How feeds work

What's the difference between For You and Following?

For You is a personalised feed of great photography in the subjects you care about. It's built from the whole Photocrowd community, not just the people you follow, so it's the place to discover photographers and images you'd never otherwise come across. It prioritises quality over recency: a superb image from two years ago is just as welcome as one from last week, because good photography doesn't go stale.

Following is your personal circle. It shows what the photographers you follow have shared, in the order they shared it, with nothing filtered or reordered. That includes both their new uploads and images they've reposted. It's the feed to use when you want to keep up with friends, see new work as it lands, and leave a comment while it's fresh.

You'll land on For You each time you visit Photocrowd. If you switch to Following, you'll stay there for the rest of that visit.

How does For You decide what to show me?

It builds a picture of your taste from what you do on Photocrowd: the images you love and repost, the ones you rate highly, the subjects you upload, the contests you enter, and the photographers you follow. Each of those nudges your profile towards the subjects involved, and recent activity counts for more than older activity, so your feed keeps pace as your interests shift.

From that, For You draws images that have done well in contests within your favourite subjects, mixed with a smaller share of images from across all subjects to keep things varied and to surface photographers you might not expect to like. It won't show you your own work.

If you're new to Photocrowd, or haven't done much yet, For You starts broad and narrows as it learns. The quickest way to sharpen it is simply to use it: love the images you'd like more of, and it will follow your lead.

Will my images be shown in other people’s feeds?

Only images that have been entered into contests are eligible for the For You feed currently. And there is an emphasis on images that have done well in contests, and relatively recently.

If people follow you, then when you upload an image to the site it will always be shown in their Following feed.

Why aren't I seeing my friends' work in For You?

Because that's what Following is for. For You draws from the whole community based on subject and quality, so the people you follow will appear when their work matches your taste, but they aren't given a guaranteed place. If you want to see everything from your circle, switch to Following.

Can I change what For You shows me?

Not directly, but everything you do shapes it. Loving, rating and reposting images in a subject tells For You to show you more of it; drifting away from a subject gradually lets it fade. If you've picked up a new interest, spend a little time loving images in that area and your feed will catch up.