best earliest latest latest and best captions

These days it’s not fashionable to moan about poor English. But when it comes to caption writing, I think it’s essential to get things right. As Davie says, errors are very distracting and they undermine the cleverness of any wit. Fluent writing is a joy to read and is a better way to showcase your wit.

Christionion

Mks u lk fckn stpd

Christionion

I think it best to be positive or be neutral and refrain from negative voting altogether. Too many use the down votes to boost their standing on the list or get the edge to be the caption with the photo or be vindictive. And so much of what is considered good or bad is a matter of taste which can really be across the map.

Eileen M.

I'm not the most tolerant person on the planet, but I came to the same conclusion as Eileen. I only use 'thumbs up' now. But I agree with your point about keeping the site moving, so I might have to reconsider.

What should I do if I log in and find one really good caption, three OK ones, ten mediocre ones and five terrible ones?

Maybe this is a thought for a way to upgrade the site: we could award captions a score from 0 to 5.

Christionion

In my opinion, negative voting is useful.

Firstly it discourages people from adding ill-thought-out, offensive or spam captions as they will be voted down and become less visible. I would prefer that bad captioneers are actively discouraged from the site, even if it means losing visitors in the short term. Overall quality is my number one priority. Quality breeds quality.

Secondly, negative voting means that new captions enter at the middle position on the "pile" as opposed to the bottom where they might not be so readily seen.

Chris Beach

(admin)

...and I really appreciate the opportunity to contribute.

Chris makes some more good points that I hadn't really considered.

I'm too much of an internet moron to know how much hassle it would be to change the voting system. If we can find a better way to encourage better use of the current system, that may well be a better solution.

[edit: did I just say better that many times?]

Quality is important, so I'll happily do my bit. How about if there's some clear guidance on what criteria you could use to vote 'up', 'down' or abstain? This tips page will help people too, probably.

Christionion

Another thought: if the policing was down to me I'd be less democratic and just delete the crap captions, so credit to Chris for finding a more equitable way. I'm happy to support this and (hesitantly) gave a thumbs down to a couple of captions today.

Christionion