NewsFlash 17

We are excited to announce our greatly improved photo submission process. Now there are two more ways to upload your images to the site, and you can submit multiple files at the same time if you choose to do so.

Windows XP/2003 users can utilize Windows Web Publishing Wizard and submit multiple image files to their account. Feedback from the early adapters of this method has been great, and we are inviting everyone who has Windows XP to give it a try. Our updated Help section has a step by step guide to setting up and using this method of uploads. Spend a few minutes now to get familiar with it and upload right from your Windows Explorer! To learn more, please see

Uploading Images with Windows Web Publishing Wizard

Regardless of the computer platform you use, now there is yet another way to submit multiple images and possibly speed up the file transfer (especially useful for TIFF files) - ZIP uploads. Compress an image file or multiple files into a ZIP-type archive, and submit it the way you normally upload your images. When the site receives a ZIP file, it will automatically extract all its contents and process them one by one as if there were submitted individually. There are tons of both freeware and commercial ZIP utilities that one can use to create a standard ZIP archive. If you do not yet have any software to create ZIP files, use your favorite search engine to find a ZIP compression tool and you will be ready to ZIP in no time.

Please do not forget to edit your images after they were submitted with any of the multiple upload methods - you will need to enter keywords, titles, set prices, etc. If unsure, please see the FAQ section on how to do that.

As the multiple upload methods mentioned above are indented to cut the time needed to contribute your images, so does our new photo information editor that allows modifying the most important data fields describing your photos all in one shot. The new editor presents you with a grid that lists all images in an album in the text format, making editing multiple photos a snap. You no longer need to click each photo individually and change its titles, prices, keywords, etc (thought you still can) - these fields are editable right through the new grid. To try the grid editor, navigate to your albums via My Account, click "Manage Photos", and choose the "View as Grid" link in the header section.

Have you ever wondered whether your photo submission process went through without any problems? Knowing exactly what happened to each submission is especially useful when you submit multiple files at the same time and you may not get an immediate submission confirmation. To help you view the results of your most recent uploads, we introduced the Upload Log available as a tab in your Photo Manager. The log lets you view an error description if an image submission failed, or allows viewing or editing of the successfully submitted photos.

Since the site was formed 2 years ago, the rating system has been one of the cornerstones of ShutterPoint. Ratings drive our members back to the site every day making ShutterPoint one of the most visited sites many of you have in your bookmarks. That's why we always try to make the rating system more flexible, more unbiased, and more accurate. Quite recently we added an option to request comments on aspect ratings, and introduced "skips" counters. Now we are excited to offer a new way to give ratings - a new feature we call power ratings.

Power ratings do not change the underlying fundamentals of the ratings system, but they are meant to enhance the quality of ratings, increase volume of ratings, contribute to equalizing results of the new and old rating systems, and make the process of giving feedback easier and more rewarding.

Power ratings are ratings given on the special webpage that shows 20 randomly picked thumbnails presented exclusively for ratings. Clicking one of the thumbnails takes a rater to the same screen many of you are familiar with - the screen that allows you to submit your rating. Once the rating is received, a rater will be taken back to view another set of 20 random thumbnails, so the process can go on.

Power ratings give freedom of selection that was available under the old rating system without taking away the anonymity of the process. Moreover, power ratings provide better rewards, but being a power rater comes with some responsibility. To be a power rater, you have to meet all three requirements below in regards to your rating statistics:

• The total number of comments should exceed 100 in a 30 day period, and at least 90% of them should be unique (only comments given along with the ratings are counted).
• The rating pattern should be either a mid-range or a full-scale rater, based on the ratings given within the last 30 days.
• There should be at least 2 sales on the account.

End of August and early September have marked the period of various enhancements that are designed to make the site easier and more fun to use. Amongst those are:

• Personalized categories on the home page that are driven by the categories of images you viewed have been added;
  
• The Equipment section on the Photographer Summary page that lists all equipment used to create images submitted by a photographer was introduced;
  
• Image ID column was added to the Statistics and Summary page - this can make it easier to refer to your photos when you need support, or submit release forms;
  
• Standard blank release forms are now available in PDF format;
  
You may find that our Most Recent, Highest Rated, Most Viewed, Most Popular photos and some other pages are available as RSS feeds. If your RSS reader supports RSS 2.0 standard and capable of showing basic HTML, you should be able to view the feeds by using the links below:

Most Recent Photos: http://www.shutterpoint.com/Photos-Browse.cfm?xml_view=y&s=1
Highest Rated Photos: http://www.shutterpoint.com/Photos-Browse.cfm?xml_view=y&s=2
Most Popular Photos: http://www.shutterpoint.com/Photos-Browse.cfm?xml_view=y&s=3
Most Viewed Photos: http://www.shutterpoint.com/Photos-Browse.cfm?xml_view=y&s=4