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Just wanted to post a thread in here to open up discussion on Photo of the Day and the Splash Page. A few of you guys have some questions regarding how photos get picked, what dimensions your photos need to have to be selected, as well as some comments regarding the splash page. So lets use this thread to condense information!
SklarI don't think that is the bottom line at all. Changing the minimum resolution will have a great impact, and it's imperative to tell us photographers what resolution our photos need to be, sounds pretty simple to me. The lack of clarity has already caused confusion and missed POTD's for photographer like Jamie and myself.
Here's what I don't understand -
Why is having that information directly within the upload form not enough information? I honestly don't know how to communicate it better, and need your assistance as to why you've never seen it before.
SklarAs for the photographers program, thanks for telling us about the monetization, or lack thereof.... oh wait, definitely was never told that. The lack of transparency and communication has been really poor, but that's a discussion for another time and place.
I take full responsibility for the piss poor communication that has come out of us this year. We had such immense changes to staffing, and took on some massive projects which led us into a dark hole of backlog. I didn't design the communication infrastructure correctly to make sure decisions were radiated outwards.
From here on in - we're assigning heads of each program who will be responsible for communicating what is happening. The cults (Photographer, Journalist and Producer) will be where all the internal discussions of people who are interested in joining up happen. We encourage you to pose questions if you see something out of place, and we'll do our best to make sure we're pushing information downward.
The good news for photogs as mentioned in a few other posts is that the photos are all still part of the Yearbook process, and you guys should get paid out pretty good for anything that makes it in there.
Mr.BishopMASSIVE mis-conception here. These programs are not direct payments for views, they are revenue share based off of advertising that runs on your content. We split the rev we make 50/50 with the content contributor - so when ads don't run on a page there is no rev split to be paid - just like we don't make any revenue off the page.
Also note, views on the Splash page do count. The difference is whether the splash page is displayed to all visitors by default or not - that what is accounting for the major discrepancies. Most of you guys probably have this setting chosen in your account so you never notice the difference. Note, just yesterday it was re-enabled by default so view counts will jump immensely.
Also finally the splash page views were paid last year. We put that in as an incentive and basically said the same logic - where we needed to figure out monetization and we wanted compensation for the guys who got the gold.
Do also note the biggest reason that the photography program was on hold this year is that photographers got paid the lions share of the yearbook contributor budget. Every time you put a photo in the system, its a contribution towards the yearbook and if you get in there you get paid pretty good. I admit, this was flawed overall logic, and something we'll address.
Thanks for clearing this up...I am new to the photo program as of this year and to be honest -nothing- was really explained. I had no idea that there was any monetization part of it at all until I was talking to Gavin Rudy about it.
Why no login box on the splash page any more? Logging in quickly is more important to me than viewing the POTD, but if there is a login box on the splash page then that's something else to look at so that's what I currently bookmark. If there is to be no login box on the splash page then I'll change my bookmark to https://www.newschoolers.com/home meaning no more POTD to look at unless I go out of my way to visit the splash page.
Why is having that information directly within the upload form not enough information? I honestly don't know how to communicate it better, and need your assistance as to why you've never seen it before.
Look:
Doug, My photo of Noah was uploaded with dimensions of 2000px by 3000px, and was still skipped for "Bad Picture Width" that day:
It sounded like there possibly was some change recently that the 1000px minimum isn't the actual minimum? Or portrait images need to have a different size?
**This post was edited on May 27th 2014 at 10:19:55am
BoaxWhy no login box on the splash page any more? Logging in quickly is more important to me than viewing the POTD, but if there is a login box on the splash page then that's something else to look at so that's what I currently bookmark. If there is to be no login box on the splash page then I'll change my bookmark to https://www.newschoolers.com/home meaning no more POTD to look at unless I go out of my way to visit the splash page.
Looks like it's a display resolution (height) issue. The top bar appears on my 1680x1050 screen but not on my 1280x800 one. The top of the image (not the top of the login bar) is aligned to the top of the browser window. Same issue in Firefox and Chrome.
It's still there, floating off the top of the screen with the cursor in the normal place, it's just not visible. If I'm not logged in I can go to the splashpage and hit return to log me in because my password is saved. So not actually a big deal for me but you should think about fixing this. Look at your stats for screen resolution; screens under 1000px tall make up enough of a share of visitors that they should still be considered.
ItoThanks for clearing this up...I am new to the photo program as of this year and to be honest -nothing- was really explained. I had no idea that there was any monetization part of it at all until I was talking to Gavin Rudy about it.
