My sentiments exactly and after working on a computer 10-12 hours a day, wasting more time staring at another screen is the last thing I want to do.

I think missing point of FB groups. First if one has jerks, then just leave it. In Chicago area we have several good groups. Some are younger new fans, there are railroaders and guys who have been taking photos for years.

On Wisconsin and Southern group I can post a photo and the engineer will follow up or the conductor, not at all unusual. When you post there there is a real personal interest of people who work, who railfan there also. There is an Iowa Interstate group of really great people some of whom I have met. There are daily updates of operation. Chicago Railfan group has a wide variety, there was a post of the Blackhawk arriving at Oregon IL in 1964(he used to post here) and next a photo of a CN train yesterday. Yea, some of the photos are not that great but I don't care.

I started out trackside as a kid watching the Milwaukee and Soo at place called B-12 in Franklin Park. Some had little kodak cameras or none at all. So we watched and rode when we had a few dollars it wasn't about great photos. So today the photography is part of the hobby for me but not the only thing. The groups are just another part of the hobby.
Bob

Riding the rails with my pops and uncle whether on a loco or the hi rail truck during summer breaks when I was a kid was the spark that ignited my passion for the CW and RR's in general and most of the time it was without a camera ( unfortunately) but I still have those memories and I can relate to what your saying here about getting out there track side.

I will often post my photos to FB after I post them here, but I never link them because there is no reason to unless I want to pad my numbers. I don't like linking but I don't know that there is anything we can do. It is just disheartening to have 15 or 20 people favorite your image only to be blown away by someone who repeatedly get 10X the views and only 3 or 4 favorites.

That said, FB does have a place for RR photos. The is a lot of really cool old stuff coming out of the woodwork. It may not be RRPics worthy, but it is cool, and in many cases, extremely rare. It is surprising how many shots there are on lines that have been gone 50 years or more. In most cases you have to be a member to post. There have been a few cases of members taking photos from this site and reposting them as their own, but the moderators are usually pretty good about kicking those people off their page. But like I said, there is some really cool stuff out there.....

As I mentioned the link provides a better quality image with all the information. I do link a lot less than just posting the photo. On this one group a photo appeared on a Group of the Eldson yard in 1983 with a comment on the roundhouse. Sorry but my filing of scans leaves a lot to be desired so I quickly found what I wanted and posted to show turntable and roundhouse. I was done in a couple of minutes and did not have to type all the details.

On another note what we see with people referenced is probably some intentional methods to manipulate the system to gain large numbers of view. I just don't believe you are going to get a huge number of view simply by linking to some groups. There is some secondary linking or manipulation??

bob

One I linked from 1971 and one I did not even try here from a few days ago at West Chicgo.

[photoid=574393]

Is it possible they have found some way to generate views by automation? :confused:

You've already forgotten when RP used to throw a linked photo of note onto their facebook group once every couple weeks... It happened to one of my photos and it went from accepted to TO24 in 2 hours.

So yes Bob, linking to a group(s) can boost you into that realm very quickly...

Loyd L.

I know of at least one situation in which a prominent RP contributor apparently did create some sort of view generation program to boost his view-counts. He did get caught, and Admin publicly outed the individual here on the forums. Given the generally excellent quality of the person's submissions, it just knocked me off my chair that he felt it necessary to do such a thing.

This is why I would favor some sort of process by which all of the self-promotional games could be filtered out of the To24 process. Count only RP-generated views toward To24.....or use RP-generated favorites to determine who gets home page exposure. The latter would be difficult, because favorites are much harder to earn than views, and at any one time, there are likely more than 4-way ties for most favorites in 24 hrs.

This coming from someone with NO photos on the site. Yes, Joe - you are wrong. No one has a problem with linking shots to FB to share. The issue is with people linking their shots to boost their views ON THE SAME DAY THEY SUBMIT their image for the SOLE purpose of making the front page. If you boost your image views just enough to make top of last 24, even if it's only by one view, the front page takes care of the rest.

A lot of people don't bother to view photos that are not on the front page. So to be SEEN vs be searched, the front page is the route to go.

It was nice, once upon a time on RP, to post a good shot and have it be seen by more than 350 people if it was in fact, a really great photo - WITHOUT having to campaign it.

Allow linking, subtract the links for Top of Last 24 Hour slots. After all, that was the point of admin eliminating the "Top shot of the Day" which tallied counts from midnight, to "Top shot of the Last 24 Hours".

/Mitch

PS - What happened to the handful of image you did have on RP?

PSS - I agree with "CW". FB is a "me" site. You're lucky if you can ever find a photo you saw after 48 hours passes. RP is a nice post and done searchable database without the "me, me, me" FB strategy of finding the insane need to post not only to FB, but to a dozen or more "pages" within the site itself.

They still do.

May 14th, April 9th, Feb 14th, and Jan 21st doesn't constitute every couple weeks even with my sub-par West Virginian mathimacation. :D

Loyd L.

I like the way you type.

Loyd L.

Is that a Sam Kinison reference?

Not purposely, but he was one heck of a funny guy.

Loyd L.

Here is the scene that I was thinking of. Thought you adapted one of the final lines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9DO26O6dIg

I would say most railfans have seen that triple decker shot at Richmond before, FWIW.

Good answer. Good answer.
/Ted

Joe, Most railfans have seen an SW pulling a train as well. I had never seen the Richmond shot in daylight. Point is, if I had posted the SW shot, I would have been lucky to get 10% of the views because I don't link my shots. Simple as that....

I too find it curious that someone who wants to be seen has become invisible.

Said it once before, in lieu of not tallying linked image views for "Top of the Last 24" - why not limit "Top of the Last 24" to 1 hour? That way RP won't have a single image occupying the front page for 18 hours.... granted, the next "Top of Last 24" will no longer have a shot at hours of viewer generated highlighting on the front page, yet a lot more "Top Shots" as determined by viewer interest will get seen.

And RP still provides an incentive for those who don't think their image is good enough to make the front page to... still make the front page! If but for an hour.

/Mitch

:lol: I don't pay attention THAT much. But I do see their posts pop up from time to time, and with FB's weird random *(insert word I can't think of right now), I guess I just figured they were posting every day. And since I've never actually visited the RP FB page, I don't know how often they post.

*when I can think of the word, I'll come back and edit my post.

Algorithm? :D

Loyd L.

As I post this, a shot featuring an SD70ACU that appears to be only slightly longer than a Centennial unit has been linked well past an SC that should be on its way to the #1 spot. I don't understand why admin would want a campaigned shop to surpass an image that has received recognition from its own staff as being of superior quality.

One of the great mysteries of our times, my friend! :-)

I've been mostly gone from these forums for five years. Good to see this exact same conversation is still going on. :-)