MEGASHOT

Megashot Explore is our anonymous rating system.  It is yet another way for you to share your images with other members and the public. When you submit an image to Explore, you will have to rate other images already in explore. Your image will be viewed and probably rated by other members who enter Explore after you.

When you play the Explore (submit an image to Explore),  you need to add your image to the right category. For instance, you add a bird image to the Birds Category and a landscape image to the Landscape Category. This way, you will end up rating images in the same category too. This will also make image search and image ranking easier on the Explore Calendar.

Yes, we may add more categories to Explore by popular demand.  We need to make sure, there will be enough images which would justify creation of a new category.

To play the explore, go to your image Photo Page, which is the page where your image is displayed large. On this page, on the top left of your photo, you will see an "Options" Icon. Click on this icon and from the drop down menu, choose "Send to Explore".
You can also Enter Explore from the Explore page. On this page, if you click on "Rate in Explore", you will see a drop down menu. From the drop down menu, choose "Enter Explore". This will take you to your Photo Stream where you can choose a photo to submit to Explore.

Yes, you may submit an image to up to 3 categories, but your image must fit the category definition. For instance, if your image is an insect on a flower, you may submit it to Macro Category, Flowers Category and Nature Category, but obviously not to Portrait Category.  Please be careful and do not submit your image to a category it does not belong to. If you do this repeatedly, you may be banned from playing the Explore.

If you can't find the right category for your image, just add it to the "Others" category.This category has been created just for images like yours.

Each time you add an image to Explore, you should rate at least two other images. The more you rate, the better. Please remember, rate other images with patience and exercise your judgment.  If the images  you rate end up being The Image of the Day, The Image of the week, The Image of the Month, The Image of the Year, or All time Image, your name will be added to the  list of Explore Elites. The more you rate for such images, the higher your name will be on the list.

You can rate an image in five different criteria. These criteria include:
Lighting, Composition, Technical Strength, Artistic Appeal and Interestingness. We will further define these terms, later and help you understand how to better rate for these criteria. 

Most of  those categories have been chosen in a way to reflect your personal opinion, such as lighting, composition, artistic appeal and how interesting the image is. If you have any difficulties with any criteria, please do not rate. An Example would be, rating a Macro shot. If you are not familiar with the high technical demands shooting a High Magnification Macro shot, just avoid rating for that criteria.

We have made Explore rating anonymous to encourage a more fair image rating system. This will hopefully reduce returning favors for higher ratings and retaliating against lower ratings. 

Like mentioned before, Explore rating is anonymous, which means that you will not know who rated your image. Photo Page rating on the other hand, is not anonymous and you will know exactly who rated your image. Photo page rating is allowed, so that we may also please those of us who may believe that rating should not be anonymous.

Yes, on the Explore page, a photo can be explored based on Explore Anonymous ratings,  Total Ratings (combination of photo Page Rating and Anonymous Rating), Total favorites and Image Views. 

Yes, you can. Explore rating and Photo Page ratings are not related and you may rate a photo both in Explore and on Photo page.

When you enter Explore, you will see a page with two sections. On the bottom section, you will see thumbnails of images you can rate. These are images which have been submitted to that Explore category before yours and are presented to you on random. On the top section, you will see four images. These are some of the All Time top rated images in that category. You can only vote for these images. The image which has received the highest number of votes in a week, will be chosen as the Megashot of the week. These images may also help us better rate the Explore images on the bottom.  

Megashot of the Week will be chosen in every category.

MegaShot of the week will have two Photo Pages, regular Photo Page and MegaShot Photo Page. When a photo is chosen as Megashot of the week, all members who have rated and voted for  that image, will receive Mega Mail, congratulating them on their choices, with a link, leading them to MegaShot Photo Page. On this page, they may state the reason they voted or rated for the image, or simply congratulate the image author, or, brag about their choices. MegaShot Photo Page is the only place where you can see who rated and voted for the image in Explore. . 

Just the bragging right :)

Images submitted to Explore, will be Explored on the calendar, according to the anonymous ratings they have received in the category they have been submitted to. Images which are not submitted to Explore, will be explored too. These images will be Explored based on their highest Favorites received, most viewed and most commented and highest Total Ratings.   Total Ratings is the sum of all Photo Page rating and Explore Anonymous Rating.  Since they have not been submitted to any category in Explore, they will be explored under All Categories only.

Our members can be Explored too. On the Explore page, in the "rate in Explore" drop down, You will see Most Active Members and Explore Elites. These are the Explored members. These members are Explored based on their activities and participation in Explore.

Most Active Members are are members who have rated most images in Explore.

Explore Elites are members who have rated for images which have eventually become the image of the Day, Image of the Week, Image of the Month, Image of the Year and All times image.

Explore calendar is what you see when you visit the Explore page. It shows all days of the current month. The default view of the calendar will show the top rated images in all categories for the current month. On each day of the calendar, you will see the top rated image for that day. On the right column, you will see the images of the week, which are the top rated images for each week of the current month. Image of the Month is the highest rated image for the  current month. Image of the Year, is the highest rated image for the current year. All time image, is the top rated image since the site was published.
You can browse the past months of the years by flipping through the pages of the calendar.