technique to the masses is doomed to fail...as we say in Australia it's "like trying to push $hit up hill with a pitchfork".



truer words never spoken...

I like snapzilla's hodge podge collection of good and boring photos. It's fun to have a platform that the creative and newbies alike can use to feel like part fo the community. There may be lots of pictures your not fond of, but how is that any different than builds in SL? Want your own snapzilla island, use the photo albums...

Check your elitism at the front door, and open your eyes. Snapzilla, big hair photos, photos of tinies, photos of hoochies, photos of noobies, and masterpiece art photographs have all contributed to the best SL recruiting tool to date. I'd really hate to see someone trolling snapzilla and discouraging people from trying it out.

I check snapzilla via RSS, so I see every photo that gets posted and it doesn't bother me to not click on things I don't find interesting.

Toast Bard? She's one of my buddies and one of the most creative, goofiest people I have ever met. Her pictures are as oddbal, zany and fun as she is. I'm surprised you decided to target her Ulrika.

You know, I'm actually going to miss seeing all those smartass comments... I was starting to enjoy those. They were nasty, but funny, in a wierd sort of way. I know it's wrong of me to enjoy them, but I did. I'm horrible, what can I say.



This is way too good... can I use this quote in my sig?



That's hilarious! I've never heard that before. Thanks for that mental image, that's sure to give me a grin for the rest of the day.

I would say that generic posts have value in that they establish a baseline from which the exceptional can be judged and they provide material of which great parodies can be made. Jauani, Barnes, Nylon, and Paualo were already up to it last night, when they discovered I was "Unimpressed Avatar".

I have some fun things up my sleeve too. Keep watching.


Don't take any of this personally, now. I love your site, especially now that I've discovered a new way to have some fun with it. The anti-Torley is on the prowl.

~Ulrika~

I know Komuso, I was just having fun with you. I agree with you and do the same thing myself.

I agree. My goal is to have some fun, create a feared anonymous persona, and support otherwise unseen interesting photos.

~Ulrika~

My artistic eye does not discriminate friends from strangers. As a matter of fact, I rarely look at the names. I just stare at the picture and see if they evoke an emotional response (which is why I don't reply to all the photos). If it does, I make a post either positive or negative. It's quite fun.

~Ulrika~

I am not taking any of it personally - and actually your reign of terror as Unimpressed Avatar was not the problem - there has been an ongoing pattern of harassment of some posters by anonymous comments (not yours). Instead of losing a user who had shared some wonderful pictures, I decided to finally implement the registered comments.

BTW, I love that you have embraced my nickname for you I look forward to your future exploits.

OMGZ WE HAD FUN 2 GUURL! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 UR SIM RAWKZORZ!

U FORGOT MY SIS TOAST THOUGH, SHE B HANGIN WIT US THERE TWO>!1 ^__________^ ROFL CRIESSSSS

HERE IZ TEH GANG HANGIN IN NUTTLEBURG!



OMGZ AND JAU"S SEXAH BIKINI ROFL!



MY SIS NY IN A BIKINI! SEXAH TWO.... LOLZ?

Ulrica really challenges me to make myself a better man. All my friends would say, "man, those pictures are cool!" But I see now that they were just trying to be nice. I feel like a new man! Thanks to Ulraka I've put my boob slider down to 35! I've really changed my ways! Now I don't hug or come in contact with anyone! It feels great to be an independent guy and know that I can count on myself. I'm so glad I'm afraid to have an opinion! Now, instead I can spend my time doing creative, manly things! Thx again gurl!






I'm so lonely.

I wasn't really on a tour so much as riding around at random enjoying my new purchase. My first build in SL was going to be a bike so I could ride in SL too. I love riding in RL so when I saw the bikes, I just had to have them! I know there's been bikes before, but these are nicely animated and aren't vehicles. I just love them.

Anyway, I've been posting a lot recently again for two reasons. #1 is that I'm just as tired as everyone else of the annoying repetative pictures that are appearing more and more. So I figure I can at least try to give people something interesting to look at instead of "OMG! Look at this new hair I got!" every hour on the hour.

The other reason is that I want to be the next Torley. I'm sad cause Torley is gone, I was hoping to learn from them to find out how they became Torley. But I guess if I'm getting mentioned in unsolicited Forum posts...I must be getting close.

So yeah, I love my bike! Anyone want to maybe form a group and do like...races and stuff? I did one yesterday and loved it even though it was laggy. Maybe we could do a Tour de SL. Or just regular weekend rides through our fav sims. And mountain biking...there's tons of mountains too...

That first picture, the group shot, is utterly fabulous... I love it! I'd give that one five stars if it were on Snapzilla.