I signed up to be a supporter too and haven't heard anything... hmm... wonder why not?

Also, I hit recently uploaded photos and click on the first one, when I try to advance it seems like I get "stuck" in one particular album. Starts with numerous categories of cakes then I start seeing only one kind - say birthday.... That's just something I noticed. Anybody else?

I leave comments as frequently as possible. I guess I missed the one word comment post, I type what I am thinking at the time.

Thanks, and anybody else having problems with either being a supporter (approval) or the order of the recent photos?

Many Thanks

You may not be the norm, but I agree with you. I'm not hunting for comments and compliments, and I would prefer no comments in lieu of patronizing or space-filler comments (although I DO appreciate the ones that are posted!). The fact that you looked ..... that the cake caught your eye to the degree that you wanted to look at it .... is good for me.

In my background of managing a sales staff, I learned long ago that just telling someone "you did great!" is not really constructive. I learned to tell them "You did great selling Customer A that new item when you told them blah blah blah..." This is SPECIFIC feedback that points out their great skill. It's much more motivating and constructive when they KNOW what it is they did that was great in lieu of "that was great". As one person said to their manager once, "Tell me what I did that was great so I can keep doing it!"

When I leave comments on cakes that I really like, I like to add a comment on WHY I really like it. What SPECIFICALLY made it catch my eye, what made it stand out to me, what made it above and beyond the others? I would think one would want to know that as opposed to
just "great".[/quote]



i totally agree. I post my photos for encouragement and constructive criticism. great, nice job etc really does nothing for me. It is discouraging when I post as cake i think I did a good job on and only get nice job or something like that as a comment. At the same time, I have to take in to consideration how many pics are posted each day and it would be hard to comment on all. I too look at the number of views. However, I do have to say that if the cake is good enough to be put in your favs, the curtiousy should be to at least say something in the comments. Don't get me wrong I have been guilty of not doing this, but have been making an effort to do so now. JMO

I remember being really disappoined when I uploaded a couple of photos of a mushroom house. Both have over 150 views and one has only one comment! Whats with that? Obiously there is something about the cake that just doesn't sit right with people, but if no-one tells me I can't learn from it. And isn't that what this site is all about?

I agree with many here that I appreciate the wonderful things that people say in their comments but there are so many talented people on here everyday that we can learn from. No matter how great or poor you think you are, there is somebody on here who has more or less skill than you. Those that have more skill than me are the ones that I would like to hear from telling me things that need improvement. The ones that believe that I am the one with more skill are the ones I would love to ask me questions. I am more than willing to share any tips that I have or ideas to make something simpler for somebody else. Lord knows when I was first starting out and simple cakes were taking me hours to complete, I would have loved to have somebody tell me some shortcuts to make the process faster. I have to admit that I am bad about taking the time to comment on many pics, I am usually sneaking peaks at the board at work when I really should be doing what I get paid to do, which is NOT look at cakes!! I will make an effort to comment on more cakes and to give constructive feedback when it is requested and I feel I have the knowledge to do so.

I applied today to be a gallery supporter member and the gal I talked ( we were pming) said not to be surprised if it takes awhile to get accepted. Not sure what the process of acceptance is but she said to expect that.


<<<<< You're on!

Someone else already mentioned this, but I think it bears repeating:

If you want to see all the most recently uploaded photos, regardless of category, go to Galleries then click the tab that says Last uploads

That will take you to a page with the most recently uploaded cake pictures. It's a great way to see all the new pics without having to go to each individual gallery.

I'm really sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I guess these words have lost their original connotation w/ the "new generation".

[quote="indydebi"]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SheilaF


In my background of managing a sales staff, I learned long ago that just telling someone "you did great!" is not really constructive. I learned to tell them "You did great selling Customer A that new item when you told them blah blah blah..." This is SPECIFIC feedback that points out their great skill. It's much more motivating and constructive when they KNOW what it is they did that was great in lieu of "that was great". As one person said to their manager once, "Tell me what I did that was great so I can keep doing it!"

