Photo Friday
URL: www.photofriday.com Created by: Marc North and Nick Feder Date of birth: December 11, 2002.
Numbers count: Photo Friday gets "in the neighborhood" of 50,000 visitors a week.
The Gist: Marc North, a programmer living and working in Northern California, met Nick Feder (then a teenager) online, and the two began exchanging instant messages about photography. Eventually, the collaboration produced the idea for Photo Friday: a site where photographers respond to a weekly conceptual challenge, and exemplary photos are recognized as noteworthy. The most popular challenge was "clouds," with 660 submissions. The site has become hugely popular amongst aspiring and working photographers looking for encouragement and traffic to their portfolios. Initially North and Feder selected images for recognition, but the task became daunting as Photo Friday grew in popularity. Today, visitors vote on submissions, and the results are tallied automatically.
The Technical Details: The site began with an installation of Movable Type, but Marc North has significantly altered it, adding the Link Viewer and the voting mechanism that allows users to select noteworthy images. North has also created tools to help eliminate ballot stuffing and other system abuses to keep Photo Friday fair.
The Financial Details: North reports that the site pays for itself through advertising, which covers the $100 monthly hosting costs. His own time is donated.
What's Cool: The custom Link Viewer built by North allows visitors to keep a list of submissions open on one side of the browser while viewing individual submissions on each photographer's own Web site on the right. During the 12:01 a.m. Friday to 11:59 p.m. Sunday CST voting period, visitors can also vote for noteworthy images while they use the Link Viewer.
Plans for the future: North anticipates rebuilding and redesigning both the front and back ends of Photo Friday in the next 6 to 12 months. Ultimately, the site will a powerful user community with built-in communication and linking tools.
Business Advice: "It really is about understanding acceptable barriers to entry. You don't necessarily want everyone and his mother participating on your site, so build your community around minimal acceptable requirements for participation. It's about listening to the users and giving them some limits and rules in which to function. Listen seriously to criticisms and understanding what their needs are. Anticipate growth.
"Be ethical about the trust that people are placing in you. Establish an aggressive privacy policy and then live by it. You have to be impeccable in your trustworthiness, and don't ever violate that by selling mailing lists. It takes forever to establish that trust, but only a single incident to lose it all. It has be all about the users."
Technical Advice: "At the end of the day, if you're a one-man shop, you need to be brilliant. There are so many ways to screw up on the Web. Building a flexible schema and system out of the gate is critical. If you can't build it yourself, make sure that you have someone who can."
THE CURRENT CHALLENGE
Fri Oct J J 3004
This week's challenge: 'statement'.
link | challenge archive * LINKS
Did you complete the Statement challenge'
Enter Your Link!
Link Viewer ■ Link Search
271; 270 269 268 267 266 265 264 263 262 261 260 259 258 257 256 255 254 253 252 251 250 249 248 247 246 245 244 243 242 241 240 239 238 237 236 235 234 233 232 231 230 229 223 227 :::
InstaMarv OhMyHead :: charlotte :: Photo by Eric Zwever june
Tom Holland Photo Optik melissity Angle Lemon Nick Ciske comtrag gcorgc
Photo Gallery
Pernell
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Alphdwoman mileena AA
onebackpack aDESIGNa.net atsii70_«iwd
Bubble Girl yostos
SweetSurrend er TropArts rebecca MexiPickle nriuiujuli»«« jib daudine dinko.net phototeria
Lewesrat
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Do Not Paint a shadeofg rey msdedi Marmein » IanSMcN nogger assorted pixels paffymilan
Cast your votes for Noteworthy from the 'Unexpected' Challenge!
Thu Oct 21, 2004
One of our most frequently asked questions is if we have buttons or banners for people to use on their sites to link to Photo Friday.
We don't, but that hasn't stopped people from creating their own. It's high time we recognize these efforts and if you'd like to see your custom banner/button on the Photo Friday site (with an attribution link back to you, of course') then send them in.
Contact us, and in the message, include the link(s) to the image files of the buttons or banners you created. Please submit ONLY your own work, and not the ones you've seen on other sites. Also be sure to include the website address and the name you want us to use when we link to you.
After we get enough submissions we'll put up a permanent page showcasing everyone's submissions, so send 'em in'
Keep the following in mind:
1) If your button/banner is included on the showcase page, it will always remain your property, but expect that others around the internet will download it and start using it on their own sites,
2) Keep them fairly small so that they're usable by many different types of site formats, but there are no specific dimensions as far as we're concerned,
3) You don't have to use our color palette if you don't want to. Be creative and show us what you've got,
4) Submit as many as you like, but try not to duplicate the efforts of others.
5) Remember, you can't upload images through the Contact Us form. You'll have to send us the link to the image files on your hosting server. It will look something like
http://yoursite.com/images/pf-button.gif or something like that!
6) The decision to include or exclude certain submissions is ours alone. But the odds are in your favor.
Confused? Ask us questions, we'll help!
Mon Sep 20, 2004 CORRECTION:
We re-used a portion of this announcement from the first Extra Challenge, and accidentally mentioned the need to use a film camera. NO SUCH REQUIREMENT EXISTS FOR THE "2 BY 4' EXTRA CHALLENGE, Digital cameras are perfectly fine. Sorry for the confusion!
NOTEWORTHY
Chosen by visitor vote: Always Curious MONKEYGIRL :) Graham ..twentyfives,. my I a kent j a v a j i v e link | noteworthy archive
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