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Old 06-17-2019, 11:03 AM
Thumb Dog Thumb Dog is offline
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Discontinue the POTW?

It’s never been my goal to divide our fellowship into separate camps, but maybe it’s time we risk discussing a few ideas regarding the look of our favorite website. Maybe it’s time to discontinue the Picture of the Week.

Please understand that I have a genuine affection for the POTW, as the first paper model I ever posted on this site was chosen POTW on January 31st, 2016. It was a big surprise to wake up that morning and see my kitbashed, 100 year old Epinal submarine pictured at the top of the Home Page. It was there for 11 days until it was replaced by kjev’s powerful Greeblified Jotun. Sic transit, etc.

I looked forward each week, or so, to see what other paper modelers had built that had earned this gratifying acknowledgement. And in looking over past POTWs, it’s evident we are a creative bunch. Former POTWs have included Hellboy, a Mack Bulldog, a BF 109E Instrument Panel and even a Sushi Platter. And I’m sure that each modeler who had his or her model chosen as POTW was just as surprised and delighted as I was upon receiving the same honor.

But, things have changed. It has been over 7 months since Thales’ excellent 1/144 IXS Enterprise became lost in space on the Home Page of papermodelers.com

Believe me, I’m not casting any blame or pointing any fingers. People get busy meeting their many commitments and sometimes things fall by the wayside. And to those who might say as long as I’m bringing up this topic, maybe I should volunteer to select the POTW, well, thanks, but no. I judged a middle school writing contest once, and my judging days are over. It’s a difficult thing to do properly, and the rewards are few. This may be why no one else has stepped forward to take on the demanding and surprisingly time consuming task of choosing the POTW.

There’s an old axiom that states you should never point out a problem without offering a solution. My suggestion is that a new, distinctive logo for papermodelers.com might permanently replace the Picture of the Week. We have a talented membership here, and if the chance to design a new logo were opened up to our members, we might be surprised at the results.

I’m sure that once this conversation gets started, we’ll hear a number of other ideas on this topic. As always in this forum, all ideas are welcome.

One point in favor of a fresh logo is that a new, permanent image at the top of the Home Page would certainly take up less space than the POTW. And, the change would put paid to the lingering frustration of seeing the long abandoned Picture of the Week staring back at us every time we log in. It looks careless. And judging by the remarkable work that is consistently displayed throughout the pages of this website, careless is not how we roll.

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog
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  #2  
Old 06-17-2019, 12:05 PM
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Texman Texman is offline
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"I’m sure that once this conversation gets started, we’ll hear a number of other ideas on this topic."

I can assure you of that.

We always need folks to help in the community environment.
Just not actually saying "I won't help".
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Old 06-17-2019, 12:14 PM
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rickstef rickstef is offline
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TD,

Yes, I agree, the simplest course of action would be to do away with the POTW, and replace it with said graphic, next question would be, what would the graphic be of?

So you have a sense of the behind the curtain work that the admins and moderators do, we have been testing various methods for changing the POTW, both in a manual, human driven method, and in a scripted, bot driven method.
We have the human method down pat, and we can guide any one who would like to do it, through the steps.
As for the bot method, we have been trying to get the format, the script can read consistently, correct. So hairs are being lost, and aspirin is being consumed trying to figure this all out.

One tip I can give in regards to viewing the same image over and over, there is a set of arrows located in the top right corner of the POTW box, if you click that, the box will collapse, and after a page refresh, the box will stay closed, until you open it again, and refresh the page.

Also, as I have mentioned in various other forum related threads, if there is something you have seen on another forum, and you really like it, or think we here at papermodelers could benefit from it, point it out to us, and we will go and check it out.

Rick
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Old 06-17-2019, 01:42 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rickstef View Post
One tip I can give in regards to viewing the same image over and over, there is a set of arrows located in the top right corner of the POTW box, if you click that, the box will collapse, and after a page refresh, the box will stay closed, until you open it again, and refresh the page.
I did not know this!

Personally, I like the picture over any logo (this coming from seeing how different forums I belong to handle the tops of their pages).

Since discussions are already underway, I'll throw out my random thought: We have a tremendous amount of excellent in-progress photos from build threads. What about rotating some of those through?

(Diderick's DC-4/C-54 design thread comes to mind, as it shows what has to occur before a model can even be built. Airdave's 1/16 Ford "Quad" is another example. Plenty of great in-progress pics of the design process!)

While pictures of the finished product are nice, it's sometimes the "behind the curtain, here's how this was done" photos that leave me amazed. There's hope for us mere mortals yet!

Ok, back to steam cleaning my car seats...
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Old 06-17-2019, 02:07 PM
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southwestforests southwestforests is offline
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I enjoy the POTW. I also realize that I do not own the website. And, whether there is a picture, a logo, or something else, I'm still going to have to do my laundry, go buy groceries, change the cats' litter, pay my internet bill, and make sure the car windows are closed before the the thunderstorm arrives.
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Old 06-17-2019, 02:20 PM
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I also vote for in-build pics, showing models during construction. I think that would look good as a masthead for the forum.
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Old 06-17-2019, 03:28 PM
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Yale Yale is offline
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I would miss the pictures, but sure can understand how this weekly feature could become a real drag for the people who arrange them. So would it be less onerous to change this feature to Picture of the Month? Picture of the Fortnight?
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Old 06-17-2019, 05:14 PM
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I have another idea. Change it to Picture of the Month. Then, open a thread for people to post suggested pictures. Then, everybody votes on their favorite picture. The picture with the most votes at the end of the month is made POTM for the next month.
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Old 06-17-2019, 05:41 PM
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airdave airdave is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by murphyaa View Post
I have another idea. Change it to Picture of the Month. Then, open a thread for people to post suggested pictures. Then, everybody votes on their favorite picture. The picture with the most votes at the end of the month is made POTM for the next month.
One advantage to this is, all those pics that don't make it to POTM, still get their moment in the spotlight (by being posted in the thread).

But the disadvantage is, we've already looked at the winning pic for a month! lol

I like this idea.
But why not change it up...maybe it is time to drop POTW and POTM?
The vote can be for the honor of being the Home page "Showcase" image for the next month.
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  #10  
Old 06-17-2019, 05:47 PM
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Michael Mash Michael Mash is offline
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At "Die Kartonmodellbauer" (a European mostly German paper modeler forum), they have images that rotate every 10 or 15 seconds. So I am guessing they have a library of images that the software constantly rotates through.
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