Yeah well we didn't manage to launch that part of it before the season ended, which is why you didn't hear about it. We neither managed to do it nor tell people we weren't doing it, so I understand that there is some frustration going around. Super sorry, and we will be way more transparent in the future.
BoaxWhy no login box on the splash page any more? Logging in quickly is more important to me than viewing the POTD, but if there is a login box on the splash page then that's something else to look at so that's what I currently bookmark. If there is to be no login box on the splash page then I'll change my bookmark to https://www.newschoolers.com/home meaning no more POTD to look at unless I go out of my way to visit the splash page.
Oops... bug.
Walter.1337Doug, My photo of Noah was uploaded with dimensions of 2000px by 3000px, and was still skipped for "Bad Picture Width" that day:
It sounded like there possibly was some change recently that the 1000px minimum isn't the actual minimum? Or portrait images need to have a different size?
**This post was edited on May 27th 2014 at 10:19:55am
Ah fucking jesus.... this was a mistake. It was part of the whole idea of making it the entire screen, which was a miserable failure. We were testing minimum widths and it got deployed like that. Super sorry. I'm going to ensure it changes back - though it should already be like that.
BoaxWhy no login box on the splash page any more? Logging in quickly is more important to me than viewing the POTD, but if there is a login box on the splash page then that's something else to look at so that's what I currently bookmark. If there is to be no login box on the splash page then I'll change my bookmark to https://www.newschoolers.com/home meaning no more POTD to look at unless I go out of my way to visit the splash page.
Bug. Addressed, go check it.
Walter.1337Doug, My photo of Noah was uploaded with dimensions of 2000px by 3000px, and was still skipped for "Bad Picture Width" that day:
It sounded like there possibly was some change recently that the 1000px minimum isn't the actual minimum? Or portrait images need to have a different size?
**This post was edited on May 27th 2014 at 10:19:55am
Bug, also addressed and in the photo upload page the text has been updated.
Its now 1000px minimum for horizontal, and 500px minimum for Vertical.
- I like how you reverted back to the stationary full photo.
- I think there should be a login box at the top, for people who have multiple accounts (company vs personal) (like the photo mousseau posted above)
Here is my biggest qualm.
To view the VOTD, Article of the Day, and whatever the other box is you have to scroll down aka most people just click the picture and don't scroll.
Personally, I think the videos and articles gain a lot more attention when they're in eye-sight on the splash page. If not, most people don't go out of their way to look in the news section, yet if they see something right away (key word) they're more likely to take a gander.
Maybe move them to the top? or to the side in a vertical line?
- I like how you reverted back to the stationary full photo.
- I think there should be a login box at the top, for people who have multiple accounts (company vs personal) (like the photo mousseau posted above)
Here is my biggest qualm.
To view the VOTD, Article of the Day, and whatever the other box is you have to scroll down aka most people just click the picture and don't scroll.
Personally, I think the videos and articles gain a lot more attention when they're in eye-sight on the splash page. If not, most people don't go out of their way to look in the news section, yet if they see something right away (key word) they're more likely to take a gander.
Maybe move them to the top? or to the side in a vertical line?
Yeah we see that too. The vertical one is banger for those, but a lot of the photos have been horizontal. On a big monitor its pretty good, but I think we're going to play with it being overlaid on the photo at the bottom and see how it looks.
You can log in, that was a bug. Refresh your cache.
ThaLoraxThis new Splash Page is sooooooooooooooooo much better. Only thing I would change now is bringing back the ability to log in from it.
Much better! I don't think you even need to put VOTD on the Splash page. I like how clean it is right now. No need to ad clutter. Feature them on the main site like Pinkbike does. As long as there's a sick picture to get people to click, then the next thing they should see is the VOTD/article of the day, etc.
ThaLoraxMuch better! I don't think you even need to put VOTD on the Splash page. I like how clean it is right now. No need to ad clutter. Feature them on the main site like Pinkbike does. As long as there's a sick picture to get people to click, then the next thing they should see is the VOTD/article of the day, etc.
I still really want to try and incorporate the VOTD into the splash page. It looks so sick when we have a vertical photo, and we don't (without re-designing) have a spot for it on the Homepage.
We just made a small adjustment that will make this work better on smaller screens. See how you like this for a week or two and we can go back to the drawing board if we see any future issues.
