[Rand Scott Adams Silver Member Posts: 287]

Papers & Media

on: June 26, 2019 at 8:28 pm

Hi Mark and Kevin,
<p style=”text-align: left;”>I’m wondering a couple of things here regarding Mark’s excellent evaluations of various papers that appear “elsewhere” and whether you’ve ever compiled a compendium of summary results?  If so (or thinking about it), I wonder if PhotoPxL might have a “resources” kind of place where that kind of info could be stored / accessed by the membership?  This could, of course, extend to other types of accumulated information / conventional wisdom.</p>
Rand

Rand Scott Adams Rand47

[Mark D Segal Silver Member Posts: 935]

Re: Question for Mark Segal & Kevin

Reply #1 on: June 26, 2019 at 11:55 pm

Hi Rand,
Much appreciate your interest in this and the work we are doing. Kevin and I have, in the past, discussed the concept of creating a papers data base that would do what you are suggesting and perhaps more. The issue is that no matter how designed, it’s bound to be a large amount of time-consuming work, not to speak of the considerable commitment of time that already goes into conducting the analyses and writing the articles, all of which has been and remains for now voluntarily contributed content. I wouldn’t mind helping to revisit the notion, because I think it could be beneficial to readers and to the site having one “go to” place for all this kind of information, designed in an accessible manner; but it would need to start with a focus on the practical considerations conducive to implementing it.

Mark D Segal Author: "Scanning Workflows with SilverFast 8, SilverFast HDR, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop". Please check the PhotoPXL Store for availability.

[Kevin Raber Silver Member Posts: 1289]

Re: Question for Mark Segal & Kevin

Reply #2 on: June 27, 2019 at 10:29 pm

There is a lot to do starting this new site. It’s a good idea that has been discussed but figuring a way to compile and present it may be a bit too much considering what we have on our project plan for now. Mark and I will talk about it again though.

Kevin Raber
Owner and Publisher of photoPXL

[Robert Peterson Gold Member Posts: 9]

Re: Question for Mark Segal & Kevin

Reply #3 on: July 12, 2019 at 11:10 pm

Creating a framework for a “resource directory” with the focus on user contributed entries might satisfy both the need for references to interesting/useful information external to the site while minimizing the additional workload on the site’s personnel. This “resource directory” would primarily support citing Web sites. The directory might take the form of a specially implemented forum where the first message in a topic is the citation presented in a structured format (mostly field title and value in a predefined ordering), and free form followup messages discussing the cited work. This provides both a familiar presentation and a mechanism for local discussion.

An entry might consist of the work’s title, URL, name of the original site, date of original publication, date of reference creation, author name(s), citation creator’s name. A collection of keywords is associated with each entry, some generated from the title, author, site name, and URL, others entered by the citation’s creator, and yet others by site administrators and (perhaps even) members. In a manner similar to how users’ rate NewEgg products, PhotoPXL users could rate an entry, as well as comment on it.

I expect the directory would need to be moderated, i.e., each citation would be reviewed before becoming public. Again to minimize the effort required of site personnel, the vetting could be done by volunteers based on documented criteria, with minimal oversight by site personnel, like the volunteer forum moderators we see on other sites.

As an IT guy, I understand the nontrivial design and implementation effort involved. If it caught on, such a feature would differentiate PhotoPXL from any other site. The primary competition would be search engines!

One implementation approach would be to collect the citation information in a structured form. When the user submits the form, the site validates the fields to the extent possible, formats the data as the first message in a new topic, and writes the message into the existing forum framework as a new topic. This approach avoids messing with the current forum implementation while structuring both the citation data entry and presentation.

-Bob

[Author]

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