A few things I’ve noticed since starting to contribute to the photo board early last year:
*Very few people post the backs or even the whole of photos for dating;
*Very few people new to the board post high resolution images for restoring;
*When asked by the daters/restorers to do either of the above two things, it usually doesn’t happen for various reasons: the poster doesn’t come back; restorers date or restore without the better detail and posters accept the answers/restores as is; posters don’t have access to the originals; posters have trouble with posting.
*Very few people read the help tutorials before posting. (Who reads instruction books anyway?
)
*A lot of new posters don’t clearly state what they want.
I think some of the outcomes of this are:
Posters (particularly new posters) can became frustrated and/or not come back;
Restorers can become frustrated, having to give the same message to almost every new poster;
Both posters and restorers can achieve either nil or less than best outcomes.
I’d like to suggest that the wording at the top of the board be changed/expanded in an effort to cure most of the problems mentioned above.
From this:
“Get your Photographs restored or dated completely for free by the generous people on RootsChat. Please Include Family Names and Country in Titles of Photographs if known, or how the image relates to your family history. Posts without any details will not be allowed to be posted.”
To this:
“Get your old photographs dated or restored completely FREE by the generous people on Rootschat.
“For Best Outcomes:
“For DATING, scan & post the photo in full (front & back, showing the edges), and prefix the post, “DATE PLEASE for …” Also include family names and country (where known) and how the photo relates to your research.
“For RESTORING, scan your photo at the highest resolution (usu. 300 or 600dpi) that creates a file that just fits under our limit of 500kb, and prefix the post, “RESTORE PLEASE for…”
“For both a date and a restore, prefix the post, “DATE AND RESTORE PLEASE for…”
“(Note that posts without any details will not be allowed.)
“If you have any trouble posting your photo, after trying the TUTORIALS below, please ask our friendly restorers for help.”
Perhaps other daters/restorers would like to comment on/shoot down my suggestions and say whether they (or something like them) are worth recommending to the board administrators.
(Now I’ll duck and run for cover.
)
Peter