Mr.BishopIts a great issue to bring up about photo theft. Its a massive problem all across the internet - as is the problem that photographers don't realize their signing over the rights to their photos when they upload to services like Facebook and Instagram. Rights management is a disaster, and we all need to wake up and work towards a system that pushes compensation vs. paranoid hoarding of photos that never go anywhere
Yes, we sign them to the company but it isn't the company that okays the useage. I understand they have the right to use it but these instances were straight theft with no FB as a middleman like the T&Cs say they can.
RileySnyderPhotoYes, we sign them to the company but it isn't the company that okays the useage. I understand they have the right to use it but these instances were straight theft with no FB as a middleman like the T&Cs say they can.
Anyways, I am with you
So you're saying the 'google images' issue basically... where people need a cool ski image and just grab whatever they can find? If its high rez then it increases the chances that they'll just snag it?
Interesting.
Still, I think that the future solution is frictionless licensing. How to accomplish that, I don't yet know. Great topic to bring up in the photographers cult, as I'd love to be a part of solving this issue.
ThaLoraxYou guys have had some serious ADD with changing the splash page formats.
Well, it now automatically changes between portrait and landscape, so you will see that change depending on what format the POTD is.
In terms of the big picture changes - yes, we have been making a lot of them. We've been trying to find something that works for a few different issues we wanted to address, and some of the experiments have worked better than others.
The full screen photo was terrible, and much worse than the original splash page. This current version is much better than both of those, but I still don't think its perfect.
For the time being we'll run with this and see if we get any other tweaks that might make it better. The big breakthrough was how we're handling the vertical photos - that has always been the killer for every iteration of the splash page we've ever tried.
Mr.BishopThat has been the hardest part to solve... how do you get one layout that can look good with both horizontal and vertical photos?
Realizing we simply couldn't solve this and then making two different ones I think was a game changer.
The main issue is also most computer monitors are 16:9 anymore and for some reason, camera companies make the sensors in a 3:2 ratio. This is the big thing causing all these problems imho.
RileySnyderPhotoThe main issue is also most computer monitors are 16:9 anymore and for some reason, camera companies make the sensors in a 3:2 ratio. This is the big thing causing all these problems imho.
And to further this issue, in print the most popular frame sizes and cheapest prints come in 4:5 ratios (8x10, 11x14, etc)
Mr.BishopWell, it now automatically changes between portrait and landscape, so you will see that change depending on what format the POTD is.
In terms of the big picture changes - yes, we have been making a lot of them. We've been trying to find something that works for a few different issues we wanted to address, and some of the experiments have worked better than others.
The full screen photo was terrible, and much worse than the original splash page. This current version is much better than both of those, but I still don't think its perfect.
For the time being we'll run with this and see if we get any other tweaks that might make it better. The big breakthrough was how we're handling the vertical photos - that has always been the killer for every iteration of the splash page we've ever tried.
Just wanted to say I really like it right now! I think its a good way to go about it, plus it gives videos (VOD?) a chance to make a bigger appearance with the vertical photo. I'm a fan, good work!
Mr.BishopSo you're saying the 'google images' issue basically... where people need a cool ski image and just grab whatever they can find? If its high rez then it increases the chances that they'll just snag it?
Interesting.
Still, I think that the future solution is frictionless licensing. How to accomplish that, I don't yet know. Great topic to bring up in the photographers cult, as I'd love to be a part of solving this issue.
In terms of theft, how hard is it to implement a system where you tick a box when uploading your image, and it means that like on flickr it is protected from right clicking and doing save as. I think the opportunity to choose whether or not they are protected is quite important, as for example with my photos as I do not plan to monetise from them I don't mind sharing them with other people to allow them to use as backgrounds.
For new layout ideas for landscape, I have an idea for what it could look like, if it works out ill take a picture and upload it here tomorrow morning.
MLJIn terms of theft, how hard is it to implement a system where you tick a box when uploading your image, and it means that like on flickr it is protected from right clicking and doing save as. I think the opportunity to choose whether or not they are protected is quite important, as for example with my photos as I do not plan to monetise from them I don't mind sharing them with other people to allow them to use as backgrounds.
For new layout ideas for landscape, I have an idea for what it could look like, if it works out ill take a picture and upload it here tomorrow morning.
Well first off, disabling right click - save as doesn't in the slightest bit protect that photo. Makes it a touch harder, but anyone can easily google how to get it.
The algorithm actually has a minimum 'wilson score' requirement. So when we don't have something within the past 7 days that has a high enough Wilson Score, we go deeper to the last 14. If nothing from there, then to 21, 30 and 365.