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Post by Kahloke on May 5, 2020 19:18:24 GMT -8
As with the current flagship theme, the future of the Forum Flagship contest is uncertain. The moderating staff has been discussing the flagship contest on and off for a few months now. Interest and participation seems to be waning, and has been for some time now. A few years ago, we went to two-month rotations, and that helped for awhile, but even with that change, it seems like the contest has grown somewhat stale. There have been many good themes and theme ideas, but we've been doing this for quite a number of years. Are we out of ideas? Has this contest run its course? Is the format just not working anymore? These are all questions we have been mulling. There's also the impact of social media sites (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and the like), which is much faster-paced than the Forum, and likely is changing the way information gets ingested and shared. Taking the time to create photos that are formatted to the contest requirements, and then uploading those photos to Flickr or another photo hosting site, then pasting those photos into a thread, is not a quick endeavor, and can be somewhat onerous. I still like doing it, but I can see where it may be too much for some, and maybe not worth the effort on a frequent basis.
We, the moderators, feel the contest can still continue, but not with the two-month rotation. If it stays in the current format, there have been a few ideas thrown out:
1. Make the contest quarterly - Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, Jul-Sep, Oct-Dec: first quarter would/could be "Best of the previous year", as we do now. The other quarters can be pre-selected or Forum Choice (ideas from you, the membership, that we pick at random)
2. Make the contest 3 times per year - Jan-Apr, May-Aug, Sep-Dec: same as above, only divided into thirds instead of quarters
3. Bi-annual - Jan-Jun, Jul-Dec: first half would be "Best of previous year", next half Forum Choice
4. Annual: this one would see us choosing submissions at the beginning of the year. Perhaps it could be set up so that a lot more entries win, displaying half for the first 6 months, and the last half for the remainder of the year
One thing that came up with this last flagship is that not everyone knows how to create and upload photos that meet the contest's requirements. Something I've been wanting to do, and now probably will, is to create a "how to" document that walks you through the creating and uploading process for submitting photos. For those of us that have been doing this for a long time, it seems easy, but I get that it can be daunting for someone who hasn't learned how to do it.
So, at this time, we would like to get feedback from you, the members, on how you feel about the forum flagship contest. Is it still worth doing? What works, and what doesn't work with it? What ideas do you have? Do any of our suggestions above sound good? What would you like to see?
The contest will be changing as we move forward. The theme we have now is the last time we will be doing the 2-month rotation. How it looks going forward depends largely on the feedback we get from you, the membership. Thank you, and we're looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
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Neil
Voyager 
Posts: 7,175
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Post by Neil on May 5, 2020 20:32:39 GMT -8
I've been a forum member for fifteen years, and I've never had much interest in the monthly photo heading. I do appreciate people's work, but I come here to read the posts, and see their photos of a specific event, or a boat in an assignment, or historically. The top of the front page doesn't really hold a lot of interest.
One thing I really feel strongly about, though, is the continuation of this forum as opposed to morphing to part of facebook's empire. Forums like this are becoming less common. It's sometimes hard for all of us to maintain interest in and contribute to a topic that by it's very nature is repetitive- ferries sailing back and forth on a largely unchanging schedule- but I want to see this continue, whatever the heading outcome is.
If a solution was for mods to select a random collection of ferry photos to rotate over a year as headers, I'd be fine with that.
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Post by Low Light Mike on May 6, 2020 6:52:50 GMT -8
Thanks for this thread, and the various articulations in it. I don't know how representative my thoughts are, so this might just be me: I really just don't care much anymore for the routine of the flagship-banner process, the nominations, the thrill of the crop, and the results. It's not the themes, it's just my waning interest. I can still remember being interested in these things. But now, the thinking of the fine detail of the crop & post just seems to make me feel tired. And the thought of the various squabbles/quibbles about criteria interpretation and "You moderators should do this" comments, just seems so irrelevant. That's not a pandemic-response for me, it's an "I just don't care about this detail anymore" response. Oh, I need to address the various options in Kahloke's post. - I like #3, bi-annual. This is infrequent enough to hopefully still spark some interest, and will also allow for some seasonality. That being said, would an April-September and October-March split be better, to give a seasonal variety to the two terms? (yes, I realize that I just injected some fine-detail and "you should do this" into the conversation). Cheers all  |
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Post by Balfour on May 6, 2020 17:03:54 GMT -8
When I was a young moderator some fourteen years ago, I came up with the idea of a "Forum Flagship" as a fun way to showcase the photographic talents of many of our members. In future, I would like to see the flagship continue to do this but perhaps it's time to feature member submissions in our banner without running a contest or setting up a poll.
