Downvoters

or I'm simply getting mad and paranoid? :P

There are regulations: "Refrain from using the voting or favourite tools to boost your profile and/or shots in any way.", and we do have systems to check these things, so no worries ;) If you got specific concerns, you can always send me or MisterZob a shout and we will check.
I just did a quick check on your shots and noticed nothing suspicious. Lowest rating on most is a 3, and usually from different people. You know that a rating from someone who solved the shot counts triple?

Also note that the absolute rating of a shot does not matter, only its rating relative to the other shots do. So comparing a 7.1 shot now to an 8.0 shot 3 years ago is quite pointless.

It happens all the time you go to bed with a shot at 7.60 and you wake up with a 7.00 (the good days ;-)) it's the same for everybody I think It's the game!

ahhhhhh...then I'm getting mad and paranoid ;)

thanks for comforting me guys in that case :)

@lederniermetro - yup but to me it happens sometimes in 3 ratings only so I get pissed because of it hehe

@Asmodai - will give you a shout when my paranoia hits the next time so you can give it a look :)

cheers!

Happens to me, too - not to worry.
Or else, I'm getting mad and paranoid, too... ;-)

Happens for the contest too: a nice first note and two more later It's the nosedive...

Welcome to the paranoid club. Count me in.
What surprises me, even after 9 years on the game, is that rates keep going down, very seldom up. It goes against all mathematics/statistics laws, but is true.
What really makes me paranoiac, which fortunately doesn't often happens, is when yours shot runs for the SotD. You have good rates and you know that you stand a good chance, cause it's 9 in the evening and 35 people have voted already. You get to whatever you have to do. And three hours later, or the next day, with only one or two votes, bad luck, your shot goes down to let's say 7.36, 2 favs. Like a coincidence, the SotD is rated 7.42, 2 favs. Then i really get suspicious. And I guess it happened to quite a few of us.
And all this is not about winning all the time. It's about not understanding and thinking it's simply not fair. It might be someone hating yours shot, and why not, but it might as well be someone who had a bad day and make you pay for it.
I also clearly noticed that uploading b/ w shots is getting lower ratings, on the whole. Keep doing it all the same.
Splendours and mysteries of WTM.
Nice week end everyone!

Considering the ratings my shots get these days (from 2 to 5 regularly) and reading again what Asmodai wrote before, I have a few things to add.

• I have heard again and again that the "absolute" rate isn't important, only the relative rate is. I totally disagree with this. The absolute rate is important ONLY if you're concerned with WINnING! what if you are concerned with PLAYING? What about PLEASURE, FUN? Where is the pleasure when you get a 5, even if you know the others get 4.8? It's absurd. Honestly who would care to see the best movie on imdb if it was rated 7, or cared to buy the dvd. What if the tenth best-rated movie was 5.7? It would just be plain stupid; If it is the best, then it DESERVES a better rating. Would you go and eat in a restaurant rated 5.2 on trip advisor, under the pretext that the others are rated lower. Let me have a sandwich then!
• as to why the vote of the players who have solved the movie counts triple, the logic fails me. The criteria is the AWSOMENESS of the shot, not the movie. It is written nowhere in the rules that the shot must be relevent, symbolic or sum up the movie in any way. It's written AWESOME, not accurate. If accuracy counts, the shot of an asshole for a porn-movie is definitely in line for the SotD! And everybody is able to judge the awesomeness of a shot! Imagine it was a beauty contest and you are told that the vote of the people who know the models counts triple because they can judge better. Would you understand? I keep playing, though but the fun is really spoilt these days. Regular 2 and 3 f... me off!

Have a nice day everyone! It's good to shout sometimes!

@lezard

First, you seem to forget WTM is a quiz. It's not supposed to be a place where people come to just browse movie stills. It's a place where users come to guess movies from snapshots.

Second, you seem to have misunderstood the "Do not rate the movie. Rate the awesomeness of the shot" rule. It just means "don't rate that shot 9 (or 2) because you think the movie is worth 9 (or 2)".
But it's a shot taken from a movie, for a movie quiz. Of course it's supposed to be more than a random frame taken from that movie.
As a matter of fact, it's been made clear, since the early days of WTM, that uploads were expected to be MANY THINGS other than just looking good. It's been reminded here: https://forum.whatthemovie.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=1066 (but you can see from the links in that discussion, that it is nothing new). The "awesomeness" of the shot doesn't just lie within its looks.
That's why the votes of people who solved the movie weigh more than the other votes. Because solvers are able to assess if that shot is interesting, as quiz material.

And FYI, WTM is not a beauty contest. Most definitely not. It was never meant to be.
That analogy is quite revealing. Many uploaders think that way: that they should upload something "beautiful".
Yet this is not what WTM is about.

