Is PN dying?

The relevant activity on PN is decreasing. There are still a few photographers engaging in meaningful comments and reacting to those of others, but the vast majority of the people here is using the site just for photo sharing, which is in my opinion only part of the functionality that makes this community special. I've noticed lately to feel less motivated to leave comments, as a lot of people don't react to them anyway; a perfect example of a downward spiral. Even people who were deeply involved in the (recent) past are hardly trying to revive the 'community' idea, which is what we should be doing. I firmly believe some of the finest contributors to PN have left because of this. If I had to come up with a 'solution', I believe the focus has to be on commenting and reviewing and introducing a rating system that leans towards the comments-uploads ratio, although I have no clear idea of how that should be put in place. I'd really like to hear your thoughts on this.

Vincent, your observations of, and suggestions to improve, PN couldn't be stated any more effectively. Although I didn't really care for the old rating system, the ratings together with a critique seemed to present a balanced opinion. To me, PN is becoming another Facebook. Also, previously critiques often led to dialogue - sometimes heated . This benefitted both the reviewer and the photographer. Of course, critiquing required integrity, which you clearly have. If you felt that certain elements of one of my photos were weak, you would say so and, if possible, offer possible fixes. In "Casual Photo Conversations," there's a thread labeled "The Future of PN [or Photo.Net]. You may want to post your present observations there. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Your image certainly is allegorical, telling a story without making it too easy for a viewer to glean it. FWIW, might I suggest a bit of sharpening of the bird's breast feathers.

A terrible image that denotes the end of the cycle of life and that you have rightly put in relation to the evolution of Photo net as we have known it. Dear Vincent you are absolutely right, PN is becoming a place to download photos with no choice of quality. Too many photos of sports activities without quality, family photos without value, sometimes photos that border on pornography without any filters

The great photographers from whom to draw inspiration have abandoned, only a few resist.

At the beginning PN applied a rating system from 1 to 7 in addition to the comments, which, although not perfect, encouraged participants to select the photos to post, even negative judgments were useful for improving the technique, composition and aesthetics. Even the magazines Photo of the Day, Photo of the Week, Editor's Pick, have now disappeared along with the famous Photo Contest that encouraged you to publish your best photos. The quality of the photos presented was definitely superior. Many photos were easily recognizable and attributable to an author who you recognized precisely for his typical characteristics. I agree to draw up all together, we old survivors, a note to present to the executives with the advice to restart Photo.Net. The problem is, there will still be ears on the other side able to hear you and bring Pn back to the height of the past. A return to the past would be desirable, without waiting long, because given the age the future is shortened, ciao Giangiorgio

I couldn't agree more with the comments above - and it saddens me. I think it's mostly habit, and the hope that I'll see one or two really good photos when I do, that keeps me checking back.

Hi Michael,

 

thank you for your well-worded comments! You have understood my point very well, PN is becoming another Facebook indeed. I will certainly look at the 'casual photo conversations' and maybe I can make the same point there knowing that more people will take notice. Giangiorgio and you are two of the people who keep PN interesting for me (although I have recently seen less activity from you too, probably for exactly the same reasons I mentioned holding me back), so it doesn't surprise me that you are the first two people to react. The bird's breast feathers: I would normally not even post an image like this one, but you are right. I would pay more attention to details like that with a 'normal' upload. Thanks again for your valued input! Kind regards, Vincent

Hi Giangiorgio,

 

I had to smile reading the first words of your comment: 'a terrible image'. I like to get real feedback and I can take criticism. I agree with you on the subject of photo quality and the effort people put into posting the best of their work, instead of seemingly random photos that are uploaded without any thought. I decided to take Michael's advice to put my thoughts on this in the forums so that more people (and maybe even the ones that could make changes to the rating system) would see it. Thank you for your support and willingness to be a part of a 'solution'. Kind regards, Vincent

Hi Rob, thank you for letting me know you agree with me! I recognize the pattern of checking back to see if anything special has found its way into the 'explore' section, realizing at the same time that the current rating system favors general likeability (which is the same as what you see on all photo sharing sites) more than it supports quality of comments or even attention to detail in the uploaded image. Kind regards, Vincent

Hi, Vincent, Michael, Giangiorgio, Rob and whoever will be the next commentators! I find Vincent's introduction comment most acceptable for my attitudes towards the theme! I will only point out the reintroduction of the rating system as it once was, at the very beginning, although there were lots of so called problems (according the administrators and especially the present time administrator Glenn, I have forgotten his last name). I would suggest only total anonymous system or the opposite, public rating! It may produce a revival of some extent. I recently wrote to glenn@photo.net to inform that comments notifications don't work - deaf ear, of course, no reply! Furthermore I must inform that the search facility can't help you find specific photographer (member of the community), we can't use the previous internal messages cause that feature doesn't exist any more...long list, I'm afraid!

Hi Pierre,

 

thank you for participating in this conversation. I'm curious to hear what rating system PN had in the past; it sounds like returning to that could be an improvement over the present system. Much has to happen to get this community live up to its full potential, I agree. But if we allow PN to become just another sharing site there is hardly any reason left to choose PN over other options, or even pay for our subscription. Kind regards, Vincent

There were two ratings, one for beauty (aesthetics) and one for originality, from one to seven! There was public rating and you could see the name of the rater and his ratings! You couldn't reciprocate received seven for two weeks. There was anonymous rating where you only see the ratings, but not the rater, there was reciprocating of sevens allowed. There were pages for highest rated pictures and highest rated photographers in a period of time and category by choice. I was, for example 1st for all times in the category of abstract photography and 16th in all categories for all times! Later some time there was no rating for originality, only one criteria and all ended with semi-anonymous rating where you could see who was rating and the ratings, but not who rated with what rating! That's it!

Not to mention the number of views and comments, 74442 my most viewed picture and 105 comments my most commented and I was certainly not the champion! The portfolios of first class photographers are still here, you can only find them if you see my favourite photos because I don't put everything there in order to please the owner. There are only world first class artists! In short Photo.net was the best such site in the world and someone destroyed it on purpose