Should Group Admistrators Feature Artwork Weekly And/or Monthly

May I ask what exactly is your question?...because to the question from the title it seems you know the answer.

I wouldn't join a group that featured only monthly. But that's just me.

" I would like to see FAA posting a policy discouraging the practice of "featuring" every image in a group."
Btw...there is a dedicated thread for suggestions.

Its whatever they have time for.

I don't really care about features, I never look at them, hate it when they feel the need to tell me in the mail. That's erased as soon as I get it. Choose the best ones as you find them, not on a schedule. And don't flood the front page with nothing but features (some do that its like 10,000 long). That's it. Keep it simple, do it when you have time. If you force yourself into a schedule, then people will hold you to it. Do it when you feel like it, and its smoother.


----Mike Savad

With the Group ( The Photography Only Group) that I am Administrator for it is totally impractical to Feature all submitted images. With nearly 2000 members and even with a daily limit of only one image per person per day the Group gets over 70 new images per day. I follow Abbie's advice and limit Featured images to a maximum of 30 at any time and so I select only the most outstanding images to be Featured, removing old images as new ones are added. Members are encouraged to add their Featured images to a dedicated Discussion Thread as a permanent record. Additionally, I also select one Member of the Group as the Artist Of The Month and place a selection of six of their best images on the Group Homepage.

There's a group dedicated to thoughts about how Group Administrators do things right here: https://fineartamerica.com/groups/site-managers-help-group-for-groups-contests-blogs-etc.html?tab=overview

As for your opinion as to how a Group Administrator should go about handling features, I am reminded of the old bellybutton theory... everyone has one. It's not worth any smoke that it is attempting to muster up. If you think your way works... than go ahead and do it.

Here's some kindling though...

Featuring has many aspects to it. Special for a day... special for a week... special for the image... special for how bad the image is... special for the effort... special for the attempt... special for the subject matter... special for the message... special simply because of the person... special because it's Monday... special because it's February... special because I like it... special because I want others to like me... special because it was posted... etc, etc,etc.

Abbie has already laid out guidelines as to what FAA would like to see. But they have left it up to Administrators to make their decisions. It works well that way, although I still think that Administrators should never be Free Account folks. (That's my bellybutton theory)

Personally, I’m not a member of any group that automatically features every image submitted. Most groups I belong to feature about 30 images at a time, and change them up at least weekly, adding some new ones and deleting some old ones. I think it’s a good system and it works well for me.

The rules for each group should be whatever the group admin wants them to be.

The people who run the groups are all volunteering ther time. I would hate to see FAA put all kinds of rules and restrictions and see a bunch of admins drop by the wayside, and we lose those groups.

If it works, don't fix it.

Besides that, who is going to monitor all those groups to make sure they are following the rules and then go reprimand the admins that don't follow them? Creating a nightmare for some one.

I agree that featuring should be an indication that the image concerned is 'special' and hence featuring everything basically reduces the meaning to zero. How often is going to depend on a lot of variables - in the case of the group I administer the major ones are how many images are coming in, how many good ones there are, and the state of my liver. For reasons not fully understood I do 12 features per batch, and given the other variables it happens every 7 - 10 days, give or take.

Mike: I can well understand that some have no interest in the features, so have not the slightest problem with you ignoring or deleting emails advising of their advent, but I'll continue to send the emails on the off chance that some might be interested.

Every group of the 86 I am in is different. Features are done weekly, biweekly, monthly, bimonthly, every other month, quarterly, It just varies. I don't even know if just having your image in a group does anything for sales or not. Its been said that featured images will increase your search/rankings. It is obviously up to the volunteer administrators how they handle their groups and features. One group I joined last June has 400 features on the home page. I have 22 active images, 2 pending and 1 rejected. Not a single one of my images has ever been featured in the group and many of mine are as good, if not better then what is featured. Its not worth making a big deal over it. I will just delete myself from the group. I also will not join a group with excessive rules. I like simple.

I administer five groups now since last June. I am able to add features daily to four of those groups. I maintain 31 features on the home page, so when I add features, the tail end gets bumped off. The other group has a very high activity. I maintain between 30-50 features on the home page which change every other day. I do feature most images in all my groups. Who am I to say "your artwork does not deserve to be featured". I have had zero complaints and many compliments on handling the groups. So I just keep doing what I do until someone says do it different.

If being featured is really a boost in search ranking, then I would rather be in the groups that feature everything.

I don't care about being considered "special", I only care about what helps me sell.

I think being featured and having that mentioned below the image may give the lookers a feeling the image is special, and that may help sell the image. To me, that it's one of the few benefits of being in groups.

If the results of placing first, second, and third in the contests were added to the image page, I would consider participating in them. However, this might lead to an increase in people advertising for votes and ultimately, I may never place in a contest. On the other hand, those people advertising for votes would help in increasing the views of the contest, which would be a positive outcome.

As I read through the answers to my question perhaps my question should have been, "What criteria does a group adminstrator choose an image to be featured in his/her group?" The answer to that question is certainly whatever the group admistrator chooses. I belong to many groups and in most of them I am an active participant, that is I regularly submit my photographs and/or artwork. When the administrator sends out an email saying the "weekly and/or monthly fIneatures" are up, I am rather underwhelmed.

In my group, "Weird Natural Oddities," I do send such an email, nor do I have time to so. Nor do I have time to feature artwork according to a schedule. As I stated I choose artwork based upon how closely it fits with the theme of the group and/or why I started the group. I usually "feature" artwork immediately after it is submitted into the group for review if I determine that it best fits the theme of the groupThe theme of my group is to highlight that which is out of the ordinary, such as my photograph of the roots of a spruce tree. If a person were to look at that image they could see that it looks as there was a tortoise in the roots. If I had not said that I thought it looked like a tortoise no one would have thought about it. I would feature such an image, however, I make it a practice not to "feature" my own images. The group members have fun looking for weird looking objects.



A member only knows that his/her artwork is featured is that shows on the FAA Activity page. That way everyone who views or has access to the activity page knows that the artist's artwork has been featured as well as the icon under the photograph

I am aware of one group in which a photograph removed from the group after it has been featured. I dropped out of that group, but at least one of my photographs has the group icon under my photograph. So if a person were to click on that link, they would be directed to the group, but they could not see my photograph. That policy goes to the opposite extreme of featuring artwork in the group.