Airliners.net

This isn't a dig per se, but I have noticed a heck of a lot of new stuff lately hasn't been given a place on the front page news banner. This includes TAP retro, Rutaca new liveried 732 and the (very recent) Korean C-Series - three aircraft that, in my opinion, should be in the news section the moment they're added.

I'm aware that the crew are mostly volunteers but the job still has to be diligently done - come on, guys, this is not only frustrating for the photographers who strive to bring A.net the first shots of something new, it's also allowing other sites to get ahead. To add insult to injury, slightly revised lettering in the TAP tail logo got full fanfare on the front page recently, as did a light aircraft that had had a respray.

Like I say, not really a dig.... but if I've noticed, surely others have too.

Karl

Hi Karl,

I agree with you and have just added the Rutaca and Korean as banners. The TAP retro is a bit less recent, so it doesn't make much sense to still add it. All of the above should've indeed gotten banners and I will advise the prio team of this. It can still happen that banners are forgotten, so if anyone is missing one, please do E-mail us if you think we forgot (priorityscreening[at]airliners.net).

Is it possible to get a tick box added to the priority screening box saying, "Is this picture for a news banner " or of something similar. Just a thought as it might help in this situation.

Likely possible, but I'm not going to forward the suggestion (sorry). It's more work for something that we just need to keep better track of. Plus people can just tick the box all the time, which would be quite useless. I did send a reminder around, so I'm sure it'll get better.

I've noted the same.

Today there is the first shot of an Air Canada 77L in the new livery and it gets 0 Promotion, neither a banner, nor a post anywhere. The way other shots are promoted it almost gets totally unnoticed at the moment.

Otherwise I can only echo Karl's comment.

I think first the photographers should get a little more "reward" for chasing something new, and then viewers would appreciate this as well. And such newsworthy stuff brings viewers to the site in the end.

I just added the banner for the AC B777. Thanks for the heads-up! Usually the banner photos also get promoted on social media, so they do get the exposure for being the first to upload something newsworthy.

The situation has been better lately, however I did notice that an Air Bridge Cargo 744 got banner the other day for a tiny Maserati decal on the forward fuselage - seems a very trivial thing to justify a banner place?

I also noticed that the first AC 333 in new livery wasn't featured, although I suspect that the photographer didn't realise as the photo appears to have been screened as part of the regular queue. Obviously if the photographer doesn't tag a photo as being newsworthy, the screeners won't pick up on it until it's too late. In this instance, by the time it hit the database it had been in the livery for over a week, so likely a little late to warrant banner.

It may not seem a big thing but if the banner isn't kept up-to-date people will begin to look elsewhere for their news. I for one only really visit this site now to catch up with what's new.... and if there's nothing immediately visible in the banner, I move on elsewhere. With stiff competition from all sides these days, A.net really does need to keep on top of this.

On a related subject, I see that people are decreasingly choosing A.net to host newsworthy images, and I can't help but feel that the apparent lack of enthusiasm to promote new stuff is at least partially to blame. There have been several banner photos lately which had been featured elsewhere for well over two weeks - not directly A.net's fault but I think a more diligent approach to promoting new stuff would help fix this. It would appear that A.net is no longer the top choice for photographers wanting to showcase newsworthy subjects.

First thanks to Kas for creating the banner.
The photo is finally where it belongs....on the frontpage!

JakTrax wrote:

It may not seem a big thing but if the banner isn't kept up-to-date people will begin to look elsewhere for their news. I for one only really visit this site now to catch up with what's new.... and if there's nothing immediately visible in the banner, I move on elsewhere. With stiff competition from all sides these days, A.net really does need to keep on top of this.

On a related subject, I see that people are decreasingly choosing A.net to host newsworthy images, and I can't help but feel that the apparent lack of enthusiasm to promote new stuff is at least partially to blame. There have been several banner photos lately which had been featured elsewhere for well over two weeks - not directly A.net's fault but I think a more diligent approach to promoting new stuff would help fix this. It would appear that A.net is no longer the top choice for photographers wanting to showcase newsworthy subjects.

Again I fully agree with this! That's why I care in the end, as I care about airliners.net.