The other thing that strikes me is that you seem to expect some kind of gratitude from your uploads. While the feeling is quite understandable, you shouldn't count on it.
A great number of votes come from users who don't upload. They don't look at shots as the result of some uploader's 'work', they just see some quiz material. And if they don't like it, they use the voting feature to make it clear.
This can be quite painful for uploaders (I know), but this is exactly what the NS section is for: picking shots for the quiz. Which means some will not make it...
I cannot emphasize this enough: votes in the NS section are about how good the shot is a candidate for the quiz, at the time it's been uploaded. It's not about the inherent value of the shot by itself.

Anyway, the timing of your post is perfect, because I've just had a little time to check something I've been thinking for months (maybe years):
*** WTM has become too difficult a quiz. ***
And IMO, this is actually the main reason why ratings are currently so low.

Here are some numbers: The average active user solves 11.7% of FF shots today, while it was 21.9% back in 2010.
This means the quiz is less fun. And this is most likely why the ratings keep dropping.
Remember most users come on WTM to play a game, not to look at pretty images. And when that game becomes boring, they find a way to tell us: the votes.

My point is: the ratings being so low is a signal. But the answer is not blaming voters. At least it's not that simple.
The quiz is less fun than it was. It's a fact (see the numbers above). And the only thing that can be responsible for that is the shots that are being uploaded.
Back in WTM "golden days", the quiz was more attractive because it did look like a game any movie lover could play. Now it seems designed for movie buffs either specialized in forgotten classics or in eye-candy cinematography (I'm pushing it a little, just to make a point).
WTM used to offer a wider range of different kinds of shots. Now it's down to a few "patterns" that seem to be uploaded over and over.
The only reaction you can get from this is boredom. Hence the low ratings.

Also, please understand I'm not pointing fingers here. I just took a step back and tried to look at the problem as a whole.
I think it's down to every uploader to make things move in the right direction. Every uploader should "do something" about this.
But be aware that it'll be slow, and sometimes unpleasant I'm afraid.
On the bright side, I know that the current uploaders are true WTM lovers. Therefore I expect they are willing to give it a try.

Esthetics and obvious images coming from obvious or very popular movies are generally better rewarded. It's a little bit discouraging to put images which have maybe more interest at the level of the quiz but not much chance to pass in FF like that one in my case https://whatthemovie.com/shot/414307 ( thanks again for rescuing it at the time ;-))
But I fully admit having a weakness for aesthetic images !

A few (final?) remarks:
-You can't expect every new (or old, for that matter) WTM player to visit the discussions and read what is supposed to have been specified.
-I never said, implied it should be a beauty contest, but denying that beauty is part of a shot, any shot is pointless as well. I wouldn't call it beauty but an aesthetic dimension. If you can find ONE film-photographer, cameraman, director who isn't concerned by the aesthetic dimension of the movie, I'd be glad to hear the name.

• In my previous shout, I keep speaking about pleasure, fun, playing. Still, for some reason, you tell me about expected gratitude (and it's not the first time you do). Where do I mention gratitude or the respect/gratitude due to me? (in what name?). Note that it's quite upsetting.
• if the quizz is getting harder it's also quite logical. With tons of shots already uploaded, the obvious, nice, easy ones have benn uploaded. You can't blame the uploaders as well. You can't choose pictures from blockbusters 10 years in a row. As I said, I keep playing, I keep minding, and I expect no reward or gratitude!!! >Nice day everyone!

Hi my friends lezard and lederniermetro, you wrote in capitals the main words : FUN and PLEASURE. And the answer of the only remaining master of the game (yes man, it's a game. At least it was one) is nothing but boring self-justifications, without any questionning about how WTM has been ruled since fun has deserted the place. Since my forced retirement I planned to write a few things on this empty forum but always postponed it. But the title has been fixed a long time ago, and it is, guess what : "FUN". Stay tuned, I'll be back with some surprises...

@lezard

But you did made an analogy with a beauty contest. Those are your own words. And I find them quite revealing.
Anyway, I never denied that beauty could be part of any shot. I said we expect more from shots uploaded on WTM than just looking good. As mentioned in the guidelines, good looking shots are welcome. It's just that we expect some other attributes (instead or in addition) as well.
As for the aesthetic dimension of a movie, once again, I don't deny it. But it would also be wrong to reduce movies to that sole dimension.

Maybe gratitude wasn't the appropriate word. But when you write "Where is the pleasure when you get a 5?", I wonder what you're talking about. From where I'm standing, it does look like you're expecting some kind of recognition/acknowledgement, if not for you (yet you wrote "when you get a 5"), at least for the shot you picked. And again, this is not what the voting feature is about. It's here to get users to choose [(in NS) or give some feedback on (in FF/Archive)] which shots they expect to see in the quiz. That feature's purpose is selecting material for a quiz, not assessing a cinematographer's work.

