Pictorials: A Democratic approach

[Kyle Henderson]

Fellas,

Before I spend time on another photo tour, I would appreciate your feedback. You will find a brief (2 question) survey at the link below.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GLG7SL2


Cheers.
-K

[Peter Pallotta]

You pay us a great compliment in asking, sir! Well done; survey duly completed.

Peter

[Mark Saltzman]

Kyle,

I completed your survey and will be interested to hear the results.

I generally like the hole-by-hole, several pictures per hole tours with some commentary about the hole -- things that may be difficult to see from the pictures.

The tour of Yeamans is about ideal in my mind.

[JLahrman]

I like the way Kyle does the photo tours. Stagger the holes and post one or two holes at a time, with commentary and multiple photos of each hole.

That way I can make comments and ask questions without having to scroll through 100 pictures which have been entered into one post.

If the course doesn't look that interesting, I stop going back to the thread when pictures of subsequent holes are posted.

With all the OT threads that get posted - and the vituperative dialogue they contain - I have no idea why photo tours of actual golf courses have suddenly managed to become a thorny issue.

There are some courses that have been photographed to death, but overall I think the photo tours are great. Can't decide which ones I like better - photo tours of courses I've played or photo tours of courses I haven't played.

[Mark Saltzman]

Joel,

As a contributor of photo tours, I, like Kyle, am interested in other's opinions.

Each tour takes a lot of work, even the short ones like Couchiching that I did today that I'm sure will be off the first page by tomorrow morning.

A big part (for me) of why I do the tours is to stimulate discussion of a course I am interested in.  I try to give an opinion on the course as whole and about different holes and features.  I hope others who have played the course or based on the descriptions/photos will comment.  If people are not going to read the tour because of the way I posted it, I'd like to know that.  What would people like to see?

[Colin Macqueen]

Gentlemen,
I agree with JL.  To see one or two explanatory photos of each hole supported by a germane remark to spark discussion pretty much as Kyle has done is ideal. A short introduction a l'Arble is also fine as it can set the tone and give a sense of where the "producer" is coming from. I guess I like narrative and story-telling.

Anyway I've done my bit for democracy!

Cheers Colin

[Eric Smith]

In my opinion it is a ridiculous notion to poll the handful of folks who will participate in this endeavor. You need to keep posting as you wish Kyle. Look, I like Mark Bourgeois, he's a great guy who has contributed a ton to this site; but just because he asks that photo tours fit his stylistic preferences shouldn't mean everyone has to change the way in which they produce them. This site is better for its diversity. With 1500 posters from all over the globe, we're better served by encouraging folks to post their photo tours. I don't want to give you a bigger head than you already have but the collection of tours from your Scotland adventure is just an incredible resource and one that helped me a great deal when planning my own journey abroad. I took the opinion poll, but I don't think it should carry much if any weight as far as how I am to post in the future. Again, just my two cents. Thanks.

[JLahrman]

Joel,

As a contributor of photo tours, I, like Kyle, am interested in other's opinions.

Each tour takes a lot of work, even the short ones like Couchiching that I did today that I'm sure will be off the first page by tomorrow morning.

A big part (for me) of why I do the tours is to stimulate discussion of a course I am interested in.  I try to give an opinion on the course as whole and about different holes and features.  I hope others who have played the course or based on the descriptions/photos will comment.  If people are not going to read the tour because of the way I posted it, I'd like to know that.  What would people like to see?

I've done a few myself, and they can certainly be a decent amount of work.

I don't blame the main photo tour posters for asking about the best way to post the photo tours. But I also don't think that people aren't clicking on or contributing to the photo tours because of the way they're presented, so while it's nice to solicit opinions I just don't want to see people dissuaded from posting photo threads. Though certain posters may not like the style of certain other posters, I don't think the photo tour format is the main reason that some of them fall off the front page quickly.

There's only one type of thread I refuse to look at - one where the title gives absolutely no clue to the subject of the thread.

[Frank M]

I will continue to post photo tours the way I do as I believe most people enjoy them.

[Matthew Sander]

Kyle,

Keep on keepin' on. You do a fantastic job, and don't get discouraged by a perceived lack of discussion. The tours on their own merits, regardless of participation, are essential to the site.

Personally, I like the variety of ways that course tours appear in these pages. Everyone here has a distinct perspective, and I would imagine that the shape their work takes is a reflection of how they experience a course. I enjoy just about every photo tour, even though I only comment on a select few (the curse of not having much worthwhile to say!).

[Bradley Anderson]

Everyone should just post whatever they are comfortable posting. But I enjoy it most when there is good commentary added to the photos.

[Emil Weber]

Kyle, yours are the best photos on here. For, me you could make it 10+ per hole!



