And people, members and non-members alike, look around the web for all kinds of information. Some might be searching to see what impatiens seed looks like, someone might be looking to ID a seed pod from a tree that has shed it's leaves, others search for IDs from leaves, someone else might be looking for zinnia seedlings or pests.

Yes, I'm being the devil's advocate, but if anyone brings up a plant page, all the photos are visible on that page. Does it really matter which is first? Is it that crucial, or am I missing something?

Karen

We are talking about scrolling through roses genus listing, not the individual entries, yes, it does matter.
http://garden.org/plants/brows...
Daylilies http://garden.org/plants/brows...

OK, I get that.

Karen

I think there is some confusion for me on the thumbs up feature when used in the pending area. If I see a really great photo of say a leaf, seed, but, thorn, etc, I want the person to know that I really appreciated their photography. Not all photos are created equal. : )
But I sure wouldn't want that photo to represent the plant itself as the thumbnail. I agree with Sue, I want to see a page showing many cultivars with the photo that best represents that plant.
That is what draws me in and when I am search for a plant that is what I want to see.
In Sempervivum I would want to see the plant showing it best attributes, not the flowers, which I do think are wonderful. But that's not what people are looking for when searching for a specific look in purchasing a new sempervivum.

Lynn says it well.
All things in "moderation" but seriously too.

If I`m interested in a plant then I will look at every single photo regardless of what order. As long as they are easily accessible and viewable from thumbnails I would be happy. Thumbs up means people like that picture or perhaps the contributor is their friend they want to show appreciation but I`m not understanding why that should affect the order. I think they should show by date added and All of them should and will be great photos.

I think the photos could have categories like blooms,whole plant and foliage as the database grows. Karen

When photos are added to an entry you have to check mark what type of photo it is to complete the transaction (bloom, leaves, bark, entire plant, etc.).
Maybe what we can do is still use the thumbs up feature, I really like seeing what the public likes most, but as Sue said on rare occasions, at the discretion of the moderator, we would disable a certain photo from being the thumbnail for that plant?
I know I have slowly been going through the semp database and deleting my own photos of poor quality, or a struggling and pitiful semp. That was the only photo representatives of a particular cultivar. Now that we actually have good photos of those plants I can delete my bad one. : )

>> I really appreciated their photography.

Maybe, for plant photos, there would bge value in having two "flavors" of thumbs.

1. "I like this photo."

2. "This is representative or typical of the variety and particularly useful for ID purposes."

Sorry, Dave, I'm not TRYING to complicate your design with every SINGLE suggestion!

that's seems reasonable

I just came from the Sempervivum entry and playing with the Random photo feature. Most of the photos that come up are great, but there are the occasional ones that are not very appealing to have showing in the Random feature. I just had one refresh come up with three different not so appealing photos all at one.
I am thinking it would have more visual appeal if only a moderator chosen photo was showing. The moderator could take into consideration what the viewers in the entries are finding the most appealing. In entries where there are none that would be suitable it just wouldn't be enable to show in the Random photo feature.
Would this tie in with what Rick is saying above?

Withdrawing this comment since I'm really only a fan of anonymous thumbs-up-ing.

Even as I suggested it, I was wondering how badly it would break the existing design where there is just one kind of thumb.

Often it is easy to suggest something that sounds easy to implement ... but is not!

And having "the thumb" mean one thing everywhere else in the site, but mean something different here, would probably be Bad Design. Maybe, instead of a thumb, an eye?

Or something suggesting "typical and classic" ... archetypal ... I'm not sure what that would be.

What was the original intention of the thumbs up Dave?

The thread "Clarify thumbs up?" in Site Talk forum

Thanks, Karen.

Thank you Karen.