Idea for Turners Photo Gallery Listing

[Steve Schlumpf]

I wish photo galleries were easier to find! I’ve heard that comment more than a few times and I have to agree. As it is right now, you have to go to each contributor's personal info page to find out if they have a photo gallery. A couple of folks do - most do not. You do know that is one of the benefits of being a contributor – right?

Until such time as the software changes and allows for tracking of galleries – it is up to us.

Here is what I would like to do - If you have a gallery, please PM me and let me know. I will compile a list of all the Turner’s photo galleries and post as a reference.

Please let me know if you have any additional ideas or comments regarding photo galleries.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Any ideas or comments?

[Bill Bolen]

Heck Steve, I didn't even know a poster could have a gallery of his collected pic's. Something similar to the AAW photo galery?..Bill..

[Steve Schlumpf]

Bill - it is one of the benefits folks get when they become a contributor!

[Jim Becker]

Bill - it is one of the benefits folks get when they become a contributor!

Yes, folks...yet another reason to pony up the cost of a latté and donut and become a Contributor at SMC...a place to showcase your work without the complications of setting up a web site or using one of those photo sites that make people jump through hoops to view your pictures!

Jim
SMC Moderator

[Bill Bolen]

Heck fellas. I am a contributor but somehow it has changed back to member!? Don't know why...Bill..

[Brian Effinger]

Any ideas or comments?

You know I'm interested in this Steve ;)

I think a list of galleries is a good idea. The only problem I see with it is how you get to them. It is a little klunky to have to go into a contributer's profile to find and then access an album. It would be nice if there was someting right there in the menu bar below the logo. You could click on a "gallery" pull-down menu that has everyone's album there listed by their name.
Another option would be a gallery sub-forum where more info can be given about a project, people can comment and questions can be asked about it. This would be specific to the turner's forum, where a pull-down menu would be for flat work as well as all things round. :)

Brian

[Steve Schlumpf]

Brian - it would be cool but for right now we have limitations placed on us by the software and also on Aaron's time for figuring out ways of compiling a list. By simply having those folks with galleries contact me - we can have a list that anyone can access and with one click be able to get to that album.

As far as comments - each album has that ability built in already.

[George Morris]

Steve I have some photos of changes to my M M that are in my album. Guess I should load some turnings? George

[Steve Schlumpf]

George - I like M&Ms as much as the next guy but figure it would be nice to have some turnings for the galleries also. Hey, it's your gallery!

[George Morris]

Steve added some of my turnings! will work on more later. George

[Brian Effinger]

As far as comments - each album has that ability built in already.
I did not know that. Thanks Steve :)

[Bill Bolen]

Steve,,,are you thinking of putting the gallery list up in the sticky section? Sounds like an easy way to browse photo's when in the mood. How do you put photo's in your gallery. Are they somehow imported or do you have to go find them one at a time and then what? Sorry this board stuff is still a bit new to me other than posting on occasion...Bill..

[Steve Schlumpf]

Bill, it is my intention to put the list in the sticky section so everyone has access to it. As far as photos for your gallery - that is up to you which ones you wish to use. You can have more than one album - different themes, etc. Be aware that the size requirements for album photos are different than when doing regular posting. Album photos are limited to 650 x 650 pixels and a max file size of 97.7KB.

Details of how to post photos in your albums are:

After you are logged in, click on the 'USER CP' link in the upper left margin at top of page. This takes you to your personal control panel.

The 2nd section down on the left side is labeled 'Networking' and the last entry there is for 'Pictures and Albums', click it.

Click on the link 'Add album'. On next page is where you enter the title of your album and a brief description of what it holds. You also select if your album is to be private or public. Public - anyone on the web can see; private, only those on your friends list can view and comment.

Click on the submit button and the next page allows you to upload your photos. Click on 'Upload Pictures'. There is a different size requirement as compared to regular photos.

Maximum File Size per Picture 97.7 KB, maximum picture dimensions 650 by 650 pixels. Pictures are supposed to be automatically resized to fit within these constraints but I have never tried it.

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any questions.

[Jim Kountz]

I think this is going to be great Steve, thanks for taking the time to do this for us. Makes me want to get back to turning just to post new pics!! (been building a bowl kiln for the last week or so, Ill keep you posted on how that works out too!)
Again thanks for your time in this, it will be a great resource for all the turners!!

[Mike Peace]

Great! I uploaded a few pictures of some of my turnings.

[Steve Schlumpf]

You made the list Mike!

[Jeff Nicol]

Steve, Everytime I go into the profile area I lok at the gallery area and never put anything in there, so I will soon!

Jeff

[Steve Schlumpf]

Jeff - just send me a PM when you do and I'll add you to the list!

[Greg Ketell]

I really like this idea. The other thing people could do is that if they have a photo gallery put a link to it in their signature block.

GK

[Steve Schlumpf]

Greg - we actually don't want folks to put links in their signature blocks - that's why we went to the list. Hopefully, at some point, Vbulletin will have an icon we can use to denote galleries. Unfortunately, that capability doesn't exist yet.

[Jim Koepke]

One question, if we upload a photo gallery, does it disappear at the end ot the year when contributions are due?

One thought I had would be a gallery forum so pictures would be permanent.

Also it would be easier to link to them if we wanted to have others take a look.

jim

[Steve Schlumpf]

Jim, I would expect that a person's gallery would remain after they lost their Contributor status but the member would no longer be able to access it to make changes, deletions or add pictures. I state that I expect this would happen as this is a new function within the software and we have yet to encounter this scenario.



