To Play Or Not To Play?

“To play or not to play?” Apologies to Hamlet and Shakespeare I might also have quoted “To share or not to share?”, as I feel a little twinge of vulnerability in sharing this. Obviously the answer was “To share” since here it is I was immediately excited to create, join and support when BP introduced the Daily Challenge. I love the challenges for a few reasons. Firstly, when I am lacking inspiration for creating then a challenge solves that problem. Then there is the fun of creating something fresh, something I might otherwise never had done. This is especially the case when creating for various Build-A-Prompt challenges on NightCafe. Finally, I love to see what other people have come up with. Those are my intrinsic motivators. Of course there are the extrinsic motivators – the possibility of a place and the credit prize. And the possibility of a 'happy hormones' - dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphine – rush triggered by a good placing (I wrote about this in my first blog post). The theme for this maiden challenge was ‘Golden Hour Companions’. The first idea that popped into my head was sunset, a beach, a couple taking a walk with their dog. Totally on theme. But not really inspiring. Not the kind of image I’d like to submit to a challenge (I did subsequently create such an image but that’s a subject for another blog). I mulled over this a little more and to cut a long story short, came to the idea of leaning into companionship and deepening it to symbiosis. And how might the golden hour become a part of the symbiotic relationship, rather than just time and lighting? Research turned up a desert moth and flower. I explored a painted style and after a few iterations was satisfied. Actually I was more than satisfied – I thought the image was a bit special. I submitted, voted, and waited with a sense of anticipation. Based on the image and the entries I’d seen voting I thought I had a fair chance of placing well, even Top 3. When the results were announced mine finished 4th – close but no cigar, so near yet so far. I know we are all prone to personal bias and likely to see our own images through rose-coloured glasses, but looking at the first three, I couldn’t help but think mine could so easily have finished in the Top 3. I must add and stress that I am not suggesting that the placing images were poor in any way. The images were good quality, on theme. I sincerely congratulated the winners. But all those unhappy feelings came flooding back in that moment; the feelings that I had experienced participating in NightCafe challenges. Not helped by my subjective opinions of my image. I say “subjective” intentionally. A challenge with challenges is the voting, whether the mechanism is a score out of 5, a ranking, or the novel idea implemented by BP of using an ELO-based pairings mechanism, that lacks well-defined criteria and so is inherently subjective. My approach to voting is based on three criteria. First, and most heavily weighted, is originality/creativity. Then general image quality. Finally adherence to theme. The last is more “ticket to the game”, as almost without exception people are on theme, even if sometimes less strongly so. I try not to let my personal taste play a major part. Of course this is impossible to ignore, likely has some influence albeit subconsciously. As for image quality - these days image quality is generally good to excellent. The capability of the AI models used, the additional tools to aid in prompt-writing, and the options to enhance post-generation have removed near to all obstacles to producing a quality image. So much so that some people bemoan that fact, preferring the days when writing the prompt took some significant finesse to get a quality image. That said, I can appreciate how people who spent decades learning how to actually paint and draw or use digital image creation tools to produce images by hand, feel about GAI that totally devalues those technical skills. But I should not digress. The unhappy feelings passed. And I entered the next few challenges. I was already less inclined to invest significant time in the developing of the idea and iterating the prompt until I had an image to submit which I thought other people would consider deserving if it placed. The images were all OK but none were special. They got what they deserved. I would have to look back to confirm how they did. Actually I think one may have even earned the dubious distinction of being last. Then came the “Dreamy Lady Portrait” challenge. For no obvious reason, I invested time in exploring ideas and styles, first testing some options. Then selecting the best style and subject to fit the theme, bringing together dreaminess and a lady. Then a number of iterations to refine the style. Again I felt there was something about the image that made it stand out relative to other images I have created. Again I felt that I just might be in with a shout. Perhaps not Top 3 but at least Top 10. 