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Deviation Actions
Some of you might remember I had promised a top 100 all-time deviation list would be posted now. To those of you who were looking forward to it and may be disappointed it is not yet posted, I am here with an explanation. Due to some real life issues for me personally I am not currently able to work on the project. The issues will remain undisclosed here, I currently do not feel like disclosing right now it is a long story so please respect my wishes, however any of you guys who have contact with me on Facebook know already. I will say that there is a mixture of good news and bad news in it for me personally. To post it here would be a long blown out story.
Aside from that, a delay does not mean the project is caned completely. It is a one man project meaning if I am too swamped to handle it it will get delayed. I am personally disappointed that I cannot make this happen now. I still hope for it to happen eventually.
On other topics I have noticed that there has been a delay in voting on submissions. Recently we have had some staffers leave and some who are just inactive then some who are currently very busy like me. I am trying to discuss ways to speed up the submission process with Lane when he becomes available.
I've always said that the biggest lie any administrator of any group or site can tell is saying that they do not make mistakes. So anytime there are problems or delays it is my job to speak out about them.
On another note, more than a month ago we were discussing a new submission policy. We posted a poll when I was subscribed under my account and it did win the poll, but only by 4 votes with about 14 saying yes, 10 saying no and 1 choosing the other option. In total only 25 members posted which is poor turnout to make an overall decision in a group that has over 1,000 listed members. That is a little more than 2% of the group represented. So currently the status quo remains. However, with it the issues in the previous journal also remain.
One common backlash against the implementation about the policy was that it would make us the next Railpictures.net. This is a stigma I have had to address over and over again. There is a difference between Railpictures.net and mild quality control. Mild quality control simply means we are are not looking for absolutely perfect images, but we are looking to avoid very substandard images like this one I took years ago :thumb19055255:. Currently we do have quality control, but we haven't been the clearest on what exactly we define as quality. Normally images like the one above would be declined except for the rare event we made a mistake. That goes back to Neil's last journal. That has been one of my concerns.
Railpictures.net wants perfection. Many times you will even see them play favorites. I do not want to be another Dan Valentine so I will not go calling out members. Yes I post there from time to time and I am currently 31 for 215 on that site all time. Good for a 14% success rate. Many of my top works in my gallery were not accepted by them. Railpictures declines stuff due to weather conditions, or back-lighting. Some of their reasons for decline are even much harder to understand like PEQ. Most of the time things are not rejected from RailPictures because their very poor quality, but because they are not the kind of image the screeners prefer. During a decline they do not even try to help advise you. You normally have to seek outside help in order to get something on RP.
One common complaint I hear sometimes when we do decline something based on quality is, "Oh you're just like Railpictures." Most commonly it is someone who submitted something like that image displayed in the thumb above. On the subject of photographer improvement, Railpictures.net has ether helped or really discouraged photographers in the past. Undeniably though, Railpictures has created a stigma amongst many that if a group does not accept everything submitted, then they are on the same level. This is simply untrue. I have seen several people get on here and submit about 10 pieces and once they get the first decline they get mad and leave. Most of them do not realize that if they sent the same submissions to the real Railpictures.net their success rate would probably decrease dramatically. Without thinking about that they still label groups as Railpictures. I am in several communities of photography on here. The fact that none of those other communities do not have a Railpictures.net equivalent really makes a difference in how they take criticism. I'm asking anybody who subscribes to this stigma to open their minds and look at the math of the situation. That tells the real story. This slippery slope fallacy that any quality control makes us Railpictures.net is totally false. Around the time we even made this proposal I saw several journals suggesting we were becoming the new Railpictures.net. Honestly, I was a bit offended by those statements, because as many times as I explained the difference some still play the Railpictures.net card. That is how bad of an effect that site has had on our hobby.
I'm going to try and get some of the current issues taken care even on my lack of time to do so.
Signed,
Co-founder
Joseph W. Johns
Aside from that, a delay does not mean the project is caned completely. It is a one man project meaning if I am too swamped to handle it it will get delayed. I am personally disappointed that I cannot make this happen now. I still hope for it to happen eventually.
On other topics I have noticed that there has been a delay in voting on submissions. Recently we have had some staffers leave and some who are just inactive then some who are currently very busy like me. I am trying to discuss ways to speed up the submission process with Lane when he becomes available.
I've always said that the biggest lie any administrator of any group or site can tell is saying that they do not make mistakes. So anytime there are problems or delays it is my job to speak out about them.