I can only echo that feeling you mentioned, Karl. I just need to look at our local forum, in the past if anything newsworthy got mentioned most of the times a link from airliners was posted. These days the majority of links come from other sites. Just as an obsveration.

I also think that anything newsworthy should get an official social media post without too much delay. And noone will / should challenge that (as it might be for other early posts) IMO.

JakTrax wrote:

On a related subject, I see that people are decreasingly choosing A.net to host newsworthy images, and I can't help but feel that the apparent lack of enthusiasm to promote new stuff is at least partially to blame. There have been several banner photos lately which had been featured elsewhere for well over two weeks - not directly A.net's fault but I think a more diligent approach to promoting new stuff would help fix this. It would appear that A.net is no longer the top choice for photographers wanting to showcase newsworthy subjects.

I think it depends more on who uploads where. Some photographer only uplaod to other sites, some only to A.net We also receive newsworthy photos that other sites don't really seem to get, so it also works the other way around.

Another issue that I sometimes come across is that photos get marked as priority, but with no note to explain why. I don't always have time to research it myself, so in those cases a banner is also less likely. A little bit of responsibility rests with the photographer as well.

That said, we do our best to timely activate the banners. I suspect Paul goes through the banners every day so he can promote them on social media, but I'm not 100% sure.


EDIT:

JKPhotos wrote:

I also think that anything newsworthy should get an official social media post without too much delay. And noone will / should challenge that (as it might be for other early posts) IMO.

I also agree with this, but there is only 1 person that does social media postings. Perhaps that's up for a review.

airkas1 wrote:

EDIT:

JKPhotos wrote:

I also think that anything newsworthy should get an official social media post without too much delay. And noone will / should challenge that (as it might be for other early posts) IMO.

I also agree with this, but there is only 1 person that does social media postings. Perhaps that's up for a review.

I wasn't aware of that, thanks for the inside.
Now I see that the banner is indeed a kind of bottleneck, as when the shot is in 55th Position (like it was that morning) the person doing the page might not see it and one can't blame him for that.
Maybe he could be alerted for something new? Just as an idea.

Well, the banners are listed on the homepage. so a simple look there (or at the backend of the site) can easily and quickly reveal all banners that have been placed. So the position in the TOTD (top of the last 24h) is not so much a bottleneck IMHO.

I meant ot the otherway round for the case that no banner exists...otherwise yes, it is easy to have an overview.

The banner is the bottleneck, as if there is no, the shot will be hard to find for anyone (not just the social media manager).

Ah! then you are quite right. If a banner is not given, it's nearly impossible to find a bannerworthy photo, unless you know exactly what you're looking for.

airkas1 wrote:

Ah! then you are quite right. If a banner is not given, it's nearly impossible to find a bannerworthy photo, unless you know exactly what you're looking for.

But very often once someone's found it it will gain traction if it's newsworthy. This is why it's important to make an effort to promote new stuff, just in case priorities do get lost and go unnoticed. It's detrimental to the site and gives the competition a distinct advantage.

This was also (sort of) my point earlier - if photographers aren't tagging their images as newsworthy (for whatever reason) then they're much more likely to slip through unnoticed. However many newsworthy images are clearly prioritised as they typically appear in the database either on the day they were taken or the day after. Even without a comment it's often very obvious why something's newsworthy.

Karl

I see that AF's new lo-co subsidiary Joon hasn't got a banner place. Come on, guys, this is a pretty big event in the aviation world!

Karl

That's indeed sloppy of us. thanks for the heads-up, banner added now.

Maybe I am impatient, but it would be great if my 5 Star Hansa D-ABYM would get a banner, too. Or doesn't it qualify?

Julien

JKPhotos wrote:

Maybe I am impatient, but it would be great if my 5 Star Hansa D-ABYM would get a banner, too. Or doesn't it qualify?

The screener did give it a banner, but it probably just doesn't show yet on the homepage.

Thanks, Kas.
My fault then, sorry. To my defense, shooting something really newsworthy only happens once every 2 years to me, so I have to enjoy it

Cheers,
Julien

No worries. It seems the photo caught up nicely in terms of views