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Ink Interview: The Magic Donkey
Daily Ink
Stored in: Interviews
Posted On: October 09 2006
By: Bryan Partington
Photo © jaxxon
The Magic Donkey.
El Burro Mágico.
Recent shenanigans have placed this seclusive superstar of the photosharing revolution in a somewhat unwanted limelight .. people are asking if the donkey has finally lost his bray.
Little is known of the elusive beeste beyond the fact that he is the lynch pin of flickr's interestingness system. However, the are a couple facts that we've managed to 'ass'certain:
1] He looks at each file and nods yeah or neigh.
2] Sometimes he gets indigestion.
Not much to go on at all, so it was to our surprise and delight that the jackass himself met with The Utata Daily ink to set the record straight.
"Interestingness" and the "Explore" page have had a profound impact on the way that people search for and find photos. Some would claim that this is what has propelled flickr to its stratospheric popularity. Obviously, you've played a very significant role in all of this. Do they feed you any more hay?
SNORT!
FlickrPhiles are willing to go to tremendous lengths in their attempts to have photos included in the daily top 500. There are groups devoted to the purpose, and "gaming" Interestingness is something of a sport. The rare successful attempt to manipulate "Explore" is not unheard of. I don't want to call your character into question, but how might we be assured of your impartiality?
hee HAW!
Hundreds of millions of photos have been uploaded into flickr, and more are uploaded each day. Each one has to be assigned some kind of interestingness value. What is the architecture of the interestingness system, and is this system capable of scaling to meet the seemingly endless demand? If you have to nod "yeah or neigh" for each uploaded photo, doesn't your neck get tired?
hee HAW! HEE HAW!
People assign great importance to the interestingness ranking of their photos, despite having little to no idea of how that ranking is calculated. Is interestingness meant to establish a kind of artistic value? If not, do you personally think that some people take it too seriously?
wheeeze!
One final question .. Kitten, baby, sunset or flower?
[ FART ]
Thank you, Magic Donkey.
Otherwise, in Interviews:
- Previously: Ink Interview: George Oates
- Next: Ink Interview: Stefan Magdalinski [MOO.com]
Utata Ink is a daily publication edited by Bryan Partington (striatic). Photos used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and obtained via the flickr API unless otherwise noted. To make a contribution to Ink, please visit Ink Me.
