eric_zimmerman1

Thanks, Francois-- that's exactly what I needed.

 

The mangled slide is out and the projector works again!

I have a Pradovit P150.

 

A slightly bent slide slipped out of the little sliding cradle that

holds the slide being projected. Trying to fish the slide out, I

somehow got it to fall farther back, and now it's sort of horizontal

below the slide-changer mechanism (which, of course, is jammed). How

the %@*$ can I take the cover off of this projector without breaking

the damn thing? There's a screw at the bottom of the remote-control

storage slot. Removing that screw seems almost to free the top cover,

but, uh, not quite. And the two screws I see on the bottom of the unit

don't seem to be helpful either.

 

The slide itself is junk and I do not care if it is destroyed in the

removal.

I don't think the featured portfolio is all bad, not at all. And the photos featured so far have been wonderful (though I'd seen most of them before on the site, I have to say). The real negative is devaluing the critique forum. <P>

 

By saying "I don't like that kind of status being conferred on people from above," I was making a subtle point -- I think in a community site such as this, the status should be conferred from <i>below</i> via ratings -- the "top photos" sections that have been around in one form or another for years. Too much editorial judgment will certainly reduce discussion and change the nature of the site. But how much is "too much" is of course arguable, and I don't know where I'd set the line myself. I like the POW, mostly because of the discussions it fosters. I'm slightly less comfortable with the featured portfolio, since there's no real discussion encouraged -- it seems to be more in the direction of the management telling us "This is Art." Fine for a photo magazine, maybe not quite so fine for a community site.

I've been taking some time to get adjusted to the new site format

before judging it. Mostly, I like it. Here's something I'm coming not

to like, though: the substitution of the random critique image on the

front page with by the featured portfolio. I think it's moved the site

in the direction of a photo magazine and away from its roots as an

egalitarian community. As a basic principle, when a feature is

editor-selected, it gives the management a larger role in telling the

users what to look at and who is considered a "first-tier"

photographer on the site. (I have no illusion that I will ever -- or

should ever -- be one, but I don't like that kind of status being

conferred on people from above.)

 

Also, as a practical matter individual portfolios are staying up there

too long. A day or two at most will do! The site is huge, and more

rotation on the front page will allow more people to get this exposure.

 

Finally, I think the removal of the random critique image from the

front page has really damaged the critique forum. I used to be able to

count on getting at least a couple of comments and a dozen ratings if

I posted an image there. Now it seems far fewer people are bothering.

My untested hypothesis is that the eye-catching images on the front

page used to draw people into the critique forum where they would look

at other images too -- but now that you have to click a couple of

times to get to the critique forum, many people (including myself)

just don't go there as often. The critique feature is, at least to me,

a really important part of the site -- much more important than a

weekly featured portfolio! It's a shame to see it devalued.

Well, that's effectively what I have to do now. But it feels rather like being required to open an exhibit with test prints on the walls. Also, often the first few minutes an image is up is when it receives many of its viewers.

Sometimes it goes even beyond the 'test print' analogy -- I've been known to upload the wrong file by mistake! I wouldn't want that to go on the main gallery page immediately.

Hmmm -- I wish I'd been around when that was discussed. I used that box for a very specific, and I think legitimate, purpose: to preview the appearance of a photo before I released it publicly. I find that images often look different (usually darker) on the photo.net page compared to my Photoshop screen. I don't like putting up a public image without seeing it in context first. Perhaps 'private' photos could be put up with the stipulation that they vanish if they aren't made public in a short time? Or could there be some sort of preview screen?

OK, I'm adding images for the first time since the "new look" went

into effect. By and large I like the new look and find it cleaner. But

I can't figure out how to change the 'publicly viewable' status of an

image. That check-box seems to be gone from the upload/image info

page. Where did it go?