CTF Challenges Restored - MUST READ

[Willie G.]

what if we just used our own own pbase (or other) galleries and posted links in a special thread here? Pbase isn't going to be free much longer anyway, as far I can tell...

Admittedly, that is a very crummy way of running a challenge, especially with Jack's great voting booth system available, but the idea ocurred to me and I thought I may as well toss it up...

Slug says he's working on an upload-only access mode, but he's not
done with it yet.

Klaorman

--Willie G. http://www.pbase.com/effzee

 

[Klyphton]

Granted effzee, this is very safe, but as you say as far as display goes it is crummy. It is nice to see all the entries side by side. We learn more that way.

However, I wonder, can we post an image in pbase that comes from a link?

The way the image would not actually reside at the public site, it would only be displayed there.

Admittedly, that is a very crummy way of running a challenge,
especially with Jack's great voting booth system available, but the
idea ocurred to me and I thought I may as well toss it up...

Slug says he's working on an upload-only access mode, but he's not
done with it yet.

Klaorman

--
Willie G.
http://www.pbase.com/effzee

--Cliftonwww.pbase.com/klyphton

 

[Klyphton]

In order not to overload these three's email boxes. If you have more than one image to upload, divide it between the three of them. I know these means more work for you, but it will be much easier on them. Plus, one person won't get stuck with the lion's share.--Cliftonwww.pbase.com/klyphton

 

[Gordon McGregor]

You can 'sort of' do it right now, by embedding a link in using html.

What we'd really need would be slug to implement cross linking throughout multiple galleries - which would probably get messy quite quickly.

However, I wonder, can we post an image in pbase that comes from a
link?
The way the image would not actually reside at the public site, it
would only be displayed there.

Admittedly, that is a very crummy way of running a challenge,
especially with Jack's great voting booth system available, but the
idea ocurred to me and I thought I may as well toss it up...

Slug says he's working on an upload-only access mode, but he's not
done with it yet.

Klaorman

--
Willie G.
http://www.pbase.com/effzee

--
Clifton
http://www.pbase.com/klyphton

 

[blulegend]

Someone please give me the password to add the vote start and end times. Unless someone does it for me.---Jack==================CTF Challenge Vote Booth: http://www.liteserv.com/ctfvoteboothGalleries: 1) http://www.pbase.com/blulegend/ 2) http://www.photoaccess.com/share/guest.jsp?ID=AB8C5232351&cb=PACurr: Canon PowerShot G2Prev: CP995, CP880, S10, S20, Oly D-340R

 

[blulegend]

Someone please give me the password to add the vote start and end
times. Unless someone does it for me.
--
-Jack
==================
CTF Challenge Vote Booth: http://www.liteserv.com/ctfvotebooth
Galleries: 1) http://www.pbase.com/blulegend/
2) http://www.photoaccess.com/share/guest.jsp?ID=AB8C5232351&cb=PA
Curr: Canon PowerShot G2
Prev: CP995, CP880, S10, S20, Oly D-340R

---Jack==================CTF Challenge Vote Booth: http://www.liteserv.com/ctfvoteboothGalleries: 1) http://www.pbase.com/blulegend/ 2) http://www.photoaccess.com/share/guest.jsp?ID=AB8C5232351&cb=PACurr: Canon PowerShot G2Prev: CP995, CP880, S10, S20, Oly D-340R

 

[Jim B (MSP)]

Slug says he's working on an upload-only access mode, but he's not
done with it yet.

Klaorman

If Slug ( I don't know you yet, but you have a good reputation) can have an "upload only mode" for all contributors, and a "delete, edit" mode limited to a few, I think the main problem would be solved. Editing what has already been uploaded would be a starightforward, if not easy, task for a few people.--Jim

 

[blulegend]

I updated the challange in the vote booth so voting will begin 4/17/02 12am GMT (4/16/02 8pm EST)

Someone please give me the password to add the vote start and end
times. Unless someone does it for me.
--
-Jack
==================
CTF Challenge Vote Booth: http://www.liteserv.com/ctfvotebooth
Galleries: 1) http://www.pbase.com/blulegend/
2) http://www.photoaccess.com/share/guest.jsp?ID=AB8C5232351&cb=PA
Curr: Canon PowerShot G2
Prev: CP995, CP880, S10, S20, Oly D-340R

--
-Jack
==================
CTF Challenge Vote Booth: http://www.liteserv.com/ctfvotebooth
Galleries: 1) http://www.pbase.com/blulegend/
2) http://www.photoaccess.com/share/guest.jsp?ID=AB8C5232351&cb=PA
Curr: Canon PowerShot G2
Prev: CP995, CP880, S10, S20, Oly D-340R

---Jack==================CTF Challenge Vote Booth: http://www.liteserv.com/ctfvoteboothGalleries: 1) http://www.pbase.com/blulegend/ 2) http://www.photoaccess.com/share/guest.jsp?ID=AB8C5232351&cb=PACurr: Canon PowerShot G2Prev: CP995, CP880, S10, S20, Oly D-340R

 

[Jim B (MSP)]

Another suggestion. You can also upload zip files to pbase. This
will decrease the size of the files emailed to the password holders.

