Railfan Technology > Help Captioning Slides

Those of you who frequent the Nostalgia & History Board know that I have been scanning and posting the slides of Roger Puta.  I've done about 2,200.  I have at least 10,000 to go.

The problem is that I have done most of the slides with captions.  The remainder are not captioned.  

I have put together an email list of his close railfan friends who railfanned with him and have used them when I was mot sure of a caption.  TO members have also helped by adding information to or correcting the captions of photos I have posted.  And that has work well enough when most of the slides were fully captioned and at any one time I maybe had two or three that needed help.

But now I need a way to caption maybe 100 slides a week.  

Here is one idea I had.  I put up a web site and post the uncaptioned scans there with what information I have, like the processing date of the slide.  Anybody can add to the caption on the web site.  After about a week I take the scan down and consolidate what people have added into a caption and post and archive the scan as I have in the past.

Is there software that will allow me to build such a site?  I.e., one that people can write on after looking at a scan?

Also please think about my problem.  Maybe you can come up with a better solution.


Thanks,
Marty Bernard



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/16 21:25 by MartyBernard.

Marty, as a member that has really enjoyed the photos you post, I can imagine what a challenge you have finding captions.  But let me say for all of us that we appreciate your efforts and the archive you have compiled.

Here is a suggestion that might work.  You could start a Facebook page (post the name of it on TO and other sites) and people can follow it and help out with captions.  It is simple to post photos and others can easily write comments to help identify them.

Hope this helps! Thanks again for everything you are doing!

Marty, I would avoid Facebook as so many members of the very age group you want to reach are "Facebook challenged" and simply won't go there. Even if they did, they would have to have a Facebook account to comment on any images you post there.

You could use one of the free photo hosting sites like Flickr, PBase, Google Images, etc. All of them permit commenting on individual images, which you could use to solicit caption information. The problem with all of these services is, again, one must have a logon to comment. However, Flickr is simply a Yahoo login and Google Images is a Google login, which may be more common with the crowd you want to reach. PBase requires a membership too (free) to login and comment on images but these are not as prolific as Google and Yahoo memberships since PBase members are usually photography enthusiasts.

The ideal solution is one that hosts your photos and allows anonymous commenting. But then you open yourself up to spammers and all sorts of admin headaches. If your images are only posted for a short time, that may not be much of an issue. But I don't know of any hosting sites that allow anonymous commenting. Maybe someone here does.

I love it when you post here.  Anytime I see the word Puta I always look.

Unless you're planning on posting hundreds here why not just continue to post here as kind of a legitimate "where is it" series. We, the members of Trainorders get to enjoy them and you get the combined knowledge of Trainorders to caption them - a win/win.
 

Railbaron Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Unless you're planning on posting hundreds here
> why not just continue to post here as kind of a
> legitimate "where is it" series. We, the members
> of Trainorders get to enjoy them and you get the
> combined knowledge of Trainorders to caption them
> - a win/win.
>  

Not hundreds, thousands.

I realize it's "thousands" but any you post here would be appreciated. I know there are various hosting sites out there to post them but I don't know how much feedback you'd get but here you're almost guaranteed feedback. Even if you were to only do 10% of what you have here and the rest somewhere else it would still be a win for "us" and ID'ing those shots might help with the others. Just a thought.

I'd go with Flicker for low cost, large database capacity and ease of entering comments. Make a statement about requesting location comments.

FaceBook would work if a small group of contributors consistently identified locations. FB has portability giving it ease of checking new photos and adding comments. I don't use FB due to tracking, profiling and snooping issues, most of the 'popular' media are simply for recording hits and charging for advertisements.

Making your own website is noble but does not have clear advantages. Beware of some sites that sell prints of your photos without your knowledge.

I like this idea!

Railbaron Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I realize it's "thousands" but any you post here
> would be appreciated. I know there are various
> hosting sites out there to post them but I don't
> know how much feedback you'd get but here you're
> almost guaranteed feedback. Even if you were to
> only do 10% of what you have here and the rest
> somewhere else it would still be a win for "us"
> and ID'ing those shots might help with the others.
> Just a thought.

Don't reinvent the wheel...Just get a Flickr account. The basic ones are free, pro accounts are inexpensive. Spammers don't happen-people have to "follow" you to see your photos--and you approve them.  So, at the outset it'd be me and some other guys on here, but then it would start to increase followers exponentially over the months, to the point where you have a good diverse group of people that know lots of varied operations and locations...
This is my page: 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/drloco/

SO, here's an example..I had a 8x10 photo that I scanned in, had NO information on it (I assumed it was a PR glossy  giveaway)...I posted it wondering where the location was and within 6 hours had an answer:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/drloco/26104243305/in/dateposted-public/

There are TONS of groups that you can fliter pics into by railroad, region, locomotive type, etc--and a growing body of railfan photographers reside here (after initially using railpics and getting rejected most just went with flickr pages)...It's easy to update commentary. 
Marty, I'd join your personal group in a second--Your well-scanned and thoroughly researched posts are one of the main reasons I kept my TO account this year.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/30/16 12:53 by DrLoco.