Is this interesting?

Question

I just posted a picture of a black hole on Flickr to see how they would rate its degree of "interestingness." I mean, it's a black hole, for crying out loud! As soon as I posted it, Flickr's algorithm decided that it was my 124th most interesting photo. This makes a picture of a black hole more interesting than 9 of my other pictures. Okay, I admit that most of the others are not very interesting, as they were taken for a reunion of sorts and they are just typical snapshots of the event, but a black hole...

The black hole to nowhere is more interesting than the road to nowhere.

Black Hole #124: http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/1012467852/

Road into the woods #133:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samfeinstein/891897649/

How does Flickr decide what it "interesting?"

Where did they come up with an interesting word like "interestingness?"

You gotta love Flickr, though. It's run by real people, it seems.

curious, I'm curious. Do you like Rocky Road?

antoni, I never considered the upsizedness of interestingness. You have piercing insight into the English language.

Ben, did you omit a comma after "shoot?" Bang, bang, woof, woof...

photoguy, I have no interest in being "Flickr's Most Interestingness Photographer." The ratings of #124 and #133 are only among my own photos. I guess I'm actually poking fun at the way they have a computer program to score the "interestingness" of a photograph.

Ann, that's what I mean about Flickr being run by real people with a sense of humor. Either that or we now know what George Bush does when he's not busy with his day job.

Terisu, is the "Word-ness Monster" a cousin of the "Loch Ness Monster?" Also, "Guess I should've been an English teacher, huh?" Not with incomplete sentences. The subject is implied, but this is not up to English teacher standards. Yes, I know that my prior sentence was guilty of the same construction error, but that was supposed to be ironic. Or interesting.

Answer 1

I'm with you... I don't get it.

Personally I liked the Road better.

Rock on!

Answer 2

Interesting is in the eye of the beholder, I guess. I expected to see an actual "black hole", and I was wondering what kind of telescope you used. You fooled me!

Hey, I think it's interesting when my dog lovingly embraces my dictionary. Ahh, sweet words! I should post that pic on my blog for fun.

And speaking of words, "interestingness" is what I'd call a "word -ness monster". The word is "interest", Flickr people! Guess I should've been an English teacher, huh?

Answer 3

According to my dictionary, the Shorter Oxford (which is pretty comprehensive) 'interestingness' is a word, just about.

I don't know how Flickr rates photos either, however looked up this page
http://www.flickr.com/explore/
- to see if it would make anything clearer and shocked to find mention of 'gorgeousity' as well, which isn't a word, there is only 'gorgeousness' in the dictionary.

Don't know if this sheds any new light on the issue?!

Answer 4

Maybe you should have a long discussion with flickr's servers. Set the damn thing straight. I am sure it will listen to your arguments, and proclaim you most "interestingness!!"

Answer 5

ok firstly, your a dentist what are you doing making images of the other end of the body??

2ndly my English is not great and words like interestingness I cant answer you about, is that a real word its not in my dictionary - as a learner of English didnt it used to be just interesting, maybe its added value or something, maybe they upsized


?a

Answer 6

Well, Ansel Adams did take his workshop students out to shoot bark...

Of course, that was to help them learn the zone system, but that's beside the point.