Lee
--
http://www.flyfamily.org

I for one would like to see a simple jpeg file of

Send them to : Jim @ [email protected]

 

[Chris ™]

Hi Clifton,

after reading, what had happened, I would say, that I don't believe, that the "hacker" was one of the CTF people, but kids, who find action like this very funny and we made it very easy for them. Only one question ... which people do you think create most viruses? Yes, kids.

Maybe the password should be given to anybody who is well known in this forum and who wants to participate, so the challenge keeper has to upload only pics of "newbies".

BTW - I'm also stil a modem user, so I would recommend an image size up to 800x600 and a size limit up to 300KB. I think this should be acceptable, what do you think?

Greetings from Germany

Chris

First of all I want to thank Emese, Don and Jim for taking care of
these uploads. With a 56k modem and no internet access at work, it
would be extremely difficult for me to handle anthing but the
smallest uploads.

The problem we are all facing now is what to do in the future.
Emese, Don and Jim cannot devote their lives to uploading images.
Spreading out a password to everyone (even via e-mail) is still too
risky. So what to do?

The only suggestion I have thus far is that the winner of the next
challenge should reset the password yet again and seek new
volunteers for uploading (about 4 or 5). This way there will only
be a handful of people with the password at any given challenge.

Let me hear from you guys and gals out there. Perhaps there is a
better way.
--
Clifton
http://www.pbase.com/klyphton

 

[Mike Fitzgerald]

Hi Clifton --

Sorry to hear the rot's caught up here too; and it sounds a lot worse than what's beset STF, on and off.

Just a thought on the resolution you quote. My own feeling on this (and there are some at STF who disagree), is that 800 x 600 is the optimal size for pBase as far as the Challenges are concerned — I expect that here, as well, nobody's interested in printing images from the Challenge galleries.

Without the print requirement, 800 x 600 gives all the detail one would need for browsing and I think it's the most popular user choice (= "large").

The problem with uploading anything larger is that the "large" view in pBase will also, like the "medium" and "small" (= thumbnail) ones, be generated locally using pretty savage JPEG compression — in my estimation equivalent to between 6 and 7 on Photoshop's quality scale of 12. I believe this is something not many people realise about pBase. While this quality might be OK for decoration of a Web page existing for another purpose, it can yield a very poor representation of the photographer's art, depending on the picture content.

Doing your own downsampling straight to 800 x 600, at your own chosen quality setting, can often give much better results, and also save some bandwidth and storage space.

Just my 2¢...

Mike

[snip]
In the mean time, you may still continue getting your pictures
ready. I would suggest that anyone wanting to submit an image
resize their images to no bigger than 1100 x 800 pixels. Please
watch this post over the next 24 hours for the new posting
instructions.

--
Clifton
http://www.pbase.com/klyphton

 

[Klyphton]

I just hated to see all that hard work, distroyed.

Great job -- Thanks for all your hard work.

--
Keep on shooting!
Lisa

--Cliftonwww.pbase.com/klyphton

 

[Klyphton]

Hello Mike

Sorry to hear the rot's caught up here too; and it sounds a lot
worse than what's beset STF, on and off.

Yeah, I remember the STF gremlin, what did you guys do to prevent further tampering?

Just a thought on the resolution you quote. My own feeling on this
(and there are some at STF who disagree), is that 800 x 600 is the
optimal size for pBase as far as the Challenges are concerned — I
expect that here, as well, nobody's interested in printing images
from the Challenge galleries.

Agreed, personally I find 640 x 480 even better. But some people do want to see all the possible detail.

Without the print requirement, 800 x 600 gives all the detail one
would need for browsing and I think it's the most popular user
choice (= "large").

Agreed

The problem with uploading anything larger is that the "large" view
in pBase will also, like the "medium" and "small" (= thumbnail)
ones, be generated locally using pretty savage JPEG compression —
in my estimation equivalent to between 6 and 7 on Photoshop's
quality scale of 12. I believe this is something not many people
realise about pBase. While this quality might be OK for decoration
of a Web page existing for another purpose, it can yield a very
poor representation of the photographer's art, depending on the
picture content.

