How would you change Lost In Focus?
By lawrence • Jan 5th, 2010 • Category: Daily Shots, NewsOK i’m opening this topic up to the floor. It’s been about a year since I made the last major improvements to the site and this time round I thought it’d be a good idea to solicit ideas from everyone (and not just current LIF members)… If you were not limited by imagination or time, how would you like to see this site improved? Suggestions can be anything really. To give some ideas, they might include:
- Features requests (I have one from Scott – email notifcations for threads he’s commented on)
- Ideas for the format / design of the site (although if you suggest a banner, you’re automatically agreeing to design it :)
- Suggestions for content (e.g. articles, news, favourite photographers, guest writers)
- Ideas on how (and if) to involve a broader community (something around Facebook?)
- Or maybe even just talking about the things you love, like or hate about this site
Put your thinking caps on folks! I can’t commit to taking everything on – this is more idea solicitation currently – but I’ll take in every suggestion, figure out what’s possible (or not) and try to come up with a plan to add another layer of polish.
Cheers!
Lawrence
lawrence
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Hey Lawrence, thanks for remembering the email notifications suggestion I made awhile back. Just for the benefit of others, basically what I suggested was that members should receive email notifications (1) whenever someone comments on the member’s post AND (2) whenever someone also comments on any other post after the member has commented (that way you can keep updated on any discussion threads that might originate). I know that — at least in my case — I travel a lot and don’t always get onto LIF daily, which means I sometimes miss comments that have been made on previous posts (and once they disappear from the Homepage, they seem to be gone forever).
One more thing on email — and I am not sure if I am the only one — but I haven’t received an email notification of anyone commenting on any of my posts in 5-6 months. I am not sure if this is a glitch in LIF or if my junk mail is filtering them or what. Is everyone else getting email notifications or is this feature disabled across the board?
Scott raises an interesting point with regards to the flow of posts and their relatively small lifespan; I like the way LIF is easy to follow, digest and pick up (you never actually need to play catch up) but I know there are some great posts of which are probably missed and it’s not easy to stumble across these. A potential suggestion would be to include (dare I say it) ratings on posts (not images) which you could then use to compliment the Posts to Remember or incorporated into the Search facility.
In regards to design there might be scope for improvements to the right hand content – I find the Recent Comments section the most useful and generally don’t use the other parts. It would also be good to see all the posts by author when you select them from the banner above (again these could be ordered by rating).
Part of the attractiveness of LIF is the small community feel it has at the moment and maintaining that balance whilst involving a broader audience could be difficult however there are those of us who are both itching to contribute in some way or form and looking to improve skills in a structured manner through intelligent and constructive feedback. Utilizing Facebook or similar might be an interesting option whilst acting as a potential talent pot – the key though is that (if you were to go this route) all that is LIF including its size should somehow remain !
My final suggestion (apologies for the length of this comment) after reading some recent threads is that it would be cool if each member during the year were to provide a number of their best shots (say 10) which could then be rated by others. It is a challenge in selecting your best shots of the year but always enlightening watching a selection being narrowed by those other than yourself.
Hoping that doesn’t sound too rating mad, ratings on images in each post would be detrimental but hopefully the above ideas make the wealth of quality content on LIF more easily available.
p.s. I am more than happy to offer my assistance in any way shape or form for the above – except the banner as I have no suggestions except it does need updating :-).
What do you mean by “feature” requests? Tell me more..
Good points have already been made particularly relating the the blogged nature of the site and the fact that photographs slipping off the front page are lost to the archives.I have just had three weeks away, in which time a great deal has happened (I’m going back to play catch up Ben!).
Not sure what the solution would be without larger scale structural changes but an additional gallery to the ‘images of the month’ could be based on interest in the form of the number of comments. I’m really not keen on a ranking/rating system but we all know pictures which generate comments hold more interest than ones that don’t and not always for the obvious reasons; a picture can inspire all sorts of discussion. An additional tab to a simple gallery in which these photographs represented could hence be incorporated and I suppose would be a more visual ‘posts to remember’ section. Email notifications help and yes Scott these seemed to have stopped for me too.
I have always liked the intimate nature of the community here as there is no doubting the integrity (and talent!) of any of its members when comparing the pbase and flickr sites. I do feel there is probably an optimum. In terms of teaching, research has found the optimum class size is around twenty where communication of ideas flows best. Of course the more members the more comments and photographs but the less time the pictures will spend on the front page.
I’m designing my own site at present and it’s really difficult so I appreciate all the work you put in here Lawrence.
The people have spoken!
Yeah definitely something seems up with email notifications… Will have to contact my provier re that.
