 | Bringing the Pig back to life... |
| Bringing the Pig back to life... |
Bringing the Pig back to life... | ||
| Not just the Pig, but all of Jeber. | ||
| Bob Wallace (BobTrips) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #1 Added: 2006-03-02 16:48:44 | |
| OK, back not too long ago we had a good level of activity on this site and in the Pig in particular. Then it waned. I'd like to get things happening once more. I miss the exchange of images and ideas. Any input as to what we might do to get some active members? | ||
| Ali Watters (Ali) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #2 Added: 2006-03-03 09:33:33 | |
| I know I've not been active over the last 6 months really - but I think there is a lot that can be done within the existing framework without new features.... There are several clubs already forming around some of the main photographic themes - I like the look of the Panoramas Club - wish I had some shots to contribute there... If you're logged on and reading this just hit reply - say anything - just let us know we're not alone :) | ||
| Bob Wallace (BobTrips) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #3 Added: 2006-03-03 15:16:23 | |
| From my point of view Jeber is pretty feature rich. I can't think of anything more that's needed. (Perhaps others can.) Perhaps the blogging feature could be made more obvious.... I've been trying to capture more eyeballs with postings on Lonely Planet and I did the mass mailing to contact registered members. What else might we do? | ||
| Adrian Warren (AdrianW) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #4 Added: 2006-03-03 22:48:29 | |
| it's a classic catch22 - in order to attract users, you need to have users... competitions work, you don't even need a big prize, but they are a lot of work. to me the biggest drawback of jeber is exactly what makes it work for bob - there's no reward for useful contributions. i could do a really amazing workshop or critique for every single picture, but there's no reward to me, other than knowing i've done well... if i do that another site, then i get the knowledge of a job well done, but i also get points and/or a nice pretty gold star or something ;) i also wish jeber would leave my photos unmolested. i much prefer the trekearth approach, i upload whatever size fits within the rules - and the only resized version is a small thumbnail for the gallery view. if i upload an 800px image, that's the way i want it, i don't want jeber to randomly resample it to 765px - because that completely screws the sharpening! i also still hate the popup window for the fullsize, it's always just fractionally smaller than the first window - and when i close it, i usually whack the window underneath by accident because the popup isn't quite maximized... i do understand that you can please all of the people exactly none of the time though ;) | ||
| Ali Watters (Ali) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #5 Added: 2006-03-07 05:56:10 | |
| Re: Image munging... I see what you mean - it isn't my intention that Jeber should munge images. I'm sure there is a way to work in both ways - eg. Post within the rules and nothing is done to the image, and post outside the rules and accept the munging... I'll run through the code and see if I can crack it - 0 jpeg compression and resizing if within pre-set parameters. Re: Points and stars and things... Is there a way that this can be incorporated that doesn't turn contributing into a stamp collecting exercise... but does recognise contributors in a sitewide way? A stats page? A count of workshops? any ideas? Re: Catch 22. Good book - and I agree this is the case here as well - I can bring more users in but getting those that will be able to be active is more difficult... travelling crowd basically. | ||
| Bob Wallace (BobTrips) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #6 Added: 2006-03-07 13:00:03 | |
| Within the Pig. I can think of some ways to give members feedback without generating competition. For example, "Good Critique"/"Great Picture" clickers. Report the totals only to the 'owners', don't make totals public. Outside the Pig. The ability for clubs to incorporate competitions if they desire. A selectable option. | ||
| Tannis McCartney (tannismc) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #7 Added: 2006-03-08 21:17:51 | |
| For my part, my problem isn't with jeber or the clubs, it's this time of year. Winter is busy season for me at work, and I just don't have a lot of time for hobbies right now. I pulled out my camera bag last night, and had to dust it off! I admit, it's hard to be motivated to be active on the site when I'm not shooting any new photos. Work may or may not calm down for me much, but I do have a couple of trips planned (one at the end of April and one in August), and that always inspires me to be more active with my camera and on the site. Plus, the days are getting longer, and sometimes it is still light out when I leave work (except on those really busy days), which means I could start doing some photography in the evenings... [Edited: 21:20 - tannismc ] | ||
| Bob Wallace (BobTrips) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #8 Added: 2006-03-09 17:39:51 | |
| Hi Tannis, Good to hear from you. Being busy can be a good thing, I hope it is for you. Even if you (and anyone else) doesn't have time to take/post photos, how about commenting on a photo or two from time to time when you check in? I think we need to generate more activity in order to make the site more attractive to people who check it out. | ||
| Farhat Jah (Raf) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #9 Added: 2006-03-12 07:30:24 | |
