The NEW NatureScapes.net

We appreciate the positive comments, constructive feedback, as well as the understanding as we transition to the new layout - change is not always easy and not always as smooth as we would like.

Tim Zurowski wrote:

Greg Downing wrote:Tim - I'm sorry you're disappointed.

The main reason that we have added this as a benefit for paid members only is to encourage support of all of our hard work and significant monetary cost that membership dollars help to support.

P.S. all images, even those hosted off site, will be copied to our server from now forward - this is reflected in the new site guidelines and is done for a number of reasons one of which is to prevent spam after the fact and the other is so we can control the content more tightly.

Thanks Greg and for the most part, I agree with you. You guys have done a ton of great work and NSN is probably the best Nature Photography site out there.

I was actually thinking of joining awhile back on my own accord, but when I read the benefits for a paid member not one of them were of any interest to me. So since any non-paying registered person can post at NSN, it makes me feel like I am having my arm twisted to join only for the feature to be able to post full size. I suspect you will have some current non-paying members that will join now, others that will just continue on as normal and only post at 800 pixels and others that will totally leave. It would be interesting to know what those percentages are. BPN has a similar thing where you can post full size, but you cannot have a thumbnail generated for your post. Posts without thumbnails get way less viewing traffic and way less comments. So it costs money to post full size here and to get an image thumbnail there.

As someone who was a moderator at NSN, and worked VERY hard at it for my time there, I might have expected that moderators could be given a lifetime membership.

I think you might be better off making NSN a paying member only forum. It would allow anyone to view and read the forums and website, but you would have to be a paying member to post images or comment. That way it avoids all the grey areas and makes it "you pay . . . . you play". I also suspect you would get more paying members that way.

Tim, I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with you completely on this one. If NSN were to become an exclusive, paid members only club, I'd leave in a heartbeat. In my opinion, that just goes completely against what we are about, and personally, it goes against why I am so proud to be a part of NSN.

One of the beauties of NSN is that it is an amazing resource where the majority of what we offer is available at no cost. You can register for the forums, ask questions, and be a part of a wonderful community of photographers from all over the world that support and nurture one another FOR FREE. You can post images and have others comment on them and provide instructional, meaningful, and thoughtful critiques FOR FREE. You can read hundreds of informative articles FOR FREE. The accessibility of the material we offer is part of what makes NSN so special. When I first joined NSN, I was a 20 year old college student and had no extra money to be throwing around. Yet I joined NSN, learned a ton, made many new friends, and have since become a pretty integral part of the goings on here, all because I was able to get involved without being forced to pay. You don't build community by ostracizing people based on their disposable income. Yes NSN is a business, but it's also an open, caring community of photographers from diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise. It is that because we have done a real good job of making it available to everyone, and cultivating positive welcoming attitudes here. We've got the best of the best on here!

Posting larger images is a perk. It's not necessary. Not being able to post images at 1200 pixels is not a punishment, and it's not taking anything away from already registered unpaid members. For unpaid members, the size limit remains at 800 pixels and 250 KB, the same as the previous site. Images imbedded within the gallery layout will not appear much larger than that anyway, so it's only when someone clicks on an image to make the background gray out will anyone be able to view those extra pixels. When I'm browsing, I'm unlikely to click on an image and display it in Lightbox mode unless I love it anyway, and if I love it I'm going to love it regardless of whether its 800 pixels or 1200 pixels.

Tim Zurowski wrote:I was actually thinking of joining awhile back on my own accord, but when I read the benefits for a paid member not one of them were of any interest to me."

This statement is SO interesting to me. First it supports what I say about NSN being an amazing resource, and not just a good one, but an accessible one. But after that, I'm lost. You didn't want to pay unless you were getting something for your money (because so many good things about NSN are completely free), but when we offer something you want as a paid feature, you don't want to pay because we are twisting your arm? I just don't get that.

We value each of our members (paid or not) who contribute to this community. There isn't any doubt in my mind that you personally have contributed a ton to NSN. But the reality is, it takes a lot of work and costs a lot of money to keep this site running. Membership is one way that folks who use and value the forums, articles, workshops, and other things that NSN offers can help support the site financially. Some members may use the member only features, but many don't and just pay for a membership as a way to say thanks. We'd love if more of our readers became paid members or even lifetime members, but we understand that for many, it's just not a realistic option. Some of these people are our most active and engaged members, and we aren't about to kick them to the curb. For those who can afford to pay for a membership, we genuinely appreciate it when you do.

Another note on membership: NSN offers a lifetime membership which enables members to pay a single one time fee and never have to worry about membership fees again. Lifetime members will automatically get upgraded with whatever new member benefits come in the future, and the cost is very reasonable and pays for itself in 7.5 years. I personally love when an organization has a lifetime membership option at a reasonable price (under $1000) because then I can join and feel free to use the resource as it fits into my life without feeling the pressure to "get my money's worth" out of my membership in a set time period. The cost of a lifetime membership to NSN is most likely less than you'd pay for a new lens, or car insurance, or hosting a Thanksgiving dinner. Many websites and professional organizations do not offer lifetime memberships (NANPA does not, nor do several other nature photography forums that I've tried in the past), so frankly, I think it's a great deal and more folks should take advantage of it!

Sorry for the rant and going slightly off topic. NSN is just so special to me because of all I've learned and gained from it over the years, and I feel very strongly in keeping the resource available to those willing to learn regardless of their financial status. I hope you are all enjoying the new site, as a ton of work went into it and we are quite proud of the end result (although, as Greg has said, it is always a work in progress and we are always striving to improve and make NSN better). Thank you very much for all of the comments and feedback, and oh yes, Happy New Year to all!