Re having a way to look up most popular posts, this is a tricky one. Adding a “vote” or rating button will be difficult as its a slippery slope. Most commented seems like a good compromise and hey presto, check the top right of the screen – you’ll now see the 10 most commented posts in the past 30 days. This will be an auto updated, moving window from now on.
Oh I fixed the “older” link at the bottom of the page too – that wasn’t working. Bear in mind that everything on the page is configurable (such as number of posts displayed, etc) so i can increase as necessary. I just bumped up the last # of comments to 20.
OK keep lets keep this thread alive and evolving – I’ll research other ideas as your new ones come in.
Jude if you still don’t know what a feature request is after this thread then there’s no helping you ! :)
I wonder if I’m the only one but logging in to LiF seems to be a slower affair compared to other sites. I usually access it through the office so I’m pretty sure the service there is pretty decent.
Would be nice to have a picture of the week or something from the members galleries plastered somewhere on the top where the headline part of the page is located. It can be a rotating automatic affair although I don’t know if the system allows it.
Other than that, a bit more participation is welcome as always. But that’s easier said than done. And I’m guilty there as well!
Hi Folks,
I am the newbie on the site, so I waited to see how the conversation would shape up.
I am going to add a few things and feel free to tell me that I am out to lunch should that
be the case.
1. I agree with David that Lawrence has done an awesome job with the site. It looks cool
all around. I also see many of the points you all mentioned.
2. I would love to see a section for gear and book review. I am obviously avid about both.
3. I would agree with Lawrence that a presence in FB would be a good thing. Networking
has been very kind to me personally. Much to my surprise I have been invited to exhibit
in other countries just on the basis of meeting people and networking. Also being that we
are in many countries a listing of ongoing resources (namely photography exhibits) where
we could submit work would be a nice thing to consider. Networking will make the site more
organic and that is essential whether the group is small or big.
4. I also like the description on Lawrence’s introduction about himself where he mentions about
giving back to the community. Indeed, the most successful and rewarding aspect of any activity
in life is to give back to the communities we are in (hope that did not sound too Jewish…LOL).
This can be done in a variety of ways.
I for one am willing to give a nominal amount of money to create a site book with images of the
group (once a year/maybe a few best images) maybe put together via blurb and the proceedings
be given to charity. Or we can do anything else.
Hope this helps.
Hi,
Thanks for reaching out for suggestions…and thanks for creating this site in the first place! It’s awesome just as it is. But, I do have some thoughts (one minor, two larger):
1. I’d like to see less clutter on the site, and more room for just the photography. Do we really need all the stuff on the right (most commented, most viewed, etc.)? I think the photos should be bigger, and the main pages should only contain the bare minimum necessary.
2. I think there’s a huge opportunity to for LIF to become something much bigger. Check out this site: http://www.coloursmag.com/ or even http://www.filemagazine.com/ I think LIF could transform into more of a online magazine vs. a blog. There could still be a private area for us to photo share, but we could also act as editors and build something really neat. If it’s desirable, we could even generate some revenue via sponsors, photo contests, or whatever. We could have featured photographers, writers, etc. We’ve assembled an incredible group, and I think this group could serve as a foundation for something bigger.
3. We absolutely need to create a book. I had this idea last year, but didn’t follow-through. However, this year, I created several photo books (with photos of my kids, etc.) and it’s really fun. I’d love to take the lead on putting something together. We could even generate some revenue to help fund the book (e.g., higher a designer) if we had some type of “call for entries” for a photo contest. Just a thought. What I struggle with is how to find an audience for the book, and to promote it.
Ok, since Lawrence asked for ideas from anyone, as one of the very first Lostinfocus readers, I would like to share my opinions about.
Most of the previous comments focused on technical features and design, so I will also ‘give my two cents’. I agree with Jeff that would be nice to have more space for photos: bigger photos and above all less distracting features in the page (for example useful categories as ‘Recent comments’, ‘Most… posts’, could be reduced to single headline links or more elegantly shown as a dropdown list when possible, and the tags section simply removed). Well, I’m not a fan of clutter-style at all.
It’s also a bit annoying that when you browse back to previous pages, the number of comments on every post is not shown anymore.
In my opinion also all the members’ names at the top should be grouped in one category like ‘contributors’. And I think that all the images posted by every single member should be far more easily accessible; from the same point of view, I would improve the gallery part of the site maybe creating a section aside.
Now, I think the contents are even more important. Again I need to agree with Jeff that LIF has the potential to become something much bigger than a site for the photosharing of a small group. Actually I wouldn’t like it to take the magazine aspect/nature of the two sites he suggested as example, preferring something in the middle like http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/blog_index.html (even if I’m aware that’s not site to exhibit photos).
