Tue, March 22nd, 2005 by Adam McNeill
Spotlight Idea
I was thinking of a way to promte the lesser sites. I get comments on my site now and again and visit sites that are absolutetly amazing that I've never of due to the return URL's; I'm sure you have all done the same. How is it that there are so many amazing sites and so little way of finding them?
So I was thinking a daily spotlight on photoblogs.org might be a great idea. Here's what I'm thinking:
Might be a bit of work for Brandon - but I think the ability to get more exposure is what we'd all like.
Photoblogs forums.
There's too many photo forums out there for sure. I've found a few, but constantly find that most of them have a lot of users who just don't have a clue. I hate to be all high and mighty but I think for the most part, the photoblog crowd is one of the better ones I've run across. Very passionate group, that isn't going to lay down and tell you how great your flower macro shot is when it's really not (no really it's not).
There was a recent post about it on David's site (chromasia) about hosting forums on his site - I'd love to see it happen, but would rather see it for the whole photoblog community.
If bandwidth is an issue I'd be happy to assist with that.
Anyways, my ideas, I'll go back to my hole.
March 22nd, 2005 at 2:10 pm
A great idea. I know that once my site dropped off the "new" list after four months, the visits dropped off dramatically. So let me propose that the "daily spolight" be limited to sites also not on the "Top Newcomers" list.
March 22nd, 2005 at 2:15 pm
I was going to suggest the same thing, and I def agree with Matt as well. But, instead of the "Hot Photoblogs" we should have a daily/or weekly spotlight of lesser-known photoblogs, NOT from the Top-50. That "Hot Photoblogs" feature is crap, IMHO.
f.
March 22nd, 2005 at 2:16 pm
This is a really good idea, hits do drop off dramtically if you're not on a prominant list and getting exposure without comment spamming is hard.
The top 100 point would need a bit of code as the top 100 is far from static (particularly in the 80s-90s) so spotlights for sites lower down in the top 100 list may also be an idea and would only be displayed when they dropped out of the top 100?
A forum on photoblogs would be great, get the commenity togther even more and also to learn from photographers you see the work of daily. Plus photobloggers tend to focus more on pictures and less on gear & specs.
Good points man, it'd be good to see some of them integrated
March 22nd, 2005 at 2:21 pm
"So I was thinking a daily spotlight on photoblogs.org might be a great idea."
Feel free to use this blog to spotlight any sites that you like. That's what it's here for.
March 22nd, 2005 at 2:23 pm
"A forum on photoblogs would be great"
This blog tends to act as a bit of a forum, although blogs and forums are obviously different animals. I've got plans to create a blog/forum in the future. That's several months away, though.
March 22nd, 2005 at 2:33 pm
"I was thinking of a way to promte the lesser sites."
Promoting lesser-known sites is what I'm primarily focusing on right now. I'm currently doing a complete overhaul of Photoblogs.org and adding a whole new search architecture. I don't want to get into any details right now, because this is still a few months away... but it should be pretty cool when I'm ready to release it.
March 22nd, 2005 at 3:12 pm
Highlighting some of the "lesser known" photoblogs would be great.
March 22nd, 2005 at 3:22 pm
I like the featured photoblog idea.
I like the forum idea, but I'd expand on it, maybe making it possible for there to be a mini-forum on each of photoblog.org's profile pages. People can put comments on my blog, and add my blog to their favorites, but I don't think you can beat it when X amount of people can leave positive (or constructive
messages on the profile page for the blog.
What looks better; when someone has marked it as a favorite, or when someone leaves a personalized comment about *why* they liked it?
Also, maybe a "signature image" for the profile pages, to get an idea of what the photos are like.
Lastly, I'd suggest a way to mark certain photoblogs as Not Safe For Work (NSFW). I'd love to spend more time during lulls at work, but honestly, I do know if a page with nudes is going to pop up, so I just don't look at the site at work, and I'd assume that there are others out there that are forced to do the same.
Just a few ideas.
March 22nd, 2005 at 3:37 pm
I wonder if photoblog "sub-categories" could be created. For instance, I'm not so concerned about the technicalities of making good photographs, which a lot of photoblogs are. I like the ones that are more intimate and journal-like (which is the category I would "fit" in).
When you set up a hierarchy of this "hot 100" versus the "not hot 100," it's hard to contend. It might be nice to browse a "category" of photoblogs and give a user a more directed search. Also, "hot lists" within those might level the playing field to a certain degree. Everyone wants to be #1... but we're all coming from way different perspectives.
The work that has been done on photoblogs.org thus far, however, is exceptional. It's really the premier resource for photoblog info and searching. So great job. I just offer this comment up as a user off in the peanut gallery (in other words: "hot blog #42,083").
kyle
March 22nd, 2005 at 4:01 pm
"I wonder if photoblog sub-categories could be created."
