Have you ever wondered what makes a dream good and what makes a dream get many likes? Spoiler: The two have only a few factors in common. Let’s take a closer look at these factors, but to do that it’s important to define a common set of principles most dreamers associate with a dream being “good.”

“Good” Dreams

A “good” dream generally follows the same basic principles as good art overall – good composition, good color, good definition, originality. Of course, the definition of “good” can’t be fully objective, but I won’t go into the subjective components of what makes art good here. I would never finish writing this post if I did.

Additionally, a good dream is based on a compelling source image, one that will make you and other dreamers go wow! That could be a piece of your own artwork, a photo, or a public domain / cc0 (Creative Commons zero, no copyrights attached) image. It’ll be an image that other dreamers have not or only rarely used before (challenges excepted), that has high resolution, and that meets the DDG guidelines. That means no violent, nude, partially nude, discriminatory, unlawful, infringing, hateful, pornographic or sexually suggestive photos or other content.

Additional quality factors include producing “clean” dreams without artefacts or “noise” (such as those unwanted lines in faces or skies) while infusing new aspects through visually engaging textures. Also, the colors you choose should bring out what you want the dream to express. Finally, a good dream will use a fresh, high-resolution style that informs the source image, either highlighting or even exaggerating selected features, or, conversely, turning them into something unexpectedly different. If this sounds like hard work – it is. I think so, anyway. It’s making me learn how to use new tools and hone my skills.

For maximum impact, post your dream at the highest resolution setting available to you in your dreaming category, e.g. 0.95 MP for deep dreamers.

Post-processing outside of DDG may also help you improve your dreams, in particular if you wish to use them for other purposes.

To sum it up, a good dream will resonate with viewers, will inspire them, will make them feel something, and will reflect your intentions.

Liked Dreams

In the best case, a good dream will also get the likes you personally think it deserves. But why don’t many good dreams attract hundreds of likes whereas other dreams that you might not think are very memorable garner many more likes? We’ve all experienced this. In fact, the impression that the DDG likes system doesn’t necessarily do your best dreams justice motivated Daniel Zamir’s post on the chance to show your underrated dreams.

Simple answer: The DDG likes system is skewed. Dreamers returning likes will almost invariably visit your “best” page, so your old dreams (often made at the begining of your learning curve) get more and more likes. Even if dreamers do visit your latest page – this may be the case if you happen to be on the top dreamers list – they’ll see only your latest dreams, and they tend to go back no more than one or two pages. So your marginally older dreams rarely stand a chance of getting more likes and are lost to all but the most patient or interested dreamers. Also, dreams with over 10 likes that make it from latest to trending enjoy high visibility. This is true especially of dreams on the first page of trending, which tend to stick around longer and gain popularity at a higher rate than all other dreams.

Here’s where Daniel Zamir’s post on “How the trending algorithm works and how to crack it” comes in handy. It explains the golden rules of posting: In short, to gain maximum exposure, post only one choice dream a day during maximum traffic times, which is roughly between lunch and dinner EST.

Of course, the “good art” principles apply to getting dreams liked, too! The higher the quality of the source and style images, the more likes a dream is liable to attract. And if getting many likes is important to you, you’re probably best off choosing source and style images with a broad, middle-of-the-road appeal and attractive colors.

Finally, giving out many, many likes yourself will increase your visibility. The more you give, the more you get. An additional benefit of looking at many other dreamers’ work is that it will inspire you, too! Not only do you get a feel for what’s happening on DDG, your likes also subtly nudge dreaming trends into the direction of your preferences.

Great tips from Peter Barlow: Go through the latest pages first, as you can assume that these dreamers are online. Don’t worry if you don’t get likes in return; it’s a scattergun approach. Give out likes generously, but use your judgment. And go through the latest feed every couple of hours or so. Check out people’s galleries: If they like only dog dreams, and you’re partial to cat dreams, they probably won’t give you any likes. You’ll soon see who’s responding to your likes, and you can focus your efforts on these dreamers. A final hot tip: Check out whose dreams the top dreamers like – chances are they are targeting people they know will respond.

Of course, another way to gain exposure is to post your dream and the link to it in the daily thread in the Deep Dreamers group.

The Upshot

In a nutshell, good dreams are not necessarily dreams with many likes, so don’t despair if what you consider your good dreams fly under the radar in DDG, even if you follow the above tips.

However, I’m convinced that the best dreams are just so innovative and brilliant that they gain top exposure and get many likes.

My sincere thanks to all moderators and administrators for their input.