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Figs and Fig leaves…

October 3, 2008 |

The camera makes everyone a tourist in other people’s reality, and eventually in one’s own.
- Susan Sontag

Click on the logo for more Photo Essays.

“Shape is a good part of the fig’s delight.” ~ Jane Grigson

“I’ve never turned over a fig leaf yet that didn’t have a price tag on the other side.” ~ Saul Bellow

Talking of fig leaves, we’d like you to help us understand a strange phenomenon.

The CLICK Host’s Pick Award voting was opened to our readers on October 1. Until now, we’ve had 48 voters.

The Analytics data tells us that from October 1 until the moment of posting this we’ve had 3505 unique visitors. Of them, 1275 visitors have stayed between 5 and 30 minutes (i.e. they actually read this blog). Many of them are regulars.

Why do they not want to click a checkbox (or two) to pick their favourite pictures among this month’s CLICK entries? I mean, they surely “get” that it means a lot more to the winner of CLICK Hosts’ Pick if 1000 people voted as opposed to 50 ??

Look, no one is compelled to vote, comment or participate in any way, shape or form on this site. However, just as it is the prerogative of lurkers to lurk, it is our prerogative to draw our own conclusions. So why is it that people lurk at a site for MONTHS, read every post, follow CLICK each month, and refuse - ABSOLUTELY REFUSE - to participate by simply clicking on a checkbox?

What is their fig leaf? We speculate:

1. They don’t want to spoil their manicures.

2. CLICK is a load of crock. They have more talent in their little finger than all our participants put together.

3. They got a hangover downing a six-pack every time Barbie said “nukular” yesterday.

4. They are afraid that clicking on a checkbox will cause carpal tunnel syndrome.

5. All of them belong to a Lurkology cult that bans them from participating on a site in any form. They just come here and avert their eyes just as they reach the dateline on the post. It’s like some teenagers and porn. They keep getting the DVD, but return it without watching it ‘cos it just doesn’t feel like the right thing to do.

6. They are like the ‘undecided voters’ who don’t know if they want another eight years of military, fiscal and institutional carnage, or a change of guard. They need eight more years to decide. Five days to pick three pictures among ten is not enough.

7. They are from another planet and don’t understand the language or voting instructions. They just come to see the pictures.

8. They don’t give a fig.

This is not meant to be a Sophisticated Insult, just an observation borrowed from Mark Twain.

You must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes you a long time to make it up.

If you would like to de-lurk just this one time and educate us about your interesting behaviour, it would give everyone a deep insight into human psychology. Even if you have a URL from Neptune or Jupiter, if you understand English and can read this, we’d like to know what you’re thinking.

Do the regulars have any insights?

- Bee and Jai

Edited on October 6, 2008: Thank you for your feedback. Follow-UP POST.

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SPEAK YOUR MIND

58 Comments so far

Cham on October 3, 2008 9:03 pm
Will you black list my ip if I vote for the second time? This post is a top soph insult for the silent readers

people can be silent. we have no problem with that. why can’t they click on a checkbox if they come here to enjoy the work of our CLICK participants? that does not mean they need to break their silence. we think their refusal to vote is disrespectful to those who take part in CLICK - the contestants, the judges, and the readers who participate.
Bharti on October 3, 2008 10:02 pm
My guess is because people don’t realize the amount of time and effort that is put in by the organizers (you) and the contestants.
And sad to say, but I think most people don’t value those efforts. In general, people like to take free stuff(your recipes, pics etc.). Why should they give anything back, even if just means a click in this case.
It’s a cynical view but that’s how I see it.
Nags on October 3, 2008 10:08 pm
Being a regular, my guess is ‘disinterest’. I know a lot of people who visit my blog just for the pictures. They like to see it. And most of these guys (non-bloggers mostly) have tons of blogs they subscribe to on reader or from their bookmarks. They ‘touch ‘n’ go’.