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Post by Kahloke on May 6, 2020 19:34:15 GMT -8
When I was a young moderator some fourteen years ago, I came up with the idea of a "Forum Flagship" as a fun way to showcase the photographic talents of many of our members. In future, I would like to see the flagship continue to do this but perhaps it's time to feature member submissions in our banner without running a contest or setting up a poll. The Forum Flagship was a great idea, and we've had some great themes and submissions over the years. Thanks, Coastal Skier, for introducing it. It's had a great run, but I'm in agreement with you about keeping a banner going without doing it as a contest and setting up a poll. Truthfully, I feel the same as Mike (LLM) about the flagship contest process. I, too, am just tired, and my interest in it has waned. It doesn't excite me anymore. I think there are ways we can simplify this. |
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Post by Elwha on the Rocks on May 6, 2020 20:04:45 GMT -8
I would pretty much echo the sentiments of others... I'm in favor of moving to a twice-a-year changeover. (Perhaps, as Mike suggested, changing with the Winter and Summer seasons?) I was going to suggest limiting entries to one per member so more people have the chance to see their photos "win," but I also like the idea of just eliminating the contest aspect altogether! Seems like a win-win as it is less work to set up for the mods and would likely encourage more participation.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on May 6, 2020 21:21:58 GMT -8
I am not one for voting, in my opinion it should be twice a year and for fun to showcase ferries but maybe even other modes of transportation to show people that every person's photos and interests are equally important and amazing,that is what I would prefer and propose.
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Post by iceberg1 on May 15, 2020 11:31:23 GMT -8
Twice a year seems about right. I do like to vote and having only one entry per member seems fair. It does however appear voting interest is way down by the number of votes received on this latest round. I do like the WCFF a lot and find myself checking in more often during this self quarantine phase of the Covid 19 crisis. I am cool with what ever the Mods decide to do going forward with the Flagship Contest.
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on May 15, 2020 11:54:36 GMT -8
I think the Forum flagship should be with seasons or quarterly because I think it spreads it out more evenly and less boring for photos.
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Post by timmyboy on May 15, 2020 14:40:00 GMT -8
I think one of the issues with the Forum Flagship nowadays is the fact that many users are like myself and use the Tapatalk app. The only time we actually see the photos is when they are posted and when the poll is setup. Tapatalk has no option for displaying the flagship like the website.
My two cents
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Post by futureferrydriver on May 16, 2020 16:25:25 GMT -8
I think one of the issues with the Forum Flagship nowadays is the fact that many users are like myself and use the Tapatalk app. The only time we actually see the photos is when they are posted and when the poll is setup. Tapatalk has no option for displaying the flagship like the website. My two cents I’d like to mirror this thought. As someone who visits the forum from mobile (just my phones web browser) 99.9% of the time I very rarely see the flagship header and this certainly leads to a lack of interest/caring about what it is. |
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Post by Low Light Mike on May 16, 2020 16:54:30 GMT -8
I’d like to mirror this thought. As someone who visits the forum from mobile (just my phones web browser) 99.9% of the time I very rarely see the flagship header and this certainly leads to a lack of interest/caring about what it is. I'm sorry that you missed those months when your profile photo was part of the banner, photoshopped to make you a member of the Spice Girls, riding the Northern Adventure. ("If you wannabe on banners, you gotta get with my friends") |
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Post by Kahloke on May 17, 2020 7:18:22 GMT -8
Here's my latest thought on the Forum Banner based on some of the responses above: what about doing away with it altogether? Here's my reasoning:
> some apps don't show it - even the mobile version of WCFF doesn't show it
> it solves the issue of deciding how to choose photos without doing a contest. The contest kept the process democratic; without that, who decides what is displayed, and how do you keep it fair?