Yes... You're heading in the right direction. Most of my current work is on a new classification and retrieval system that will allow us to slice the directory in a million different ways.
March 22nd, 2005 at 4:29 pm
As a member of the "lesser (known) photobloggers", I would also like to see something help us out. Providing useful comments on other photoblogs has helped, but only produced 2 new favourites.
I'd like to point that a random photoblog of the day, given the number of blogs, minus the top 10, top newcomers, and hot photoblogs, would take over 25 years to cycle through each of the sites listed. Even if it required an "opt-in" method, I think there would be a tremendous amount of interest, and still take years to get through each one. Perhaps a random 10 sites per day if that method is to be used.
Some searching features, as Brandon pointed out, would be a big help as well. Example, I can enter keywords for my photoblogs.org profile, but I can't search for them. That would help get exposure I think. (Please point me in the right direction if I'm overlooking that feature.
)
Of course, if you need help Brandon, you need only ask.
March 22nd, 2005 at 4:33 pm
For more insight into the history of the randomness conversation, see here:
http://blog.photoblogs.org/2004/08/promoting_less_.html
March 22nd, 2005 at 4:42 pm
It's been suggested before--and perhaps there's a good reason why it simply wouldn't work--but is there a way to include sample thumbnail images and let people explore using them?
People would probably have to host their own thumbnail, to avoid bandwidth issues for photoblogs.org.
Then, offer up that thumbnail in several ways: For instance on a site's profile page (obviously) but maybe also on some sort of a separate "random thumbnail" page that would, say, call up 20? 30? 40? random thumbnails on any given visit.
Or use them in some other, more useful way. But the point is that since this is all about photography, after all, it would break down a barrier if there were some kind of serendipitous way to look around and discover interesting sites.
Like mine. (You knew it was coming)
March 22nd, 2005 at 4:46 pm
"Most of my current work is on a new classification and retrieval system that will allow us to slice the directory in a million different ways."
thats a great idea... kinda like how dmoz.org sets up their directory, within a heirarchy of catergories that funnels down to a specific category. but the only sorta problem with that is that most photoblogs fall into many different categories, just sorta the nature of thr beast! i would propose that everyone can submit their photoblog to at least 3 different categories (ie black & white, portraiture, latin america). if thats the kind of directory you were thinking about.
by the way what happened to the featured photoblog, seems like the last one was last november.
March 22nd, 2005 at 4:47 pm
I like the idea of thumbnails a lot. I've been talking to a few people who may be willing to help me implement this, so we'll see what transpires.
My first concern, though, is to get the new searching/browsing architecture working.
March 22nd, 2005 at 4:50 pm
"but the only sorta problem with that is that most photoblogs fall into many different categories"
Yes, it will be faceted classification. Think in terms of del.icio.us.
March 22nd, 2005 at 6:27 pm
Good idea. I think randomly selected list can do help significantly to expose newer blogs. I think it would be even better if only recently updated sites are selected. In other word, A random list of recently updated sites (something similar to the blogring but only those sites that are recently updated). Therefore, the less productive photoblogs get less chance to be listed in that category.
Also, I think a formula that increase the chance of being listed for blogs that have been listed for shorter period of time makes a lot of sense to me. That decreases the chance of the sites that have higher ranks because they have been around more.
March 22nd, 2005 at 6:53 pm
Brandon, let me start off by saying I think everything you've done here is awesome. I hope you take all this feedback in a positive way.
Re-reading your post from 'random'ness in the past was great - however the spotlight solutions (which do happen from time to time now), and other measures put in place seem insufficient. I don't think a list that changes every time I hit F5 is going to do what I've proposed. I'd rather see a daily spotlight on one randomily (see conditions mind you) photoblog - with a thumbnail (pictures attract people - especially on a page with mostly text) and this can be all setup behind the scenes with a little bit of magic of forms and some database tables. This way it's self propelling and once setup requires little to no maintence.
As for the forums, while I do agree that these blog posts do have a small amount of forum type nature - they don't tend to go in the direction of some discussions - and it's not quite as casual as a forum.
This is about community right? I think forums can help build on that community that you've already help establish.
--
I guess the frustrating part of this all, is just trying to get a bit more exposure like everyones mentioned before, and in this post. It's difficult, and we're all looking for some feedback on the work we do; most of us happily unpaid for the work, but would be glad to have a few comments here and there. Randomness on a sidebar isn't going to accomplish that.