18/34 I am not sure which result was more disappointing – the 4th or the 18th – both left me feeling unhappy. I can say I was not alone in my reactions. There was much chat in the Discord Server. Some people have made comments on other peoples’ images expressing surprise at a low place. People made comments on their own posted entries after the fact, asking for reasons why they’d fared so poorly. By this stage the matching algorithm had improved. Far less duplicates. The timing had been adjusted to prevent any advantage gained by when an image was submitted. But still there were people expressing their personal frustrations. And my experience tells me for every person being vocal there are likely more who don’t express their feelings. There is far less chat about this now, but still occasionally I see such a comment. @King perhaps it would be helpful to post a blog in which you explain exactly how the matching algorithm and voting works. I know it is based on chess ELO. I play Daily Chess on chess.com so am familiar with the ups and downs of my rating. My brother is a strong player (best rating was just below 2000 when he played over-the-board swiss-style tournaments), so I understand chess ratings well. I know it can’t be replicated fully here. I suspect it could better be described as a clustered sampling algorithm. And with the improvements you have made I imagine that there are sufficient pairings to achieve a statistically sound result. Having voted in a couple of challenges that have just finished I did notice far less repeated images in my pairings, which is good. That said, when I vote may still matter as I assume the pairing algorithm is updating ratings in real time. So if I vote late then unlikely that picking an image that has bubbled down based on completed voting is unlikely to have significant impact on its final placing? Similar not picking one with a high rating is unlikly to make it tumble down the rankings. Perhaps at this point some may think I am whining, suffering a severe case of “sour grapes”. Perhaps I am overly sensitive to how people feel, based on their reactions. Maybe, as some say, they are just having a little grumble and I should not worry. But I do. When somebody expresses a thought that maybe they “don’t belong”, triggered by a challenge result, I feel right to be concerned, at least caring. In this modern world of social media, the attention economy, I think what I am talking about here, is just one specific case and there are more such scenarios where people do experience emotional problems as a result of interactions in social media. I have come to consider the result of the challenge a matter of luck. It reflects who happens to see your image, when people see it, their own personal taste. Trying to think rationally about this is futile. Many people replied to those people commenting and questioning in this vein. For me, it becomes a conflict of IQ vs EQ. In my rational head I understand this. I know that the placing of my image is at best loosely correlated to the quality of the image, both in its own right and relative to others. The lack of objective criteria makes this inevitable. When I view the top 10 results of challenges after seeing somebody express their unhappiness I can usually share feedback that based on what I see their image was as deserving as top 10 or top 3 as those that achieved those places – sometimes more so in my opinion. But I still lack strong enough EQ to ensure that I do not feel that sense of unhappiness. About this time I was exposed to the idea of the QT – Quote Tweet. I believe it was first @Sealine then @dirty_biker @EternaSky @justrob who showed me the way. Since then I've enjoyed the creations and QTs of many others. For those who’ve not picked up on this in BP, somebody posts an image with a QT theme and tags the people who’ve participated before and asked to be tagged. Others may post their own image for the QT, also tagging people. People can ask not to be tagged in future. I like this. It has all the same intrinsic motivators as the challenge does: inspiration, sharing, connection. But there is no competition, no judgement, no credit rewards. So to circle back, if you are still with me . . . “To play or not to play?” By now you have probably figured out the answer for me is . . . “Not to play”. I don’t enjoy gambling, am not one who puts money into a slot machine in the hope of a payday. So it is better for me to opt out of the challenges, given that I see the results as little different to pulling that handle and am prone to feeling disappointed and unhappy when I (for what that is worth) feel my image deserved a higher placing. I spend time (probably more than I should) creating, sharing, and interacting. I do it for fun and relaxation, for the interaction with people I meet here. As such, there is nothing in it for me to enter the challenges. I can still vote if I want to view images submitted to a challenge. The credit reward for participation is less than the cost of creating an image which I think might place well. And I have enough opportunities at work to continue to develop my EQ. I don't need the opportunities to develop that mastery here on BP. I shall continue to participate in the QTs, interact with fellow creators here, and wish all of you who enter the challenges the best of luck. If you stuck to it and read/scanned this far - thank you. If in the reading you have had thoughts, I hope you'll share them. I'd appreciate all thoughts about the topic, whether you agree with me or see things quite differently.