But really, I don’t know if I’d take it as a disrespect. Wouldn’t you rather that 50 people vote cuz they respect, value and appreciate the work of participants rather than 1000 random clicks cuz they just happened to pass by?

Just a thought

5 to 30 minutes spent on a site does not indicate ‘disinterest’.
Nags on October 3, 2008 10:14 pm
I just voted so wanted to add on that it takes considerable time to click in, go through each shortlisted picture, pick three, come back to your voting list and match what you like. Maybe this is another reason why you get low number of votes. How about having the picture below the checkbox, or having the checkbox within the gallery?

i timed it. it takes me 2 minutes total. 2 minutes - once a month. - b.
shankari on October 3, 2008 10:21 pm
Rajesh told me that he already voted and I SHOULD not vote:) I was irritated to hear Barbie drone on & on and when she said nukular, I was out of there.

you should vote.
Manisha on October 3, 2008 10:25 pm
If you ask me - well, you did ask me - it’s a little bit of usability issues mixed with a little bit of apprehension. For starters, make that icon clickable. Don’t hide it at the bottom of your post. Put it at the top. You have post summaries on your main page and the icon does not always show within the length of that summary. Yes, yes, I know it is there in the sidebar and it always is and blah blah. I am a regular and honestly, I am blind to your sidebar. I just don’t see it. Esp the right sidebar. Look up eyetrack - it’s not an end-all or be-all but it will give you valuable insights.

People are also generally apprehensive of engaging in surveys and using forms. I know people (and of people) who never comment on my blog but have been reading it for years. They might send me an email but they won’t comment or submit a form.

The absolute bottomline, though, is that the Internet audience is fickle. You have to learn to work around it.

BTW Medha and I voted. She wanted to put in a vote for herself - separate from mine - but we’ll have to go to the library or Panera for that cos I don’t got DSL no more. :-( So instead, she picked one, I picked one and we agreed on the third.

the button was directly clickcable for a while. didn’t make a damn difference. it was at the top of the post for a while. didn’t make a damn difference.
when we changed it to host’s pick, everyone wanted to have a say, so we kept the voting. we simplified the process and brought it down to ten entries, it’s still not good enough.

when we wanted to scrap it, everyone wanted to keep it.
http://jugalbandi.info/2008/02/click-readers-choice-award-keep-it-or-scrap-it/

when we keep it, many of those telling us not to scrap it don’t give a damn. please ask medha to e-mail me her preferences.
Anita on October 3, 2008 11:26 pm
Ok - I’ll tell you my problem. [Warning: I am NOT tech-savvy at all.]
I used to vote earlier - but am not regular now. It seems to take just one click too many to cast your vote. I find myself hopping from one page to the next - also my connection is probably way slower than most of your readers, so it takes a loooong time…Haven’t timed myself but I would say definitely 15 minutes (that seem like half hour) for me.

yes, it is a problem for broadband users. let’s see how we can deal with switching from one page to the next.
Aparna on October 3, 2008 11:27 pm
Here’s my bit for what it’s worth.
I think its probably an attitude of “what’s CLICK got to do with me”?
I would say that everyone who has sent in an entry would be definitely interested in the outcome. So they would be voting. And also the regulars who vote out of appreciation for a good picture, irrespective of whether they sent in anything or not. As for the rest, what’s CLICK beyond some “beautiful pictures”? They don’t know you two, or any of the others who have made it to the top ten personally, other than what we choose on our blogs.
Maybe you could check your stats and see if they bear this out.
By the way, in reply to Nags comment, the way I do it is to open your voting page in one window and the image gallery in another. That way I have both side by side and can vote easily.

there’s a simple solution to that. make the host’s pick exactly that - host’s pick without readers’ participation. it’s just that when we wanted to remove the voting altogether, everyone came out of the woodwork to say “don’t do that”.
Aparna on October 3, 2008 11:30 pm
Me again!
I don’t know if it would increase the votes, but I think it might help those who do vote, if both the “top ten” and the checkbox list were on one page.
Is this possible? (I haven’t a clue about all this, as Anita said)
rajesh on October 4, 2008 12:15 am
My bad, I thought it was one vote per ip/house. Glad Shankari put her choice thro before the poll closed.

