JD:

*cobblers truncated*

Edited 'cos I really can't be bothered today.

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Si
DCM
spiritflier.com
My Flickr
BPITW x 4

Spiritflier:

JD:

*cobblers truncated*

Edited 'cos I really can't be bothered today.

I'll take that as your agreement and full acceptance of all terms, then.

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James De Vile
digitalcameramagazine.co.uk
Future Publishing

JD:

Spiritflier:

JD:

*cobblers truncated*

Edited 'cos I really can't be bothered today.

I'll take that as your agreement and full acceptance of all terms, then.

No, not really JD... It's more a case of my initial reply to yours being made BEFORE I'd stuck a nicotine patch on - Hence the reason for my edit . With hindsight, I decided that maybe I'd been too hard on you although your comment along the lines of "for your inclusion into the hall of fame to be warranted, take a good photograph" was grossly unfair and really pi**ed me off - especially since I consider some of my shots to be of a high enough standard to qualify and apparently, so do a few others too judging by the kind comments people leave!

In fact, there are loads and loads of regular contributors to this forum who take outstanding shots but who never seem to deserve a mention and I think that what winds a lot of people up is that there has been a tendency to dip into a very small pool of photographers.

This forum is generally a happy place to be but I suppose like all things, it takes a while for those running this place to realise its true value. I know it's provided as a goodwill addition to the magazine but if something like this exists, the effort has to be made to maintain it properly and fairly... I guess that's where you come in.

Best wishes,

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Si
DCM
spiritflier.com
My Flickr
BPITW x 4

Indeed Si, and more reasons to add to the list of why i have lost interest in this place.

Rgds

Dave

David Constable:

Indeed Si, and more reasons to add to the list of why i have lost interest in this place.

It's not that bad...is it?

Yes it would be nice if we had a new picture everyday to keep to the title of POTD

but hey its just one minor glitch?

Maybe change it to POTW ?

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not this one particular incident no, but its a culmination of things that have slowly seen this site plummet into somewhere i pop into rather than spend most of my time.

When i first started in Digital photography i subscribed to the mag and used the forums heavily. A few incidents and lack of interaction by the staff have seen the site just plod on rather than being used as a tool to enhance the mag.

Don't believe me ? go to sites such as DSLR User Magazine or Digital Photographer. Staff writers will regularly contribute to uploaded shots and will contact YOU if they want to use your material in the mag. The only thing that to my mind holds those sites back is the lack of real community something DC Mag still has and yet magazine staff seem to overlook constantly.

POTD in its last incarnation was seen as a bit of a feather in the cap. However slimey people manipulated their gallieries to remain high and some moaned that the same photographers appeared several times a week. Quite why, as it was called "Reader Pic Of The Day" i could never quite understand. Said slimey people already mentioned, then began to 1 star vote galleries of obvious quality so that their shots stood a better chance of getting a front page slot ... pathetic but a reality. Check the phantom 1 star thread if its still available its a real eye opener.

It then changed to the staff picking the POTDs and MPOTDs and more interaction and involvement was promised. 2 weeks later that slipped and shots would spend days on the front page. We even saw POTD shots on a monday repeated on a Friday so in effect the same shot was repeated as a POTD TWICE in the same week, which just smacks of poor communication and apathy. We were also promised a new website/forum ... tick tock tick tock

Then along comes JD, no doubt with the best intentions saying that he is going to picking the main page shots and promising more involvement. Less than 10 days into his reign and the shots don't change. Now i am not digging him out as he has explained why, but i think the moral of the story is don't promise what you can't deliver especially in view of what has gone on before, it just disappoints people.

Personally i now think that the POTD is a complete waste of time, it means nothing anymore due to the obvious apathy that went into selecting the days shots. God some shots that were on the front page barely got a single comment they were that bad. If you read the mag you see regular tutorials about composition etc etc and rules to apply like don't break an horizon etc etc but shots displayed on the front page regularly breached what they preached. I accept that some shots can break the rule of thirds etc but some were positively dire.

