Forum Membership Approval

[Joseph Cermak]

Is it possible to get any feedback on admin approving membership into the forums? I have a friend who said they are on their second month of waiting for approval to be able to post here. I know when I first applied it took me several months. Is there a reason that this takes so long? Are admin unaware of pending applications? Thanks!

[KevinM]

It used to be something that would happen within hours, like screening and acceptance of a photo. It took hours when I joined....half a century ago. It could be that the forums have been so quiet lately that the Admins haven't been looking at the membership queue.

It has been awfully quiet here lately, which is surprising, since there is a pandemic going on and many of the life events that we're all used to are on hold. People clearly still look at the forums, but few people seem to post anything.

[Decapod401]

Originally Posted by KevinM

It used to be something that would happen within hours, like screening and acceptance of a photo. It took hours when I joined....half a century ago. It could be that the forums have been so quiet lately that the Admins haven't been looking at the membership queue.

It has been awfully quiet here lately, which is surprising, since there is a pandemic going on and many of the life events that we're all used to are on hold. People clearly still look at the forums, but few people seem to post anything.

I've only been here only a little over a half a decade, but I experienced the same lack of response. I finally sent an email to admin, and I was in in a day or two. I don't think that the request queue is monitored very often, but an email prod will produce results.

The forum is unusually quiet for reasons unknown. I've thought about starting a thread about too-high drone overviews from Chicago that go to TO24 much more frequently than they should, but why bother?

[KevinM]

Originally Posted by Decapod401

I've thought about starting a thread about too-high drone overviews from Chicago that go to TO24 much more frequently than they should, but why bother?

Have at it....provide examples. Let's dissect it to death! I personally think most drone pilots shoot way too high. As a fixed-wing pilot of nearly 40 years, my $.02 is that the view from more than 100 ft., or one with an extreme down-angle is just not interesting, most of the time. Once in a while, I will see something creative, such as a European fellow who won one of the CRPA Awards a while back with a near vertical shot, but that was a distinct exception. If I were to purchase a drone, I'd be using it to substitute for the hill or overpass I wish were there, or the shot I'm not willing to bushwhack through tick-infested woods to get. The "Look mom, I'm flying!" genre is not my thing.....perhaps the result of nearly 5,700 hours in the air myself.

[bigbassloyd]

I have sinned.

https://loydlowry.smugmug.com/Aerial...hy/i-gbVxL8L/A

398' AGL

But on the plus side, I didn't post it on RP and whore the link everywhere.

Loyd L.

[KevinM]

Originally Posted by bigbassloyd

I have sinned.

https://loydlowry.smugmug.com/Aerial...hy/i-gbVxL8L/A

398' AGL

But on the plus side, I didn't post it on RP and whore the link everywhere.

Loyd L.

Loyd, you're supposed to start that by saying "Bless me Father, for..."

That's what the military would call a "U2 shot." It's the kind of image more typically taken from a high altitude or space platform, such as a U2 aircraft, that military analysts use to assess what potential adversaries are doing, and perhaps plan "corrective measures."

It is different from other high down-angle shots that we see on RP, in that it shows only roof detail throughout the frame....with the exception of a couple of buildings near the edges. Depending on the content, colors, geometric shapes and juxtaposition of the elements, these kinds of shots can be considered artistic. The image submitted by Olaf Haensch, which won the 2016 CRPA award was this kind of image, albeit with very different content.

https://www.facebook.com/railphotoart/photos/a.344046888964889/1183208088382094/?type=3&theater

While the particular content in your shot doesn't quite do it for me, I can imagine a very similar image in which the layout of the buildings or the colors might well be pretty artistic, particularly if there were top-to-bottom or left-to-right symmetry. This is pretty close. I wonder what the RP Screeners would have done with this? Some folks seem to think they give an immediate pass to any aerials. This could be a pretty extreme test of that theory.

It's different, I'll give it that.

[JimThias]

Originally Posted by Joseph Cermak

I have a friend who said they are on their second month of waiting for approval to be able to post here.

You have a friend who is a "they"?