A couple weeks ago I sent out some informal emails to people asking for feedback on the new logo. This feedback was pretty helpful, so I figured I'd open things up even more and ask you all about it on the blog.

1. Do you like the new logo more than the old one? Is it an improvement?
2. Would you proudly wear the new logo on a t-shirt?
3. If the new logo was different, would you be more likely to wear a Photoblogs.org t-shirt?
4. What are some examples of logos that you think really kick some ass? (Please provide links, if you can.)

Thanks all. Feel free to be open and honest with your feedback. We really want to know what you think.

(Update: Changed to a numbered list.)

The Toronto Area Photobloggers group and Photoblogs.org are pleased to announce that the International Photobloggers Meet 2006 will take place in Toronto over the weekend Friday May 19th 2206 to Monday May 22nd, in Canada that's the Victoria Day holiday weekend.

More information about events and logistics will be forthcoming! Comments and suggestions are welcome at TAP founder Photojunkie's site!

The photoblogs.org beta has a fresh redesign. Have a look, any constructive comments or suggestions are welcome!

In the thread on Brandon's newly developed randomizer (hooray! hooray! hip, hip... SO hip!) I suggested we would do well to clean up the database by using the alphabetical, country, or language indexes to root out the defunct - - only because the pages make it easier to get to the profiles and tag for deletion.

Well, I did Arabic, Breton, Catalan, Chinese, and now I'm into Czech, and what do I see?

sixtimesnine. (Profile here.) Some really great shots, very eye catching. Not really "street photography," but definitely worth a looksee.

(Personally, I think the fact that only 5 people list this blog as a favorite is an indication of how much is out there that we don't know about. I continue to believe that language is a barrier for those of us who only speak English, and that we're missing out on a lot of great photography.)

Frank

Alright, now we're cooking...  I've just set up the Photoblogs Discussion List.  Join up, say hi, let me know what you think.

The mailing list will be the best way for anyone to get in touch with me regarding Photoblogs.org questions.  And I'll be actively using the list as I'm making changes and improvements to Photoblogs.org.  So, if you're interested in helping to shape the future of this site, join the list and join the discussion.

I'm also hoping that this list will help manage the volume of emails that I get every day...  Which means I'll have more time for programming.  Yay!

Because of all the talk around here of changing the way photoblogs.org works, I think it's time for me to make a confession.
OK, I hope this doesn't piss anyone off, but I'm hoping the fact that this little experiment of mine backfired in a good way is enough to make it an interesting story.

My Pea Brain... Thinking.
A few months ago I was a little obsessed with my ranking here and even though I was doing pretty good by many standards, it was frustrating to see the work of some other blogs that were kicking my butt. I mean, I'm a professional. How dare people put those sites with graffiti and cat pictures in their favorites and NOT mine. (I'm kidding a bit here as I realize that my stuff isn't everyone's cup of tea, and come on, who doesn't love a cute picture of a cat? I know I do). Well, I thought to myself, why don't I put up an anonymous photo blog, fill it with mundane subject matter, and see how well it does?

The Method.
Well, I didn't quite conduct the most scientific experiment. I only (at first) put up pictures that I thought were kinda boring and made sure I had a few cat pictures and plenty of flowers in there. If I shot something specifically for the blog, I only shot it horizontal and only shot ONE frame. I tried to comment at other blogs with my other identity and in keeping with the spirit of the experiment, I only commented on pictures I liked and never tried to leave comments just to leave them in hopes that they would be reciprocated with a vote, I also only added about 40 or so favorites to my list to keep it similar to my main blog. Other than that, i just sat back to see what would happen.

The Results.
As you'll find out, I don't really even care what the results are anymore. Anyway, Here it is. After five and a half months of Brooks Blog being listed here, I'm (as of writing this) number 234 with 81 people considering me a favorite. Not bad.
Now the OTHER blog. Fauxtoblog has been listed for two months and has 37 people voting for it. This doesn't really tell us anything other than we're probably about even and the fact that Brooks Blog is always in the top 500 list, gets it a bit more attention.

The REAL Results
Here's the kicker folks. about a month into the experiment, I started to enjoy putting something other than studio portraits up in a blog. I started to look around when I was outside to find something to shoot for the blog that didn't suck. I started to look through slide sheets of old pictures for stuff to scan. In short. I really like the other blog now and plan to link the two together so people can see the other me. I've even toyed with the though of deleting the images at the beginning that were obviously not worthy. I was still putting up shots that don't quite cut it just to make sure it was new every day, but for the most part I've started to think more quality.

The Wrap Up
Those of you who have seen me comment on your blog as Fauxtog and those who have commented on Fauxtoblog please remember that I always commented when I felt moved by the picture or had something to say. If I've commented under both names (check my IPs) you may have noticed the similarities in the types of things I say about a picture. I never critique and never leave a "nice picture" comment. Well, maybe if I was in a big hurry, but rarely.
So, do you hate me photoblogs.org? I hope not. I'm having fun with two photoblogs now and I hope you all visit the lesser known Fauxtoblog to see the other me. I swear that last part is not part of another experiment.

It appears I need to explain that making favorites anonymous is just the first step in a much larger plan for Photoblogs.org.  Here's a basic outline of that plan.  (Of course, things are subject to change, but this is what I'm thinking right now.)

