New Pentax Gallery

Just had an email from Pentax:

Next month, you'll see a new look for PENTAX on the web; Pentaximaging.com, PENTAX Photo Gallery, plus a new mobile PENTAX Imaging site. Here's a preview of the exciting changes you'll see in the PENTAX Photo Gallery:

Intuitive navigation in the artist's section
New format for quicker viewing and image loading
Easier viewing and voting on images
Commenting Tool - Select whether you will allow commenting on your images


Greater exposure for your talents
All the photos in the new gallery will be public on our Pentaximaging.com site as well as our mobile site as of October 24 - putting your images in front of thousands more people who are passionate about photography.

Participation
If you already have an account on the current PENTAX Photo Gallery, it will automatically be transferred to the new site, along with all your information and photos. Once the new Photo Gallery is live, you'll be able to log in and update your information, just as you do now.

We are very excited about the improvements to the PENTAX Imaging web sites and their inclusion of the new PENTAX Photo Gallery. However, if you prefer not to display your images on all PENTAX Imaging web properties, please contact us by October 3 at [email protected]">[email protected] and we will disable your account.

We look forward to seeing your work in the new Photo Gallery!

Just had one myself. I wonder if they are going to put a stricter limit on uploads as I am sure everyone will have built up a big backlog of submissions.:

With a "comments" function available it should mean a departure from the old flash-hell to a cms/database driven site. That's welcome and makes various features possible (and search engines will love it!) How would you feel about a rating system - like 500px has? Is that covered by the "voting" feature mentioned in the mail or is that just the old "should it stay or should it go!" button?

I enjoyed PPG when I learned about it a couple of years ago, but I have to admit, these days I find a majority of the pictures rather uninspiring. As an example, I recently had a look at what togs used the 645D for and I did not find one picture I cared to look at twice. At least one of them would never have made it from the memory card to my hard disk (pituring a butterfly)

Will ratings make it to elitist? It could make it more dynamic like: most popular this week-pictures.

Another thing: Commenting has the potential to induce users with a bit of "community feel", but it could also lead to the bitching and bullying that can be wittnessed on these pages from time to time

I don't like ratings systems. If an image has been voted in and then approved by the panel then in my view it deserves to be there. The ratings system can be used as a tool to express their dipleasure at photos they consider to be less worthy than their own rejections. In a nutshell it is as much a mechanism to express sour grapes as a mechanism for appreciation. I have seen it operate that way in other places.

Rating systems are easily abused. I never bother to enter any photography thing if there's an element of 'get your friends to vote for you' on it.

Ratings systems are open to abuse, but often I've been looking in the PU Gallery and my finger has been itching to click a "Like" button. It's maybe got nothing in the image I particularly want to comment on, just would be words for the sake of it, but it would be great to be able to click a thumbs up.

The idea has been mooted several times, but it's still under consideration. The EPZ system also works quite well, although it looks like "buddy groups" evolve, sometimes giving images huge numbers of undeserved votes whilst other languish with very few but can be really excellent images.

Personally I still like voting systems though, imperfect though they may be.

its going to be a lot like ephotozine then ?

Surely the simple solution is to have an "allow ratings" option when users upload an image?

That way if you suspect your work is being targetted by petty vindictive types you can just stop them from rating it.

I don't like rating systems at all. It's one of the reasons I don't bother with ephotozine anymore; there's a lot of technically suspect and uninspiring images on there with reams of votes. The Readers Choice Award Gallery on there is a joke. The only way you are likely to get 30 votes, with your image disappering off the front page within an hour, is if you are a member of some mutual appreciation society.

I hope PPG does not follow this route in any way. My only complaint with it previously, apart from the apparent drop in standards, was the clunky interface.

I like ratings, both giving and receiving. For me, it's fun, and that's what it's all about. I joined 500px recently and love it, it's like EPZ before it got cluttered with ads and features.

The portfolio feature in particular is brilliant.

I cant see much difference between a rating system and a simple yes or no, anyone who is peeved that their own images dont make it can just as easily reject an image as give it a low rating, equaly so peoples "buddies" can still give the thumbs up to an image that they recognise as a friends simply by clicking yes.

I'm not a fan of ratings system - in my limited experience they are open to abuse. 500px started off nicely but has gone the same way. I agree about the portfolio thing - its the only reason I'm still putting pics on there. Not sure why folk get so weird about promoting their picture higher up the first page by disliking all those around them, although I don't think they have as many problems with people creating multiple accounts.

When the PPG packed up a few weeks ago to reorganise for its October relaunch I had 11 photos waiting in the queue for selection. After receiving this latest email I asked them if the queued pictures would need to be uploaed again and they quickly replied to say no, they would automatically go back into the selection process.
David