WeeklyShut

Good Evening Mr and Mrs Photoblogs and All The Ships at Sea!

This just in over the Agent Frequencies of Top Secret Photo Meme Hall of Shame Shortwave Radio Emergency Network, Ltd!

So, it's now Weekly Shut. Brandon has closed shop after some noob was caught cheating, followed by a lot of pomposity by former members. The same people who couldn't bother to post anymore certainly bothered to post why the don't bother to post anymore... and thus adding more weirdness, snarkiness and self-righteousness to an environment they deem too weird, snarky and self-righteous. Instead of gratitude for a cool effort put forth by BS, or making an effort to help keep it cool, everyone was always quick to point out what they DIDN'T think was cool.

Oh well, on to Vazaar, where everyone can take extra time to tell each other how talented they are, without the brutal, judgmental, pitiless octagon of photography that Weekly Shot was.

Creme de Meme

And...

Happy New Year Noisy Upstairs Neighbors!

You were right about the “wheels coming off at WS”. Unfortunately it has been like a slowly-dying beloved pet, and last week began to steeply deteriorate. So it looks like Brandon Stone is going to “ put it down” so to speak. It is unfortunate really, since originally, this was probably the best of all the “meme” sites. I have been a critic of some aspects of WS in the past, mainly the ratings quotas….which I think are mainly what caused the decline to begin with since they changed ratings/comments from being interest-based to being requirement-based. But it was an ambitious project that allowed for the sharing of some truly exceptional images, and also for many people, including me, to get some great feedback.

Anyway, I attached a PDF of a post from Brandon Stone to the WS Google group, in case you aren’t already members of it ;) (Oh, we ARE)

Take care,

Agent G

Below is an excerpt from letter from Brandon Stone posted on the WeeklyShot Group explaining his reasoning.

After our little New Year's ordeal was over and I had gotten my family back home and comfortable, I decided to check my email to see what was going on in the world of The Internets. After sifting through several-hundred new emails I noticed a recent thread in this group talking about (among other things) the continued downward spiral of WeeklyShot. It seems like we're having a lot of those discussions lately.

Since New Year's is fresh in my mind, I inevitably started thinking about where WeeklyShot has been and what the future could bring. I started flipping through the older themes and reacquainted myself with a lot of top-notch imagery and interesting conversations from the past. Our first theme happened almost 2 years ago and in that time I've gotten to know a countless number of amazing people through this site. I'm sure many of you have your fair share of good memories and new friends as well.

Despite all the positive things that have happened on WeeklyShot over its lifetime, I've become increasingly dismayed about the direction of the discussions here. I've often wondered if I've been too tolerant of some of the petty and unproductive elements that have popped up here and there. Or maybe my original premise for this site was flawed from the beginning. In any event, I think it's clear that WS isn't as fruitful as it once was and it will take a considerable amount of effort to turn things around... At this point it's time for me to make a difficult decision.

Keeping in mind my many responsibilities in the coming year, I feel that it's time for me to bid a fond farewell to WeeklyShot.

We had a great time while it lasted and I appreciate the enthusiasm and talent that you have brought to this project. I consider you my friends and I hope we can stay in touch in the future. Building websites like WS has brought me a lot of satisfaction over the years, so I know I'll continue to work on projects like this. I've definitely learned many lessons along the way, and I'm excited to try out some new ideas in other places.

If you have any questions about this decision or if you'd like to talk about the details of how we should shut down WeeklyShot, let's talk about that in this thread. I would like to leave the site up as an homage to all the interesting things that have happened here, and I think we can figure out some good ways to do that.

In any event, if you'd ever like to get in touch with me or just say "hi", feel free to use my contact form at BrandonStone.com

So there you have it. Now, a comment from We, your noisy upstairs neighbors, (and former WeeklyShot participants. Shhh!)

If every photomeme closed where there was cheating, shameless self promotion, rise and decline in quality of images, off topic posts, whining and dismay of partipants, rise and fall in participation, there'd be NARY A ONE LEFT! AND MORE IMPORTANTLY NO PHOTO MEME HALL OF SHAME!!

The weak link in all of this? WeeklyShot's weakness which led to it's downfall? Letting you DAFT GITS TALK TO EACH OTHER! Did Brandon not know that they debeak chickens in chicken houses because they will peck each other to death??

THAT dear Photo Meme Hall of Shame Reader and Past, Present, or Future Shamee is why we are here, doing this for you, so that you may be safe. Daft gits.

NOW GO AND BEHAVE!

Shutterday: Bad Party

This just in from Creme de Meme who honors us with reports both large and small. We are posting this small before moving on to the large! UP NEXT!

A big Whiskey Tango Foxtrott to some of the action currently being voted on over at Shutterday:

We lead off with photo_man, who provides us with some windy goodness in response to Bad Party:http://campman.blogspot.com/2007/08/blog-post_14.html

Straight out of Flickr, f1rwb DClik gives us some Modern Dance - possibly an interpretation of a Bad Party through the medium of Mime:http://www.flickr.com/photos/f1rwb/2114074925/

thingseen apparently goes with a political riff on Bad Party:http://thingseen.my-expressions.com/archives/9088_1687835003/261643

cheneel goes with a Sudoku-like puzzle of birds... all I can say is I hope she's not wearing a dry-clean-only dark jacket under that party...http://photos.cheneel.com/index.php?showimage=16

However... big props to Mostly Sunny for pushing the Photoblog envelope. I knew it when I saw it...http://www.slutbunwalla.com/index.php?showimage=523

Memes out!

We Don't Always Do What We Do Because You Do What We Do So Well.

We had barely unpacked our steamer trunks from our trip aboard the steamer Cassieopiea when we fired up the laptop of love to see what had been happening and to be honest it was quite a snoozer. We could find very little to shame!

