FORUM SUGGESTION and Selection GE

[Peter Mad]

Elena/Jan

As a regular user of this forum I see that there is continuously a mixture of detailed problems (like mine below) and more general issues concerning 360 panos, techniques, tutorials, etc. The problem is that as far as I see the current FORUM HAS NO STRUCTURE (unless I missed sometthing!).
Because I understand that there will be revisions in the 360cities.net site, I suggest that, like in other Forums, you introduce topics or categories, or etc. So the issues are less intermixed and the threads can be better identified.
To my understanding the community of 360cities is the largest of pano 360 photographers.
Of course there are also other organization and forum dealing with the same subject, but I think that this forum might be the ideal place for a number of discussion other than stitching errors, GE not accepting, etc.

THX
Important detail: I don't understand while 2 following panos have been refused by GE:

http://www.360cities.net/image/bergamo-val-taleggio-pizzino-village#0.00,0.00,80.0

http://www.360cities.net/image/bergamo-michele-pozzo-bianco-crypt#0.00,0.00,70.0

Can you pls explain and/or correct?
THX again and BYE
Pietro

[elena.martinez]

Hello Pietro,

I've approved your panos for GE. They are totally fine for GE.

About the structure of the forum, I'm going to fordward your idea to our team.

Thanks for your suggestion.

Regards,

Elena

[Peter Mad]

Elena
THX for your status revision of the 360 Photos.

Pls lets keep in mind the importance of introducing a STRUCTURE to the FORUM and my vero serious post, 18th may, to Jan regarding IPAD PROBLEMS !

Thx and have a nice day.
Pietro

[HighDesertView]

I second that motion (though I chuckled when Pietro included a question about his own panos in GE within his post for organizing the forum).  A lot of the current posts seem to be "my 360 wasn't selected for GE", for which there's not much the rest of us forum members can say.  Sometimes, if a link is provided, we can comment on quality and suggest corrections or ideas for why a 360 wasn't selected.  However, a lot of the entries seem to boil down to technical issues for some individual member which can only be addressed by 360cities staff.

That said, there are plenty of times when a technical issue might come up because it affects many 360cities members (ex. the ftp server going down or artifacts showing up in processed 360s).  That sort of thing is useful.

One possibility is to have a sticky post at the top of the forum explaining basic rules.  For example, "Before posting to this forum, please take a moment to determine whether you post might be of general interest to the other 360cities members.  Search the forum to see if your issue has been discussed previously.  If you have an issue that probably only relates to you (for example, a particular panorama not being selected for Google Earth), please direct your question to the technical support staff at <appropriate address>@360cities.net."

Another use of sticky posts would be to put common discussions (like lens selection, how many photos around, equipment comparison, etc.) at the top of the list.  

I am assuming that google groups can do this sort of "sticky post" that I'm suggesting here.  I have seen it in other types of forums.  However, a lot of people never read such sticky posts.  One drawback of unmoderated forums has always been that the cost of making a post is always much lower than the possible payback (question answered!) and often lower than the cost of searching for a previous answer to the same question.

Actually, that reinforces Pietro's suggestion.  If we had a few different forums and some trusted members could be made moderators, we could move (not delete!) topics to appropriate forums when the poster didn't bother to post to the appropriate forum.  The message would not be deleted, but moved to an appropriate forum.  This lowers the cost of searching for previous threads and so posters are less likely to simply post and hope for the best.  

Moderating has its drawback too, of course, including much more committment on the part of the moderators.

John.

[Andy Martin]

[Andy Martin]

Thanks for your thoughtful post.  Being new here, I'm still stumbling around.  You made the statement that a question that only pertains to yourself could be directed to staff at the appropriate address.  I assume this is an indication of an email address.  Elena seems to be answereing posts recently, should we address rejection questions to elena.m...@360cities.net so as to not clutter up the forum?

 

Regards, Andy

[HighDesertView]

Hi Andy,

Actually, I couldn't tell you.  I just don't know. 

Scrolling through the various help pages on 360cities, I see that practically every page directs the user to this forum if they can't find an answer online.  I think in the "old days" before the shift to the google groups forum, there used to be an email address where you could send questions, but I can't seem to find one.

That would explain why so many individual questions come up in the forum.  And again, that reinforces Pietro's suggestion that maybe we need to break the forum into a more organized structure.

For now, there doesn't seem to be a way around it.  Go ahead and post your question and maybe some of us can help or you can wait for Elena to chime in.  I would suggest starting a new thread (new topic) in the main forum rather than tacking on to this one.

John.

[Peter Mad]

Hi John

I can only share your "development ot the stone I launched in the water with this thread".
To understand the potential of this forum, let's note the great number of new members that everyday join 360Cities community and compare them with other 360 organizations! "Absit iniuria verbis", of course.
Nevertheless I don't believe that the rules of the forum can be introduced and managed by members only!

A comment from Jan, Elena ... would be more than welcome.
Good evening
Pietro