Open Letter to 500PX by The Narratographer

Open Letter to 500PX by The Narratographer

Please feel free to read the letter I have just sent to 500px, regarding their pulse system and what we discussed yesterday. Dear Sir/Madam, I am writing this in response to both the feedback I receive from other members and also my own experiences with 500px as a place to share images. Firstly, I am not a new member of this site, I am a veteran of some three years, and I have no vested interest in these changes. However, I do feel that the pulse system is designed in such a way that it benefits the few over everybody else. Now to my mind, 500px is the best online photography sharing platform available and I enjoy sharing my work on there. But I have over 25,000 followers, most of who are struggling to get any form of exposure on your site. This is what I feel needs to be addressed. Firstly, my own experiences with 500px. When I first started, my work was pretty much invisible. Sure, I may upload a good photo and get the modicum of exposure that both the Fresh and the Upcoming pages provide. But this exposure, as I am sure you are aware, is incredibly short lived. But what I did notice was that once my following grew, possibly once it reached around 5,000, that my images made it to the Popular page, regardless of their quality. Now, many of my followers struggle to gain this number of followers because their images cannot get the exposure they deserve. So how can they ever make it to the popular page? They can’t get the followers required to attain the number of likes to get to Popular and without getting to Popular, they will never get those followers. The Popular page is always furnished with the same images from the same photographers – I should know, I am one of them. But surely this is not the kind of site you are trying to promote. We need variety in the images that dominate the site and there is such an exposure disparity between my images and some very similar ones, that it cannot be good for customer retention. For example, there are some images that are incredibly similar to mine in terms of quality and subject matter. Yet they sit on 500px with 200 views and 20 likes. Mine of the other hand have 50,000 views and 3000 likes. Surely my images aren’t that much better than these other ones, if at all? In fact, I know they are not. It is great that some photographers, myself included, have benefited from the exposure that 500px provides, but surely it should be distributed to ALL photographers, and not just the ones who are lucky enough to have thousands of followers? It is not that the popular photographers have exposure that is unfair, it is the lack of exposure for everyone else which is unfair. Maybe you can tweak your pulse ratings so that all photographers, especially those starting out, get time on the popular board? Maybe every photographer who joins gets their first image on Popular so that they can get the followers their work deserves. Instead of using algorithmic methods for determining what is good, let the photographers decide. Surely that will lead to a fairer and more balanced 500px? For me, a site where great images are rewarded over constant regurgitation of the same stuff (I am guilty of this) is the way forward. Instead of Fresh and Upcoming (which I doubt anyone really looks at), maybe randomise them somewhat. Lets have a way that a new photographer, with 50 followers and a handful of amazing images can get the same level of reward as I do. All I can see from the way it is, is that my profile will continue to grow (which I am grateful for), yet so many other photographers will stagnate and eventually delete their accounts due to lack of reason to stay. 500px is, in my eyes, the leading site for photographers to share their work. Lets make it a more fair and rewarding for everyone, not just the elite few. Best regards, Dan (The Narratographer)

The Narratographer: Photos