Galleries - the future

[Jon020]

No problem there Jon, they're super drawings and suitably annotated.

 

Andy, Thanks... for the response, comment and super site upgrade.

[Worsdell forever]

Hope mine are all ok, I've always tried to add some kind of caption, what, when and where, although usually no more then a line or two.

 

EDIT, just realised that my Teak Coach detail strip has no captions, this strip, hopefully, is self explanitary and will be ok .

[Andy Y]

Absolutely fine Paul, maybe a location and/or date would help some readers in addition to the identity info.

[martin_wynne]

I just nuked my gallery, but I had to delete each image one by one, is there a way to do this for multiply images?

Hi alcoRS1,

 

You can delete an entire album from your My Settings page -- go to: http://www.rmweb.co....rcp&tab=gallery

 

Click the Options button for the album which you want to delete:

 

 

regards,

 

Martin.

[Will Vale]

Mildly concerned about this since I'd like to get things right. I used to host my images externally, but switched to hosting them here since I'm sure I saw somewhere that was recommended practice (related to blocking of photo hosting sites in workplaces).

 

Most of the stuff I've uploaded so far is layout construction or work-in-progress stuff, all captioned as such. Nearly all of it is then linked from my RMWeb blog since again, at some point in the past this was the best way to do it (I think some of the inline-in-blog images didn't thumbnail properly, or something?)

 

Should I now be moving all my images somewhere else, and if so is there an easy way to do this? I don't really want to have to edit all the blog entries, and it'd also be a shame to lose the comments on those images which have attracted comments, since they're often from different people to those who commented on the blog. I liked the galleries as a way of keeping all the images in some kind of unified storage, rather than hidden in various blog posts and hard to refer to, but I suspect that's not really what was intended.

 

Basically looking for some guidance - what's "interesting" in the eyes of the admin team? I suspect the "stands alone without context" is the best guide, and under that all these construction images have to go, but I'd like to be sure before doing anything drastic. What would you suggest for unified hosting of images - is it still possible to create private galleries that don't show up in the general feeds, or would I be better off going to Flickr or similar and linking images from there?

 

Cheers,

 

Will

 

 

[Andy Y]

The easiest thing to say that you'd be unlikely to be caught by any retrospective purge Will so don't worry about history too much.

 

For future blog/post usage just load the image directly into the post/blog so that the images are in context.

 

what's "interesting" in the eyes of the admin team?

 

It's not so much what is interesting to us individually as we'd leave any personal view out of it but I think it's comparatively easy to classify images that are unlikely to be of interest to anyone apart from the person who posted them; certainly when they don't stand alone well as you say Will.

 

I'm not on a witch hunt or demanding top photography skills but there's got to be some kind of quality gate.

[martin_wynne]

What would you suggest for unified hosting of images - is it still possible to create private galleries that don't show up in the general feeds

Hi Will,

 

I can't speak for Andy, but a nifty way to create a private dumping ground for images is to create a permanent draft blog entry. Images uploaded to that can't be seen by anyone other than you, and can be linked to wherever you want to use them.

 

See for example: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/blog/15/entry-3619-test-please-ignore/

 

regards,

 

Martin.

[deltic21]

Apologies for my lack of knowledge & fore thought on the recent pics.

 

After reading this topic, i will sort through my photos and provide sufficient information. I was of the understanding that the galleries where for each member to post photos that were relevant to them, so my recent additions have been of the work i have been doing on my layout.

 

If any are felt unsuitable please let me know and i will remove them

 

Rob

[Will Vale]

 

The easiest thing to say that you'd be unlikely to be caught by any retrospective purge Will so don't worry about history too much.

Thanks for the quick reply Andy, that's good to know.

 

I'm not on a witch hunt or demanding top photography skills but there's got to be some kind of quality gate.

I understand the goal, I think, and it makes sense. Possibly my question sounded a bit loaded on re-reading - I'm certainly not worried about impartiality or anything like that! I can also see some fringe benefits like being able to focus construction-related discussion on the blog or forum topics rather than spreading it between these and the gallery.