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Post by whalebreath on May 19, 2020 13:15:47 GMT -8
Had no idea those pics were part of some contest.
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Post by avgeekjoe on Jul 31, 2020 19:06:25 GMT -8
My advice: Go quarterly, pick three and have them rotate :-).
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Post by paulvanb on Aug 6, 2020 21:41:32 GMT -8
Going forward, I think all new photos. Both BC Ferries and WSF have new ships in play, and those of us ferry (and train) nerds have been out shooting them. Luckily for me, I have had the pleasure of riding on the Aurora twice on my way too short "old home week" vacation!
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Post by paulvanb on Sept 6, 2020 16:11:27 GMT -8
So, when are we due for new submissions???
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Post by Mike on Sept 6, 2020 16:35:44 GMT -8
So, when are we due for new submissions??? Check back in December. |
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Post by paulvanb on Dec 1, 2020 21:51:21 GMT -8
So, when are we due for new submissions??? Check back in December. And today is December 1st... |
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Post by cbachmeier on Dec 21, 2020 12:28:03 GMT -8
I am not sure if this is the right place to ask this but for the submissions for the forum flagship contest how do you guys crop your photos I have been trying to figure it out, and I have a few photos to submit but I cant submit unless I can figure how to crop the submission.
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Post by Kahloke on Dec 23, 2020 7:14:41 GMT -8
I am not sure if this is the right place to ask this but for the submissions for the forum flagship contest how do you guys crop your photos I have been trying to figure it out, and I have a few photos to submit but I cant submit unless I can figure how to crop the submission. I created a sort of "how-to" for creating banner photos in Photoshop, uploading them to Flickr, and pasting said images into a WCFF thread. There are other ways of doing this, but the instructions show the method I use with the programs and accounts I have. See here: ferriesbc.proboards.com/thread/3510/forum-flagship-rules-information?page=1&scrollTo=199080 |
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FNS
Voyager
The Empire Builder train of yesteryear in HO scale
Posts: 4,948
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Post by FNS on Jan 1, 2021 2:04:06 GMT -8
I am not sure if this is the right place to ask this but for the submissions for the forum flagship contest how do you guys crop your photos I have been trying to figure it out, and I have a few photos to submit but I cant submit unless I can figure how to crop the submission. I created a sort of "how-to" for creating banner photos in Photoshop, uploading them to Flickr, and pasting said images into a WCFF thread. There are other ways of doing this, but the instructions show the method I use with the programs and accounts I have. See here: ferriesbc.proboards.com/thread/3510/forum-flagship-rules-information?page=1&scrollTo=199080I use the Windows Paint program. Lots of times! It shows the pixel dimensions. For a scanned photo, you can use the select tool set to 1200 x 340 to lay over the image. You may have to resize the image if needed. Copy to clipboard. Open up a new paint window and move the bottom border up (or down) to 340 and the right border left (or right) to 1200. Paste. Save. Upload to your favorite photo hosting site. Submit it!
That's for the Forum banners.
For regular postings, it's 1024 x 768.
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FNS
Voyager
The Empire Builder train of yesteryear in HO scale
Posts: 4,948
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Post by FNS on Jan 1, 2021 3:14:44 GMT -8
Next year marks the 60th Anniversary of Century 21, the World's Fair in Seattle.
I think we should set ourselves up for creating a banner contest for anything related to the fair in our 2022 FFS year. "FORUM FLAGSHIP 2022: CELEBRATING THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF CENTURY 21, THE 1962 WORLD'S FAIR IN SEATTLE".
I have a few pics of ferries with the fair banner on their sides. My co-winning 2021 FFS image of the KALAKALA and ILLAHEE is a warmup, likely to continue to show in 2022.
RULES:
Any pictures of surviving structures of the Fair: The COLISEUM, the SPACE NEEDLE, the SCIENCE CENTER, the FOUNTAIN, the CENTER HOUSE (ARMORY), the STADIUM.
Any historical photos in your collection of the Fair and past original structures/rides.
Ferry pics with the CENTURY 21 banner on their sides. Even postcards showing ferries and the Space Needle in its original colors.
That's it for now. More later when we get close to submission time for 2022.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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