I did go back and forth between the slide show and voting page to be sure I did no mistake in voting for who ever I did
Manisha on October 4, 2008 1:27 am
Your two minutes to view and vote is not representative of the time your readers will need. You have seen those pics many times before - which is why they are there in the top 10! It takes me much longer to cast my vote. Seriously, at least 10-15 mins because I look, shortlist, look again, reduce my shortlist etc. Sometimes more. You have my IP, you know how much time I spend on those pages!

In general, you are asking for a fair amount of engagement and commitment. Three votes is two votes too many. We’re all fickle, remember? And our attention span is limited. Bring it down to 1 vote and see if the response improves. In any case, you reserve the right to do as you please so what difference does it make if you get me to vote for 3 pics or 1 pic? Make it easier for me. Make me feel the need to want to do it.

If - like the others said - your checkboxes were right next to the image, the process would be easier. I understand though that it’s asking for too much to do that within your slideshow script. How about putting a thumbnail of the image next to the checkbox? That will help recall a great deal. Also, I often confuse the name of the blog with the title of the pic. And then I have to backtrack to figure out which was which.

I still maintain that the icon included in the post should be clickable and at the top of the post. Your category image and quote is something I would put at the bottom of the post. If you must have the category at the top, consider using text and just the category name.

Aparna’s method works well for those who are savvy enough to use two windows side by side. And, given that most people have large monitors now, you’d think that people would do that. Nope.

There may be 1000+ unique visits but if you were to poll each one of those visitors and ask them if they are a Jugalbandi reader, how may do you think would say yes? Assuming that every one of those unique visitors took the poll and answered honestly, of course. Unique visitors by themselves is not the statistic you want to look at. You want to look at loyalty, too. After all, you said you want your readers to vote, not just any old Joe 6-pack that surfed on in *wink* *wink*

you know what it boils down to? how much time we’re willing to put in for the amount of time our readers are willing to put in. and right now we’re not willing to put in any more time that we are putting in already. checkboxes next to pics may be too much work, but maybe we could number the pics. that way they are easier to remember. i think we’ve made it quite easy. we can’t compel folks to want to do what they don’t want to do. and we’re not willing to put in another half hour to what we already do.
Manisha on October 4, 2008 1:30 am
Oh and crazy egg is a neat tool.
Ganga VegeYum on October 4, 2008 1:38 am
I have just voted. Thanks for the reminder. I will be more vigilant from now on. I guess that I missed the post and tend not to look in the sidebars. I will try not to miss in future. It is a hell of a lot of work that you both go to, arranging CLICK each month. I love looking at the winning photos even if I don’t get time to go through all of the entries. The least that we can do is support you and the artists by voting.
Altoid on October 4, 2008 3:53 am
Voted sirjee! And now for my excuse(s) :

I used to be a regular voter, specially since there’d be ‘Voting begins’ posts. Most times, I forget to come back to vote, even though I read your posts regularly- its a cursory glance. A thousand apologies sirjee!

Heck, I wish there was some script to tell “lurkers”, if they lurked beyond a certain point of time, to have a pop-up that goes- ‘Now would be a good time to make a courtsey comment’- no?

