As an Unvalued Gather Member, and one who is also clueless and indifferent, I learned belatedly of the Summer Bonus Picture Points extravaganza.
Unvalued Gather Members - a wonderful group of Aniko's creation.
(I am also one of the nine Hustling Harlots)
I have a lot of images - dozens are now scanned and ready to post.
Ae there structural limits to one's posting - each member limited to a hundred images, the photo upload feature dying at the twentieth attempt?
I know that there are no limits related to "good taste", attention-grabbing, point-whoring, or insufferable banality.
If Gather is really encouraging everyone to spill their image files onto the site, then this article is also a friendly warning to my friends.
I welcome your attention to anything that intereests you, but don't feel obliged to notice every vintage scene that is about t cross your feed.
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Comments: 74
I can't blame people for taking advantage, but it has made gathering a little less compelling.
It is a misleading title, Stephanie.
The answer does seem obvious.
I cashed out my points (a hundred dollars!) again last month, as I believed the site is doomed.
I have qute a few linen postcards with beautiful scenes, but no addresses or messages.
I thought about using them to illustrate stories about towns, but that would be some time in ht efuture.
Nothing prevents me, the, from posting them all now.
I could take them all down, and post them as "new" again at a later time.
Thanks, Kate.
I recently posted the Bellingrath cards, and the soldier photos without this valuable tag.
I will certainly be applying a remedy to that sad state of affairs!
There ought to be far more sarcasm abut this addle-pated stunt.
Those conjectures can be a lot f fun, Kate, but they arouse my critical indignation, too.
No dynasty ever proceeds according to plan.
I tire quickly of the "If Truman had not dropped the bomb, Australians would speak Japanese" kind of speculation.
Wow!
Great pics!
Wow!
Great pics! "
In truth, Faith, that is all one can do.
I have posted less than 500 photos but crammed about 60 into one photo essay without any problems.
If he had any decency, Gustav would be ashamed of himself, Ron.
That is a sensible thing to do, Tonia.
I may set up something like that.
that is why I have been "accumulating" a storehouse of pics, Dannielle.
Lots of historic sites to be discussed in articles.
But, I am considering scanning my entore collection of unmailed "linen" postcards (which are lovely) and postng the whole batch.
They were quite interesting, Kate.
But far more time-consuming than "awesome."
"Ten stars"
I can't even imagine having 2000 pictures to post!
I have never removed a Group Member, Beaker, and I (certainly) would not start with you!
You must work for the Psychic Hotline, Wanda.
Nothing will load swiftly.
Of course, I am trying to load all 18 pictures at once.
Only because I have only 462 pictures to go!
It allows you to "put a frame around them", and to open a discussion.
For this promotion, I'm just loading the images one by one as I have always done.
I really appreciate those connections who have been kind enough to upload and tag their photos and publish them in the form of an essay (taking only one slot in my feed, and more likely to be looked at (by me, at least)), versus taking up hundreds of slots in my feed, and potentially pushing out other content that I haven't had time to look at yet. The Content Feed for articles, photos and videos only holds 500 items. Folks who publish hundreds of photos individually are selfishly taking up more than their fair share of my feed.
I have already disconnected from former connections for this, before I had the brainstorm of adjusting my feed settings and just making them temporarily un-feedworthy until this promotion is over.
I hate to sound like such a bitch, but I've been pretty busy lately. If I don't move to take some sort of proactive action, by the time I have time to get back to Gather and (attempt to) get caught up, my feed will be full of nothing but summerpics.
I urge everyone to please put their photos in the form of an essay (I saw one that managed to get 120 photos in it!), or publish them just to yourselves. Don't be a feed hog.
It pains me that I've had to create a "NOT FEED WORTHY" friend set for this promotion, and put people that I really like in it, just to keep their output from my feed.
I have always maintained that I would not connect to anyone that wasn't feed-worthy. In the past, I seem to have hurt some people's feelings by not accepting their connection requests, on the basis that they were so prolific that they'd take up too much of my feed. This promotion has forced me to either reconsider my stance or become a hypocrite.
But, if it helps to know this, I'm pretty much finished. After Monday it's time to get serious about classwork and I won't be around much until November. (I intend to wish myself a happy 50th birthday here.)
Unlike Janna, I don't hate to sound like a bitch. Obviously, personal and/or artistic integrity have not limited many.
It seems to me that since the Ice upgrade, they were getting far fewer images uploaded in general -- and this summerpics effort certainly turned that around, didn't it? It also gets folks to use the geopegs feature, which is new.
The site admin didn't really figure in the impact on our feeds, and didn't take action when that began to reveal itself. I am most disappointed if this is causing distress such as Janna describes. I'm glad that we can reconfigure the friend sets to deal with the problem, although my feed-worthy friends are such a small group that it really hasn't impacted me at all.