What I mean is LIF should keep the format of a blog (even though with a more neat, clean and professional aspect) but it would be nice if more different contents were provided by the contributors. For example, their ideas about photography as art and/or business, articles about great photographers of the past/present that had an influence over them, technical articles about photography/film and digital darkroom (for example many readers could be interested how practically Lawrence solved his problems with B&W developing thanks to Kaden’s advices or to learn his 30 seconds Photoshop workflow). Sometimes I got the impression from your comments that topics potentially interesting for a general audience were ‘imprisoned’ in your private correspondence, a bit frustrating for an external reader!
As Kaden suggested, it would be also great to read reviews about gear and photography-related books, sites and exhibitions that got your attention; you know, that kind of informal reviews by real photographers that we are so many to love. Of course, all nice and easy to say but I’m aware you need much more time and efforts to put online such contents; moreover, not all photographers are willing to be writers or even bloggers. That’s your site and it’s perfectly ok if it will remain a simple photosharing blog for a small group of creative photographers.
But your group has a big potential and it would be beautiful to see it growing up as a sort of online artist salon or photography think tank, able to produce ideas, articles, books, etc..
As a happy reader, I want to thank you all for everything you did till now and, please, excuse me for the length of my comment and for my English quality: it’s not my native language as unfortunately obvious.
And happy 2010 to you all!
First of all, I do like the idea of bigger photos and less things to the side.
My worry is that it will become too business like. I LIKE being able to come on and say “hey, I’ve been busy doing this and that, etc.” and I like reading what others are up to, as well. I like the personal aspect of it and I wonder if becoming more like a magazine would lose that. I also really like the information about cameras, darkrooms, etc. The learning aspect is great too.
I love the idea of the book – on a yearly basis, as a matter of fact. Also photo of the week as Raul has suggested is cool, too.
I have a facebook fan page for my photography and the wearable art I make with my photos .. it’s a GOOD thing and I think it would be great to have something similar on Facebook as well.
I guess there’s no hope for me lawrence…lol
Hi Lawrence, I didn’t rush with my ideas of improvements because English is not my native language and I was sure that the other comments will touch many of the things I should have pointed out. Which happened, as a matter of facts? However, after reading all the comments and seeing some implemented already, I feel bound to express mine:
- I do think the site as is is good. Sober and clean. I should keep focusing on photography and keep it far from widening the content to exhibition, publishing, magazines, links to others etc.
-I should avoid the mixture of publicity and flash animations, banners etc. The fast access to the information is a big plus of LIF.
-I would focus on increased image quality. What I have noted is that, if I upload a 1200×1200 pixels photo, it will appear of 700×700 or so and a decrease of image quality is obvious. I would allow uploading bigger files because, sometimes, there is a small detail which makes photography great. I disapprove what some people say that, if the thumb is not attractive, the entire photo is bad.
-I should be more open to exterior contributors who, by their contributions, show a high level of understanding. I think we have 3-4 at this moment and I would allow them to introduce themselves in the daily posts or a reader’s forum. I mean to give them the right to publish as guests and the post (with pictures or links) to be approved by the administrator. Some sites work like this, prior to inviting them to join the group.
-I have the feeling and you should confirm that we have (many) regular readers. And I also have the feeling of belonging to a group. I feel like we have a sort of identity. Which brings me to the idea of thinking together at what we, as group, we want to say in photography and to create a LIF manifest? Further more, we could transform LIF in an artistic movement. I know it’s not easy, but if we start thinking in these terms, we could face 2011 as an artistic movement.
Hope it’s not too long to be readable.
-I should avoid votes or any other sort of competition between members. I should avoid the rush for popularity. Instead, I would try to promote group cohesion and a cultural identity.
-in conclusion, I should like to see LOST IN FOCUS grow towards an artistic and cultural movement, with a sober look and content, which can become a reference to many, instead of growing it like a business with publicity etc. I think we cannot compete with other strong sites we already know and use, but we can create something that a lot of people, including us, miss a lot: a cultural movement.
-The annual activity of LIF could be summarized with an exhibition of our works published on LIF, each year in a public space of the country of one contributor, organized by that one. An album of the exhibition could be printed with blurb. The expenses will be by the contribution of the members. Like that, we could have a physical activity record; we will not be just on line shadows (as a group). Besides, we could meet each other. I know that’s hard, but not impossible at all. It’s worth trying.
Guys – this is fantastic feedback…
I’ll respond properly over the weekend but quckly:
1. I love the feature suggestions, and the ones that resonate most are:
a) finding a way for readers and others to contribute but without growing too fast
b) cleaning up the site and making it clean / easier to navigate on the main page, while keeping archives more easily accessible to navigate frequently commented / active threads
c) finding a way to make images larger / more impactful
2. I lean more heavily to a philosophy that Lorin suggests – striving for an “artistic integrity” rather than aiming for popularity – if that makes any sense. Jeff, I love where you’re going with the suggestions but think there may be a better vehicle for that (and something that can be pursued separately).
