Poor software for creating presentations

[antoniobassiphotography]

<p>Hi everyone,<br>

I wanted to point out some problems regarding the presentations I believe should be solved ASAP. Uploading images: no possibility to see thumbnails that would make the upload process much easier and faster, maybe with a drag-and-drop or just using the same system is used to delete or move multiple images. Right now there is only a list to pick from that doesn't even follow the order of folders and photos. This is a problem for me, because I often don't give titles to my photos and have absolutely no way to recognize single photos in the list unless I see them. Same problem when I have to delete a single image from the presentation.<br>

I hope this post will trigger an interest in taking this issue under consideration.<br>

Thank you</p>

[newland]

<p>Hi Antonio, I can see where your coming from! but it is good practice to name all your images for all sorts of reasons.... I learnt the hard way.</p>

[johncrosley]

<p>Antonio Basssi,</p>

<p>As creator of perhaps Photo.net's largest presentation and one that is still in progress, I first made your suggestion five years ago. I have made it repeatedly ever since.</p>

<p>Photo.net is aware of the problem, and to date, it has not said it is even anywhere on the priority list.</p>

<p>I would very much like to see the changes you described implemented. I feel that when Photo.net made changing the order of presentation in your folders possible, then changing the presentation order of your folders, they felt they had gone far enough, and that no one reads Presentations anyway.</p>

<p>It may be a tautological sort of thing: If everyone is discouraged from making them, they won't make them and no one will come to read them, and conversely, one can argue, if the software is in place and usable easily, Presentations may proliferate, and they may become a rich Photo.net treasure.</p>

<p>I have received wonderful feedback on mine, with members without urging posting periodic liniks to it with recommendations it is a 'must read' (thank you Lannie)/ It badly needs updating, which I'm willing to do when software is in place so I can choose which photos to delete and which to upload, out of my portfolio of 1560+ photos.</p>

<p>It is next to impossible to do so by photo name currently -- I remember images, not image names which have marginal relationship to reality. </p>

<p>Further needed is the ability to order the photos within the presentation itself other than by the current method (one up, one down, and so forth, recognizing them only by name, (not thumbnail) assuming that has not changed -- I didn't just go look).</p>

<p>I wish you luck with your suggestion; with so many changes on Administration's front burner, I think it will be a very cold day in Hades before the suggested changes get made, but if others wish to create (or amend) Presentations, then perhaps the pressure to change will be on. I just figured I was a minority of a very tiny minority, and it was decided my periodic requests would be ignored.</p>

<p>john<br />John (Crosley)</p>

[antoniobassiphotography]

<p><strong>John </strong><br>

I know your excellent presentation on backgrounds very well and I find it educational and very inspiring. You are right, if the right software was created, even beta, presentations would probably proliferate (maybe after a short period of advertisement on the newsletter or even on the front page) and they would become a great source of information and inspiration for many and an opportunity to show a body of work organized in a way that it is impossible to achieve only with folders. It's hard to organize photos in folders, as some fit well together for some aspects but don't really match for others; presentations would allow to create different matches that follow specific ideas or messages or concepts.<br>

They could even have a POM (Presentation of the Month) or yearly presentation contests (2 or 3), with prizes and stuff, sponsored by the big names or even by agencies that are looking for new talented photographers. Such contests would be of great encouragement to go out and shoot according to a specific project in mind, which is a great exercise (PN is about learning, right?). I am not in the position of suggesting management ideas to PN but it doesn't take to be a genius to understand the potential of presentations if supported by an adequate software and marketing.<br>

I can't believe you put that huge presentation together without an adequate software, I would never have the time to do that.</p>

[johncrosley]

<p>Antonio Bassi,</p>

<p>I did it with existing software, and with love.</p>

<p>With so many wonderful comments I have received about its value, as I am about to embark on an exhibition/museum/publishing career, it is a publishing resource -- a manuscript waiting to be printed, almost, with just some rewriting, editing, and updating.</p>

<p>Landrum Kelley deserves special thanks for enthusiastically sending people to it with links in comments for which I am most thankful, yet it remains unfinished -- the software it just unworkable. Even so, I think it is Photo.net's largest. Perhaps members complete it themselves when they get to the unfinsihed portions . . . . as by then they have learned what I had to teach them. Still it MUST be updated, here or in publication.</p>

<p>Frankly, I could have created ten book-length projects, maybe even publishable, through 'Presentations' if the software had been in place and workable, and they might have been nearly as good as that one, but I await improvements, perhaps forever. </p>

<p>In the meantime, changes have taken place that are great, and this site is to be commended, not derogated, for prioritizing. They cannot know that fixing 'presentation software' will add a new dimension to their site, OR, they may have determined it's not a good commercial bet for limited resources in a time of need and change.</p>

<p>We can only make our needs known.</p>

<p>I'm not in on the process, and my requests stretch back far into the previous Administration, which was SEVERELY underhanded and engaged in serious 'member difficulties' with much 'member misconduct' which now mainly has been fixed to help free up the now larger Adminstration staff for different tasks.</p>

<p>But there seem to be more members, more advertising, more plans for the future, and enough PN work to keep all the staff's one-armed paperhangers busy. I can't fault them for not catering to me (or you) and our expressed needs, though in the end, if Presentations lead to publication, such work might put PN on the road to academic and other respectability that currently is missing. </p>

<p>For sure, the talent is here, the energy, the attention, and access to the photos on the Internet.</p>

<p>For me, with the changes you suggest and ready access to my posted photos with over ten thousand mostly helpful and many insightful projecs, the creation of new Presentations -- potentially of great educational value -- seems a terrific synergy and almost a certainty, at least for me.</p>

<p>john</p>

<p>John (Crosley)</p>

[joshroot]

<p>Yes, presentations are a neglected aspect of the site. Yes, I would like to improve them. But there are more pressing issues in front of me right now. I will make it a goal to see what can be done with presentations. But I have no timeframe that I could promise.</p>

[newland]

<p>Point taken, you can't name 1560+ photos, it would be nice to have this implemented...</p>

[antoniobassiphotography]

<p><strong>Josh</strong><br>

I think you guys have been doing a lot of good things in the last few years. No timeframe expected, thank you for taking the issue under consideration, I am sure it will be properly taken care of.</p>

[aarkp]

<p>I look forward to the revitalization of this moribund tool... Presentations can be an extremely powerful means of communication</p>

[antoniobassiphotography]

<p><strong>Rajat</strong><br>

Thank you for your support and... spread the word!</p>

[johncrosley]

<p>Josh,</p>

<p>I also am a fan of nearly all improvments made to this site, and certainly not a critic of any.</p>

<p>I do not ask for special attention regarding 'Presentations' nor should my response above be taken as kvetching . . . . but merely a reflection that the staff has much work to do, it must go directions where it knows there is fruit and obvious need. </p>

<p>Presentations, I long ago learned, was not on that path. Perhaps some day it will be, but there is certainly no pressure. Where to allocate scarce resources is a business decision, and not one I want to make waves about over this matter and I mainly join in to express to Antonio a 'history' so he can understand his request in context.</p>

<p>john<br>

John (Crosley)</p>