Image Pimping? Gallery Spamming?

[vid64]

OK, we’ve all seen how the same image keeps appearing on the front page of the PAD gallery throughout the course of a day, or sometimes several days. Other times you’ll see multiple pics multiple times from the same user and none of them newly uploaded. Here comes that picture again. Right back on the front page. It’s a clever little trick that's guaranteed to get more traffic to your pictures. But I’d suggest that it’s bad form and against what I would call ‘PAD etiquette’. As it says at the bottom of the PAD gallery “Please play fair and don't try to monopolize this page...â€

[djwixx]

I would suggest the PAD gallery has become more of a show and tell. In another forum I suggested show and tell gallery be added, and that the PAD gallery blocks new posts for 12/24 hours for each user, but also allow an option to select a representative picture to appear in the PAD gallery for that period. By being able to select a representative picture it makes it easier to arrange galleries by subjecct, so you may have 10 galleries with different subject types, but they are still PAD shots.

There's a slight bug on Pbase that I'm sure makes some people seem to be hogging. If you copy a picture to another gallery, make adjustments etc., delete the picture from the PAD gallery then move the picture back to the PAD gallery, your latest upload in that gallery will be 'bumped'.

Just a few thoughts..........................

[clickaway]

I rarely look at the meta-gallery nowadays as it such a sham.

Besides my favourites, I look for new names commenting on my work, people on other people's published favourites and various other means.

I just found a newcomer Tommy Gunn by an alternative method and glad I did.

[vid64]

Dave: Yep, that's exactly the 'bug' that needs sorting out! An occaisional bump doesn't really matter, it's the all-too-frequent persistent exploitation of it that should be stopped. Changing the sort order would stop it dead. (PBase should have a 'new uploads' page. Other photo sites have them. We already have a recently updated galleries page, it just needs a 'representative thumbnail' added and job done. But that's a different discussion.)

Ray. Agree entirely. I'd just like to see something done to improve the situation. It's not hard to fix!

[djwixx]

The same gripe is going on with the abuse in the show and tell forums. People always find a shortcut to the detriment of others.

And talking of forums, given the amount of crap in them, I don't think you should be able to use them unless you are a Pbase subscriber. There too much spam and free loaders asking for advice who are never polite enough to come back and say thanks.

[timothynosenzo]

The PaD gallery should be sorted by it’s original pbase post date/time. Simple. Problem solved.

I agree its a nuisance, and disrespectful to the people actively trying to maintain a real PAD gallery.

Although for me, I don't always have the chance to upload a picture once a day--sometimes I am uploading 2 or maybe 3 to catch up. For me, PAD isn't about uploading a picture a day, its about taking one picture a day. Just my take on it.

So potentially a better solution might be to sort the PAD meta by capture date taken from EXIF data. And if the photo has no EXIF data, it goes to the end of the line. Unfortunately people can modify EXIF data, so this isn't a perfect solution.

Either way, people will find a way to exploit it. I support your quest, but it probably falls on deaf ears, as this post did: http://forum.pbase.com/viewtopic.php?t=26942.

[clickaway]

David

As you say, it is another discussion, but the Recently Uploaded Gallaries now has a 'thumbnail' option.

I hope your new feature request gets somewhere. New features just seem to happen sometimes with no warning.

[djwixx]

The PaD gallery should be sorted by it’s original pbase post date/time. Simple. Problem solved.

I agree its a nuisance, and disrespectful to the people actively trying to maintain a real PAD gallery.

Although for me, I don't always have the chance to upload a picture once a day--sometimes I am uploading 2 or maybe 3 to catch up. For me, PAD isn't about uploading a picture a day, its about taking one picture a day. Just my take on it.

So potentially a better solution might be to sort the PAD meta by capture date taken from EXIF data. And if the photo has no EXIF data, it goes to the end of the line. Unfortunately people can modify EXIF data, so this isn't a perfect solution.

Either way, people will find a way to exploit it. I support your quest, but it probably falls on deaf ears, as this post did: http://forum.pbase.com/viewtopic.php?t=26942.

I can see the point about Exif data, but unfortunately a lot of software strips out the exif, so would it be fair to penalize someone for not knowing? Photoshop Elements 3.0 strips out exif when converting RAW to JPG, 5.0 doesn't now. Also with the likes of exifer around it's an easy fix anyway.

I still think a mechanism to limit the frequency of what you can choose as a PAD shot. It helps the PADers and it helps the show and tellers and stops the abusers.

Has anyone started a forum entry asking if feature requests are even looked at? I'm not convinced they are, but as you say some features seem to appear out of the blue................. I think a feature request being reviewed on the news forum would be good...............


Ooops - apologies for digressing!!

[vid64]

I don't think sorting by EXIF would work. For a start as has been mentioned, some software strips it. Secondly the only way to get onto the front page would be to shoot and post in the quickest possible time. As Timothy said, it's about shooting every day. No point starting a race-to-post with only the winners ever getting seen.

Also, you'd probably find certain members would start altering their EXIF data to read a shooting date well into the future! Yay, a year on page 1!

[romy_uk]

When I'm on holiday I routinely download each day's photos into my Epson viewer then upload from there to my PC when I get home. Unfortunately that strips the EXIF information, although I can view it on the Epson. Has anyone found a way of transferring the EXIF data when uploading pics from the Epson to PC ?

I just returned a few days ago from holiday in Goa and updated my PAD gallery with 3 weeks worth of pics. Do they deserve to be relegated to the back simply becuase they've either (i) not got any EXIF data, or (ii) the date the pic was taken is not the same as the posting date ?

It's a sticky issue and there aren't any easy solutions.

Rose

[vid64]

Romy: That's exactly why I say sort on upload date not on exif.

[alexphotos]

Romy: That's exactly why I say sort on upload date not on exif.

If they go for EXIF i will put my cam in the year of 3007 so i will always be the first in the gallerie, I would never do that but i am sure that some one would do it. Uploaded date sound cool

[coastalva]

I rarely look at the meta-gallery nowadays as it such a sham.

Besides my favourites, I look for new names commenting on my work, people on other people's published favourites and various other means.

I agree with Ray . . this is pretty much what I do as well . . .there are SO many on there now, I haven't the time or interest to see them all. So I just go to those I know and see who is new on their comment pages. It's not a good way to see NEW PaDrs but it's what I do . . . and I guess in THAT way I don't have to deal with the ones grubbing for undue attention in the Meta

[timmoore]

I try to maintain a PAD and put up a new photo daily as much as possible. My PAD gallery has a "selected representative" which always is displayed instead of the new photo in the main gallery. There is not any ulterior motive here, but the same "selected representative" photo does appear, as it does for the other galleries. For me this allows me to recognize other photographers PAD even if the photo in the main gallery is not the actual PAD photo, which appears in the PAD gallery. If this is an issue with PAD users perhaps we would agree to change the "selected representative" with each new post. But as I said, I do see the benefit of being able to identify photographers by their "selected representative" photo of their PAD.

T Moore

[jude_53]

I agree about having some sort of "trigger" to stop a pbaser from posting more than once to the PAD gallery per 24 period. It could be as simple as using the date and time that an image is posted then there being a 24 hour hold until posting is allowed again - EVEN if one is designating different galleries each time like I do.

I think that's what you were talking about, right David? (or am I wrong? please don't say it..lol)

Although I don't do PAD the way it started, I did put in my time, and I DO post most days. They are also taken within the last few days - not months or years earlier.

And if I go on vacation or if I take a ton of photos that I want to post, I simply post all the photos then save what I think is the best one for last. THEN I mark that gallery for PAD so only the last one shows.