Having just been contacted by somebody who was angry at only getting 2 days on the front page as an On Display feature, when his work was clearly superior (in his opinion), I though I'd pass it out to the membership and see what your thoughts are.
What I've been striving for is one new On Display feature a day. This would give everybody something new to look at each day, give everybody a fair go at it, and mean that each On Display should be up on the front page for 3 days, on average. Not talking about feature here, but just the 3 On Display features.
The real reward I thought, was to be had from just sharing your work, and then having it stored permanently in the gallery as a reference and 'On Display' feature.
What are your thoughts?

Vinnie

An internet site needs to be dynamic, if a day goes by without new content you risk people drifting of to other sites.

An avarage "on the front time" of 3-4 days sounds ok.

My thoughts are that this is very difficult to manage fairly.

Start with your average OnDisplay time of 3 days you want to have. That can mean one day ore five days ! That's a big difference and it's a bit of luck of timing to have it displayed longer.
If one is really in need to have it displayed longer, he should wait for a holiday season with less turnaround.
Often enough really superior models disappear in the forum because the builder did not submit it for display where sometimes "not so good" models appear prominently on the front page.
I think that's one of the things you can't do it right to everyone. You surely can't judge the models and attribute a certain number of days depending on quality.

Another thought:
Compared to the ads the models on Display preview pictures are more and more disappearing and do not really attract the mouse pointer.
You may make this picture bigger to generate more views in the short time the models are on the front page.
After all, there is only a certain amount and average of clicks for this feature possible on Armorama, you need to find a way to get to this number of views in a very short time frame.

So much for my random thoughts.

Claude

I would agree with the process that is currently in place of ~3days on the main page. Obviously this will go longer if there are fewer submissions, which would be bad for the site. At the same I also agree that if the same thing is up there for too long then the site becomes stagnant and people may wonder away.

I myself go to the ON display page regularly to look back at other works for insiration or if I have been away for while.

No need to change it IMHO


Sean

I too thought that sharing and having one's work stored permanently on the site and among the 'On Displays' was enough of a reward, at least for me. I agree tha that appearance on the front page generates views, but if one's submitting only to get x- level of views and y- amount of days on the front page, then maybe one should look for a new hobby? I'd think that even two - three days are enough. Anyway it's just a bad luck, even if the timing would be fixed to have the MOD on main page for three days, then the three last models in the row can hang on the main page for some more time than 3 days. What then? It's not fair but should they be taken off of the main page? I don't think so. It also hangs on the latest posts forum page for some time and if it's that good then people will comment ang keep it on top for even longer period ?
Anyway I'm against fixed timing for the MOD's.
My 0,2 cents worth

Cheers
Greg

Vinnie

I think you're doing an excellent job! For goodness sake, we DON'T PAY ANYTHING to be members of this superb (IMO) site! I was over the moon to see my work displayed on the front page, slightly dissapointed to see it leave of course, but 'spurred' on to do something else and see if I can get up there again.

I think you're chap should think himself lucky to be on the front page at all, I bet there are loads of members who would like to see their work in such a prominent postition.

And there is always the 'more' button which I use on a regular basis for inspiration. My view 'tally' is still going up and I received a lot of feedback which is always good.

Keep on keeping on!

Matt

Wow humble must be his middle name. :-)

I definitely opt for the current rotation of 2 - 3 days and then bring on a new on display feature. Fresh content is why members keep coming back here.

Keep doing what you doing Vinnie.

Personally I like how the On Display works.

I don't think constantly changing content should even be considered a problem............

Seems to me like they are up there on the homepage for a reasonable amount of time. As stated above, I guess it would depend on the amount of entries submitted during a period of time to determine how long a MOD would remain up.

Once upon a time there used to be a small clip of a model in the Armorama header. Perhaps the area where the tank currently is could be replaced by a thumbnail that rotated among the various MOD entries?

BTW, how long did the submitter feel his MOD should have been left up?

Rob,
The randomized display was pulled because of space and code overhead (performace) reasons. It's a good idea though if it could be updated and maintained correctly, however it requires just the right image to work and takes time to photoshop the image right, etc.

I was actually thinking a few days ago that adding either the thumbnail images or one of the gallery thumbs represented in the photo feature to the main OD listing page might be one way to make that page more friendly and accessable. Perhaps then people would be less worried about not appearing on the homepage for long. I can sympathize as some of my features have departed quickly in recent years. But in retropect I see that as a good thing. Ego aside that is. :-)

Cheers,
Jim

My immediate thought was "how bloody arrogant". Five minutes later it's still the same. The deleted feature must have made a huge impression on me because I can't even see what's missing! Featured models are not an automatic right and surely the idea of rotation is a much better idea so we get to see more work. My philosophy.....I build models for a) my enjoyment (b) so I can sit back and pat myself on the back for turning out something half decent. Not brilliant but as good as I can do at that point in time. The hobby to me is not about kudos with everyone saying "wow that's awesome". If people like what I've done then thats's a bonus. If people hate it then that's a bonus as well as I can take their critique and work on improvement. As Matt said this is a free site and staff do an excellent job. The more kits we see not only provides valuable techniques but provides inspiration. Keep changing them as it prevents stagnation! My two pennies worth anyway....

