As I write this I am looking at the redesigns of 75 (3 of 19 things done), and I'm thinking I should share what 75.Gamma will be about and some of the things I am not sure of introducing.
- Rebranding
I am changing the brand a little bit, reworking the logo to make it more solid and fluid (as in easier to work with brand strategy wise). If I could I would remove the 'blue' but I think it's part of the inhertited brand-identity, so I'll have to stick with it. I have or rather I am no longer sure of the strap/tag line 'every day, photography' --- I'm thinking of another, not sure what it would be, my marketing guru (read: Muse) says its a dangerous thing to do, but we will see. - Redesign
As things are, the 'new designs' are all monochrome, no colours whatsoever have been used, I will re-introduce some colours, but I want the colour to only radiate from the photographs, so the redesign has primary focus on 'presenting' the photography. - Redevelopment
I have noticed that tags, are not very popular for some reason, I won't remove them, but I will make them easier to add and change. I am also removing the need to 'title' your photographs as requirement, but the system will use 'untitled' as a default labelling of photographs. - Security
I have been debating if we should start using our email-address' as our usernames to login: the fact that NinaSimOne and NinaSum1 are the same person, begs the question of the 'login model' --- so, if y'all feel we should use our email address as login's let me know, but do know that I feel that using an email-address to login poses a security risk, in that your email address is public, and thus, all a person has to guess is your password --- but then again, this is not an online bank, that level of security might not be neccessary. - Invitations
As things are, a 'grapher can only invite 3 more people once they have at least 75 photographs, that is to change in that, for every 75 photographs a 'grapher can invite 3 more people. I think it would work better, I hope. - Books
Books have always been tricky to explain and implement, but I think I found a winning model. Simply put, every 'grapher gets a 'book' for every 75 photographs they have uploaded. A book is a collection of photographs (limited to 75 photos), more like if a 'grpaher wanted to tell a specific story with a sequence of photographs, like say, an essay. There will be public and private books --- by public I mean, some books would be open to ai'body to contribute to them via submissions and there would be private books that would be commissioned from outside the site, like say a school, an organisation, an artist, okay this is still a very 'fresh' idea, haven't explored it further. - Notes
This will be about knowledge sharing -- sharing everything and everything that any 'grapher wants to share, if and only if, it is related to photography --- more like 'to plug' (exhibitioins, events, sites, photographers, techniques, tutorials, howtos, yadi-yadi-yada) --- i've noticed over the past 6 months or so, a lot of 'plugs' have come up, so why not put them in their own spot. I do however doubt this will work to what I envision it to be: it has to be about photography -- I'm not keen on 'blogging' just n'je --- but at the same time, I don't like moderating, I believe people do better collectively than from one individual telling them what to do, ;-) - Commercial Success
This is something I will still think about, I am not sure how the transactions would occur --- getting a credit card/paypal/eft model working requires a bit of commitment from myside to guaranteed that if somebody pays for a photograph they will get it --- so, until I feel I (read: 2LMN) can guarantee that, it will be put on hold. - Saying goodbye
I am reluctant to do this, but it will done. Essently this will allow any 'grapher who no longer want's to be part 75 to 'safely' delete all their 'profile' --- more like an exit button. But, I think by law I need to ensure that if you can come in, you can come out. - Flags
Considering that I've had 5 images uploaded on 75 that contravened the copyright act, I am thinking flaggin' a photograph for breaking the law should be implemented, e.g: copyright infringement, child pornography and something-something human rights (can't find the right words for it) violation - Traversing the site
I'm not sure how many people use the refresh thingy-magic (the double blue arrow just below your avatar/profile pic) --- but it will be enhanced --- well, you will be able to add or collect photographs you want to view from anywhere throughout the site --- and view them at your own time (i doubt this makes sense, huh?). I am also working on a clearer and much nicer 'slide show' thingy magic. - Extending 75
Those 'graphers who have flickr accounts would be able to upload from flickr into 75 --- not sure if there is value in exporting from 75 to flickr, yet. I am also working out, how to include 75 outside of 75 without breaking copyright laws. - Private Messages?
I am trying to build a 'messaging' model, hat would allow people to have 'private' conversations without having to publicly expose their email address --- firstly, I want to make sure that the messages can be encrypted to the point that not even I could open and read them. Secondly, I am trying to work out the rules of who is allowed to message someone, and who is not --- allowing somebody to send you messages and blocking somebody from doing so.
and that's all. Your thoughts? Let me know what you think, if you would like to share in private do send mail: hello@75.co.za
Oh, the update will be done over a weekend (probably the last weekend of June), but it also means the site will offline until the update is completed. You will be informed in good time when that happens.
Till then.
1ove