As for the quiz difficulty, I disagree with you. There was a time when it was almost impossible to take the slot of the latest blockbuster. Now weeks, sometimes even months, pass by until the next shot of some recent Marvel/DC/whatever movie is uploaded.
Why? Most likely because active uploaders are currently not numerous enough. Therefore uploads are limited to a few people's tastes (and movie collections). And it seems that among our faithful uploaders, blockbusters are not popular. That's OK with me. I'm not a big fan of those. But the quiz needs shots from them blockbusters anyway (just like it needs shots from classics or any other categories). And, more than blockbusters, the quiz needs easy shots.
And difficulty is not just about the movie being known or not. Once you picked a movie, whether it be well-known or not, there are still ways to adjust difficulty by picking the shot. Actually, part of the fun in the quiz is solving shots taken from films you haven't seen.
That's why, back in the early days of WTM, it was suggested that uploads from not-known movies should be way easier than those from the famous ones. Because if only a few people saw a movie, and you pick a hard-to-guess shot from it, then it's all the more unlikely to be solved. And a quiz needs shots to be solved. Nobody would play WTM if all shots were all close-ups of door knobs, or all sunsets with no distinctive elements.
It's still possible to upload easier-to-solve shots. The "obvious, nice, easy ones" haven't all been uploaded. New movies come out every week. And there's still much to do with the old ones.

By the way, I don't blame uploaders. I wish we had more of them. What I'm talking about is shots: the ones that currently make the quiz, the ones that users rates lately.
Additionally, I'm suggesting alternatives that active uploaders should consider exploring.

@lederniermetro

You're absolutely right, quiz-like shots are less likely to reach FF without "magic". If it's not recognizable enough, the votes will certainly be quite low. But that's where mods came in. As long as the shot reaches FF, who cares how it got there?

@MisterZob

When I write pleasure, you understand "recognition/acknowledgement"? what can I say about this? We definitely don't use the same vocabulary with the same meaning.
Again, when I like a movie and someone doesn't. I just say "too bad!". I don't feel personnaly concerned, insulted. I seldom say MY shots but I have many times written on IMDB that we merely choose the shots but they don't belong to us. The credit and merit is not ours.
As to easy shots, it all depends. I can rarely solve any shot from the random easy category without the help of my son. I don't mean to upset anybody while uploading or to show off with "look-what-a-really-serious-movie-buff-I-am" shots. I am 59 and I just upload what i watch or rewatch. Period.
And I don't reduce shots to "the sole aesthetic dimension", not anymore than you do.
Have a nice day!

I'm just trying to understand. You are the one linking pleasure with ratings: "Where is the pleasure when you get a 5?", you wrote. I still don't understand what you mean by that.
That's why I'm making wild guesses.
I don't see how any pleasure could be associated with the ratings of the shots.

@MisterZob
YOU keep telling, repeating that we mustn't forget WTM is a quizz, a game. And playing WTM consists in solving, uploading, rating. And then you tell me you don't see how rating can be connected to pleasure? (maybe I oversused the word). What do you think people play for, if not for pleasure?

Aaaah, I can finally see where the misunderstanding comes from! :-)
What I keep telling is: WTM is a quiz, it must be fun to play. But to me, playing is guessing movies from shots. Period. It's not uploading them.
To me, uploading is about contributing . It is definitely less fun (that's why there are way fewer uploaders than solvers) and I wouldn't call uploading a game. Of course you can enjoy it too, somehow. Personally, I find some fun in picking the shot (while actually taking it and uploading it on WTM are both rather boring) and then watching it being solved (or not). I assume it's quite the same for all uploaders.
But when it comes to rating, whether it be casting a vote or watching shots being rated, I honestly don't see what fun/pleasure to expect. Rating doesn't look like a game to me, nor is it enjoyable.
That's why I still don't understand the "Where is the pleasure when you get a 5?" sentence. And since I'd like to understand (that's part of the job: understanding users' wishes), I made assumptions. The sentence clearly implies you expect something from ratings... So I first assumed it may be gratitude: you made it clear it wasn't. Then I assumed it was some sort of recognition (for the shot itself): that's not it either. It's still unclear to me. The rating should only be seen as an assessment of how much the shot is wanted for the quiz, right now. That's why it was implemented in the first place.

I agree that WtM is a guessing-quiz in the first place.
But without us uploaders, it wouldn't survive.
I do have a decent collection of DVDs (>>500, series not included), but even that - being a supporter - won't last more than a few months from now. Thank God for yard-sales! ;-)
For me, uploading and watching the reactions is a great part of the fun. I know, I know - WtM is not an uploading-game, but I just can't help it... ;-)
No, I don't expect any rewards from that - I've received quite a lot like the dagger unexpectedly (and enjoyed that) - but of course I also enjoy high votes for a shot.
I happen to have one in the queue that's roller-coasting like crazy - very high, lower-medium, high again (SotD-high), medium - tastes differ, and that's a good thing!
As long as there's no boredom, WtM will live.

@greyhound
Many thanks for saying it's possible to enjoy high votes, without the least being obsessed by winning. I was beginning to think I was a one-of-a-kind weird player. Have a good day!