Have a great weekend you two!

i know that you vote so no “excuses” needed.
Victoria on October 4, 2008 5:02 am
Okay, I just voted. I didn;t read the instructions carefully, so at first I chose one image, remembered the name and went back to the voting page. only to see it was listed by person. Grrr. Went back to see who posted it and then went back to the voting page. Then I saw it was three images, so I repeated the process. At first when I clicked on the click link, the citrus contest came up. ????? I went back to the blog page, tried again and saw the link to crusts. I still don’t know what the contest is for October. Maybe I’m just dumb or maybe it’s my dyslexia that makes looking left and right and middle all at once hard to absorb.
And a comment on figs…I’ve never been able to train myself to love fresh figs. It makes me sad, because they are so beautiful. A friend brought me a small basket of figs for my birthday, which I eventually spread out for some happy birds. I hope my friend isn’t reading this. I live in Brooklyn, NY. A couple blocks away, a neighbor has a beautiful mission fig tree growing in her tiny front garden. She said her grandmother brought the tree from Italy many, many years ago. It makes lovely figs every year. I have photos somewhere, on film, so I can’t share them easily.

sorry, victoria, it was leading to citrus as you mentioned. have corrected it now. we like your suggestion of putting the pic name and blog name in front of the checkbox.
Viji on October 4, 2008 5:05 am
Hi B and J

I am one of your silent but VERY regular reader. It does take me about, I would say anywhere between 20 to 30 minutes. Whether I do this from work or from home, I almost always get interrupted and I go back again. But its me and nothing to do with the way things are presented. I will get more organized and I will do a better job in coming months. thanks for all your time and efforts.

Viji

hey, viji, drop a line once in a while to say how you are, will ya?
deepa on October 4, 2008 6:11 am
Hi

Being someone who visits your page everyday and maybe a couple of times a day, here are my 10 cents

1. Second nags suggestion to have the pic and clickbox next to each other

2. people who told you not to scrap voting are probably the 50 who vote

3. incentives are what works in reality. People read the blog, try out the recipes, hopefully comeback to comment how good it was, but the clicks have no incentives

That aside, really love your blog and after your lashing out today, was scared to remain in the woodwork, so just coming out to say how beautifully your recipes have worked:)
Simply...Gluten-free on October 4, 2008 7:39 am
OK! I voted. I had to figure out how to vote. Feeling kinda stupid these days. Just a suggestion since my attention span these days is about a nonosecond it would be easier if you could somehow vote while looking at the picture. I had to keep going back and forth to recall who I wanted to vote for. However, I really love seeing what others are doing with their photography and thanks so much for doing this! It is appreciated
ann cee on October 4, 2008 9:11 am
another silent reader here…I read your blog, but click just does not interest me. If it was a recipe voting event Iwould have probably voted.
I am still not going to vote for the click event, not everything interests evreyone, right?
indosungod on October 4, 2008 9:12 am
Guilty as charged. I don’t always vote. Voting does take time and effort, though I sincerely appreciate the time,effort and commitment it takes for you to run the event. I tend to lose track of the primary purpose and start wandering to the websites of the participants and forget voting altogether. I am not justifying my non-voting just another perspective and for me atleast it is a pasttime rather than something that has to be done.

The checkbox next to the picture would defintely go a long way though. Even with just 10 pictures it took me a good 5 minutes to cast the vote.
anudivya on October 4, 2008 9:45 am
An image beside each of the ten check boxes would be easier on the readers, but probably not for you guys implementing it. It is your call anyway.
purplesque on October 4, 2008 9:50 am
I just wanted to say that figs are the sexiest fruit on the planet and what the heck was God thinking of putting an apple tree in Eden when he could have done figs.

