Hi Everyone,
You will be quite aware we are a very new site and until something has been running for a while it's hard to guage which way things are going to go until we have been active for a period of time.
I want to make this site a success not just for myself but more importantly for you, our member! We have already drawn in some very experienced photographers that are providing great advice to members and this is one of the reasons why we need to make a little change.
The problem we have seen is relating gallery comments and rating. Although our gallery looks and feels part of the site, it is a very different beast to the forums and it's hard to tie the two together seamlessly.
The comments in the gallery, although has been a great feature while we have been starting out has unfortunately made the forums suffer which is the most important part of the site not just for members but also to make search engines pick us up a lot more that will ultimately drive more potential members to the site. You will also get more detailed feedback if posted in the forums!
At the moment we have two places for people to post feedback on photos and as you will appreciate this can be quite confusing, especially for new members. We need to have one place to host images and one place to discuss images.
To fix this problem, on the 14th November we are going to disable the rating and comment system in the Gallery. This will be the only change made!
The purpose of the gallery will remain a photo hosting service but if you are looking for comments and feedback, you'll need to post in the forums linking to the image in the gallery which is a much better place for this to happen and we already have categories available there for photo discussions.
Here are a couple of answers to questions that I feel may be asked:
Will my post count be affected?
Unfortunately yes, as already explained the forum and gallery are two very different parts of the site and are very slightly integrated. When you make a comment in the gallery, it increases your forum post count. This is big problem when it comes to maintenance on the site. If I have to update all post counts for any reason, you will loose the count made on gallery comments.
On the 14th, I will be running the maintenance script which needs to be done. Your post count will be adjusted based on posts you have made in the forums. There is unfortunately no way around this and it's best to do it now rather than in a few months time.
What will happen to the comments made in the Gallery?
Although we will still have them in the database, they will be no longer visible.
I hope you will understand why we are doing this and hopefully support this move. I will be posting a step-by-step guide before the 14th to show how to post your photos into a forum thread to make things easy for everyone that will not be sure how to do it.
Thanks for taking the time to read this announcement.
Kindest Regards,
***** UPDATE *****
I've been thinking really hard about a solution about the above and ways to work around it and I may have worked out something that will add real value to the site. It's going to take me a bit of time to do but this is what I have planned.
Being a developer during the day, I'm going to add features rather than take them away which will fill the gaps in an innovative way.
OK, here goes:
- 1.. When you upload an image and view it, I will automatically detect the image has not been posted in the critique and help forums. If it hasn't been posted, you will see options that will allow you to choose the forum you would like to post the image into then clicking on a big "Post this image for Critique", it will automatically create the thread for you in the correct forum and also display the image right inside your post so you do not have to do anything, just click a button!
- 2.. I'll add a text box at the time of posting so you can put in text that you want to be posted with the image. This will be displayed in the thread also.
- 3.. When you upload your image and EXIF data exists, we capture it! I will also include this in the post for you also.
- 4.. I will still close the comment system on the 14th, BUT I'll make sure I code this new feature to include your existing comments and post replies to the thread that are in the gallery now. i.e. when this baby goes live, simply find an image of yours that you want to post for critique, if people have commented on the image in the gallery you will see them as replies to the thread! This means all comments are kept and you don't loose your post counts.
OK, if that is information overkill. Let me summarise.
You will have an option displayed with each photo you upload. Clicking on a button will automatically create a thread, display your comments, display the image, display EXIF info if it is there and if your image has had previous comments made in the gallery, they will all be added to the thread.
The benefits of this will be:
- You will have a fantastic brand new feature that no other site has that will automate your Critique and Help posts for you.
- You will NOT loose any post counts if you have made comments prior to the gallery comments being turned off.
- You will NOT loose any of the comments you have made on any of the photos prior to the 14th
This can potentially be a lot of work for me but I'm going to try and get this done as soon as possible.
I really hope you are going to like and enjoy this new feature when it is finished so please bear with me while I juggle time to get this done for you.
As always, I apologies if the first post became a bit of a shock and hope you will welcome the new features when launched.
Please keep checking this site news forum for updates on the development status.
Kindest Regards,