 

I was surprised to see that my construction pics have generally had more comments than my finished layout pics (which do fit with the new gallery ethos) but maybe that's down to timing, or just that they're of less popular prototypes than UK modern image?

 

I'll aim to move things over gradually and winnow the old content, but it might take a wee while.

 

a nifty way to create a private dumping ground for images is to create a permanent draft blog entry.

Cheers Martin, I'll give that a try. It feels like a bit of a hack but it does seem to tick all the right functionality boxes so maybe it's the way of the future?

 

Is it possible to generate a gallery-style link or thumbnail of an image hosted in a blog page, i.e. one with an inline resized image which then lightboxes when you click on it? ISTR trying this before and failing.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

[Ben Alder]

I have been using the gallery of late for images that received a positive reaction in my layout topic- a sort of "best of", where they can be seen in isolation, rather than buried amongst pages of a thread that probably few read through from beginning to end. Is this an appropriate use of the gallery, or should I have a seperate blog entry for these pictures? Viewing figures for the gallery in my case aren't massive, but they exceed blog visitors, and seem to be more accessible to casual browsers. A bit of guidance would be helpful.

Richard

[James Hilton]

Bulk Upload is nice and handy, but is the reason most of my stuff doesn't have captions and descriptions!

I'm with Will as 'mildly worried', probably un-necessarily! I too think I understand the reasoning. Basically all we've got at present is 'data' - not information - because unless we tag the content with loco numbers, dates, locations etc etc we can't search the catalog Just like using the Fotopic search engine really, or the Railway Herald one etc etc.

 

Going forwards it sounds as if as long as I post decent quality images, with captions/descriptions - then I'm ok? I don't currently use the attachment option in posts and blogs as when we first came over to the Community from RMWeb3 they didn't work as I wanted in respect of getting photos in line with text. I guess if that's fixed I'll have a play... I'm pleased to hear there won't be a big purge - although I'd understand why if you did do one. If I'm honest it would make me less inclined to post any photos into the gallery in future, prefering to use 3rd party hosting sites rather than risk stuff being unavailable in the future - and that I think would be a real shame, as it could be a great resource.

[Re6/6]

[Addenoidal voice] "Here you'll note the Watson, Brigstoke bifurcated flange adaptor. A classic model that can be dated to the limited build of spring 1932, as it is fitted with the bolt-on on spleen gland, knurled pivot adjuster, and interior slime trap. If you look carefully, you can see the technique of splitpin folding on the castle nut as practiced by A.R. Grimewambler before his accident on 21st April of that year, after which the tails were turned counterclockwise due to limited movement in his artificial arm..." [/Addenoidal voice]

 

 

:lol: Where would the hobby be without 'experts'?

[Doorslammer]

So much for "a picture tells a 1000 words".

 

Although none of my gallery has a description for any images specifically, I put a brief but useful description for the subject instead of where it is and how the layout fits into club life. Will this be looked upon as bad?

[Andy Y]

I put a brief but useful description for the subject instead of where it is and how the layout fits into club life.

 

 

I've just had a look and taking a typical example http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/gallery/image/15329-pic-1204jpg/ it will need more information. If the image appears at the head of the forum a user would find it frustrating that in isolation it doesn't tell them anything other than the name of a jpg file.

 

 

[Doorslammer]

Good point well put. Should have something within the next hour or two for every image.

[martin_wynne]

Not daft at all. Go to the image you wish to edit and head down to the bottom of the right hand column and click on Mod Options, where you can edit or delete the image.

Not a daft question. But a daft caption on the button.

 

Those who don't know or can't find "Edit" by clicking "Mod Options" first, could perhaps be encouraged to use the mouse-over "Add a Note" feature instead:

 

 

 

 

Is this a satisfactory alternative to a detailed description for the purpose of the new rules?