*Runs away to vote, super-fast-like*

god is male? :P
Nikita on October 4, 2008 10:26 am
Hello,
I read your blog regularly but I don’t comment most of the time because I don’t want to repeat what 50 other people said before me. Like you mentioned in one of your previous post. That’s not the point. The point is click voting. Well, I have voted quite regularly. This time I didnt vote and this is the reason: I spent a lot of time atleast 15-20 mins looking at all the entries on the link called ‘list of complete entries’ or something and decided on the best pic which I liked, went back to the voting list, and well, it is not there in the voting list. so I have to go back again and search for the pics which are there in the voting list out of those lot of entries. And that was taking just too much time and then I got interrupted and left the comp and then didnt want to go through everything again. So there, maybe I am too lazy. So what I can conclude from this is that if my selected entry was there in the list, I would have voted. So, maybe all the entries should be open for reader’s voting. The idea is already been discussed in the comments section regarding keeping an image snapshot next to checkbox so let me not get there again.
rajesh on October 4, 2008 10:36 am
Great pictures of the figs. I just got my book on exposure by Brian Peterson, and this book makes me see all pictures with a totally different frame of mind.
Soma on October 4, 2008 11:03 am
I “lurk” here quite often, reading(all the past and now) and enjoying every bit of it. And like some people I also thought its one vote per household. My sis came over and said she was going to do it…
Also those who are not too familair with Click rules (as like me being a new one), it is kind of difficult going back and forth and remembering names to pictures and picks. would be easier if the links were clickable having the pics open in another page. It might be too much work for you.
Again, if anyone really WANTS to vote, i suppose it IS worth taking all the trouble.
Can i vote if mine is one of the picks? or let my hubby do it?

yes, you can vote for your own pic too.
Arundathi on October 4, 2008 11:46 am
i’ve voted. sorry couldn’t participate. waiting for the next theme. btw, it is difficult when you have broadband/dial-up to look at even one photo, leave alone 10. but it’s so worth it!
Manasi on October 4, 2008 12:00 pm
as a CLICK voter May i suggest.. is it possible to have maybe a chk box at the bottom of the pic itself? so after reviewing all the entries we can vote directly?
Ok, so I am totally hopeless at understanding how it all works, but have gr8 faith that if such a thing can be done, U guys will do it!
dee on October 4, 2008 12:38 pm
Hi , I am a silent regular reader but i dont have any intention to become an actively participating one :). So no voting from my side as i dont see any incentive(as mentioned by some) to do so. Its a good read but no particiapation from my side.
Dee
maryann on October 4, 2008 1:39 pm
Sorry I fell behind in my reading! There’s my vote. Now..the fig photos…love ‘em!
sunita on October 4, 2008 2:11 pm
I know, it’s a bit of juggling to and forth, but I do it:-)
sunita on October 4, 2008 2:12 pm
‘back and forth’ :-(
Mary-Anne on October 4, 2008 2:40 pm
I don’t vote because I come here to read, not to participate.
Anonymous on October 4, 2008 3:40 pm
Jai and Bee,
I am a regular reader and blogger. I follow CLICK and participate sometimes. I am grateful at least some readers realize the value of participation and interaction. A blog is not a one-way interaction and if everyone chose to read and not to particpate, it would be a dreary, boring place.

I am shocked to hear the word ‘incentives’ used here so loosely.

When readers talk of incentives, do they wonder what incentives bloggers have to host events regularly or to even post regularly? The answer is ‘reader interaction’, at least on most sites I visit.

Keep up the great job you are doing.

A regular reader and well-wisher who wishes to remain anonymous.
Anamika on October 4, 2008 4:10 pm
I love your blog as far as voting is concerned you can put me in the no.8 category of your speculations
Manisha on October 4, 2008 4:45 pm
I don’t know about male / female but God is most likely a non-vegetarian.

no, god is BMW. or vice versa.
Vidya on October 4, 2008 5:32 pm
Hi,

I have been a regular reader of your blog and thoroughly enjoy it. I comment only if I have something worthwhile to say and not repeat the same thing 20 others before me have said. As for Click, honestly I would just glance over and had not thought about voting at all. Since you mentioned, I did vote this time :).

A couple of suggestions (just suggestions !)

1)If the vote is open to all entries, perhaps a check box next to the photo would be useful.
2) Hopefully a simpler thing would be to have the name of the photograph next to the blog name in the voting list.
purplesque on October 4, 2008 5:48 pm
If God were female, there would’ve been figs in Eden, all the regulars would be voting for CLICK hosts’ pic and Palin would have been struck by lightning for shooting all those poor animals.