POTD has lost the kudos it once had and it may as well be scrapped. Just my thoughts. Hope this explains where i am coming from

Rgds

Dave

I have to agree with David and Si’s comments

Lets scrap the 4 POTD theme it’s surly not a fair comparison of the good work from the members galleries.

Why not just display a single photo however every time you refresh the page you get another photo from a pool of say 20 shots ……we could call it Readers Photographs of the Day.

So what blows you away JD…… is it Landscapes, Nature, Macro it can’t be motor bikes ….nobody at DCM likes motor bikes.

 I may take a good photograph but unless it blows you away it’s never going to be on the front page of the web site ……come on we need a better way of choosing POTD

 

Rant over going back to quite mode

Cheers David

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The Best Photographer In The World 29th & 30th Sep 2007, 27th & 28th Oct 2007

Browndogs Gallery

My Flickr Stuff

browndog:

So what blows you away JD…… is it Landscapes, Nature, Macro it can’t be motor bikes ….nobody at DCM likes motor bikes.

 I may take a good photograph but unless it blows you away it’s never going to be on the front page of the web site ……come on we need a better way of choosing POTD

David,
Take a look at the front page right now - there's a portrait, a cityscape, a girl holding flowers and someone jumping. The day before, we had a snow scene, a sink and a tractor. I wouldn't call myself a fan of sinks or tractors, and in fact I'd much prefer to ride a motorbike than a tractor. I haven't seen any shots of motorbikes uploaded in the last two weeks, but if that's your thing, please upload some new shots and I will consider them equally. To me, the subject matter is irrelevant - I'm looking for a well taken photo with good focus, composition and style.

Someone posted a macro of some roadkill a few days ago. It was sharp, in focus and interesting, though I felt it was a little too processed to get a POTD.

I didn't have to be a fan of dead animals to like the photo, though.

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James De Vile
digitalcameramagazine.co.uk
Future Publishing

Spiritflier:

It's more a case of my initial reply to yours being made BEFORE I'd stuck a nicotine patch on -

Completely off topic Si, but I highly recommend this book - worked for me and many others. I have bought it for several friends and family and I reckon it has worked on 60% of people with, bizarrely, a better success rate with men than women.

In fact, I'll make a deal with you, if you pm me your address, I'll get the book to you. If you succeed in stopping smoking by reading it you donate 1 months cigarette bill to cancer research.

What do you think?

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Pete B(BPITW -5 times)
http://www.christianblandford.com/
DCM
flickr

JD:

browndog:

So what blows you away JD…… is it Landscapes, Nature, Macro it can’t be motor bikes ….nobody at DCM likes motor bikes.

 I may take a good photograph but unless it blows you away it’s never going to be on the front page of the web site ……come on we need a better way of choosing POTD

David,
Take a look at the front page right now - there's a portrait, a cityscape, a girl holding flowers and someone jumping. The day before, we had a snow scene, a sink and a tractor. I wouldn't call myself a fan of sinks or tractors, and in fact I'd much prefer to ride a motorbike than a tractor. I haven't seen any shots of motorbikes uploaded in the last two weeks, but if that's your thing, please upload some new shots and I will consider them equally. To me, the subject matter is irrelevant - I'm looking for a well taken photo with good focus, composition and style.

Someone posted a macro of some roadkill a few days ago. It was sharp, in focus and interesting, though I felt it was a little too processed to get a POTD.

I didn't have to be a fan of dead animals to like the photo, though.

JD

I think your missing the point; I am not complaining that you haven’t chosen one of my photos for POTD or your choice of photos; it’s that you need a better way of displaying our photographs. Take a look at Flickr who publish 500 photos a day or ephotozine who publish 100 + readers galleries and other magazine sites so why can’t DCM do something similar. What is the point in publishing photos into a gallery on the off chance that one person my think one of the shots is worthy for POTD?

Cheers David

 

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The Best Photographer In The World 29th & 30th Sep 2007, 27th & 28th Oct 2007

Browndogs Gallery

My Flickr Stuff

JD:

It was sharp, in focus and interesting, though I felt it was a little too processed to get a POTD.

