Good Job My Ass

The thing I'm hating about Flickr right now are the Daily Challenge Groups. I've tried a few of them since I joined the service 6 years ago, but have never been able to keep it up. I'll admit that I find it difficult to make myself produce a photo everyday that I am proud enough of to want to show other people, but that's not the reason why I've dropped out time and again.

Truth be told, it's the sheer pointlessness of these groups. More specifically, it's the page after page of "Great shot!", "Love the DoF!", and "Brilliant!" comments on what are (I'm sorry to break it to you) mundane photos, 90% of the time. It quickly becomes clear that A) These people have  very low standards, or B) This is just one big Flickr Circle Jerk designed to get as many "good" comments as possible for everybody involved. ("I'll say something nice about your run-of-the-mill, last-ditch, end-of-the-day effort, if you'll do the same for mine.")

I'm pretty sure it's the latter.

I know that I have a long way to go before I'll be truly happy with the photos I'm producing. As such, I want inspiration. I want motivation. And, most importantly, I want real feedback. I'm only going to get better if I'm forced to try new things and forced to stop doing "wrong things".

Sadly, I no longer think Flickr can give me this.