Hi Vinnie,

I would like to applaude you, and the members of your site, that the quality of models being turned out here to so high that you are able to do an OD a day. Well done guys!! Seriously, that speaks volumes.

Once again, well done to all and keep turning out these great models!

Rudi

I have got to pretty much agree with the others. I would consider it an honor to have some of my work placed in that position for even a day without ever expecting it to happen.

I think what you are doing right now works perfectly, having been lucky enough to have some of my work displayed it not only makes me feel good about what i am building but also motivates me to try a bit harder and submit more. Also just because it leaves the front page does not mean it has seen its day, the view count on my model on displays continues getting views long after it has left the front page so im not sure what the malcontent was upset about, most people are just happy to be able to have their work permanently displayed in this way.

I mostly see the mods on the forum anyway the day they are posted and the rest of the time like a few others here i go scanning through past entries looking for that inspiration or technique or specific look,,,, but mosly inspiration :-)

I for one thank you Vinnie and the rest of the guys at armourama for the work you do to give us the oportunity to do this and the other services you work hard to provide.

3 days works.After that it gets stale. Like someone mentioned"if its up to long you drift to another site" If someone got that upset with you Vinnie, I guess they just don't get it.

I think it's an excellent barometer that shows the members the content flow, which is a good thing. More rapid changes in the rotation shows everyone that models are being submitted. The same goes for the features, the more items submitted, the faster they will rotate. The same thing with the news items- which to this day still amazes me how Jim Rae finds and writes the news so fast! It seems fine and natural for all the content to be continuously rotating. (Being a slow builder, and an even slower writer, and I certainly do not consider myself as the most talented member, I'm certainly happy and contented to even have some of my stuff accepted, and as some of the editors know, YES some has been rejected, and it just made me strive to either improve the submission, or re-shoot the photos. I also have never received a nasty or snide rejection, but always excellent suggestions on how to improve the submission, and if I simply followed the suggestions then it eventually was published) I figure if I let the Editors edit, they'll take the time to help me improve my submissions.

I believe the editors are all doing an excellent job, don't get thanked enough and catch an awful lot of unnecessary flack.

Well, I'm off my soap box, off to enjoy my day off, and build a model, and maybe do a little typing for an article that I will submit, drive an Editor crazy, (Thank God they all have good senses of humor!) get rejected! Resubmit, perhaps a few times, and hopefully it will eventually make it to the front page, which even for a day is fine with me.

I have made a few modifications during lunch that should make the OD listing page (when you click More next to Models-on-Display) a bit more friendly. I still need to add something that breaks the pages into groups of 50 or so.

The issue with things disappearing off the homepage is whether users realize this and thus realize that they need to occasionally DIG DOWN into the site to find the majority of the content. Just as now you have to click on AEROSCALE to find the aircraft topics and content. It's a whole click away... and I know a lot of you visit many many sites other than this one so please don't give me a lame response like it's too much effort.

Cheers,
Jim

As someone who's had a kit onDisplay recently I think 3 days is perfect. (BTW, it wasn't me!) As someone who manages websites, I aggree that changing content so that there's now things on the site daily is also a great thing for the site. It brings folks back by giving them fresh content to look at.

I'm just happy to see that there's enough kits submitted (good ones too!) to keep it going daily. I've heard too many people talk about the "death of the hobby" but myself haven't really seen any signs of decay... especially not here! Keep 'em coming!

I also like the ~3 day display time. It gives a lot of up and coming modellers the chance to get their work displayed. It must also surely encourage productivity.
It has been the opposite problem on some other sites, where some models were featured for a long time, due to many circumstances, and because of back-logs, etc, other modellers were turning to other sites, to display their models.
Sure a modeller should be proud of their work and feel like it should be displayed for a longer period, as maybe happened in the past, but all must realise that there is a large membership and all want their work displayed.

... Three days,.... one day,..... three minutes......I'm just grateful Vinnie doesn't laugh his [auto-censored] off in the process of deleting my submission :-)

Frank

Vinnie,

Ditto to the majority. One day it's on top, next in the middle, third day at the bottom, fourth day it can be found by clicking the "more" link. Fair, easy, and refreshing as it brings new works to the forefront.

Keep it up!

Mike

It may be too much work to program and maintain but how about a CURRENT OD in a slightly larger picture link with the prior OD in a small picture link below. That way the OD gets 3 days of prime large pic display for 3 days and secondary display on the front page, a total of 6 days. If I'm gone for a few days then the 3 days of OD will go by and I'll miss the entry. Yes it's my fault for not drilling down into the "MORE" button but you were asking for suggestion.

Jim, that was a very quick reaction! and a good one :-)

The "see more" page is indeed very friendly now, nice preview's, and the search for older displayed models really facilitated.

Thank you for this
Claude

Id say 1 week, Some people dont look at the site, only on weekends or wehn there is free time