Monday, January 07, 2008

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!

3 Comments:

Blogger Iron Flatline said...

LOL, so the conclusion is that Photo Friday is successful because there's no community there...

Yup, I guess that might be right.

I will miss Weekly Shot.

6:29 PM  
Blogger memeshame said...

Exactly. There are so many entries that no one can possibly look at them all. There is CLEARLY cheating at SOME level for the same reason. And Marc and Nick only speak once a year, much like the Queen.

Although there is that nice and dirty little horse rce every week to be first. We love that.

10:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I enjoyed this post, but it overlooks something important....

The main thing that originally set WeeklyShot apart from, and put it in a category above all those other garden-variety memes was the fact that the cheating, self-promotion, etc. was largely absent. The quality of the work was overall, very good, and the quality of the feedback was also usually very good to match.

Then things began to "drift" let's say.

I guess I am one of those "self-righteous" original members that didn't post anymore, but came back to post on pointnshoot's cheat-shot. I stopped posting because of the ratings quotas, combined with my personal belief that if you are going to rate, then you had better back up that rating with some intelligent comments (or at least with some comments), and it was too time-consuming to rate large numbers of images (many of which I would never have chosen to evaluate in the first place)and provide good comments. The, at the same time, you have dopes posting sub-par images, speed-rating everyone else's images, and then voting for themselves via different aliases to get "featured". Since I had never seen such an obvious example of this, it seemed like a great opportunity to comment about why I was no longer participating.

The one thing I take some issue with (here goes that self-righteous photographer again) is the statement "Instead of gratitude for a cool effort put forth by BS, or making an effort to help keep it cool". That is ridiculous. Regardless of anyone's personal gripes about WeeklyShot, I don't think I ever encountered someone who failed to appreciate the effort and dedication that Brandon Stone put into this project. The way I remember it, many of the people who frequently posted their gripes, posted their thanks to Brandon nearly as frequently....often in the same posts. So I just have this to say to the mystery author of the above quote: It's OK to get "pissy" but you still need to keep your facts straight ;)

I'll miss WeeklyShot, but in a way, I already did miss it, because IMHO, it has already been "gone" for a long time.

7:29 AM  

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