Before I leave groups...a question...

[peargrin]

I'm considering leaving the groups I've joined, and wanted to ask first if others are experiencing the same things I am, or if I'm missing something, before I do leave them. So far, the groups have been nothing more than warehouses for photos. They have not increased my view count, because the few photos I've added are completely buried by the massive numbers of photos, frequently by a few photographers without regard to quality or sometimes content. More importantly, there have been no discussions at all, no exchange of ideas, no connections made to like-minded photographers. Was I hoping for too much with groups? Have I missed the groups that are truly active and interesting? Would love to hear what others are experiencing...thanks!

[BritPlom]

Yourself, do you participate in the group discutions, and do you open the others group images? You may have then the answer...

 

Concerning the groups content, a lot of users dump effectively their photos regardless of their interest..The cleaning requires a lot of work for the Group owners and moderators, and this is generally poorly done. I am modérator for several groups, and i cannot spent enought time for this task. I can't be all the day on Panoramio!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Draken]

I agree with you completely. You were only expecting the groups to develop their full potential. Because the groups don't have stricter rules regarding the amount of photos to be added per day or month they have become a warehouse... or a dump yard. No exchange of ideas or discussions: indeed. People don't use this forum unless they want to gripe about something and the two that should be the most popular (Photography and Photo Critique) are the least visited.

I don't join any groups and I only keep the 3 groups I own, and that's because I don't want to abandon them. 

[hvbemmel]

I have one group, shows nice in GE using KML, because all photos from Austria are within their boundaries. I have one rule, that I can control, they have to be in Austria. I'm moderator in a few other groups. These groups have rules and limitations and it is virtually  impossible to implement those rules. When you say 10 photos, some people upload 300. Just try to find them; forget it. Try to find the user to delete him? forget about it. I want to live, not to sit behind my computer and look for "sinners". Occasionally I look at the groups I'm in, but I found that the time I spend in the forum is more satisfying and less time consuming. So I don't see much difference in a group without limits and one with limits. 

I see no movement in changes, other then removing bugs so I have not much hope.   

[Heidiho]

Ja, die Gruppen.... ich habe selber 3. Zum Glück nur ganz kleine mit überschaubaren Themen. Aufgrund der Übersichtlichkeit hoffe ich, den Überblick behalten zu können. Aber es stimmt schon: eine ganze Menge von Pano-Mitgliedern scheint zu meinen, dass es bei den Gruppen irgendwie um MASSE geht.... wie sonst ist es zu erklären, dass Leute Mitglied in 600 (!) Gruppen sein können (ich nenne keine Namen, aber ich habe nachgezählt). Und es ärgert mich, wenn manche Leute ohne Rücksicht auf Gruppen-Thema und (mangelnde !)  Bildqualität  gnadenlos ALLES was sie haben in die Gruppen reindrücken. Ein paar Gruppen sind mit hohem Anspruch angetreten (z.B. "Colours", "Panasonic Lumix"), mittlerweile sind da reine Bilder-Friedhöfe daraus geworden. Und selbst, wenn man auf der Suche nach SCHÖNEN Bildern ist, findet man sie gar nicht mehr, soweit müßte man in die Vergangenheit zurückscrollen....Hier muß man PANORAMIO auch kritisieren: selbst der gutwilligste Besitzer oder Moderator wird irgendwann entnervt aufgeben: das LÖSCHEN sinnloser Bilder artet bei der momentan völlig unzulänglichen technischen Unterstützung in Sisyphus-Arbeit aus.

[olsmar]

The groups are an example of a good idea with poor implementation.

The image files are confusing and complicated to use.
The discussion forum is also confusing and complicated to use.
Why should I work with that?

Groups? Where's the fun? Where is the benefit?

Forget the groups! This is just wasting time!

[Draken]

Could you please provide a translation? This is not the German forum. If you want to write in German the least you can do in an international forum is to add yourself the English translation out of consideration for those who don't read your language (instead of expecting us to use an online translator). Thanks in advance

[CliveM]

It is up to a group's owners and moderators to ensure that a group is worthwhile. The only groups worth joining are ones that have clear rules that are strictly enforced; if a group persistently has problems with users who dump pictures in a group irrespective of their relevance to the group and the moderators do nothing about it, leave the group. Unfortunately many groups are badly run. There is one group where I was briefly a moderator where the owners' response to moderators who enforced the rules was to remove the moderators. I subsequently left the group when the group, which was supposed to be geographically limited, began to resemble a campaign of world conquest. If there is a particular problem in a group, it may be worth complaining about it. I did so in one group that was plagued by a particular user who makes a habit of flooding every group to which he belongs with irrelevant photographs. The moderators set to work on his pictures and I was also made a moderator of the group, and the individual concerned, having continued to offend, was removed from the group, although he still continues to flood many other groups.

 

I think a group moderator's task would become much easier if it were possible for a group moderator to remove a picture from a group from the individual photo's page, just as the picture's owner can, instead of having to scroll through page after page of pictures searching for one offending picture.

 

It's not true that your pictures become invisible in a group once many others have posted pictures after yours; the facility to view a group's pictures on the map is very useful for this. Of course, it works better for groups that have a wide geographical spread; in groups that are geographically more limited more popular pictures will crowd the others out, but this is why it is probably a good idea for geographically limited groups to have limits on the number of pictures a user can post.

[© Andre Speek]

As I posted in People of the World:  http://www.panoramio.com/group/6161/discussions

Yes, it's difficult, time consuming and frustrating to manage a group with members that are not willing to read the Discussions or even the Group Rules. It's really demotivating when you send kind notices and get rude replies to that.

Still, if you are the owner of the Group, your name is associated with it. I don't want that any longer. So, as of today I started deleting the groups I've started except for this one. 

It's very disappointing to see that too many people see Panoramio Groups as a some sort of junk yard where they can promote their own stuff regardless if it is on topic or not. I'm sad there are no better tools to manage the photo collection and members which makes it a daily dread to clean up the mess. 

I can only imagine how a group would look like after a few weeks of holiday of the owner/moderators. I for one am not planning to wait for that to find out.

As usual, its a shame for those who enjoy the group and participate in a good way. But right now I want to focus my energy onto something positive instead of the daily frustration of cleaning up.

Cheers,

Andre