Doing your own downsampling straight to 800 x 600, at your own
chosen quality setting, can often give much better results, and
also save some bandwidth and storage space.

Just my 2¢...

Very true. I myself am ususally not satified with a quality less than 10.--Cliftonwww.pbase.com/klyphton

 

[Klyphton]

Sorry Jack,

But in the heat of everything I completely forgot that you needed the password too. I am glad one of the others were able to give it to you.

--Cliftonwww.pbase.com/klyphton

 

[Klyphton]

I am glad, I wasn't crazy about moving the challenges to another site (i.e. Viewtopia.com)

Slug says he's working on an upload-only access mode, but he's not
done with it yet.

Klaorman

--Cliftonwww.pbase.com/klyphton

 

[Klyphton]

This would be great.

So many times I have to upload challenge photos twice. Once to the Challenges and then again to my own PBase gallery

What we'd really need would be slug to implement cross linking
throughout multiple galleries - which would probably get messy
quite quickly.

However, I wonder, can we post an image in pbase that comes from a
link?
The way the image would not actually reside at the public site, it
would only be displayed there.

Admittedly, that is a very crummy way of running a challenge,
especially with Jack's great voting booth system available, but the
idea ocurred to me and I thought I may as well toss it up...

Slug says he's working on an upload-only access mode, but he's not
done with it yet.

Klaorman

--
Willie G.
http://www.pbase.com/effzee

--
Clifton
http://www.pbase.com/klyphton

--Cliftonwww.pbase.com/klyphton

 

[Klyphton]

Hi Chris;

after reading, what had happened, I would say, that I don't
believe, that the "hacker" was one of the CTF people, but kids, who
find action like this very funny and we made it very easy for them.
Only one question ... which people do you think create most
viruses? Yes, kids.

Granted kids were most likely the vandals. But, we should not forget this is cyberspace. We really only know each other by what is typed on a screen. There is no real way of really "knowing" the various personas presented on this board.

Maybe the password should be given to anybody who is well known in
this forum and who wants to participate, so the challenge keeper
has to upload only pics of "newbies".

This was my original thought too. But I think the idea of limiting the access of the password is just one more degee of safeguarding the challenges.

BTW - I'm also stil a modem user, so I would recommend an image
size up to 800x600 and a size limit up to 300KB. I think this
should be acceptable, what do you think?

I agee, that is why is say 800 x 1100 should be the maxium. I picked this because sooner or later we are going to have a macro challenge and people are going to want the extra resolution.

--Cliftonwww.pbase.com/klyphton

 

[Klyphton]

As most Americans are aware today is the deadline for giving Uncle Sam our anual pound of flesh (i.e. taxes). As usual I neglected mine until the last minute. So please forgive my less than timely replies.

--Cliftonwww.pbase.com/klyphton

 

[Klyphton]

1. Resize your images to 800 x 600 try to keep the file size to 300kb
2. Email your photos to:
Emese Gaal - [email protected]
Don Ellis - [email protected] or [email protected]
Jim B (MSP) - [email protected]
3. Include this information in your email:
CATEGORY (eligible or exhibition)
Your DPReview name
Picture Title
Picture Comments (optional}
Camera used
Location (optional)
Date (for Eligible Category)

Please allow about a day for the file to be uploaded.

--Cliftonwww.pbase.com/klyphton

 

[Mike Fitzgerald]

Hi Clifton —

Yeah, I remember the STF gremlin, what did you guys do to prevent
further tampering?

Nothing ongoing... moderator locked it down a couple of times once entries had closed. But basically we've just been keeping our fingers crossed (sshhh!! .

Agreed, personally I find 640 x 480 even better. But some people
do want to see all the possible detail.

I'm quite happy with that too. Perfect for those still running screens at 800 x 600 (of whom there are still vast numbers, I gather, although I use 1152 x 864), and works quite well for all the POTD sites without any complaint that I've ever seen.

Very true. I myself am ususally not satified with a quality less
than 10.

Agreed. Family pics can get by quite nicely at 9, which is still a vast improvement over the pBase product. But 10's certainly better, and generally takes care of any critical areas pretty well. The Can of Coke Challenge revealed a few situations where even 11 can be necessary to prevent any visible artefacts. And that still stays short of too much of a storage hit on the site if the original's not uploaded.

Overall, not sure what to do about the security thing, but I do know from past correspondence with Slug that he's well on-side with this. Just that I'm sure he has a lot on his plate just now with the continued expansion and upkeep of the site, and the necessary changes afoot.

Mike