Expecting self-restraint? This site hasn't exactly been a haven for such an attribute over the past two years, has it? Why should today be different?
Clearly this is a sign of my repressive Catholic school upbringing.
If you're Kathryn Esplin-Oleski, no. She seems to have published and re-published, some multiple times during this promotion, every photo she has on her computer as a summerpic, whether we've seen it multiple times before this promotion or not.
Pictures of cats, dishes, fabrics, jewelry, knick-knacks, pictures of framed pictures in her house, her mother's and uncle's paintings, driver's license photos---all re-published as summerpics. Some over and over during this promotion, and all individually. Apparently, she's either not smart enough to hide her whoredom and publish them over and over to just herself or she's insane enough to think her connections want to see this multiple times and have her take over their feeds. Who knows?
Here is my favorite KEO summerpic.
I agree with what Time Heals said above: "Summerpics is the ultimate value-free, content-neutral promotion. It doesn't just value quantity over quality, it values quantity exclusively and doesn't even recognize quality." Too bad.
(most the time)
(some time)
ha ha
I am not willing to piss off Janna and Sandy, so I will have to find a way to post my postcards to limited viewers.
I tend to do things the same way until I have to do otherwise -so I am off to learn about selecting publishing options.
Thanks, Julia.
Until I was informed in the comments above, I was blissfully ignorant about the great flood of images.
I tend not to look at many, unless they are discussed in articles, so I am accustomed to passing them by.
I can understand this objection, to a certan extent.
Does some supeficial connection to a theme as broad as "summer" still justify the single-minded focus on whoring?
Whoring, of course, is "littering" the site with anything that can be counted at all as an image.
In a previous photo frenzy, one inspired member posted numerous unattrctive pictures of cans of iced tea.
It was her favorite beverage, and it could have some connection to the idea of "summer".
I thought the cans were ugly, the point-whoring too banal, but the member may have been a new Warhol using commercial strategies to "publish" an idiosyncratic appreciation of overlooked beauty.
Thse are significant rewards to a lot of people, Andrea.
And, the pay-off is immediate, too.
When did this promotion begin?
It seems that i have been "missing" points for quite a few images I've "shared".
That calls for remedial action.
I thought the cans were ugly, the point-whoring too banal, but the member may have been a new Warhol using commercial strategies to "publish" an idiosyncratic appreciation of overlooked beauty. And I'm sure the hundreds of people who posted and reposted shots of nonsense (even labeled them as such) truly thought their contributions had some artistic merit and never thought about the points.
Peter, I appreciate your consideration. You don't have to worry about pissing me off - it's far too late for a few more pictures to register on my pissed-off-ometer.
I'm not nearly as mean as I look, or as you've probably read in that private group ;-)
I have not written anything since this started for fear no one will see it in the chaos.
I chuckled at this.
Andrea's comment is the sad truth of the matter, however.
Once again, most of the site (including me) has taken time to post and not to read.
You are really serious about this Summerpic Fiesta!
Animal sacrifices? Isn't that a bit over-the-top?
I was only going about 45 mph -- it was dark and I couldn't use my high beams, since I was following other cars. I have to guess the deer was actually on the right-hand side of the road, and was turning to go back up into the woods -- all I saw was his rump, and only for a moment.
In this instance, the deer was just suddenly inches in front of my headlight: no motion, no bright reflection from an eye, no nothing at all. One second I was following the road and the cars ahead of me, and the next there was a deer's flank right in front of my passenger headlight.
*sigh*
d'oh!
Bill Cosby..."...a leaf flew in fron of my car - Oh! I hit a cow!"
A frightening event, Dannielle.
I had a similar experience in Pennsylvania many years ago.
One second there was a road in front of me, the next second, a deer had bounded right in front of the bumper.
The deer was launched away from the car.
It was my girlfriend's car - so I was thrilled that there was little damage.
I was in Vrginia, only a few years ago, when a deer ran into the side of the SUV I was driving.
The deer bounced clear, and left no mark on the vehicle.
I have been told that deer seldom survive their collisions with vehicles, however.
Also, there are now 10 Hustling Harlots. I have to start to get more serious about my harlotry soon though if I mean business.
I'm wondering if uploading pictures to an article and saving the article as a draft might not lead to points even before the article is published. I saw my points go up the other day when I did that, but it could have been a coincidence.
I need to re-load all my old images.
Sue, I apologize for overlooking your comment.
I heartily second your pious wish.
I am not at all surpised, Aniko.
Look at the toll that the pic whoring has taken on communication among our friends this week.
The site really is doomed.
What a shame, it could have been such a great place.
You can only get so many "bounces" from kicking the corpse.
I forgot to highlight Sandy's frank declaration.
This is why discerning members love her.