OK, just found out what really happens!

The gallery remains but there is no access to it as long as the member has lost their Contributor status. So this really is a benefit ONLY for Contributors!

[Greg Ketell]

I can fully understand not wanting links to other, external sites. But I would hope that links to locations within SMC, promoting SMC would be tolerated.

You WANT people to see that there are advantages to be a contributor to encourage them to part with their funds. Showing peoples' photo galleries would be one such encouragement. Kinda like your link to "Contribute". :D

GK

[Steve Schlumpf]

Greg - I understand your viewpoint, however, it is more of a problem of how to police each and every link. As you are aware, these links can easily be embedded and take the user anywhere. As a mod, we would have to continuously check each and every link because we do have folks willing to abuse the system. At this point in time and for this reason, links are not allowed in signatures.

[Bill Bolen]

Great idea Steve! I've started moving some pic's in so if you don't mind...put me on the list...Bill..

[Steve Schlumpf]

Bill, you can add text to the photo when you upload or you can 'edit' the photo and add whatever text you want after everything has been placed in your album.

PM me know if you have problems and we'll figure something out.

[Keith Outten]

I can fully understand not wanting links to other, external sites. But I would hope that links to locations within SMC, promoting SMC would be tolerated.

You WANT people to see that there are advantages to be a contributor to encourage them to part with their funds. Showing peoples' photo galleries would be one such encouragement. Kinda like your link to "Contribute". :D

GK

Greg,

I understand your point of view and it is sad that the majority have to pay for the sins of a few. We ban links in signatures to keep The Creek free from blatant advertising, believe me it can get as gaudy as anyone can imagine with signatures having more text than in the message post.

Anytime we try to implement a rule that allows one thing and not another it has backfired or creates a huge workload for us to manage. Personally I would like to allow links within SawMill Creek but I'm not sure how we could keep it from getting out of control. If I could disable signatures, except for Contributors, I would. That would solve the majority of the problem.

I'll give it some thought....

.

[Brian Effinger]

OK, just found out what really happens!

The gallery remains but there is no access to it as long as the member has lost their Contributor status. So this really is a benefit ONLY for Contributors!

Do you mean that there is no access to change / add to it, or that there is no access to even look at it?

And Steve, may I suggest that you add the instructions you posted here to your sticky thread. This way when this tread gets pushed down into the depths of the forum, they will still be readily available.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Brian, what we found was that there was no access for anyone except the staff. No one,except staff, could edit or even view the gallery. It is being looked into.

I'll figure something about posting the instructions. Thanks for your input!

[Greg Ketell]

Hi Keith,

I understand the social "ills" that can come from many users with much power.



Another forum I read made a social solution that raises them more money. Only "Corporate Contributers" (who pay much more than normal contributers) are allowed to have URLs or other advertising in their signatures. It takes having one other class of user but then that class is identified just as contributers/Administrators are. If anyone has a link that isn't thusly identified users complain via the "report this post" and that person is given the option of paying, removing the offending link or being banned. Little more work, little more money.

Another solution is a technical solution to this social problem. I just sent Steve some Perl code I hacked together that, if implemented in the code that accepts new or updated signatures into the forum user database, will look for and remove any URLs that don't point to SMC. I don't know if you would want to go that way but it would allow your contributers to have links to their photo albums or to favorite posts, etc.

Anyway, I was just fooling around and thought this would be a good excercise to do a bit more programming (which I haven't done in years).

Take care!
GK

[Don Orr]

Thanks for getting this together Steve. I just opened a Gallery, but I don't have anything in it yet. Is there a way to get photos from here on SMC into the Gallery or do I have to upload from another source only ? As you know, I don't post much, but having a gallery might just inspire me to do more.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Don, the only problem I can think of with photos that are already on SMC is that the gallery requires a smaller size. Would be easier to just upload the correct size straight to your gallery - IMHO.

[Dustin Cranford]

I'll throw out a couple of ignorant questions ( I know the answer to 1, but some may not). Since I have a short time here I am also still figuring out the forums (My joined date doesn't indicate how long I have actually been active).

1. How does a person donate and what is the cost? (I know the answer I think).

2. If I decide in a couple of weeks to become a contributor can I still post my photos to the link being suggested?

I had a couple more, but my brain just went dead. Got to love having brain surgery about 2 months ago and still working on short term memory problems.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Dustin,

To donate, just click on the Donate button located on the right side of the title bar just above all the posts. The actual amount of your donation is totally up to you but $6 is all that has been asked for per contributor.

Once you are a Contributor you will have the privilege of opening your own gallery and be able to post photos at that time.

Hope you are healing quickly! If you have any more questions regarding the gallery - please ask. If you have questions about anything on Sawmill Creek - please PM me.

[Gary Kvasnicka]

Thanks Steve, I didn't know the album was available. I just stuck a few pics in mine. Please don't laugh, one is titled First Bowl which I made at a basic Woodcraft class before I got my first lathe. I think it would be great if everyone posted their first effort in their album so we could all see how we progress.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Thanks Gary - you are on the list!

[robert hainstock]

Thanks to your very clear directions, I now have a small gallery of some of my turnings. Great Idea, Thanks.:):)
Bob

[Steve Schlumpf]

Great to hear Bob! You are now on the list!