Congrats on the makeover! A lot of work and thought went into it.

Interesting rant, Kari. I agree with your basic points. And another advantage of NSN being free is that people gain from the expertise of non-paying participants who post answers to questions, critique images or in other ways offer their two cents worth. If they had to pay, the contributions of these people would be lost.

Like others, I am finding the site rather slow. For that reason and for a couple others, I am finding that I am less likely to view as many images as I used to in the old format. I used to right click and select "open in new tab" to see the images and posts about those images that I wanted to view. That was faster than constanly returning to the overall page for a specific forum each time. And the other thing that troubles me is that now the thumbs are square so I don't get a sense of the overall composition unless I open the image. I would prefer to see thumbs that represent the entire image, especially (unless I am missing something) since I have to keep going back to the overall page before I can open another image.

I hope I am being clear on what I am saying here. If not, sorry - just note that I would prefer the thumbs not to be crops of the images but to show the entire image, especially since it seems less quick now to view a large number of images.

Roberta Olenick
http://www.neverspook.com

EDIT: Well, just tried right clicking on the thumbs again and now it seems to offer "open in new tab". Not sure why I was not successful at that earlier, but I am happier now that I can open in new tab. Would still prefer uncropped thumbs, though.

Sure - you should be able to access the delete button at any time, and if you would like your entire profile and all images removed you may send me an email stating that is what you want. I will remove everything within 24 hours. This should be true for the image galleries as well as portfolios - if that is not the case let me know and we will make it the case. If we need to add or adjust language in the TOU to clarify our intent we will also do so.

FWIW the galleries are also a work in progress and we will be creating a more user-controllable experience (multiples images, user galleries etc.) as part of a future stage - and you will be able to control your own content. We plan to merge the portfolios and critique galleries into one unit as part of this project.

Roberta, The site is very slow right now - we are aware of it and working on the issue - and getting totally hammered with traffic.

P.S. try control click

Thanks Greg. See my edit above.

Another question. I am not seeing in the galleries where it says what the current motif is. There must be one as I am seeing images posted as motif images. I imagine I am just missing it, but I do like to know what the motifs are. Maybe you can point me in the right direction.

Roberta Olenick
http://www.neverspook.com

Thanks, Greg.

Roberta

Oops re-posting this because I messed up the quote (don't even know how to use my own website yet) click on the announcements on each gallery and the announcements will expand down (same with forum rules) - we did this to keep things as clean as we could - there are a couple galleries not currently participating in a Motif.

Congratulations to everyone involved in the upgrade!  Outstanding new site design.  I can't imagine the amount of work that went into this major upgrade.  I can assure you that all of us really appreciate the effort you put into providing us a super quality experience.  You did all of this while still answering our questions and commenting on our images.  You guys are a real class act.  Thank you.

I think it looks really good. I'm keen to try out the new image size "freedom"...
Just a question - has the "Image of the week" gallery now been replaced by "Editor's Pick", and is it still the same concept or has that changed?

Looks great, just got one question, is there an option to switch off the social media floating palette on the right ? I find it a little distracting at times.

Excellent upgrade.
Thanks for keeping it current.
mike

I will happily pay for membership... again and again. Great site. Great resource. Quality Content. Thank you for everything and at such a bargain price!

BTW, I just love the shadow box! WOW what a wonderful upgrade. It shows the original post in all of its intended resolution and gradations.

Bill

Good morning and happy weekend to everyone  Stopping by to answer a few additional questions:

Morkel asks: "has the "Image of the week" gallery now been replaced by "Editor's Pick", and is it still the same concept or has that changed?"

As stated in my opening post to this thread: "What used to be “Images of the Week” has now been changed to Editor’s Picks – this is where we will display our favorite images. Unlike the Images of the Week we can now choose images simply based on their wow factor and without the restrictions of doing them weekly, or by gallery. Moreover, we have done away with the images of the year awards for the foreseeable future but have some ideas for something to replace it and we will keep everyone posted."

Colin asks: " is there an option to switch off the social media floating palette on the right ? I find it a little distracting at times."

Not currently (our contact link is there as well) but if enough people complain about it, and there are no major technical reasons we can't easily do it, we'll make it "hide-able" for paid members.

Thanks again for the feedback and we appreciate everyone's patience as we work through the speed issues that still remain when traffic is high.

After commenting on a post, one is automatically subscribed to that thread - Birds Gallery, anyway. I would prefer it the other way, which you did have for a very brief period some time ago. Perhaps you have a reason for this, otherwise I like the design, too.

cartgate wrote:After commenting on a post, one is automatically subscribed to that thread - Birds Gallery, anyway.  I would prefer it the other way, which you did have for a very brief period some time ago. Perhaps you have a reason for this, otherwise I like the design, too.

Could you clarify; are you saying that currently this is happening (automatically subscribed to threads you comment on), or are you saying it used to be this way for a short time and you wish to have it that way again?

Hi Greg,

I am currently automatically subscribed to threads/topics I comment on. I normally don't wish to follow any thread that I comment on and sometimes forget that extra step to specifically "unsubscribe", thereby generating an email from NSN to say a following comment has been posted. Perhaps there is an option/preference that I have missed that is available?

Thanks!

cartgate wrote:Hi Greg,

I am currently automatically subscribed to threads/topics I comment on.  I normally don't wish to follow any thread that I comment on and sometimes forget that extra step to specifically "unsubscribe", thereby generating an email from NSN to say a following comment has been posted. Perhaps there is an option/preference that I have missed that is available?

Thanks!

KC, simply go to Edit Profile in the upper right hand corner, then select Board Preferences, then Edit Posting Defaults and select No for the last option.

Thanks, Greg, a simple solution indeed!