Galleries - request for feedback

[karenoliver]

Originally Posted by beauxreflets

I quite like the galleries as a feature and the way that that section interfaces with POTY. I think it could be better organised with perhaps the highest rating aspect being on show when you first enter a gallery, plus notification when a comment and or rating has been made, thus generating more useful purpose.

Some thought in layout to encourage a competitive edge and communication would also improve things.

I have always assummed pictures posted in the Critique part of the forum request critique as part of the photographer's seeking opinion. And the specialist area a place to highlight your expertise

Yeah, I made a suggestion of templates to choose from or even making the gallery into an indivudual's online portfolio instead.

Karen

Originally Posted by karenoliver

Yeah, I made a suggestion of templates to choose from or even making the gallery into an indivudual's online portfolio instead.

Karen

Being able to arrange the gallery to personal liking would be wonderful. The potential to create a huge community atmosphere is there for Future's uptake and increased revenue through that participant growth.

Although if advert space is being forced into the personalised new look galleries, many may still not use or upload into the galleries.

It would be nice to have an ad free area somewhere on this site.

The reality is; the same adverts on every page actually decreases the number of visits and clicks on the advert themselves, simply as the brain becomes numbed; board and closes itself off from said areas. Hence the links to other parts of the site and blogs, hidden in said areas are also not clicked on. Well not by me any way and as usual critique is but my opinion

[Reinardina]

Haven't had the time to read through all the suggestions, so I might state something that has been mentioned already, but here goes ...

As I said in an earlier post, I like to get comments/advice on the photographs in my gallery and I do not have major problems with the system as it is, apart from the (continuously complained about) slowness and bad integration between the different parts of the site.

When I have time, I regularly look at new entries, so I'm in favour of leaving the 'most recent' photographs to come up first, when you go the member's pictures.

A warning when a new comment or rating has been added to one of your photos is a must, otherwise you will have to trail through all of your pictures on a regular basis. If you have more than about thirty pictures, this will take you all day.

The possibility, to check up on the comments you have left on other people's photographs, is sadly lacking. This problem should be addressed.

I have probably been stating the obvious, but the obvious shortcomings have been highlighted over and over again, so I may as well add my bit. For what it's worth!

[ABERS]

Well with only nine different people replying to your original request Marcus, if you leave things as they are you won't be upsetting too many people!

Being able to edit and correct typo errors after an initial posting of a comment (as I often slip and have limited time to spend on line) - Thank you.

[Marcus Hawkins]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone - our ideas are in tune with many of the suggestions raised so far. While we can't sometimes react as quickly as I'd like, the sharing of images is clearly something that has to be right. Please do keep your suggestions coming.

Marcus

[chris-p]

Originally Posted by Lurkalot

And the moderators must find this particularly frustrating, or should I say I do. There's quite a lot that needs fixing regarding the integration. Missing navigation, separate profiles. Cookies expiring all the time, and getting logged out. Getting logged out when moving from various parts of the site, or performing actions.

Are you sure PR is not under a dictionary attack? or is there something wrong with the cookie settings?

oh, and only global moderators and admins can see essential stuff in the gallery needed to moderate it.

I also find this an issue. There are a few things which I presume are accessible to admins and global mods which aren't available to the mods, both in the galleries and the forum (and it's control panel) and it would be useful if we did have access to them. It would certainly make moderation easier.

[pburness]

Originally Posted by Marcus Hawkins

There have been some really interesting points raised here. Lots of food for thought. I understand the frustrations with the integration between the galleries and forums, particularly for new members. This will change. What does everyone feel about the current rating system? Is it a useful system for visitors to find the images other members rate highly, or not? Do you think the forum is the best way to showcase your best work as well as images you'd like critiqued, or would you rather keep these separate?

Marcus

I think maybe 4 area's
1) The Showcase Gallery -
I think the Showcase Gallery should be exactly that - where people hang their work (digitally of course) for others to view - if the photographer is happy enough with their image then what does it matter what anybody else has to say about it, who are they to judge? It's a gallery not a competition. This gallery should be purged of images over a certain period (8 weeks old?), and photographers should only be allowed to upload maybe 1 photo per week, so any one photographer can have a max of 8 photo's in the gallery at any point in time, to stop it becoming a dumping ground.

2) The Review Gallery -
Perhaps a seperate display area with comments could be provided for people who are less content with or unsure of an image, are interested in what people may think of their images or need their self esteem adjusting ing by having a rating / feedback system. But this should notify the photographer when comments are made, and again be purged on a regular basis.

3) Members Collections -
An area where members can organise their work into albums or portfolios so visitors can get to know their work better if they see something they like (from the above arera's) - this is administered by the user and not automatically purged.

4)The Forum
Where images can be posted for critique, discussion, PR, support etc. (this needs to be improved though as the limitation on only adding a url is a real bind).

Suggestions 2, 3 and 4 already exist - number 2 just needs the purging adding, number 1 would need adding but shouldn't be too difficult as most of the code is present in the current gallery (remove the comments and ratings and add the purging).

Phil

[pburness]

Marcus,
You originally requested feedback and it has sparked an interesting debate about improvements to the site in general.

A split thread uploading images has been discussing adding images into the forum and has bottomed out on :-

"What is the rationale behind not enabling the 'add attachment' code within the forum editor?"

This can be enabled for registered users and would make the user experience so much better as many threads are about how to insert pictures in a message.

Can you now provide some feedback to us?

Thanks
Phil

[pburness]

Originally Posted by pburness

Marcus,
You originally requested feedback and it has sparked an interesting debate about improvements to the site in general.

A split thread uploading images has been discussing adding images into the forum and has bottomed out on :-

"What is the rationale behind not enabling the 'add attachment' code within the forum editor?"

This can be enabled for registered users and would make the user experience so much better as many threads are about how to insert pictures in a message.

Can you now provide some feedback to us?

Thanks
Phil

Bump - Marcus, any response?