NGC4372 - IOTD? AstroBin Platform open discussions community forum · Georg N. Nyman · ... · 27 · 1061 · 0

My personal conclusion to all of the many contributions to this question is - some like it, some dislike it - as usual. I have observed the many images thoughout the past years and think, that IOTD is not anymore what it used to be. 
It does usually not represent the currently, actual best image of those many submitted (sometimes it does), it is a subjective selection process of human judges which do not reveal their criteria - some exceptions do exist and I thank those few ones very much for letting me know what criteria they applied. 
Should Cicero´s famous statement be applied - probably yes!
AI is probably the most important factor in future which gradually will take over more and more of the processes from image aquisition to presentation, large astro-farms with for most people unaffordable scopes provide excellent raw data and more and more apps make it increasingly easy to get rig of satellite trails, banding issues, to get variations of color pallets etc etc. Noise reduction is as easy as 1-2-3 as is star elimination. 
What is left to select one of hundreds of astrophotographs to be the No1 of that very day - primarily personal preferences (if other criteria had been met). To reduce that personal factor, which is absolutely human, I think, it would be better that the judges have not access to the name of the contributor at all. How to make this happen - difficult, because they are users as well and can look at the submitted images. How about blocking their access to the AB website until they had voted? Anonymous voting would be maybe preferable….?
Anyway, I keep submitting my images to this process and if I get one selected as NTP or TP, I enjoy it a lot, but I do enjoy what I am doing also if that very same image does not get any recognition - why? Because it is my hobby as I play piano and post my recordings on soundcloud, knowing that 99.99% of all users do not evey listen to them - I just enjoy it. Isn´t fun more important than a one-day recognition? 
Thanks to you all for your insights and postings, every single one was very worth reading!

" stop searching for a single metric to optimize for "success." "

Asking judges for the reasoning about their decisions is not about " ... metric to optimize for success ...". It is the natural wish of astro photographers (or humans in general) to learn from the most experienced ones. Besides the intrinsic fun in aquisition, processing etc. another point of satisfaction in the hobby is to see progress on own skills.
Andy01 has often given insight to his rich pool of experience. I would just wish that others would follow his example.
It would be a helpful addition in the spirit of AB if we had a few lines that accompany an IOTD. That could be made optional i.e. judges who feel like it can write a few lines underlining their decision and those who don't prefer to, don't have to.