XtremeCamera

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On Friday (or Saturday) we will be rolling out some major changes to the Member Gallery and how it functions. Below are the details on how things will change.

Comments or Critiques – You Choose

When a member uploads a photo to the Member Gallery they will have the option to limit the responses they receive. If a member chooses, he or she can restrict the responses to their photos to a Comment, a Critique, Both, or None. This option will be on the upload page and can be applied to each photo the member uploads.

Comment

A comment, for the sake of the Member Gallery, contains a response that does not include suggestions on how the photo should have been shot, or what the responder thinks is wrong with the shot. Rather, a comment consists of responses that express what the responder thinks of the photo in general, or the subject matter in particular.

Examples of a Comment:

“Great photo!” “Nice job!” “I love this beach”, or “How in the world did you get that kid to sit still?”

When you offer a comment instead of a critique you cannot “Rate” a photo with the Star Rating System. That system is only available once someone publishes a Critique.

Critique

A critique, for the sake of the Member Gallery, contains language that is specifically designed to respond to the photo in a critical fashion. When someone wishes to suggest a more effective way to shoot a certain subject or technique it’s a critique. If someone wishes to remark about the photo’s exposure, DoF, composition, etc., that is considered to be a critique.

Examples of a Critique:

“The DoF in this photo is a little shallow, I would try to shoot a bit smaller”, “I love the composition, the way the road seems to wind up through the entire landscape”, or “Amazing lens work here.”

When you offer a critique you are then expected to offer a Rating to the photo. The Star Rating System is only available for critiques.

The Choice Is The Members’ To Make

We realize that some members do not feel comfortable offering a critique of the photograph. Some feel they are not qualified, or that they would have no idea how to improve a submission. And some members would rather not be told how they might improve their photographs, or, more importantly, some times a photograph will attempt to break the “best practices” of Photographic Rules in order to try to obtain something unique. When this happens very often a critique can confuse the technique with the attempt. Members should learn to use the Description field effectively so that when a photograph seems to be breaking “best practices” the photographer can explain the reason for the attempt. A photo such as this is one that would, it seem, invite both a comment and a critique.

But There IS A More Important Reason

Another major change to the Member Gallery is that beginning Friday (or Saturday) free and premium members will have to earn additional upload “slots” if they wish to upload more than 2 photos on any given day.

Free and Premium (as well as Charter/Lifetime) Members will be limited to a daily upload allowance to the Member Gallery of two (2) photos. Additional upload slots can be earned. The way in which all members can earn additional uploads is described below.

In addition to a members option to allow comments or critiques, or not, the member that does allow critiques will now be responsible for rating the critiques they receive.

If a member receives a critique they will be notified through the XC Message System that a Critique is waiting to be read. When the member reads the critique he or she will be asked to rate the critique “helpful” or “not helpful”. If the member deems a critique “helpful” then that person who posted that critique will be awarded one (1) point. If the critique is deemed to be ‘not helpful’ the member receives no point.

When a member earns 5 points that member is given an additional upload slot. The slot can carry over day to day so there is no rush to use it. However, a maximum of 15 points, or 3 additional upload slots, can be earned or used at any given time. In other words, you might earn 30 points in any given week, and that score will be reflected in you’re my:XC tab, but your additional upload slots will remain as three (3).

This is done to prevent more than a maximum total of 5 photos on any given day. As you use those upload slots your point system reduces by 5 points. You might notice that if you have 30 points with only 3 uploads earned, and you use one of those upload slots, the points will reduce to 25, and your upload slots will reduce to two (2), but the next day another upload slot will be automatically added to your upload queue because you have points waiting in the wings. I know it sounds confusing, but when you see it in action it will make sense.

Why Limit The Member Gallery Uploads?

That’s a good question. After all, doesn’t it make sense to build up the gallery with photos so that people have more to look at? Well, yes and no.

Since Day One we’ve limited the number of “pages” in the Member Gallery than non-members, or visitors, can view to 10. Only members can view more than 10 pages on any given day, and no visitor can click on Page 11 and see the photos there and beyond. This was done as a method to control bandwidth, and as a way to entice a potential member to sign up and join us.

Let’s look at an example; Because members want to get as many photos in front of an audience as they can, the more opportunities they have to do so the more they may want to upload photos that are very similar to each other.

Consider; as a member I have gone out on a brilliant evening and I shoot a dozen photographs of a sunset, and I love every one of them… naturally I want to show as many people as I can. If I have 5 uploads available to me, or 25 like premium members used to have, I can upload 5 (or all) of them to the Member Gallery. Good for me, but maybe not those that are visiting the gallery to simply browse new photos or to look for something in specific.

Most likely, I, as the one that uploads 5 very similar sunsets taken seconds apart from each other, would love to see all 5 of my photos commented on, viewed numerous times, etc. However, as a viewer of the gallery, moving through the gallery photo by photo I am likely to wonder why someone uploaded 5 identical photos, and get bored, frustrated, or bewildered… and if it happens a few times within the first 10 pages I’m liable not to come back at all because out of 10 pages of photos I’m seeing more than a few sets of very similar photos.

Naturally, we’re not saying that this happens a lot, but it does happen. Its bound to happen. What we needed to do is make the slots available more, well, valuable. As a member you are more likely to be a great deal pickier if you can only upload 2 photos on any given day, rather than 5 photos.

That said, there should be a way that members can obtain more of these valuable upload slots by expending some kind of cost. The idea though was to come up with a “cost” that members would enjoy earning. Since most members enjoy posting to the photos in the gallery it made sense to offer points in exchange for good, or helpful, critiques.

When we decided to allow points to accumulate, but no more than 3 uploads slots, it was done so as to avoid members rushing out to offer critiques to earn upload slots and then backing off until they need the extra slots.

Allowing points to accumulate offers incentives to members to continue to offer helpful critiques. Offering helpful critiques helps members become better photographers, and better ‘critiquers’ as well. It also makes coming to the Member Gallery more interesting for everyone.

We do realize that some people are not comfortable offering critiques, and some people may not even want them, but on the whole we believe this is a great way for members to become more active in the community. So, before you object, give it a chance.

Other changes will also be introduced on Friday (or Saturday). Look for additional Blog posts for details about those changes.