In the meantime while I formulate a plan on what (and how) things are possibe, you may notice some modifications taking place to the site in real time.
OK i just spent some of the evening performing an upgrade to the latest version of the server software … i’ve also done a bit of rearranging within the menu. Contributes now appear in a handy drop down and i’ve moved a lot of superfluous content to a place called “Navigation” (don’t go there yet – it’s not working).
Bear with me, i’m getting there. if something is obviously broken since the upgrade tho let me know.
Question – do you prefer images to link directly to the originals in a single page (as they do now) or you prefer the resizable lightbox that used to be there.
Looking good, Lawrence. I am sure I can speak for the entire LIF community when I say that I appreciate all the hard work and effort that goes into managing and maintaining this site.
On your question, I prefer the resizable light box that used to be there — I personally think it looks more classy to have the photographs viewed that way rather than in an HTML page. And the way the light box “frames” the pictures appeals to me. But that’s just me.
Thanks again for all your time and energy with this.
II prefer the resizable light box too for the same motivations. Thanks for listening to your simple readers’ feedback!
Light box for me too.
I also prefered the way names were displayed before. just they should not be mixed with contact, about etc.
I like the more cleaned up look but here’s just my two cents: Somewhere on here should be the list of members/contributors. I do like that it’s not on top where – as more were added – it seemed to get a bit overcrowded looking. But on the side was a great idea where people could click on “lawrence ripsher” and see all YOUR photos.. also that viewers know which photographers were part of LIF.
The other thing is I prefer the lightbox that we had before. I agree with Scott that it was much more professional looking.
I am a bit leery about using larger files for photos.. I use a low res photograph to make it a bit harder for someone to copy and make a print to hang in their home without permission.. as they are now, they’d be pixelated.. Am I the only one who doesn’t like the idea of someone taking their photos to print? I could put a copyright mark on them but really don’t want to do that as it detracts from the image (my opinion).. My second job is selling my work in galleries and online… This is something I want to be able to eventually do instead of newspaper work (unless I moved to a town where there’s actually news..lol). Is there something I don’t know about this that makes me the one worried about it and not others?
Although I admit there’s plenty I don’t know..lol
Lawrence… seriously, you are fantastic.. thanks so much for your hard work.
oh.. i just saw the names under “about this site”…
never mind :D
Alright Lightbox is back – much better eh.
I don’t think there’s a way to solve the need for higher res images vs ones that actually look nice in a browser. Gonna have to opt for the second. Will spend more time on the Navigation parts today
Nice work Lawrence! A lot cleaner now!
Lawrence, just one more suggestion (if I may): there doesn’t seem to be anyway to click on a member’s name (at the top under “About This Site”) and see all their posts. I would suggest that it might be nice to — in addition to the member’s bio — offer a link to all their posts so one can see a collection of all their contributions to LIF…
Thanks guys – i was planning to finish it today but got held up as the site’s been having a few probs. have emailed the providers so please be patient if you’re having trouble posting
OK i’m getting there… emailed the server hosters about 10x today to get their act together. Things should be more stable…
The “Archives” page has had a couple of things added to it and the Feeds for everyones posts are on the right hand side. I feel like something is missing though with regards to layout. Will think about it some more.
Invited the community to propose post submissions…
We’re getting there.
As for creating content of favourte books, photographers, posts with info, etc- that’s EVERYONE’s responsibility :)
Gotta figure out notifications now.
OK i think i finally (!) fixed the notifications issue! was my service provider’s anti spam filters which had to be coded around… found a solution and seems to work. let me know if it’s working for you. now need to take a look to see if what scott requested is possible
ALRIGHT… subscribe to future comments is now an option whenever you comment on anyone else’s post.
Let me know if it gives you any probs
Loving it, Lawrence. Thanks so much for all your time and effort. It is greatly appreciated.
Superb!
I love what you’ve done but want to address an issue I think there might be .. or maybe it’s me (operator failure?)..
Sebas has posted a photograph and I’d like to comment on it, but since he didn’t put a title on it I have nothing to click on to get into the singular post… am I doing something wrong, and if so, what would make me forget what to do? lol
Ah ok – you see there’s a little >> next to the number of comments? click on that and it’ll take you to the photo page if there’s no comments. Does that fix it for you?
BTW do you think the site is responding fast recently? i think it is… i’ve been locked in battle with my hoster for the past week and i think am finally making headway
Lawrence – I am beginning to scan through the LIF archives – is there anyway I can see Archives previous to the last 18mths though? (I am sure this was possible before).