Site situation.

[Malcolm Clarke]

The notice below was published by Ken Wang under "Message Board" back in 2011.
Unfortunately, for some time now, this notification has been ignored by a number of contributors.
In my view, to ignore this is leading to a further loss of interest in the site by the public at large and I suspect numerous members.
This can be seen by a very low level of interest in the forums and a very significant drop in the level of views per image generally.

There is also a significant rise in the number of images uploaded at any one time by rising numbers of contributors, up to 15 uploads from the same visit and the same aircraft. This has resulted over time to certain members having anything up to a hundred images of the same aircraft uploaded to the site.

We also have in the database images of dogs, birds, toys, people, TV images, cars, motorcycles, RC aircraft, for sale signs, parachutes, bombs & missiles, any cropped/proportioned image size, images taken through mesh fencing, plane spotters, contrails, and more!

Perhaps the site has reached a point when it can no longer be seen as a serious aviation website.

As the sole remaining committed Administrator, I am now uncertain of my future interest.

Objective comment would be welcome.

Malcolm.


Posted by Ken Wang, 2011-12-12 13:00:00


Duplicate or identical photos
Recently we have noticed a very disturbing trend: more and more members uploading similar even almost-identical shots to the website. While we still proud ourselves as a no-screening, free uploading site, duplicated shots from same photographer adds no value to the site. Please refrain yourself from doing so.


So we have to emphasize our uploading policy again:
All uploaded photos are subject to screening by our admin team. We reserve the rights to delete any photo in our sole discretion.
Any duplicated or almost-identical shots from the same photographer will be deleted without notice.
Occasionally we will move photos between airport and aircraft section.
Please go through your gallery, check for duplicated or almost-identical shots and delete them. Your help is greatly appreciated.

Let's work together to make this site a better place for our hobby.

[moxy]

It is a shame Malcolm that many ignore the very reasonable uploading guidance given by Ken Wang.

A number of contributors seem to upload many photos purely for the purposes of raising their position in the list of top photographers, not because the photos will be of particular interest to people visiting the site. I believe one or two pictures of the same bog standard Cherokee are enough for anyone. There also seems to be quite a number of aircraft tarpaulins amongst some of the contributor's offerings in the higher echelons of the photographer's list. Unless the aircraft covered is particularly rare this seems entirely pointless.

Personally, in the main I try to limit my pictures to just one of any particular aircraft. Any additional ones are because the subject is at a different airfield, has a revised colour scheme or is taken at a different angle. I have uploaded the odd poor quality picture but only if I believe the subject is of particular interest and maybe no other photos of the particular aeroplane are on the site.

I would suggest anyone who wishes to take pictures of dogs, cats, electricity pylons, whatever, should put them on Flickr and leave this site for what it is intended for, i.e. people that are actually interested in aircraft.

It is sad that few people participate in the forums. I enjoy answering queries about any aspect of aviation and would write my own articles if I believed anyone would read them. Doug's quizzes try to stir up some interest but few respond.

I hope Ken can find some time to resolve some of the technical problems, the airports section, irrelevant messages on the forum etc. These may have contributed to some of the reduction in site usage.

Thanks Malcolm for highlighting this situation, I hope it won't be terminal.

Kind regards
Rob

[moxy]

Further to my previous post, perhaps it would be an idea to change the way the top photographers are graded.

Maybe if instead of it being based on the total number of photos taken by a contributor, it was based on the number of different aircraft identities i.e. tail numbers, registrations, whatever, posted by an individual. It would be interesting to see what effect this would have on the rankings.

Rob

[Malcolm Clarke]

That's an interesting proposal Rob and well worth considering.
To use the photo count makes little sense to me. I have far more aviation photos on my computer than I have uploaded to A-D.

An alternative could be to list contributors on the basis of views per photo.

Also I would prefer to title the list as Leading Photographers or something similar. "Top" has too much of an exclusive ring about it!
Food for thought.

I have a further query regarding what images should qualify for uploading.
One or two recent contributors have uploaded photos that they have purchased on the internet. My understanding has always been that photos should have been taken by the contributor or by someone known to them. To accept such images would surely lead to image submissions from almost any source.

Malcolm.

[topgunphotography]

[moxy]

Thanks Malcolm

I'm not suggesting anyone does but there is a problem with the table being based on number of views. In theory anyone could visit the site without logging in and click on any of their own photos to increase the amount of views.

Regarding the loading of photographs purchased on the internet, I'm not an expert on UK copyright regulations but believe that the purchasing of a photograph does not in itself give the purchaser the right to publish it. That would require written confirmation that the copyright was transferred with the purchase or that the photograph was taken by someone who died at least seventy years prior to publication. Please let me know if I am wrong about this.

If a photographer has authorised an individual to publish any of their photos on this site or others, obviously there is not a problem.

Personally I am interested in all aeroplanes, civil or military and like to see them both on this site.

Best regards

Rob

[cleanmasters]

The number of images uploaded at any one time by rising numbers of contributors, up to 15 uploads from the same visit and the same aircraft. This has resulted over time to certain members having anything up to a hundred images of the same aircraft uploaded to the site.

We also have in the database images of dogs, birds, toys, people, TV images, cars, motorcycles, RC aircraft, for sale signs, parachutes, bombs & missiles, any cropped/proportioned image size, images taken through mesh fencing, plane spotters, contrails, and more!




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