I quit Airliners.net

[PolishAir42]

Now I'm worried about another issue that Chris & co. probably didn't think about. when Chris gave birth to this site he probably didn't plan on massive growth happening very quickly. Things were moving along slowly but surely until a.net's problems come to a boil, and now a flood of "refugees" want to bring their photos here and we already see the queue & photo id#'s growing extremely fast. I wonder if there will be server and bandwidth issues happening quicker than you guys thought. A large website with 100,000s of photos and growing visitors can be expensive and have "growing pains" as Johan found out once a.net grew beyond his "hobby" stage. But in his case, he hadn't reached #200,000 until late 2001 which was like 3 years after the site was born! I predict that this site will be at least #150000 by its 1yr anniversary!

Im going to give a little insight to this.

First you mentioned that A.net is Johan's "hobby" however Chris isnt relying on a university and he runs JP/AD/RP for his job.

As for bandwith and server costs, the more photos and traffic we get the more money comes in...Im sure we can manage for the time being. If sometime in the future the situation gets bad, Im willing to drop in money so we can stay afloat..

We did think about this, and I talked to Chris about it this past weekend.

[Bruce]

Definitely good to hear.

Speaking of quitting, I am not going to consider quitting a.net but what I am going to consider is quitting planepictures.net and bringing those shots here. When I found them I uploaded a lot of my a.net shots, and then some a.net digital rejects, and then THIS site was born. I basically stopped uploading at pp.net and check up on my photos every month or two and honestly, they dont get hardly any views! My best one there has less than my worst one here. I had some nice digital shots that a.net rejected that I think would look good here. For me its not a matter of having any problems with them, just it doesnt seem to be a viable medium to display my shots which is really all that I get out of this.

[Allen]

Hello from another airliners.net refugee...

After a disagreement with the boss over there, I felt it necessary to pull all my pictures from the site. Great shame, but there you go - I still have them even if airliners does't. With my new found freedom, I look forward to hopefully contributing somewhat more actively here from now on.

Best,

Andy

Curiouser and curiouser.......! Seems that according to our favourite Swede, Mr. Martin is being welcomed back into the A.Net fold. I guess slumming with us 'riff-raff' was not Andy's cup of tea.

http://www.airliners.net/discussions/aviation_photography/read.main/91676/

A

[Bruce]

nah it just means that Johan realized what an Asset Andy was and the two most likely talked over their differences and came to agree on principles. Now if only Israel & the PLO could do that.....

[mikecweb]

I guess slumming with us 'riff-raff' was not Andy's cup of tea.

One thing in my opinion that we shouldn't do is make two opposite sides on the issue of people staying with A.net and coming here. Encouraging people to leave there and come here is fine but lets not ridicule people for going back to A.net. It was the home for many people for several years.
I have stated my opinion of A.net many times. If someone wants to put up with their BS, all the power to them.

[ADG]

> We don't get the traffic here..... Why is that? Picture quality.

I disagree with this, I don't think picture quality has anything to do with the number of hits at all. I think the age of the site has more to do with it. In the last 3 months this site has grown in size and hits. A.net has been around for over 5 years, jetphotos has not. Lets see when it's a bit older how many hits it has. Jetphotos is now in the top 100,000 sites, and that is an impressive feat!

>Johan has posted about how photographers are drifting away due to forum problems and he
>is now addressing the issue and doing something about it.

Yes, i've seen his action. He has sacked some of his crew and told the rest to choose between a.net & this site. I don't think that will improve the site at all. I don't see my decision as self destructive at all, because to think that is to suggest that a.net is the be all and end all of aviation on the net which is isn't. My pictures are now available on jetphotos (and my own web site), to me that is fine. I am not supporting a.net in any way, why should I? Johan is an internet thug and i'm not supporting him in any way.

> I just wish that THIS site could increase the exposure our pics get.
> People are looking at the other sites' pictures because of the quality.

I think you're wrong, they look at a.net because they know about it. It has nothing to do with quality, jetphotos has some excellent photos online. We users should be advertising/supporting the site and bringing in new viewers. We direct all the editors/etc who are after Glenns photos to jetphotos as this is where they will find his pictures. We're doing our bit, how about you?

> at airliners.net rare aircraft at stunning angles get far more hits than at JetPhotos.net.

Really? when do rare aircraft and stunning angles get accepted to a.net?

> I am not into this hobby for massive exposure and money. I am more than satisfied only uploading here at JP.

I don't think it really matters. Glenn is a top grade aviation photographer well sought after by magazines and a taker of photos that many people enjoy looking at. a.net didn't make him popular, he will remain popular with or without a.net. It's just a web site, and some of us (me included) lost sight of that fact .. seems a few of us are waking up to that fact ... do you lose by not using a.net? NO.

> I have stated my opinion of A.net many times. If someone wants to put up with their BS, all the power to them.

Actually it was Johan who introduced the "us or them" concept when he ORDERED his crew to choose between the 2 sites.





ADG

[Bruce]

As for "ordering" his crew to choose between his site and the competition, I dont think that is all uncommon in the real world. Let's say you're dating this really attractive woman. And then you meet another really attractive woman, spending some time with both. Don't you think your "original" girlfriend would kind of be a little mad? Especially since she and this "other woman" aren't friends anymore for other reasons? In fact you might even get the "it's me or her" speech.

In the business world as well, it is just a fact of life that you do not work for the competition simultaneously. Even though Screeners are volunteering, they are still "insiders" over there. or here.

[atco]

Bruce,

I think people are in danger of losing sight of what this is about. It's a hobby............a fun pursuit, something to enjoy.

When you start to drag the morals and practices of the business World into something like this, then I think those doing so are losing sight of what this is really about.

In your analagy, you gave, both sides I think would expect to have a commitment to each other. In the case of these websites, the staff donate their time and effort voluntarily in pursuit of their hobby, and the expectation is not the same. People should not be effectively contracted to one site or any other.

I cannot understand Johan's reasoning behind this, other than he has an awful lot to lose..........something we do not know about.

There should not have to be a choice, people should feel free to frequent or participate in any activity they see fit.

Regards

Garry

[Greg]

A.net and jp.net aren't competitors. Jp.net has a different direction and goal. Read www.jetphotos.net/us and http://www.airliners.net/about/ and then compare the differences.

[JeffinDEN]

I think people are in danger of losing sight of what this is about. It's a hobby............a fun pursuit, something to enjoy.

Gary, no truer words ever spoken. If it ain't fun, I ain't doin it. But I must admit, it is fun to sell some stuff after having all the fun of taking the pictures in the first place. And one site currently is the leader in making that happen. May not always be that way. But for now it is.

There is a certain satisfaction to be had by getting an acceptance email from A.net. I personally don't get the same feeling here. And I believe it is where the bar is set currently. After all, how much fun is it to be able to Slam a basketball on a 6' high goal? Or shoot your "best round" of golf having taken a Mulligan on every hole? You get the picture... (no pun intended..)



Jeff

[Bruce]

jeff, true. very true.

[atco]

So why do you upload here Jeff, if you get nothing back from it?

[indian airlines]

If i'm a 1' high toddler, getting the ball into the 6' basket is a great achievement for me. As time progresses, maybe I will become good (and big) enough to get it into the 12' high basket.

But if right from the beginning all that is given to me is the 12' basket, I am more likely than not going to give up playing basketball.

The same applies for photography, Jeff............

People like us don't start out as experts. And we like uploading to a place where we feel comfortable, where we feel a part of.....

[ADG]

But by gosh .. some people think that by buying themselves a fully automated digital camera and a VR lense they become an expert!






ADG