Maybe their should be separate photo-a-day (PaD) section for people who want to update their photo threads constantly.

Is there a way to make the newest photography threads sticky threads for 24 hours by default? It would be great if the newest threads appeared at the top each day, so we didn't have to search for them.

I also agree on a sub-forum for frequently updated (photo-a-day) threads. Sometimes we may not know a thread has more photographs in it until we see it's on page 4 or 5!

Ooh, I'd love that. :D I sort of have such a thread going in the St. John's section and it'd be nice to just have the one in the My Photos section, unless I travel outside the city. :)

Now that we have seen that combining the photo threads has effectively killed the photo threads, can we separate them again?

This.

It was dead before that, and it would be even deader if they were separated again. I think the reason is that people's web surfing habits have changed. Threads still get lots of views but few replies. You are much less likely to reply to a thread when you're on a tablet or phone because it's a hassle to type a post on a forum with these devices. That's why I proposed a thanks button last year.

What purpose would separating them serve anyway? They were only separated in the first place because they were so busy threads would get buried on page 2 after one day. Now even with one section, threads stay on the first page for a week or more.

I agree with this. Also it gets harder to come up with germane comments once you have seen a city numerous times. I try to comment on threads I like but often find myself struggling to find new things to say. I get tired of saying "great thread" over and over, eventually it turns into a cliché.

cliché yes but there's not much else to do other than pointing out pics you think are really good.

the other alternative is we turn into a PAD or a "ooooh, postcard photos and desktop backgrounds preferred" like that other forum.

i think we should put in a like/thanks button like SSC has though.

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p.s. viewing on a tablet...that's gotta suck. i look at most on my laptop but enjoy it most on my desktop with the big monitor.

Just checked "My city photos" section and I noticed someone has posted 9 photo threads, am I the only one who finds this ridiculous?

What's wrong with that? I'm not sure who you're talking about, since there seem to be multiple people with many threads on the first page, but no one posted 9 threads all at once. They've just been responded to most recently.

Ongoing photo threads have become a lot more popular recently. I think we should split the photothread into ongoing threads and static threads, so the constant updates of the ongoing threads don't overwhelm the static threads.

I agree. They will eventually sink the stand alone threads which have been the heart of the photo forum. That is what happened at SSC and I would hate to see it here. There is an art to composing one off threads. The best ones are high quality photo essays. It would be sad to see that lost here.

do we seriously need 4 or 5 threads on Argentina bumped up every second day? or a Calgary thread that has become a dumping ground for photos found on flickr? some people are making a mockery of the rules,it's no wonder a lot of long time posters have giving up
(you can add me to the list very soon)

I have a huge backlog of photos that I haven't bothered posting. It just feels like a lot of work for the 10 or 15 replies you get.

^Agreed.

I made a compilation thread shortly before I quit and I hated it, but I felt I needed it to compete in the photo section. Which was short-sighted and wrong. I'll have to PM a mod to get it deleted. It doesn't need to exist.

I should apologize for ditching the forum and definitely the general photography section in particular and I do. I felt bad just dropping it, but I had had enough. I had given up based on time comitments in my life, general annoyance with the forums and especially the regional forums where posting photos within the development thread was shunned.
I want to do a photothread and I've got some ideas, but the time involved isn't worth the 500 views and eight replies I'll get.

I will third or fourth the suggestion to move the on-going threads to a separate sub-forum knowing that that will probably annoy those that are doing those threads. We've had alternating issues in the photography forum for threads getting buried and then threads just not being active. Part of me thinks buried was better than inactivity in general.

I also believe that the continued regionalism of the forums into city pages made us lose a lot of the hodge-podge we would see. How often do you see a Vancouver construction thread for a cool building in high-rise construction? Almost never because all of the updates are in the local pages.

It is probably up to those that care about the photography section to make it the place we want it to be by just doing it.

Perhaps a better metric of gauging success of photo threads are the view counts, not the replies. Unless someone has something poignant to say most responders forego the "nice shots" comments despite liking the photos. And of course active users vs. registered users is a 10:1 ratio.

If you look at the view counts you can see many hundreds of people are viewing the photos. Many others are then interested in learning more about the city being presented and will seek out additional information elsewhere.

We also need to take into consideration that unlike fifteen, even five years ago, digital photography of cities from around the world wasn't as prevalent as it is today. As such we often see the same scenes of the same city many times over and the wow factor has been eroded. Unless photographs capture a unique quality of a given area or are shot with a specific creative goal in mind many photos can only convey an updated version of an often recognized place.

As for creating a sub-forum for on-going threads I don't think we're quite there yet. Looking at the My Photos section right now on my screen I see 16 one-off threads and 2 on-going threads.

With respect to the latter if you notice someone posting photos that are not their own work in the My Photos section please PM me. I can move the thread if it's being derailed by photos taken from other sources.

I have a feeling the photo thread just isn't that viable anymore. SSP no longer has a lock on urban photo tours. Follow anyone on instagram in your city of choice and you can get daily/hourly photo updates, often of a higher quality than the large memory card dumps that sometimes happen here.

I had some suggestions a while back about the aesthetics of how the photo threads could be presented, large thumbs instead of text. Something just like this:

http://www.globalyodel.com/

The idea of a photothread map:

http://www.globalyodel.com/map/

Text based links and hard to construct. BBC code has no visual flare in a web where nearly everything is visual, and it is entirely too cumbersome to curate, construct and edit.

I think what the globalyodel site is doing well, is that they only allow a yodel (name could be better) to show 10 photos. It forces the photographer to curate and display their best shots. I don't think people have an attention span for 100 photos, especially if they are SOOC, multiple shots from inside the car of the same building.

If you want more engagement, show less. If someone posts 100 photos, there will be some good shots, but there will be a lot of mediocre shots. What will commenters say? Nice shots, great photos. It's too hard for a viewer to pick out the good ones from the noise. But, if there are only 10, each photo can be looked at more closely, and maybe commented on more specifically.

A yodel is almost like getting to know your SSP photogs mixed with a short curated photo thread. I think this is the direction SSP would have to move if it wanted to draw more attention and feedback from its users. However, since it is constrained by BBC, I don't think that is possible to make it look like a flashy web 3.0 site. But, there is the option to making a new section, (My City Tour?, My City Showcase?) that would highlight certain threads and photographers. Have a new one every few weeks, limit the number of photos, and have some interview questions, not just about the photographer and their intentions, but also the photographer's connection to the place they are showcasing.

^^ all very good suggestions

I disagree that you can't create something with flair in bbcode. It does take thought and it does take some time, but you can do it. Editing and presentation never gained my threads much popularity and I curated the hell out of most of my threads. Part of the reason I went down my path was to shrink the load time with smaller pictures and editing content down. My 100 photo threads would load in a third the time of most and work on my new cellphone to boot these days.

I don't like memory dumps where there is a lack of editing the five or six pictures showing exactly the same thing down to the one photo that best sums it up, but that's what it is. For me there is a huge distinction between posting a couple of shots in a city thread showing construction and development and what I would put into a full thread.

Spending the resources to custom design functionality within vBulletin is unfortunately not practical. We are very limited in what we can do and because this is a website that deals with development and not photography the return on investment in terms of visitors to a custom coded forum feature would not be large enough to warrant the time and expense.

We do the best we can with the resources we have and the systems within which we operate. That being said the photography forums are quite popular and the level of skill and talent presented by so many photographers is incredible.

I understand that many photographers want the feedback, and not receiving that feedback can have a negative impact, but quite honestly the sheer volume of viewers of these threads should be the metric despite not being at all engaging.