Flickr weirdness

[jamsomito]

I've been on Flickr for a couple of years, with about 1200 photos on there now. I still don't really get a lot of views, comments, faves, or much activity at all really. I just use them as a hosting site to send albums to family or post on forums here and there. It's been fun watching as the general public has taken some interest in my work and followed me or commented on some of my pics. I'd like to see more activity like this, just as a confidence builder, but it certainly wasn't the main goal for my account.

But watching this activity has been interesting. People will "fave" photos that I don't really like, and ones I spend a lot of time on, or ones I just like a lot in general, get no "faves" and little views. To this point, it's been fun because everyone has a different eye for things and I value the feedback. Just recently though it's getting a little creepy.

IMG_1687

I posted this ^ pic for a family member because it's the only one of our whole group on our Alaska trip that anyone took (of the 15 cameras we had with us... crazy). But it's really not that great of a photo. Lighting is bad, people are squinting, there's a giant guard rail and weeds all along the length of it... It's gotten 4 faves in the last couple days, tons of views, and a comment. Nobody ever comments on my stuff. These people have followed me too. It's like... why this photo? It's the only one of a group of people in my album, and one of few in my whole gallery. Just kinda creepy, like they're singling out my extended family or something.

I'm sure it's just some algorithm that's making it pop up in people's feeds or whatever. It's just weird.

Has this happened to anyone else? Thoughts?

 

[ryang]

I think it's crappy human spam/marketing in an attempt to exchange likes/faves/following. The comment on it seems canned. I've had the same thing a few years ago when I was a more active user.

 

[jamsomito]

Why target me then, with a whole 12 followers? Seems like his efforts would be way better suited to someone with 100 or so...

 

[michalrz]

Dr. Hans seems well established and gets a lot of attention.
Your picture is genuinely pretty, well composed and all.
I think once Dr. Hans (and I will refer to Dr. Hans as Dr. Hans because it's hilarious) added that pic to his favs, others simply discovered it there and hence the views and favs.
I've had this happen on deviantart. Once someone popular commented or fav'd a photo, there was always a bunch of after-favs from the popular guy's flock.