When I leave comments on cakes that I really like, I like to add a comment on WHY I really like it. What SPECIFICALLY made it catch my eye, what made it stand out to me, what made it above and beyond the others? I would think one would want to know that as opposed to just "great".

which is why i don't post anything anymore......your style may not necessarly be someone else's...just as your cakes may be totally different from some one else's....does it mean that because you do it one way and and someone else does it another way then one of you are wrong.....i just thought that with as many people as there is participating on this board not everyone would have the same way "style" of doing things.....

Yes, I am one of the quilty ones that have saved photos to my favorites without leaving comments. Being new to this site sometimes I am not sure what to say. I am sorry if this has offended anyone. I have learned so much from all of you that I am extremely grateful. I do agree that leaving a comment is a nice gesture. I do not believe that leaving constructive critisim is a bad idea but, that is my opinion. If someone has an idea that may me be of help to me I would greatly apreciate that as well. I will do my best to leave comments from now on. Thank you all for teaching me so much.

For those of us who would like to get constructive critism on our work, maybe we should ask for a tag of somekind that can be added when we add a photo so that people know we are looking for that. Maybe an identifier saying we are welcoming that kind of feedback would help.
I know that I tend to not make comments of the sort with fear of someone not really wanting my opinion or help and fear of offending someone.
JMO

[quote="jescapades"]i signed up to be a gallery supporter a while back and i've noticed that my membership is still pending.


I too signed up a while back and my membership is pending as well



<<<<<< There you go.......

took me ages before I was accepted as a gallery supporter....but eventually I just got notified.

Sometimes if a person has said they had trouble with a certain aspect of there cake I will give them a tip which has helped me.

Lots of times, I will find a cake wonderful...maybe not for it's execution but for other aspects of it...the imagination, the colours, the overall design..even if it is obviously done by a beginner. Sometimes, you can see huge potential as a decorator even if the person has a ways to go with certain techniques...

More than not, I have spent entire evenings trying to leave meaningful comment on pages and pages of uploaded cakes and I know this is true of other gallery supporters.. we don't just look at obviously fabulous cakes done by star members..we look at all the cakes but it takes a while to get through them when so many are uploaded per day.

I feel sort of bad that we can't get through them and because of that, some of you guys think your cakes aren't worthy of comments..NOT TRUE...just a matter of having the time to do so..

Heck, I know I am long-winded but the length of this is

I wanted to add that when I and some others, make comments (when I get the chance, or when the gallery is easy to get to) I too find it hard to pick just one thing to focus on, and if I see a "truly atrocious" cake I think to myself that the person uploaded to show that not every one on here are professionals and perhaps just starting off, so I find something to focus on and go from there....and I don't believe that comments have to be made long to let someone know how they did on their cakes, so if I'm speechless because of cakes that are beautifully done I will usually just put a smily of some kind, or the word Wow or whatever.... as far as people saying be honest, and if the cake is say horrible, there is a such thing as "kind negative honesty", or "harmless flattery" not straight out blantly mean. There are constructive ways to tell someone what you think, and if the comments are constructive criticism, etc they wont be deleted, or taking as bad as someone putting "it sucks, what were you thinking!" which is an actual comment made on someone's picture, that I deleted.

thats all we ask on here and what we go by in our decisions to delete comments....

I also want to add that even the worse cake I have seen (and not on here) had a kickbutt border and I told the person that personally.....

My thoughts are along these lines; to encourage someone, even though their cakes may not be the best in design/decorated, just may inspire the person to one day be another Colette Peters or a Duff and his gang (we all know who all works behind the scene with him are all fantastic too)... one kind word is so little to ask of a person ... I'd rather say one kind thing to someone because I know how it makes me feel when someone does it to me .. pay it forward!!

IMO, EVERY cake on here has something positive about it! Whether it's the colors, design, creative flavorings, sculpture, smoothness or so on but all of them have something positive about them.

So if you feel the cake needs some criticism why not go something like this (I know it wouldn't hurt my feelings) "The colors of your cake are awesome! If you want to know how to smooth it a little better just pm me and I'll tell you how I do it. Great job!"

