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February 17, 2008
Feedback Needed
As I've mentioned I've needed to do a redesign of Square America for a while now. I just downloaded wordpress and added a new section which should eventually have a tagged version of every photo so you'll be able to search by keyword. Basically, I don't have the money to hire someone to do a huge redesign and this seemed like the easiest (and cheapest) way to add a search function. Of course it's amazingly time consuming for me because I have to upload and tag everything.
I guess I need to know whether it's worth the trouble. Is the idea of being able to search for individual photos by date, location, theme, etc... appealing? I'd also appreciate any ideas you guys have for tags and anything else that you'd like to see in that section.
Basically the front page of Square America would remain the same- there'd just be separate section with a search function. This section will eventually become the largest part of the site- I've got tons of photos that I like but don't fit into any of the shows I have up at present.
You can see the beta version of the search section here. The design (color etc...) will change- I just wanted to put up a bunch of photos quickly so I could get an idea of how much work it'll be for me. I know I could probably do the same thing here- though I'd have to upgrade to a newer version of movable type (in order to create a tag cloud etc...) which I think would be more of a pain than doing the wordpress installation.
Of course it also means that this blog would probably become redundant- I wouldn't want to have to repost everything I post here over there so it's in the searchable database. At the same time, I'm going to be constantly dumping so much stuff in that section without rhyme or reason (at least for the next few months) I'd like to keep this blog so I can better showcase new arrivals. Anyway, take a look and let me know what you think.
Posted by nick at February 17, 2008 10:36 PM
Comments
It looks great. Will we still be able to see the latest additions though, or will they be put straight away into their category, so we might miss them?
Posted by: Carol at February 18, 2008 03:02 AM
Hi Nick - I always love your photos, and probably see more of them through collections than I would just browsing through tagged pics. I also get updates from the blog via RSS. For those reasons I'd vote for keeping the blog, perhaps to update readers on the best of what you've posted lately.
Regarding tags, I remember seeing a site afew years ago where someone created a game that used people tagging photos as the means of play. I can't find the link now, but maybe your readers would be willing to help tag photos, and then your job would be to review and edit others tags, instead of tagging all of them yourself. Just an idea. Whatever you do, I know I'll be looking forward to seeing more of your photos.
Thanks for the work you put into this!
Mark
Posted by: mark at February 18, 2008 08:12 AM
For me, it's such a treat to look at these photos. A search engine would be nice, but the new additions are what I'd look for most of the time.
However it works best for you is just fine by me! Thanks for all the hard work.
Posted by: shahn at February 18, 2008 09:13 AM
Carol- Once I get the whole Data base in (which will take a few months) then you'll be able to see everything I get as I acquire it over there. For now everything I'm posting there has already been posted either here or at Square America. I'm going to continue using this site to post new arrivals (for now anyway).
Mark- I'd love to let viewers tag photos but I don't think wordpress will allow me to do that. I'll add text to the front page asking viewers to submit suggestions for tags for particular photos in the comments section. One of the main reasons for setting up this section is so people can add information to the photos. The other is that there are lots of categories/themes that I find interesting but wouldn't consider doing a Square America show of- for instance I have lots of farming photos and while I don't think I'd do a Square America farm show I would like to make those photos available on-line to those who might be interested.
Basically, Square America will have three parts- One, a searchable database that will have every photo tagged. Two- a gallery section (more of less Square America as it is now) where I curate what I think is the best stuff (I may have 400 photos tagged "guns" in the database for instance but I'll pick my 100 favorites for a gallery show). And three, a blog (The Boat Lullabies) where I'll post the best of the new arrivals, announce new gallery shows, and post videos, letters, etc...
Wordpress isn't perfect but I think it'll let me 90% of what I want to do which is probably good enough- especially since it's free.
Posted by: nick at February 18, 2008 01:55 PM
Oops! I deleted several comments by mistake Sorry!
Posted by: nick at February 20, 2008 03:12 PM