| Hi This is Raf, Its good to read all your posts. I'll go through them all and try and work out exactly how to use this site without making a mess of it. I had a site called rafsphotocompetition.com whereby everyone posted one photo per week (or a month if they had to) and all the members gave them rankings in order, The rankings added up and you won or lost. I went through a lot of stress trying to shoot one photo per week. It was really quite something. And so rewarding. as you can see, someone won every week! The site fell by the wayside because of storage and interest and the fact that it was made and administered by an amateur. Well, would that work on Jeber? a need to capture something? Even an officefiling cabinet? every week, or month? Monthly is probably less stressful. And its an Idea! I have been sending Bob a picture or two over the net and it amazes me. I find it incredible that I can explore a small Island in tanzania and then send the shot to Bob and he sends me a shot of the snow out of his window. I cannot express my (continued) awe at this formidable form of communication. Raf | ||
| Bob Wallace (BobTrips) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #10 Added: 2006-03-14 00:33:29 | |
| Thanks for the input Raf. I really agree with you about the wonders of the internet. Just today I've exchanged messages with people in England, Germany, Laos, and (you) in Africa in addition to several people spread around the US. This incredible invention has radically changed my life. -- A competition club. Yes, I think that would bring a lot of traffic to Jeber. Seems to me that many people enjoy competing, or at least collecting 'points'. Lots of the forum posts on TE have to do with people wondering why their point totals aren't what they feel they should be. Personally I don't like that type of activity (as I've already said a few times ;o). But it's a feature that Ali might want to write as a club option. | ||
| Kristina Johnson (wired2theworld) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #11 Added: 2006-03-19 11:18:30 | |
| For me the problem will always be time. I want to participate, but finding the time is hard. It's hard enough for me to find the time to work on my own photos, let alone someone else's. I don't mean that in a selfish way, but more a practical one. I can find the time to make comments most likely, but it is harder to find the time to spend the time photoshopping someone else's photo. Again, it's an issue of practicality; I have a 5 year old computer that bogs down with photoshop Elements running on it. So, it's not just a quick fix for me. Perhaps when I get a new computer (hopefully soon!) this will be easier. However, I see the benefits of the process, and will do my best to participate in full. :-) As for the competition aspect, that's the catch-22 for me. Of course I love gold stars, who doesn't? But the problem I had with that "other site" was that I didn't want to be told my photos were horrible (without honest, constructive criticism like I've seen here), nor did I really want to tell anyone their photo was bad. One thing I would like to see added would be a place in the profile for a personal website link. I'll never be able to share all my photos here, but I would be like to be able to share my travelogue if anyone is interested. Since this is a club about travel photography, I'd be willing to bet there are other members with websites or blogs about travel too. Given the photos of great places here, I'd love to read some of their stories too. | ||
| Bob Wallace (BobTrips) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #12 Added: 2006-03-19 13:06:23 | |
| I would suggest that those folks who are (yet) skilled with editing/Photoshopping not worry about it when critiquing. Lead with your strengths. Tell the photographer what in the picture works for you. And simply verbalize what might be changed. Saying the horizon looks a little crooked can be just as helpful as posting a straightened version. And it helps infinitely more than doing nothing. ;o) We need more activity to keep this site chugging along. Later (hopefully) the problem will become how to keep activity to a reasonable level. -- I think there's a way to incorporate 'gold stars' without creating competition. If we had 'good photo' and 'good critique' clickers we could register our feelings without having to do a lot of writing. Then if the click totals were viewable only to the 'owner', the person who posted the image or wrote the critique, then we could get feedback from the larger community without being put in the position of "(s)he's got more points than me". But that will take some programming effort on Ali's part and until this site starts attracting some eyeballs I'm not sure it's reasonable to ask him to more work. (Not that I don't continually ask him to do more work.... ;o) --- I think you can add links in your profile. As I type this I'm seeing a "Jeber Code" box on the immediate right. One of the headings is "Links". I think if you follow that guide you can place an active link in your profile. (Hopefully someone with more knowledge will chime in here.) And you do realize that you can use this site for personal galleries and blogging? I'm getting ready to move my personal galleries here. I'm tired of the continual problems with pBase. Thanks for the input. Keep it coming. | ||
| Kristina Johnson (wired2theworld) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #13 Added: 2006-03-19 13:40:44 | |
| Thanks Bob, I just figured out how to put the link in my profile. Now if I could only get it to upload the image I want attached to my profile! For some reason, every time I try, it just comes back with an error "no image!". And yes, I noticed the personal galleries and blog, but I have a long established website and I prefer to keep everything there. | ||
| Bob Wallace (BobTrips) Post Count: Joined: | Msg: #14 Added: 2006-03-19 13:54:16 | |
| There has been a problem with including photos in profiles. Ali thought he had it solved. I stuck a notice in the general forum 'bug report'. | ||
| Number Users: 6 Number of Posts: 14 | To Reply Join Jeber Photo Clubs | |
