I didn't think there was an original question, just a statement of your criteria for liking a photograph.
I'll restate what I said above a little more clearly. There are reasons I may like a photograph, and there are reasons I will press
Like on a post for a photograph here, and they are often very different. I think I've already articulated why I'll press "Like" here in my original post.
As for why I might personally "like" a photo, I don't think that I can put criteria on it. I see so many photos/pictures/snapshots every day between Facebook, Instagram and other social media that I'm almost numb to really looking at any of them with enough attention to even care any more - at least at a glance. So, if I really think about it there's one and only one overriding criteria that's at the top and bottom of my list -
the photo must capture my attention and hold it for more than 1 second.
There's so much of what I refer to as "Wallpaper Shots" out there - amazing landscapes with just slightly oversaturated color, long exposure water and clouds, etc. - that while I can appreciate the technical brilliance, I will move on very quickly because I've seen it before. It can be a great photograph, and I can call it that, but I may not "like" that great photograph. There was an
article on shooting in Antelope Canyon, and it seems there's only one way to shoot there (on a tour) and those tours all get you there at specific times and take you to specific places where you set up so the guide can toss a handful of sand in a spot that lets that shaft of light pop in the way it does. So every amazing shot of an utterly gorgeous place looks almost exactly the same. Would I
love to go there and shoot? Absolutely - and I'd proudly display my own shot on my wall and on the internet. But I've seen so many of them now that it's like, "Oh, Antelope Canyon. Well done. Moving on..."
For me to like a photo it has to say something, either about the place, the subject or the photographer. It needs for me to be able to want to look at it again, either to see what I saw before or to find something different. It doesn't need technical brilliance. It doesn't need to be sharp. That used to be part of it, but not so much any more. I'll go down those roads when asked to comment or critique a photo, but it matters not when I look at it for myself.