On another note, more than a month ago we were discussing a new submission policy. We posted a poll when I was subscribed under my account and it did win the poll, but only by 4 votes with about 14 saying yes, 10 saying no and 1 choosing the other option. In total only 25 members posted which is poor turnout to make an overall decision in a group that has over 1,000 listed members. That is a little more than 2% of the group represented. So currently the status quo remains. However, with it the issues in the previous journal also remain.
One common backlash against the implementation about the policy was that it would make us the next Railpictures.net. This is a stigma I have had to address over and over again. There is a difference between Railpictures.net and mild quality control. Mild quality control simply means we are are not looking for absolutely perfect images, but we are looking to avoid very substandard images like this one I took years ago :thumb19055255:. Currently we do have quality control, but we haven't been the clearest on what exactly we define as quality. Normally images like the one above would be declined except for the rare event we made a mistake. That goes back to Neil's last journal. That has been one of my concerns.
Railpictures.net wants perfection. Many times you will even see them play favorites. I do not want to be another Dan Valentine so I will not go calling out members. Yes I post there from time to time and I am currently 31 for 215 on that site all time. Good for a 14% success rate. Many of my top works in my gallery were not accepted by them. Railpictures declines stuff due to weather conditions, or back-lighting. Some of their reasons for decline are even much harder to understand like PEQ. Most of the time things are not rejected from RailPictures because their very poor quality, but because they are not the kind of image the screeners prefer. During a decline they do not even try to help advise you. You normally have to seek outside help in order to get something on RP.
One common complaint I hear sometimes when we do decline something based on quality is, "Oh you're just like Railpictures." Most commonly it is someone who submitted something like that image displayed in the thumb above. On the subject of photographer improvement, Railpictures.net has ether helped or really discouraged photographers in the past. Undeniably though, Railpictures has created a stigma amongst many that if a group does not accept everything submitted, then they are on the same level. This is simply untrue. I have seen several people get on here and submit about 10 pieces and once they get the first decline they get mad and leave. Most of them do not realize that if they sent the same submissions to the real Railpictures.net their success rate would probably decrease dramatically. Without thinking about that they still label groups as Railpictures. I am in several communities of photography on here. The fact that none of those other communities do not have a Railpictures.net equivalent really makes a difference in how they take criticism. I'm asking anybody who subscribes to this stigma to open their minds and look at the math of the situation. That tells the real story. This slippery slope fallacy that any quality control makes us Railpictures.net is totally false. Around the time we even made this proposal I saw several journals suggesting we were becoming the new Railpictures.net. Honestly, I was a bit offended by those statements, because as many times as I explained the difference some still play the Railpictures.net card. That is how bad of an effect that site has had on our hobby.
I'm going to try and get some of the current issues taken care even on my lack of time to do so.
Signed,
Co-founder
Joseph W. Johns
Troll Account
It has been brought to my attention that someone was trolling on out main page in the comments if this person told you something ignore it they are not apart of this group and have been blocked by my self if something like this happens again let me or another staffer know so we can deal with it
thank you
A parting note!
This is my last blog here as a TRFN admin, if I return in the future is unknown. DeviantART and me have been steadily splitting over the past years. It will not be a complete severance from this group or dA though as I will still post deviations to this group and my page.
It's bittersweet considering I'm one of the original deviantART railfans, leaving a project I helped grow. Over the past few years the energy to manage such a group has left me. I cannot seem to complete projects that always meant a lot to me and this group. That combined with real life issues. This group was one of my first real test of my leadership skills, I just like a
We have a winner!
:thumb559304158:
This one will be a permanent feature on the wall of this group!
We got a tie!
For the first time ever in the history of a dA contest we have a tie. Yes a dead tie, both pieces received exactly 5 votes. So now there will be a sudden death round where I announce the results next week. Votes from last time rollover for the two pieces left standing, so if you already voted for one of the two your vote is already counted. March 7th is now the deadline to make one of these two the Larry Campbell memorial wall champion.
:thumb559304158: :thumb562355624:
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Comments5
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Interesting commentary...I didn't realize there were issues. I WON'T even try Railpictures.net! But TRFN is an excellent group and the quality of pix I see on the site continually amaze me! Not everyone is a great photographer especially when they start out...I cringe seeing some of my first 35mm pix from 1986! But I think the group is fine the way it is, but when something is declined I think people would like to know why. Otherwise I hope things work out for you, my best wishes and luck! You are doing a great job with TRFN and it is one of my fav groups on DA!