PAD

[stuegan]

Hi all,

I've found it interesting reading this thread, and other similar ones regarding posting to the metagallery too often/the quality of the metagallery.

I've only been doing a PAD for around three months myself and feel I have got a lot of enjoyment out of it so far (both in terms of what I have done myself and what I have discovered that others are doing). Anyway, the reason for joining the discussion here was to give a perspective of a relative newcomer.

I've really enjoyed looking through the metagallery almost every day. Granted, it sounds like it has changed considerably and would perhaps take less time to go through in the past, but I don't think it actually takes that long to do at the moment. Obviously not everyone has the time to check through for five to ten minutes every day, especially if you're then commenting on the photos you like which will obviously take even longer, but personally it's something I definitely try to make time for as it is too great a source of inspiration to ignore. OK, perhaps there are a lot of photos that many people will ignore, and the percentage of these sounds higher than it used to be, but the flipside of this is that the growth of the gallery must surely mean there are a lot more photos that you admire when looking through? I could be wrong here, not having seen it two or three years ago.

PAD is a great idea and when I look back at other people's galleries that have done it over a long period of time it's clear that, for the most part, it's a very valuable exercise in helping to develop photography skills. I've got respect for anyone that has managed to complete a year of it, or more. But despite all this, ultimately it doesn't matter to me when people use the metagallery for non-PAD galleries. Look at it this way - if you come across a great photo through the metagallery, does it really matter if it's not in a PAD gallery? I can only speak for myself, but the reason I'm searching through in the first place and looking at other people's galleries is to find something inspiring or stimulating. And at the moment there are plenty of photos that do that for me on there.

Yet I can accept it's entirely valid for people who have used it for a long time to question it's worth or structure if they think it's steadily going downhill. I don't think anyone would enjoy wasting 20 minutes looking through it in a year's time, say, and finding nothing worth looking at. But I just don't think that's the case at the moment.

Right, enough rambling. My boss keeps walking past!!

[troonly]

Difficult topic, but one many are thinking over as they go into their second or third year. I missed a day not long ago, and was well into year 2, and I feel a bit like Linda's channel swimmer - I hopped onto the boat part way across (on my second crossing though!).... Since then it's been more difficult to avoid a 'snap' just to put up a PaD, and just before my hols I lost a memory card with several days of PaD photo's on it..... so I have been puzzling over just what to do. I suppose some of the motivation was simply having posted continuously shots taken each day; once you miss a day that's it!

I like the diary aspect of PaD and have copied Linda's idea of including a mini image of the previous year's PaD - that's been great, so what I'm considering doing is continuing the PaD, but on a PAOAP (photo as often as possible) basis.

I too have many relatives and friends who enjoy the PaD gallery and it seems of value to continue. For lots of the usual reasons I also reduced to a minimum commenting on others, and as a result hits and comments plummit - bit of a shock to start with, but I think i've got over that now (the counselling worked!) and still feel part of the PaD community, if a bit on the edges.

So I hope I don't offend with the PAOAP approach....

Ian

[maria_s]

To me the simple solution to the problem would be having second metagallery: PPaD - post photo a day. It will provide the exposure the people want. The rules should be like this: one person can have only one gallery dedicates either to PaD or PPaD (not both, simply to lessen the volume), and can post only one photo a day.

Let's face it the bigger PBase gets the less chance people have to show their work. Everybody knows that posting forum messages like "See my latest photos" does not work. List of recent galleries goes too fast. What to do?

[pathfindar]

I admit I sometimes use a photo from the past week if i get time crunched at work. Sometimes I have shot a photo that day, but I am behind in processing and will use the one I just processed instead as I have not got to the ones I just took. I think this is in the "spirit" of PAD. You can tell on many days I am certainly not trying to showcase my work by what I end up putting up (such as the day I photographed my bowl of cereal because I couldn't think of anything else to shoot).

I haven't had time recently to browse the PAD gallery, which I miss. I always did a mouseover on the picture though and if the gallery didn't indicate it was a PAD ("daily," "picture a day," "PAD," etc), I would not open it. I tend to use "my favorites" list mostly, but miss seeing new and others work when I get too busy to browse.

I have written some people that I have seen load a photo to the PAD gallery four times in one day- and the day before- and ask them if they had a time planned to stop. They never answer but some have stopped