March 22nd, 2005 at 7:07 pm
first off: thanks brandon... we're all extremely fortunate to have you. you're the founding father of the photoblog community, and have connected thousands of people. that is an amazing accomplishment.
lots of great ideas here. i especially like the forum suggestion. i think not only would it help to give some exposure to those who want to be involved, but would increase the quality of images out there. sharing photo taking techniques, and processing techniques could prove to be invaluable to the novice and experienced alike. there are also a few WIDELY used photoblogging scripts. this could be a great place to connect with others using the same codes - and share customization ideas. the possibilities are endless when you open up a venue that connects people who share the same passion. this site is proof of that, and a photoblogging forum would be an awesome addition. if you need my help with this, i'd be happy to invest my time.
March 22nd, 2005 at 7:41 pm
While we are on this topic I still think that sweeping the favourites once a year or something would keep things fresh. Nothing worse then a stale old listing..I really think that fresh is inspiring. Maybe have a page with 2004's top 100...but it would have been sweet to have a new start for 2005.
March 23rd, 2005 at 12:13 am
I like the expiration date on the favorites idea.
Perhaps if you assign a favorite, it expires in six months. If you choose to re-add that favorite after six months, you may.
This way time doesn't work against us new guys. There were people voting on this site a year or two ago, that no longer participate. SO whoever they voted for will have a better chance at having more votes, only because the voter is no longer around, and I do not have a chance of being added to that person's favorites.
March 23rd, 2005 at 12:24 am
I think Jinky's idea is brilliant. And Brandon, you totally rock for doing all this -- you're appreciated more than you know.
March 23rd, 2005 at 12:26 am
A "photoblog of the day" or spotlight on the lesser known blogs would be wonderful. There are so many out there, and a random daily listing of an active site would be helpful and interesting. Good idea!
March 23rd, 2005 at 12:34 am
i just spent a few hours going through all my favorites in order to move my links to del.icio.us, and to catch up on all the great photography i have missed with my busy schedule lately. i was surprised at how many people have stopped posting, or have inactive urls. perhaps it would be nice for those folks to have an 'not currently active' option on the profile. i know inactive sites have been discussed to death here, but it would be nice to find some way to keep them on hold until they are active again.
jinky's idea is interesting, but i don't really want to lose anyone. perhaps we should be allowed more favorites?
also, although i just started posting there myself, i have been following the photoblog-posts tag since it started as i find some free time. i always find new sites there and hope others add to the mix.
http://del.icio.us/tag/photoblog-posts
btw the del.icio.us style classification idea sounds wonderful brandon, can't wait to see the changes.
March 23rd, 2005 at 12:59 am
i'm with jinky; having an expiration date for your favourites (and a reminder to go with that) would probably add some rotation to peoples' fav lists. i swept mine last week and it turned out that i handful of my favs were infact dead links.
i think it'd be great if all inactive member profiles were removed from all fav lists (both as having a favourite list and as being a favourite of someone else). how do we judge what's an active member profile? well, maybe by forcing each one of us to check in on our photoblogs.org profiles every four months or so (at least) and click the "i'm still here" button...
March 23rd, 2005 at 5:12 am
because i use my favourites to bookmark everyday visits, the non-active ones are moved to my watchlist. i look those up every couple of weeks and just move things around when it suits me. (it's quite impossible anyway for me to visit more than 100 photoblogs per day).
marking accounts as inactive is a good idea.
regarding exposure, how suitable is it to have a page that collects the latest entries from sites? something like petalingstreet.org (sorry don't really know others). would be nice to just browse entries from a list like that - and then the possibility of marking favourite posts (without having to go to del.ici.ous). ah wouldn't it be cool too for the profile page to list like the last 5 posts (with dates).
yup i have no clue about the technology of something like that, just some ideas
March 23rd, 2005 at 1:23 pm
added to my previous comments, I like jinky's idea too. That can at least shuffle photoblogs around to some degree.
March 28th, 2005 at 8:21 am
Instead of software solutions picking photoblogs randomly, we need humans. With the large numbers of photoblogs now in existence, there is a field open for good editors/DJ's/brokers/gatekeepers/curators -- choose your metaphor --, picking out stellar work, either single pictures or whole blogs, publishing selections either on own blogs or on this blog.
Such photoblog curatorship will become a sought after skill in itself. Soon it will become apparent that some curators make better picks than others -- just like some photographers take better pics than others -- and such editors will have an impact on the culture of online photography. They could team up with 'their' photobloggers to produce books.
March 30th, 2005 at 10:54 am
Gustav's idea on "curatorship" sounds clever. And some sort of faceted classification as Brandon announces, too. I was surprised by the response I had the first days after adding my site, but once it dropped from "recently added" and "Hot", things changed a lot.
Anyway, hats off to you Brandon, thanks for bonding this wonderful community together.
May 25th, 2005 at 12:37 pm
However, the differences between these two are subjective.