Welcome JD always good to have new blood (get pressing those red buttons) and I've agreed with a lot that you've said.....though the above line is a little disconcerting considering that this is a Digital photography forum which is connected to a mag that every month shows masses of processing techniques and some quite over the top effects. I'm hoping you mean the shot mentioned was extremely processed .....what's your view on HDR out of interest. Not that I'm going to panda to any views for a POTD.  I certainly don't envy your job trying to answer the moans/comments in this thread. Glad to see you're doing it from Recently posted though.

Cheers

Dave

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BPITW won 7 times.

My Flickr gallery

browndog:

JD:

browndog:

So what blows you away JD…… is it Landscapes, Nature, Macro it can’t be motor bikes ….nobody at DCM likes motor bikes.

 I may take a good photograph but unless it blows you away it’s never going to be on the front page of the web site ……come on we need a better way of choosing POTD

David,
Take a look at the front page right now - there's a portrait, a cityscape, a girl holding flowers and someone jumping. The day before, we had a snow scene, a sink and a tractor. I wouldn't call myself a fan of sinks or tractors, and in fact I'd much prefer to ride a motorbike than a tractor. I haven't seen any shots of motorbikes uploaded in the last two weeks, but if that's your thing, please upload some new shots and I will consider them equally. To me, the subject matter is irrelevant - I'm looking for a well taken photo with good focus, composition and style.

Someone posted a macro of some roadkill a few days ago. It was sharp, in focus and interesting, though I felt it was a little too processed to get a POTD.

I didn't have to be a fan of dead animals to like the photo, though.

JD

I think your missing the point; I am not complaining that you haven’t chosen one of my photos for POTD or your choice of photos; it’s that you need a better way of displaying our photographs. Take a look at Flickr who publish 500 photos a day or ephotozine who publish 100 + readers galleries and other magazine sites so why can’t DCM do something similar. What is the point in publishing photos into a gallery on the off chance that one person my think one of the shots is worthy for POTD?

Cheers David

I agree that we need some way to bring more shots to the forefront and get them seen. The POTD is a bit like Flickr's internally-chosen front page shot that surrounds the Flickr logo - Flickr's a huge site, yet it only chooses a carousel of 2-3 images for the front page per month.

I'd welcome your thoughts on better ways to display photographs - believe it or not I've learnt a lot from this thread about people's frustrations, loyalties and concerns, and have taken all of them into account. I will be making some poll threads over the next few weeks in order to make a list of 'ideal changes' to the usability and community aspects of the site and forum.

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James De Vile
digitalcameramagazine.co.uk
Future Publishing

Inevitably you will never please all of the people all of the time, but i think a good start is more consistency over all aspects of the site. I think if people can see that whoever is involved from the mag side of things is trying to do the right thing for the right reasons that will be enough.

I think you will have to agree there has been a distinct air of apathy from the mag and its staff writers. If you could take on the plus points of the other mags i have mentioned and accept that whoever gets involved with the web side of things has to do it full time rather than dipping in and out, then this would be far and away the best Mag/Website/Forum combination anywhere.

Rgds

Dave

wow wee this makes for some good reading, i agree with david and simon about the whole potd thing, but i also want to add the i think if we are changing for the better then perhaps POTD could have more space on the front page! Also perhaps as has already been mentioned just the one pic but with 4 in rotation (if that makes sense)

Maybe set up a poll for the next month to find out what people might want

Same system with POTD

Bigger POTD with a pool of photos

Picture of the week

or featured Gallery of the week (just thought of that hence not mentioned earlier )

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TBPITW 7 times

I wonder if it could be done by us perhaps save JD a job , look through the recently changed galleries perhaps first 3 pages and see if we as forum users could choose an RPOTD

Simple Rules, post the chosen pic between 9:00am - 9:15am gmt with the date and the name of the gallery in the post.

I will start for today (although it is evening lol)

24/01/08

Chesters Gallery

http://community.dcmag.co.uk/photos/chesters_gallery/category188582/picture691466.aspx

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TBPITW 7 times