As the site is growing steadily, it gives me the opportunity to see how the site is being used and most importantly absorbing feedback from members either in the forum or by PMs sent directly to myself with concerns about parts of the site.

There is an amazing new feature that is on the books for the future which is going to give a massive WOW factor to all members to help with personal photographic development. It's really exciting but I'm not going to let the cat out of the bag just yet.

Firstly, one very important area of the site really needs to be sorted out first which are critiques and a way to encourage members that don't usually leave comments to do so. After all, posting critique can be a valuable part of development as well as receiving critique on the photos that post.

The proposal (based on a PM from Ric a while ago but left us because of nobody was commenting on his images) below is nothing more than a proposal at this stage I'm looking for feedback from our members to make sure I'm doing the right thing for the community. I'm putting forward this proposal to everyone as it would be a radical change to the gallery and the way images are uploaded just as AutoPost was when that was introduced.

The Proposal

1.. Make the galleries sole purpose a repository for you to upload images for critique only! The gallery has never really been a photo sharing gallery and as there is a very large amount of images there that have not been AutoPosted for critique, this is making the gallery feel very open ended! This stage will see every single photo in the gallery that has not been AutoPosted for critique removed as part of a big initial clean up.

When this step has been done, we will then be left with a gallery who's main purpose is indeed for critique and photographic development and all images that remain will only be images that members require feedback on.

2.. Every existing member and every new member will receive 10 credit points. For each photo you upload, you will spend 2 credit points.

3.. For each critique, viewpoint and constructive comment left against someone else's photo you will receive 1 credit point. Providing 2 valid comments/feedback on photos will provide you with the ability to upload another image for critique.

4.. A new special team will be created and made up of respected regular members that will be able to issue credits based on the comments. A team will be required to do this manually so general responses and chit chat posts are not credited incorrectly.

This is just an idea, a thought and a possible solution that will provide our community with much fairer system to encourage members who don't normally leave critique to post comments. We are really missing many members viewpoints and we need to see them to help us all learn more.

I know it can be frightening for members who are a little shy when it comes to commenting on others photos but we will also put together a guide to help them with some pointers to make it quite easy. If anyone has time to put a guide together regardless if we go ahead with the above or not would be fantastic. Please PM me if you are able too.

Providing critique can be a valuable part of the learning process and it would be incredible to see comments on every photo uploaded for critique.

OK, that's the initial proposal and I'm ready to take on board your feedback, thoughts and suggestions!

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Paul

www.phrphotography.com