The folks at Shutterday had dropped the ball again with such an awkwardly worded challenge involving other photographers that almost half their participants failed for a second time to post correctly. Note to Homer Laffoone: Do not use a paragrah when a word will suffice

We noticed that young Noah of Photo Sunday had achieved his (short) life goal of being first in Photo Friday. Not in the results, mind you, but having learned from all of us, first in posting

And then we noticed the wheels coming off at Weekly Shot. We've written about Weekly Shot before and LOVE IT. It's got some of photoblogdoms best photographers and that certainly police their own. As can be seen below. We strongly suggest following the link, but in case something like this isn't allowed to stay, we chose to cut and paste the comments for your enjoyment.

http://www.weeklyshot.org/theme/four/featured/47/

Featured in Four (Response #47)
Featured 1 Day Ago by pointnshoot - - 28 comments
Photo © pointnshootUnauthorized reproduction not permitted.

User Comments

flipthom: I was wondering if someone would do this. Love the color. Might just be my monitor but it hurts my eyes to look at it. Not a bad thing at all. If I've misspelled anything in my comment, it's because I'm typing with my head turned sideways. :)

flipthom: Ah yes pointnshoot, congrats on your feature.

Nick : Neat! Four bolts.

Flatline Over-saturated, over-sharpened, and there's sensor dirt visible in various locations. This is not a great shot.

Beamer Nice idea, well captured. The red feels over processed. Don't see the need...?

Bogart Excellent. Eye-catching.

stolenlife I dont understand how/why this featured. But, the weeklyshot moves in mysterious ways.. Congratulations

Ana beyond it's bright colours and relevance, this shot doesn't hold a lot of interest for me.yes, it's featured, but seemingly this received a rush of ratings...while most other shots around it have 9 or 10.*shrug*

pete its all a mystery. i have to agree with Ana/Stolen/flat.... its very bright, and the sensor dust is annoying. if you found the time to do the saturation and sharpening, surely a little cloning as in order!!

Montage This is the only shot this week that I haven't commented on. Shame the comment has to be joining the chorus of wondering why/how this was featured so fast.

shipmate no mystery. know people who rate. They rate fairly.

pointnshoot oops I was logged in with my roomate's username.

pete your roommate who hasnt commented in 315 days?

pete or Bogart... who has only posted 1 image in a year, and has only ever commented on this one photo of yours? dude... grow up. why are you 'cheating' on a friendly photo site. what on earth are you trying to gain from this? your fame and fortune?

Flatline LOL!

flipthom Shipmate? Dude...c'mon. If you're going to cheat (and you shouldn't), at least come up with a better name. And if it really is your roommate, tell him that captains rank higher than shipmates.
In all seriousness though, your stuff is good. You have plenty of features. Why cheat?

Beamer So looks like we may now know some of the source of the many who speed rate and never comment. Must be a bitch to have to wade thru 13x4=52 ratings just so you can rate your own pic 4 times, huh "shipmate". Big OOPS!! Let's see how this works, you are a member and you can invite 3 others. So you end up with 4 accounts. 4 ratings of 25 points will sway a lot your way I would guess...?? But hey, innocent till...

pursang Sad and very unfortunate for this venue.

Beamer Very true Mark, very bad timing...

stolenlife Hey pointnshoot, are you going to come clean? I think we'd all respect you more if you did

TammyLynn His other photo he posted on this topic has a star as well. It's an interesting shot I'll agree, but it's not remarkable, it's just a snap. There are several remarkable shots in this subject and they don't have stars yet. Makes you wonder.

gorin-images THIS is exactly why I no longer waste my time on WeeklyShot anymore. It is really unfortunate that what was once one of the best concepts in photo memes has slowly sunk down to this level. Oh, and Happy New Year everyone ;)

phototext Well, my apologies if I am wrong but this looks like pointnshoot has been cheating.
How very pathetic and to make matters worse you where stupid enough to get caught using your "flatmates" login. This is a snapshot, nothing more, and a pretty poor one at that. You have dust on the sensor, the composition is poor and the over saturated colours do nothing to make it a quality image. Brings in to question all his/ her other featured images. If cheating is the only way you can get featured perhaps it's time you took up another hobby.

Ana @gorin-images. I understand where you are coming from, and I agree with you,but another reason it has sunk down, is because some really great photographers have given up on it.

TMaher This shot suxs ass.. Ooh wait - Am I another one his personalities? I haven't posted in a long time either.. haha Yeah, I remember it well. I posted one image for the 'Texture' shot and half the dopes said my image did not meet the topic.. I say dopes because they clearly don't understand what the word texture means.. As if, people think it only means coarse and not smooth.. fools.. FYI - I came to find out the guy who invited me here was doing the same thing this guy is. I only found out when I saw one his images posted by another user then the username who invited me posted to the image voting it up and praising it.. another loser.

pete while im not exactly sure what all of your post was about, it is a shame this has happened.
and while i wasnt around for the texture theme, the problem with photography is that appreciation and understanding is the job of the viewer, and if they dont understand what you are trying to show, well, then, you didnt show is clearly enough.

pointnshoot Honesty. I'm sorry you all think this way. This is my favortie site on the internet and I would not jeopordize my membership. What you r accusing me of is not true. I am sorry I made a mistake by writng my comment under my roomates log in. I just did not look, as I am mostly the person logged in However, the comments collectively looks like I am guilty. Too bad.I have one log-in. Other members have given me positive results and I thank you for you comments. I write the above with sincere honesty.


Oh it's going to be a grand 2008! Happy New Year, Daft Gits!

Love always,

Your Noisy Upstairs Neighbors.