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I suggest potentially very useful. But they seem not to be used effectively. Case in point. I had an unknown Syrphid, checked the Syrphid Gallery and could not find it. I posted a photo for an ID and "Racketman" identified it as Eristalis pertinax. There is one image of this species in the Gallery but it does not show the dorsal abdomen and, for a neophyte like me, is of no use for identification purposes. However, when I enter 'pertinax" into the Search window I find several excellent images of this species.
My question: why is it that people do not post their images in the gallery so that they can be used by others to identify unknowns?:(

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wrong section. ;) to general or suggest section. ;)

It takes some time to accept all the photos. :)

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Basically the following applies:
1. I do not start hunting down the users to have them submit their pictures to the Gallery. The user should decide if (s)he wants to have them there.
2. Some time may pass before all submitted pictures are actually added to the Gallery for a number of reasons:
a. I simply do not have the time for a few days. And even if I have the time, to keep the separate Albums organised I have to move the images so that alphabetical order is maintained.
b. I try to approve at most 10 pictures a day, becasue then daily visitors can simply check the Latest Photo Additions panel to see what images are new.
3. I may decide to ditch an image of poorer quality if a new image is submitted or just decide not to approve an image for the Gallery becasue it is not according to the Gallery's standard. Please note that some poorer pictures may still be approved if no other images are available or if a certain feature happens to be well illustrated though the remainder of the image is crap.
4. A submitted image may be put on hold because there are some questions about the identity.

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Not meant as a criticism of you Paul, it was addressed to the folks who submit the photos.
The comment by jorgemotalmeida "It takes some time to accept all the photos" is not realistic, there are images of pertinax as far back as 10 April 2005!!
Sorry for posting my query in the wrong section, still learning my way around the site.

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Not considered as critisism, just clearing up my end of the game. ;) For example, I cannot approve pictures that have not been submitted. So, everyone, dive into your old threads and dig up those images. :D

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It is not always easy for amateurs, like myself, to judge if a photo is suitable for the gallery or not. Hints from the more experienced dipterists are welcome. As a matter of fact, several of my photos in the gallery were submitted after getting messages from other members of the community.

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You don't have to judge if your photo is suitable as you cannot directly add a photo to a Gallery. My understanding is that you submit a photo and Paul decides whether or not it is suitable. If it is rejected there should be no embarrassment as the decision to reject is not publicized; only you and Paul know.

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LoL

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I would like to back up Crex's comments. Going through the exactly the same steps as Tony T. I found that there were useful photos of Siphona on the forum, but not in the gallery, so I sent a PM to the member who posted the images asking if he would offer them for the gallery, which he has now kindly done. Members are often quite diffident about their images and level of expertise, but would be delighted to be asked to submit useful material.

Likewise, if the forum discussion has highlighted diagnostic characters in your images, please offer them for the gallery, with a note about the characters discussed.

The gallery has come along in leaps and bounds in the last 6 months and is starting to be a really wonderful resource.

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To be more precise: The leap started on 12 June 2006 with the implementation of PHP-Fusion v6.01.1. This version for the first time allowed users to submit their photos through the system rather than via email. In those 8.5 about 900 images were added to the Gallery in contrast to just over 300 in the preceeding two years. Quite an achievement of you lot.

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Still curious. Why is there a great reluctance to post images into the gallery? The last tabanid image was posted on March 1:( There have been several decent images identified since then in the Forum. There must be some basic underlying problem associated with Gallery posting, what is it?:@. I have tried to post my identified images, but only 1 of the last 3 sent in got accepted (or 2 got lost somehow).

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There is no real problem in submitting for the Gallery. The other two are still on hold as I want to check their identification. I know both were posted with a cf. but still I think I need to have a look at them. Just did not find time yet.
Otherwise, it probably is just reluctance of people to have heir images added to the Gallery but they need to overcome that themselves.

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Here's an idea for you Paul. I know you like programming ;) Add a button to each post with attachments so viewers can press it if they think an image is suitable for the gallery. A PM could be sent to the photographer with a plea for photo submission :) Preferably just one PM per thread to avoid serious spamming :D ... or a counter and when there are 5 clicks suggesting the photo is useful - send the PM ... and then you'll have to keep track of from which threads each photo was submitted ... LOL, I know .... stupid idea :p

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Well, the idea is not stupid, but it continues to add modified code to the scripts and that will make it more cumbersome to upgrade with new versions of the CMS. But anyway, everyone can send a PM to someone who posted a picture and let them know the image is deemed worthy of inclusion in the gallery.