Polanoid

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Polanoid
URL	www.polanoid.net
Type of site	Image sharing
Available language(s)	English
Owner	Polanoid
Created by	Polanoid/polanoir
Launched	06/02/2005

Polanoid is a photo sharing online community, where users upload photos taken with analogue instant film,^[1] (digital photos are not permitted and are promptly deleted). The site was founded mainly by three Austrian members of the lomographic Society, they are known by their aliases, Doc, Webmeister (the webmaster), and Andi. The same three men also operate an online shop called Unsaleable dot com (which sells Polaroid equipment among other things)^[2], Unsaleable is kept separate from the photo sharing activities. The site went online in 2005^[3] And as of December 12 2007 has 3,048 contributing members (8,698 is the total number of registered users) .

Contents 1 Organization of photos 2 Shot of the day (SOTD) 3 Weekly Project 4 Friendships 5 Riots 6 Xposed 7 Clubs and Projects 8 References

[edit] Organization of photos

As the photos are analogue they must be scanned to the computer to be uploaded. Photos are then sorted by the photographer, the camera used, the film used, the date of the upload, the date the photo was taken, and by user placed image tags. Any of the above means can locate the same image. Other means of sorting the photos (via special tags) are available. Members also may add any photo to a list of favorites. As of December 2007 there are more than 110,000 photos uploaded to the site.

[edit] Shot of the day (SOTD)

A unique aspect of Polanoid is the shot of the day contest.^[4] As members view photos they have the option to place a vote for the photo (although a few members have chosen to block members from voting on their photos). The winner of the contest is based on a complex view/vote ratio^[5] The winning shot of the day is presented on the sites main page, and the winner is given an online coupon to be used at Unsaleable dot com. It is a much desired achievement and some people go to great measures to obtain it. Often causing controversy (see riots). The most common way this is done is by begging for votes on the public news feed, this practice is looked down upon, and rarely results in votes.

[edit] Weekly Project

Another contest is held every week or two. In these contests there is a theme, and each member may submit photos that fit this theme. A panel of experts^[6] picks a winner, and runners up. The winner is sent a prize (which is usually an item from the Unsaleable Polaroid shop) and the runners up get discount coupons. Like SOTD, there are sometimes arguments over this contest, particularly when a user submits dozens of photos instead of the usual 4-5. The contest themes vary. There was once a contest for the worst photo^[7], and there was also a contest with an egg theme.

[edit] Friendships

Members can mark other users as "friends" and many do so. The whole atmosphere of the site is very intimate, with a few exceptions (see riots). Online members may comment on photos and often leave encouraging words and praise, and even constructive criticism. In addition to the normal friendships there are also sub communities (clubs ), and group projects. Members have been known to hold functions where they can gather and meet face to face, these events are independently hosted by members and not Polanoid itself.

[edit] Riots

On occasion controversy has swept the site, sometimes pitting one side against the other. The first known incident of this was on 5/8/07^[8] It was over a newly formed group called PFIS. Members of PFIS continually won SOTD, and were accused of messing with the system to fix the SOTD contest. There was a huge online argument and personal attacks made. Eventually it was worked out and peace was restored to the site.

There was a second riot on 2007/06/10^[9] it was over a grotesque image of a presumably dead or dying man with his eye popped out of its socket. It was considered deeply offensive by members of the site, however a small affinity group of members thought removing it would constitute censorship, while the plurality thought it was inappropriate and wanting it deleted. The riot ended with the images removal.

A series of riots later occurred over a series of months, over a user named blackmagickman or BMM for short. He was criticized^[10] for self-promoting his own photos for SOTD in the news feed, saying things like "please I need more votes for sotd" and "ahh this shot is just a few more votes away from sotd. please just have a look, a sotd would make my dream come true!".^[11] These perceived annoyances were amplified by the exposure of his numerous eBay scams, against other users^[12]. He eventually requested himself to be deleted from Polanoid due to reputed "ill mannered behavior" by a site administrator. ^[13], and remains the only contributing member to have this happen to them. "BMM" is currently used on the site to refer to a self promoter^[14]

Other smaller riots do occasionally still arise, but generally large disruptive riots no longer take place, and emphasis is placed on more civil communication among members.

[edit] Xposed

As Polaroid has always had strong ties to amateur pornographic photography, (the ability to make a pornographic photo without intervention from a film processor). The creators found it worthwhile to include an adult only section, called Xposed. In order to view Xposed you must be registered as 18 or older.^[15] While tasteful nudes are allowed in the main gallery, any sexually explicit photos are only allowed in the Xposed section. The Xposed section holds it's own contests often with a kinky or suggestive theme. To be admitted as a member in the Xposed section you must submit a sexually explicit photo of yourself, and get three "stamps of approval"^[16] from current Xposed members. sometimes there is conflict when someone uploads porn and pretends it's a self portrait, in order to avoid exposing themselves, it rarely works.

[edit] Clubs and Projects

There are a few inside clubs one of which is the PFIS^[17] (A group of elite photographers within Polanoid). With the exception of the PFIS such clubs are generally short lived, with members disbanding and no follow up made on planned activities, usually within months of the groups creation; such as the "Bastard club" ^[18]. There is currently one project, the INFINITY project.^[19] It is a pic in pic project. One user takes a photo and mails it, then the receiver takes a photo of that photo and mails it, and it continues on and on (hence INFINITY).

[edit] References