Friday Q&A

Questionable Contribution

Greetings, crickets and trolls. Welcome back to another edition of the Friday Q&A. Each week, I answer questions relevant to the Fark Photoshop community. Thanks for stopping by once again. I'm glad you're here, unless you happen to be one of my many enemies. In today's post, I'll be focusing on the age-old debate of skill vs humor. I might not be breaking any new ground here, but hopefully I can shed some light (and a few trite literary cliches) on this well-worn topic.

Q: Why do Fark voters tend to reward humor over skill?

A: Time and again, this observation has been made. In each instance, we seem to arrive at the conclusion that Fark is not a serious Photoshop site (much to the chagrin of certain critics) and a cheap gag is always going to win out over a carefully-crafted "work of art" entry. In these discussions, our audience is typically cast as ignorant savages. Their intelligence has been denigrated to the point that I'm pleasantly surprised when a few can manage to stop picking their noses long enough to actually cast a vote.

Q: Why is the voting public so stupid?

A: I don't happen to think they are. It's rather short-sighted to mock the people who dole out our validation. Without votes, the average PSer would wither and die. I prefer not to bite the hand that feeds me. The Farkers voting in these contests are as diverse as those who are making the entries. I don't find the majority of them to be at all ignorant, though perhaps a bit predictable.

Q: What can artistic Photoshoppers do to even the playing field?

A: I think the two sides of this debate can learn a lot from each other. If the more artistic members of our community would just work some dick and fart jokes into their masterpieces, they'd get a lot more voting love. After all, nobody ever said your brilliantly constructed work of art can't be low-brow or sophomoric.

That's all for this time, gentle reader. Thanks again for stopping by. I hope this post inspires people on both sides of the discussion to learn from one another. Hopefully we can meet somewhere in the middle. You'd be surprised how much the voters enjoy work that is both humorous and well-made.

Stay tuned for more attempted diplomacy from the Doctor!