Also, I enjoy the comments but I don't take offense to whether I get zero, one or 10 comments on a cake. I know my work doesn't compare to most on here but I'm learning and well, I pretty much can see for myself what my flaws are and what I need to work on and if someone has something to share with me that will improve my cakes I'm all for it...please share! lol

However, people are different and some will find offense to a critism even if it's meant with good intentions. I mean, if people are complaining over just getting one comment or that the comment is just one word then you know their will be some people sensitive to criticism.

But I also know that there are people that are very sensitive to what is said or thought about their cakes. We've seen many threads that prove that. I don't think it's wrong to be sensitive but I think that if you share your pics then you should expect a little "good" criticism along with praise over the work you do. But the criticism should always be done in good taste!

I had no idea there was a way to see the pics after they fell off the front page. So it's good to know you can find them!

As a beginner, i love to see comments on my cakes, even a helpful suggestion! But i'm with others who look more at teh # of times it's been viewed, as opposed to the comments. My latest pic of the dinosaur cake has like 20 views already!! That means people have actually LOOKED at my cake, rather than just skimming thru the thumbnails! That is what i like, someone took the time to look.


I'll work on posting more comments, espically to ones i have saved in my favorites.

I think it's important to note how difficult it is to communicate effectively via email - *especially* criticism. It's so easy to read an email and mis-interpret it as there are no visual queues, no intonation to clue us in. If we all can recognize that, over-communicate when delivering constructive criticism, and be open and understanding when receiving it I think it'll make us all better.

I think that if you want constructive criticism on your cakes, in your description as you're posting it, you could simply start with "Constructive Criticism Welcome" and then describe your cake. People who lead with that will then get the praise along with the guidance that they're looking for.

This topic seems to come up all the time! I agree that if you save something to favs you should definately make a comment!!!!

As for the constructive criticism... In a post a while back I think it was decided not to give it unless it was asked for. Someon had the idea to have a consructive criticism button or something like that. I think that's great, but not sure if it would really work.

I am guilty of not commenting on a lot of pictures myself because of slow-loading pictures (dial-up is terrible) . I do try to make comments on the "Newbie" members when I come across them while monitoring the forums.

Couple of reasons why the pages fill so quickly is due to members loading a lot of pictures at one time or loading different angles of their cake(s). Yes, I was guilty of that also until I learned to stack the different angles on the main picture so that I only load the one picture now...slow at learning that trick

Everyone have a style of their own...I'm stuck in "children's cake mode" and can't seem to get out .

What is Gallery Supporter?

I think it's sad that some people don't see a difference between those who do it for a living and those who do it for fun. if I went on "dogcentral" (not an actual site) and uploaded pic of my work (dog groomer), I wouldn't need praise, I've been doing this 14 years i know that I'm good at it and I am confident!

But I do cakes for fun (very basic cakes) I don't even upload all my cakes because some are just...well...unaceptable and I do look for praise and help I need this when I cried 3 h over a cake!!

This is what I'm thinking about when I leave a comment. I want to make someone happy and lift their spirit a bit. I don't feel dishonest when I tell a beginner his/her cake looks great.

As for "constructive critism".... To me it's either "plain critism" (exp:I don't like "blah blah") or "help" (exp: I would have changed "blah" for "blah")

minie I totally agree.........

janette, a gallery supporter is someone who volunteered to try and make sure that all cakes get viewed and commented on.....I cannot tell you how many AMAZING cakes just happen to get uploaded at the same time as 15 others and are just overlooked. Just yesterday I commented on a BEAUTIFUL wedding cake that had been uploaded like 5 days ago and didnt have any comments at all. Sometimes we get bogged down when someone posts 5 views of the same cake (I too have posted 2 views of one of my cakes....I was so proud---now I feel silly)....... but the goal is to be supportive of one another on this site. Especially around holidays, we get a little backed up (valentine's day is no exception) but we try and catch it up as we have time!