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POTD Display system is Whack.

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Forcillo
Posts: 3801 - Karma: 3,580
So I really appreciate all the huge changes you guys are making around here, it's truly making NS a better site. I also like the idea of the new homepage. However, I am a little bothered with the way the POTD is now displayed. Recently, I've noticed that the Ken Burns effect that it now has is very inaccurate, meaning that it will start in a far corner of the photo, where no action is, and it will take 5-10 seconds to actually get the the skier. I also don't like how you can't see the whole photo at once. Often it's a little necessary to see it all to appreciate it fully. My suggestion is that you keep the top content, but make the POTD fully visible and unobstructed. I feel like it will help people enjoy the photos more.
Mar 12 2014 8:05PM
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Mr.Bishop
Posts: 22708 - Karma: 76,635
So this is currently kind of up for debate amongst us. I think its a good debate to have though.

The main issue with POTD has always been about aspect ratio. We have two options:

1) Display only small POTD and make the design wonky because it switches between portrait and landscape.

2) Display only one aspect ratio and all others are DQ'd. This gives us consistent design, allows bigger photo and allows us to make it look really cool.

Using a zoom-crop doesn't work, because you need to know where the focal point of the image is.

The idea behind the scroll was that it allowed any type of photo to be appreciated. If you liked the look, chill out for a few seconds and bam you see it.

Of course in practise, I'm not crazy about it. I find you are there so quickly you need to just see the whole thing. Problem is, a) not everyone on staff agrees and b) there's no way to tell what the focal point of the image should be.

Ideas?
Mar 12 2014 10:29PM
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corona
Posts: 12797 - Karma: 32,757
have a purple name or two selecting the starting point for the POTD? so if it's portrait orientation or a massive picture then it'll start scrolling at whatever point the person picks.
Mar 12 2014 11:00PM
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*DUMBCAN*
Posts: 2447 - Karma: 5,628
Might be too complicated but select focal point as part of the upload procedure?

It still kinda ruins the compositions though.

A small thing you could do would be to make the credit:... skier:... underline when you hover over it, making it clearer that clicking there will lead you to the photo page. I know clicking it already takes you to the photo page, but it's not obvious.
Mar 17 2014 3:32PM
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SKI.ING
Posts: 2695 - Karma: 2,535
Yeah I'm not a fan of it either. I used to always look at the pictures but now I just skip right over it because of the scrolling effect. The novelty wore off really quickly. As in a couple of days for myself. I never had an issue with how it was before. If that means that it restricts which pictures qualify then I think that is a fair trade-off because right now I'm not viewing the photographer's work anyways.
Mar 19 2014 1:50AM
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