 

regards,

 

Martin.

[coachmann]

Is this a satisfactory alternative to a detailed description for the purpose of the new rules?

Personally I think it isnt. Having mentioned the bent flares, it would be useful to many people and newcomers to know WHY they are bent plus any other titbits of info relating to switches...

[Brush47337]

Hi Andy,

 

I have been posting in Prototypes - not Model section and trying to add captions. A few questions if you don't mind posted "in Topic" rather than message - they may be of help to others if viewed as part of this healthy discussion.

 

1. My photos tend to be scruffy scanned prints from 30 years ago. Is that OK and covered by your "vintage but poor quality is OK" stance?

2. I know server upgrade caused a few problems. Do you have plans to reinstate the recently uploaded images banner? I found that very good for catching my eye and leading me to sections I may have missed.

3. (Nearly done) - I have been fortunate enough to get a few comments on my photos which helps as it shows someone is looking at them. Is it possible to have a "fancy schmancy button" added, or is there already a way, to tell what the most recent comment has been? At present I have to scroll through hoping in vain to spot a photo that has had an extra comment added and have to try and remember how many each had previously. The Gallery header tells you how many in total - so you know you have a new comment. No big problem - but it would be handy.

 

Thanks again for all the effort - I guess if you count my images as chaff - the above points are mute - as new ones will not get through checking.

 

Stuart

[martin_wynne]

WHY they are bent

Come on Larry, that's expecting a detailed article to be written every time an image is posted. The Comments feature is there so that viewers can engage in a detailed discussion if desired.

 

 

 

plus any other titbits of info relating to switches...

That's like asking you for any other titbits of info relating to coaches. Where would you begin?

 

There are entire forums devoted to track matters:

 

http://85a.co.uk/forum/

 

http://groups.yahoo....roup/trackwork/

 

and by the way, it's a crossing, not a switch.

 

regards,

 

Martin.

[2ManySpams]

Andy, didn't know we could add descriptions to photos - I’ve previously put text into a comment. Will promise to use this feature now and do a bit of a cull on some of the selections. I trust though that the content of the T9 and Beattie collections are fairly self explanatory - they were mainly added to help modellers adding detail to existing and proposed models.

[martin_wynne]

is there already a way, to tell what the most recent comment has been?

Hi Stuart,

 

Click the Watch Image button on the right below each image.

 

You will then be sent an email notification when anyone posts a comment on that image.

 

regards,

 

Martin.

[coachmann]

WHY they are bent

Come on Larry, that's expecting a detailed article to be written every time an image is posted. The Comments feature is there so that viewers can engage in a detailed discussion if desired.

 

 

plus any other titbits of info relating to switches...

That's like asking you for any other titbits of info relating to coaches. Where would you begin?

 

There are entire forums devoted to track matters:

Fair points (no pun intended), however, not everyone posting in Gallery has a Blog. If they have, then a link to that blog will hopefully provide fuller information. But if it is a stand-alone shot of a switch then I expect the image has been submitted to assist other modellers and include information but not of course an entire article. With coaches I am trying to get others to have a go at building them, but first I have to engage their interest.

[martin_wynne]

If the requirement for detailed descriptions goes too far, the Gallery ceases to have a separate purpose. It would be better to create a conventional topic or blog, and insert the pictures there with full information and discussion.

 

The Gallery is presumably a showcase for attractive images, rather than informative ones? For example this topic is a candidate to go the other way, and would be better as a Gallery album rather than a topic:

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/topic/196-creative-photography-railway-related/

 

Some smashing pictures there (and on the Old RMweb version), it's a shame not to see them displayed in album format.

 

regards,

 

Martin.

[martin_wynne]

p.s. I've deleted my album. There were only a few images there and they were originally uploaded only to test the system.

 

Martin.

[coachmann]

I couldnt agree more. Many of those images are terrific Gallery headliners. In fact some words of what lead the photographer to capture each image would be of interest I'm sure.