I agree Zuzu, I am not a fan of the thumbs up in the pending queue because many end up with multiple clicks before being approved and then it pops into a top position and now when you scroll through the genus of Rosa for instance, there are some that have photos of foliage as the main image.
I prefer someone seeing the newest image only having the option of clicking on it to bring them to the entry where they can see the entire selection of photos.

The thumbs-up in the random plant box could be the problem too. Maybe all of the earlier photos could also be included in the random plant system. It seems to show only the new ones. Of course, if people always had to go to the main entry page to give a thumbs-up, as Sue suggested, it could solve the problem completely.

This is an important thing to consider, so I split this off from the thread about cultivar names so we can explore this issue more indepth.

zuzu said:if people always had to go to the main entry page to give a thumbs-up, as Sue suggested, it could solve the problem completely.

and I have no problem doing that.

A lot of the photos I see in the random image (and give a thumbs up to) I'd never, ever see if not for that random image feature. A lot of good photos wouldn't get their deserved thumbs up if we couldn't do it there.

But this wouldn't get rid of the random plant feature, Lee Ann. It would just take people to the main entry, where they might see other images deserving a thumbs-up. As it is now, I think there are thousands of images that will never come up as a random plant.

Dave, would it be easier to just include all images in the random plant feature? It now seems to bring up only the new ones.

zuzu said:Dave, would it be easier to just include all images in the random plant feature? It now seems to bring up only the new ones.

We can certainly do that, but I agree that the thumbs-up should be removed from teh Random(Plant) feature regardless. I completely agree that the viewer should be seeing the images all in context before they start giving thumbs.

I don't think it should be a competition, rather whether one appreciates the particular image.
I think the thumbs up in the Random plant feature is a great feature, especially if you rotate through all the plants in the DB. IMHO

I feel that having the thumbsup feature removed from the random images will reduce the number of thumbsups given. I agree that it would be great to have the random plants chosen from the entire DB, not just the newest images.

I do not see the thumbs up as a competition but I do see the problem that the image with the most thumbs is the thumbnail representative for that plant and the image that gets the most exposure is very likely to get the most thumbs up.

I have a tendency to lean toward letting the moderators choose the best representative photo but that also could be a ton of extra work, because photos being added every day...for years and years (hopefully )

Maybe a moderator override feature, used sparingly for some cases. Like I really want to see seeds I don't think they are the best representative thumbnail of a plant.

Just an opinion

Exactly Cindi. I see a lot of thumbs up being given to pending images and I think that's where most of them occur because it's often several thumbs up in the order of the pending images. Like I mentioned above, there were several thumbs up given for rose foliage and perhaps rose hip images while they were in the pending queue. As originally intended, those thumbs up are given for those that agree the image is correct, or probably many gave them as they appreciated the image. That's all well and good but what happens is as Cindi said, now those images took the front row spot and are now representative for the plant in the thumbnail genus listing and even moderators often can't change it with an extra thumbs up for another image. We worked very hard not to be partial on Cubits, I personally try to leave myself out of the equation unless all the images were mine in an entry, then I picked my favorite, but we do miss the option to change the the order of the images. That would be hard though now with all the new images being added.
Maybe as Cindi suggested, a sparing use of a moderator override might be good just to select that one representative image, but not all genus listing have moderators.

Why is the order images appear dependent on the number of thumbs up? I would imagine the moderators should be the ones to choose the image that is most representative of the plant. Makes sense to me, anyways, IMHO.

Most plants in the database don't have moderators. It's the members that visit the database that work together to decide which ones are the best, and those are then the ones that appear on top.

It's impossible for one person, or even a small group of people, to determine the proper image order on over 200,000 plants.

It's the members that visit the database that work together to decide which ones are the best, and those are then the ones that appear on top.

Then if a photo of leaves is what the members decide, it should be left that way.

But they're probably only deciding that because they haven't seen the rest of the photos, Lee Anne.

You're probably right...I'm just ornery and argumentative today for some reason...sorry

That's cute, Lee Anne.

I personally think there should always be photos of the blooms or the entire plant at the top, but I see the database as a shopping aid in addition to reference material. Most people prefer roses of a certain color or bloom shape. If someone were just browsing through the rose database and looking only at the thumbnails in search of orange roses to buy, would photos of leaves tell that person anything about the color and shape of the blooms?

true, but a lot of plants are desired for their leaves only. And, if a person were shopping for only orange roses...they'd have a nifty little super search function to use courtesy of Dave. (can't wait for that BTW)

When it comes to plants that we buy for their blooms alone, then yes, blooms should be at the top.

I was talking only about roses. I definitely wouldn't want Coleus blooms, for instance, to be at the top instead of the leaves.