1. Make favorites anonymous. (done) Edit: If you read #5, you'll learn that they'll actually be coming back later, but they'll just be called "bookmarks" instead.  They're anonymous now ONLY as a temporary measure.
2. Remove the Top 10 from the homepage and replace it with an "Editor's Choice" section which basically spotlights a particular blog every week or so.
3. Create a "forgot your password" feature.  (Yes, finally.)
4. Make it so that favorites are no longer part of the ranking process.  The order of the Top 100 will be decided by other means... and keep in mind, the Top 100 will still exist, but it will only be on a back page of Photoblogs.org.
5. Create "bookmarks".  These will be similar to favorites/watchlist, but will act much like del.icio.us (complete with tags).  Edit: Bookmarks will take the place of favorites.  Bookmarks will be visible to everyone.  Bookmarks will have RSS feeds associated with them.
6. Create a system that cleans out old user accounts if they are not in use for a certain number of days.
7. Get rid of favorites/watchlist *completely*.  (People will need to migrate their favorites and watchlist over to bookmarks or they'll lose them.)

When will all of this be done?  I'm not saying.  Frankly, it just depends on how much effort I'm able to put towards programming in my spare time.

Now, I've been giving this a lot of consideration, and I've come to realize that answering Photoblogs.org-related emails takes up a very large portion of my free time.  I get a ton of email every day and answering it makes it hard for me to do any programming.  So here's another question to you all...

How should I deal with all the email?  Should I just ignore it?  Should I create a Photoblogs.org mailing list where I can rely on you all to help me answer repeated questions?  (I'd like to find a solution that doesn't require a huge amount of time for me to implement, but also attempts to answer people's questions.)  Edit: Photoblogs.org will never have a prebuilt forum package such as phpBB, vBulletin, or YaBB on it.  Eventually Photoblogs.org *will* have a forum, but it will be very tightly integrated with the site and not just a 3rd party add on.  So, in the meantime, we really need to come up with a solution to the email problem that *isn't* a forum.

I was under the impression that you could always have >100 favorites before, but that in such cases you would be faceless in your favorite's list.

I'm leaving comments open on this until Brandon asks me to close it.

Frank

This is a can of worms that has been sitting on the back shelf at Photoblogs.org for several months.  I've been hesitant to talk about it, because I'm not sure where things will lead... but recent events are making this a more pressing issue that needs to be dealt with.  In particular, here is an email exchange that I had yesterday with a person whose site I removed from Photoblogs.org earlier that day.  I certainly don't make a habit of posting email conversations to blogs, but I think this particular case warrants it.

After you've read the conversation, I'd like to ask your help in answering the following questions:

• How do you think I should deal with this particular person and this particular incident?
• How do you think I should deal with the larger problem of people manipulating the Photoblogs.org rankings?

Throughout all of this please keep in mind the following things:

• Photoblogs.org isn't run by a staff of paid professionals.  I am really the only person behind-the-scenes.
• Photoblogs.org is a hobby for me.  I already have a great day job, so I can only work on this site in my limited spare time.  (You can read more about this in an older blog post.)
• Photoblogs.org is a free service.  No one is required to pay to be listed here.

Alright, here is the email conversation.  If you have any questions, I'll try my best to answer in the comments below.  (I know one of the big questions is going to be:  "How were the Photoblogs.org rankings manipulated?"  I'm sure we'll get to that in the comments.)

On May 19, 2005 3:53 PM, J. Fervers wrote:

Hi Brandon
why did you remove my blog?
http://dirtblog.vectorwood.de
with about 400 favs?
what the fuck is going on?
i am really pissed.
Regards - Jan

On May 19, 2005 4:10 PM, Brandon Stone wrote:

Your site has been removed because several people marked it for removal.  Specifically, the majority of people specified the following reason:

"Appears to abuse Photoblogs.org ranking system."

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Cheers,

Brandon

On May 19, 2005 4:31 PM, J. Fervers wrote:

Hi Brandon
that's not fair. i never did anything which was not correct. you can't remove this side without checking personal if the reproaches are correct, thats no sign of competence. i think it's the peoples enviousness and nothing else. i am making good photos, i have enquiries from agencies like photonica and more and no photoblog ever had so much favs in such a short time. how much people was it which marked the blog for removal? do you usually remove sides when for example 10 have marked this blog? i will check 10 peops and then kick out your photoblog for example. thats 100% bullshit. put it back to the system or i will start making trouble too, i never did anything abusing the ranking system. quite pissed - Jan

On May 19, 2005 5:05 PM, Brandon Stone wrote:

If you feel that you are being treated unfairly, I suggest we move this conversation to blog.photoblogs.org.  I believe a public discussion about this specific incident will not only be beneficial to you and me, but also to the entire community.

Also, please be aware that I won't hesitate to publicly post this email conversation.

On May 19, 2005 5:13 PM, J. Fervers wrote:

Ok, i think this is a good solution. let's go.

On May 19, 2005 5:27 PM, Brandon Stone wrote:

Alright.  I have a dinner appointment tonight, so I won't be able to move forward on this today.  I'll make the post to the blog sometime tomorrow morning, though.  (Right now it is around 5:30 pm my time.)

-b

On May 19, 2005 5:39 PM, J. Fervers wrote:

Enjoy your meal!
I am really curios how the people will react i think i have a lot of fans.

edit: I fixed the word-wrapping problems with the emails

I just noticed today that the photoblogs.org community has surpassed 10,000 members.

Congratulations from all of your thankful participants Brandon!

Here's to many more years of a community that just keeps growing.