*Sniff*

**snort**
Soma on October 4, 2008 6:05 pm
I did not mean if I could vote for my own pic. That kind of makes me feel weird.. I was not sure if my entry was one of the 10 selected, would it be ethical for me to vote. It would be as if for my own interest:-( I will now:-). Thanks.

you can. btw, people vote for their own pics all the time.
Khaoo on October 4, 2008 8:00 pm
OK - so I like to read what you write, hence the return visits to the blog. But after some initial period of curiosity about the quality of food blogger photos, I lost interest in CLICK. Perfectly staged, lightbox lit photos are not of equal interest to all readers. I’m far more interested in good writing about food and gardening.

An aside on the design of the blog: I liked the simple clean layout of the early days; it would be so nice to have a clean center pane on each page, without a lot of geegaws, font changes and buttons.
[...no name...] on October 4, 2008 9:10 pm
Soooooo! What’s the theme for October? Pumpkins? Hallowe’en? What? What?
nags on October 4, 2008 10:25 pm
I am back. It took me about 10-15 mins to read all the comments. And I could be a reader who is not interested in food pics or have anything to say about it.

Just like we cannot control (or wish to control) the behaviour of visitors, I don’t think its fair to expect them to behave in a particular way when they are here. If that’s the case, then maybe you should try opening out your site to a select few who you are positive will vote.

Also, irrespective of what people say about including readers’ votes or otherwise, its finally your call, right? Just like you so strongly say that spending another 30 mins on coding is not happening, why don’t you just close readers’ votes and pick your favourite?

At the end of the day, this should be something you do for fun, not bound by expectations and right and wrong when, like Manisha pointed out, we have trillions of people visiting the Internet and not one same as the other.

Do what you think is worth the effort and what you want. Chuck the rest and chill with a drink. You have a beautiful garden

PS: It took me about 10 minutes to vote this time.
nags on October 4, 2008 10:31 pm
The second paragraph doesn’t make sense cuz its supposed to read “just like we cannot cater to each reader’s expectations, I don’t think its fair to expect each visitor to behave (vote or comment in this case) in a particular way when they are here..”

Just realised i cannot delete my comments in here :O whats said is said!! whoah!
Chithrupa Ramesh on October 5, 2008 11:12 am
Maybe it’s not such a smart idea to ask 1000+ silent readers to speak up at once! Anyhow, I read with relish every article here that doesn’t have much to do with Click!
Maya on October 5, 2008 12:19 pm
I am self-professed non-commenter. I am not a lurker just because I do not leave comments or do not vote. I thought you guys blog because you like to blog. Why does it matter whether someone leaves a comment/votes or not. btw, when the blog resonates with me I do leave comments.
What annoys me is that my commenting is one-sided. I write something and then I expect someone to respond to it. This is an unreasonable expectation since you have thousands of brilliant comments too. So, I prefer to enjoy and move on to my other subscribtions. You don’t think this is the only blog I lurk around now, did you? ;). I also think ‘Nags’ has put it much better than I have.

No offense intended.
Regards,
Just a regular reader.
Kay on October 5, 2008 5:30 pm
Alright, maybe I’m the really dumb one here. 1. I had no idea that CLICK was voted. 2. I never, not once noticed any Vote for click buttons.

Sorry
nags on October 5, 2008 7:20 pm
I notice there is no response to my comments. This could be another reason why people don’t do something on the Internet, like voting, filling out forms, etc. Its mostly one-sided. And that’s how its different from visiting someone’s home. You would say atleast something to somebody standing in your hall right, let alone someone who stood there and spoke to you.

I hope I am not being offensive in your space. Its just that I love arguments when they are this healthy!

Also, I think your point was that people asked for voting and then don’t seem to. How many people voted for voting? Do you think they mostly do vote ands its the lurkers who don’t? Are you comparing the number of votes against visitors or against the people who said ‘we want to vote?’

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Figs and Fig leaves…

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