When I come to photoblogs.org I often take a look at other local (german) photoblogs. Overall I must say, the list is growing faster and faster and I don't remember every blog in the list, I already visited in the past. And it becomes difficulty to notice new entries in a list of over 150 blogs.

So, Brandon, that question goes especially to you: Would it be possible to sort these lists by name, age on photoblogs.org, clicks, or favourites? This would make it easier to find new pearls.

Dirk from Staring @ the Sun

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:

• Would be randomily picked from the database, and rotated daily (automated)
• You would have to enable your account to be elidgable for this, and link to a picture that you would like to have thumbnailed (and ultimatetly linked to) from your photoblog.
• Accounts that are in the Top 100 would not be eligable.

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.

In the current post about the server issues, a few people suggested setting up a Photoblogs.org Print Shop. It wouldn't help the current problems, but might be helpful for a long term revenue source. That is why I posted it seperately, per Brandon's suggestion in that thread. Is this doable and feasable? Are enough people interested in spending some time and effort to actually make it work? Here are a few questions that come to mind:

Where would it be located? host, server, etc.

Who would run/manage it? Brandon already has too much on his plate.

How would it be set up? Selling only prints, or perhaps a revamp of the calendar idea could be added.

Where would the money go? All to help Photoblogs.org stay afloat, or some back to the memebers.

I personally, like the idea, and would gladly donate a print or two with the intention of the profits going to Photoblogs.org. Also, in the future maybe donations of a certain amount to Photoblogs.org could get a free print, to encourage others outside the community to buy/donate as well?

I'm sure you all have much more to add, so discuss!

Well... it looks like the Photoblogs.org server cannot continue to handle the amount of traffic that it's getting.  We've basically hit the limit.

Now what?

I've been receiving an increasing number of emails about nudity and sexual content on Photoblogs.org, so it looks like this is a topic that needs to be addressed.  Right now there is no official Photoblogs.org policy that tries to dictate content guidelines, so I figured I'd just throw this out and let you share your thoughts.

Should we only allow sites with certain types of content to be listed here?

Should we create some sort of content rating system?  If so, how can we make such a system work effectively?

Is this as an important issue that needs to be dealt with immediately?

Update: After reading the comments, I've decided that the answer to the above 3 questions is: no, no, and no. There won't be any content guidelines, there won't be any content rating system, and this isn't a terribly pressing issue that needs to be dealt with immediately. Further, if any particularly "bad" websites show up on Photoblogs.org, then we'll deal with them on a case by case basis.

I've made a couple of changes to the Photoblogs.org profile pages...

Many of the favorites lists were getting quite long, so I've moved them off of the profiles and onto their own separate pages.  For example, David's profile is much shorter now.  There used to be a list of over 1,000 favorites on that page, but now you can see them by following the new link in his profile that says "X members consider this a favorite".  Of course, this change also applies to everyone else's profiles, as well.

You'll also notice that I've added Google text ads at the bottom of each profile.  Hopefully these will be unobtrusive and relevant to the content of the pages.  I've been very hesitant about advertising on Photoblogs.org, but now it's time to consider the increasing costs involved in maintaining this site.

Photoblogs.org just continues to grow at a steady pace, so I'm doing what I can to keep it chugging along.

If you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to add comments below.

Here's another thing that would help make this a better site...  I've been getting several requests to post information to the blog regarding different photography projects and events.  Unfortunately, I'm having trouble finding the time to make these posts.

Are there any blog contributors out there who wouldn't mind helping me with this?  I figured I could just forward these things on to you and you could post them.  Let me know if you're willing to help.

P.S. -- I know that I have about a dozen contributors that I still need to give access to the blog.  I haven't forgotten you!  As you can probably tell, I'm really trying to rearrange my obligations and workflow so that I can make better use of my time.  Hopefully I'm moving in the right direction. Thanks for bearing with me.

You've probably noticed lately that the feature articles haven't been coming up exactly once per month on Photoblogs.org.  In fact, there isn't even one on the homepage right now.

My wife, Ashleigh, has been writing the articles regularly for a year... but now that she's about to give birth to our son she can't realistically be expected to keep that pace.

So... what are our options?  I've considered paying writers to do interviews, but I'm not exactly sure what a decent rate is.  Also, I'm a little hesitant to go down that path since I really don't want to be a publisher/editor... I'm really happiest as a computer-programmer-geek-person.  On the other hand, I personally really enjoy reading these types of articles.

What are your thoughts on this?  Should we continue the features?  If so, how?

Thank you Brandon and Ashleigh for all of your efforts to develop photoblogs.org into the best photography town square on the web.  Best wishes for 2005.

The recent post from Joe Cunningham about the Ten Links section on his site really got me thinking. Mainly, it got me thinking about how a person could use del.icio.us to create such a list. In fact, it looks like Heather Champ is doing just that for the "Fabulous Elsewhere" section on her homepage.

Now, this really got me to thinking...  If we all did something similar using del.icio.us, we could create our own collaborative feed of noteworthy photoblog posts.

Here is what I propose...

1. We all get accounts on del.icio.us and familiarize ourselves with how it works and what it does.  (I'm sure many of us have already completed this step.)
2. We all start bookmarking our favorite photoblog posts using del.icio.us.
3. We all follow the same tagging method as we bookmark these posts.  I suggest that we use the tag: "photoblog-posts".  So... every time we add a bookmark to an interesting photoblog post, we make sure to tag it with photoblog-posts.  This part is very important, because this is what puts all our bookmarks in the same RSS feed.
4. We check the photoblog-posts feed to see what people are bookmarking: http://del.icio.us/tag/photoblog-posts
5. Eventually, once this thing gains enough momentum we can check the popular version of the feed to see what's "hot" right now. http://del.icio.us/popular/photoblog-posts
6. You can add any of these feeds to your favorite RSS reader.
7. I will eventually integrate these feeds directly into Photoblogs.org, so that a larger audience can see what's being bookmarked.
8. Also, you can add your own feed to your own photoblog (like Heather did) to show everyone what you're into at the moment.

I'm very excited about this idea, and I'm sure it can work if enough of us participate.  The end result is that we will create a deeper view into the countless number of amazing photoblog posts that occur every day and are so often overlooked.

We'll eventually want to explain and document this idea a little better using the wiki.  In the meantime, though, let me know what you think.

I'll be checking the photoblog-posts feed for updates!