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Best eBird Photos!


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So I have been scrolling through my eBird photos, and I noticed that a lot of photos that I think are really good are rated pretty low. I asked a friend about it and they called it 'review bombing'. I then noticed it with other photos and not just my own, which leads me to some questions and a topic idea. The question: why do people 'review bomb'? Is it simply a difference of standards? Are they deliberately dropping the ratings to boost their own photos? The topic: if you have or see a photo with a rating that is lower than you think it should be, feel free to leave it here. This doesn't have to mean they're five-star photos. It just means they are rated lower than they 'deserve'. I personally won't judge if you post your own photos. Heck, I'll probably post some of my own photos. Perhaps some of the good people here could leave some more honest reviews. I'll start off.

Blue-throated Mountain-gem

Black-necked Stilt

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2 minutes ago, IKLland said:

One of mine:WEGU

sometimes people think that 1 star is the best, which is very annoying to me. But I cannot explain why a three star was given to this photo of mine......your acorn woodpecker now shows a three star average because I gave it a 4 star. 

Those photos aren't mine. I just found them and felt they weren't rated well, so I put them there.

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7 minutes ago, IKLland said:

One of mine:WEGU

In my opinion, this photo does not deserve 4 stars, sorry. Everything to the right of the eye is overexposed with no chance of recovering any detail in the hotspots. 2 stars is the recommended rating for poorly exposed photos so don't be disappointed with a 3 star rating. ?

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 I only have two or three that I think should be rated higher, but I have several that are rated way to high.

 It was at five!:classic_blink: I rated it at two. https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/212025721#_ga=2.222107996.573571894.1615994683-1338034976.1615994683

Four?!? https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/170563611#_ga=2.222107996.573571894.1615994683-1338034976.1615994683

Rated at five for some reason, a three for me. https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/215933251#_ga=2.124989646.573571894.1615994683-1338034976.1615994683

This one is so bad I don't even know why I have it one there. Five stars?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/165779781#_ga=2.222107996.573571894.1615994683-1338034976.1615994683

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Personally, I don't see the need to rate photos lower if they've been rated higher than they should by only a few people.  If one persons 3 star photo has two 5 star ratings I'll usually just ignore it. Unless it is the top photo for an illustrated checklist or if there is better photos of that species at that location, and I guess if it is really undeserving.  

I think that most photos on ebird get rated higher than they should or don't get rated at all compared to being rated poorly on purpose. I have quite a few poor photos rated higher than they should, but only a handful of good photos rated badly. There's really only three of my photos that someone rated 2 stars that I thought were 4-5 that really annoy me, but in the end it does not matter. Can always get better photos! Not exactly sure why people do it, but its quite obvious to me that 1-2 stars means a bad photo. Usually if I see a photo that's 1-2 stars I'll just leave it unrated, unless it is absolutely horrible. 

If you want to take a look at some rating inflation, check out the Salmon Arm Bay (General) hotspot. Do not know what is going on there, but one guy seems to upload every photo he takes and they more or less get rated 4-5 stars (they definitely aren't).

But yeah, I think the major and more frequent problem with ebird ratings is a lot of the time really good photos/audio go unrated. Not that it matters too much again, but seems unfair that some birders can be completely ignored. 

Here's some excellent photos that I came across that have zero ratings: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/312558791 and https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/322738121

 

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On 4/5/2021 at 11:25 AM, Connor Cochrane said:

How I understood this topic was to post links to others photos you think are rated lower then they should be. I don't think people should be posting you own photos here, it just seems like your begging for your photos to be rated higher.

I totally understand your complaint. Referring back to my original post, I said that, "if you have or see a photo with a rating that is lower than you think it should be, feel free to leave it here. This doesn't have to mean they're five-star photos. It just means they are rated lower than they 'deserve'. I personally won't judge if you post your own photos." 

I didn't make it just for people to post other's photos. If someone has one of their own photos that they feel is rated too low, they are able to post it here. It doesn't come down to what I or someone else may think of it, and I would personally prefer if we didn't discuss what we think about people who do decide to do that here. This is just for people to post photos, whether it be their own or someone else's, with the hopes of having a more accurate review aside from those who bomb the review for whatever reason. If you don't like it when people put their own photos, that's fine. I hear you on that. It just isn't against the rules, and I feel that it is unfair to pass judgement on those who decide to do post their own photos.

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31 minutes ago, Trevor L. said:

Not trying to start an argument here, but I'm curious what criteria you're 'grading' based on. To me, that could be a three or four.

Sharpness and lighting alone would get a 4 or even a 5 from me, but composition isn’t so great.

Edited by Seanbirds
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  • Kevin changed the title to Best eBird Photos!

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