Keep it, coming, you're doing a perfect job!

[Ally Mcintosh]

Personally I like 15 photos absolute max of specific features of interest (i.e. not one of every hole) giving good commentary on those photos and an overall synopsis of the course, maybe a routing plan… 10 photos would suffice…

Just a flavour… Got to leave some things to actually visiting the course and the above is enough to tell me whether I want to or not….

[Brett_Morrissy]

KH
Just keep posting your photo tours - add pictorial to the thread title if you want to allow those who dont want to see pics (really?) to not look at the thread - I am of a mind to compliment you firstly though for your commentary - always a nice tone - keep it coming mate!
BM

[Mark Pearce]

Kyle,

You do tend to do these well.  My preference is for fewer pictures (1 or 2 a hole) but more commentary.  That encourages discussion.  Too many pictures and not enough commentary doesn't stimulate architectural discussion and is for belt notchers IMHO.  There are some posters of Picture Tours who's threads I have stopped opening.  Nothing duller than pictures of courses I don't know without intelligent commentary.

[Mark Pearce]

Kyle,

You do tend to do these well.  My preference is for fewer pictures (1 or 2 a hole) but more commentary.  That encourages discussion.  Too many pictures and not enough commentary doesn't stimulate architectural discussion and is for belt notchers IMHO.  There are some posters of Picture Tours who's threads I have stopped opening.  Nothing duller than pictures of courses I don't know without intelligent commentary.

Don't hold back, Mark.

I tend to take the view that if people ask for opinions then that's what they want.

[Mike Hendren]

In my opinion it is a ridiculous notion to poll the handful of folks who will participate in this endeavor. You need to keep posting as you wish Kyle. Look, I like Mark Bourgeois, he's a great guy who has contributed a ton to this site; but just because he asks that photo tours fit his stylistic preferences shouldn't mean everyone has to change the way in which they produce them. This site is better for its diversity. With 1500 posters from all over the globe, we're better served by encouraging folks to post their photo tours. I don't want to give you a bigger head than you already have but the collection of tours from your Scotland adventure is just an incredible resource and one that helped me a great deal when planning my own journey abroad. I took the opinion poll, but I don't think it should carry much if any weight as far as how I am to post in the future. Again, just my two cents. Thanks.

+1!

I wish I could convey how much I appreciate those of you who take the time to take photographs, archive them and share them with us in any format you choose. 

Mike Hendren

[Kyle Henderson]

I hope no offense is taken, but the day I need to start polling as to "how to post" is the day I will stop posting on this forum.

I will continue to post photo tours the way I do as I believe most people enjoy them...when it gets to a point that most people don't (based on responses), I will stop.

I'm not polling out of need, just curiosity given recent comments I've seen elsewhere on this forum.

I have a feeling some were biased by my usual pictorial format in casting their votes.

[Kyle Henderson]

Survey says:
The majority (70%) want LOTS of pictures,
19% want fewer pics with more commentary,
11% percent want a handful of pics of notable holes with no commentary,
4% want Sir Arble to post in our stead.

Whistling Straits-Irish wins the "next destination" vote with 45.5%


Thanks for the input gents.

[Niall C]

Too late for the survey but for what its worth, here's what I like;

1 - brief chat about the course ie who designed it, when where, any alterations, who by, that sort of thing. Nothing too long. Its great if it also includes a routing plan based on google earth pic as James Boon sometimes does.

2 - pictures from the angle you intend to pay the golf hole at ie. no need for side views or pretty pictures of hairy lipped bunkers.

3 - limit no of pics per hole, if hole is bland or relatively featureless then leave it out.

4 - an overall analysis/summation at the end helps to get the discussion going.

Now having said all that, what I tend to do is read the initial blurb and then scan through the photos, rarely taking time to read any blurb that goes with individual photos. What I'm looking for is an overall impression rather than an analysis of hole by hole unless of course its a course I know in which case I might be more interested in someone elses take on that. I note that's different to most folks so I guess that just proves you can't please everybody so you may as well make yourself happy and post the way you want to.

Niall

[Jay Flemma]

I'm still laughing at "Survey Monkey"  Branding Department?! Clean up on aisle two!

[Michael Dugger]

Keep the images coming.  I can get someone's opinion anywhere.

[Matthew Essig]

I have no preferance in how pictorials are done, but I wish people would look at and discuss all pictorials, not just of courses people know of or have played. 

[Mike Nuzzo]

The better the golf course the more pictures I like to see.

Have fun posting what you want - I'll still look at them.

Cheers

[Alex Miller]

I have no preferance in how pictorials are done, but I wish people would look at and discuss all pictorials, not just of courses people know of or have played. 

I find myself actually more inclined to post on pictorials of courses I haven't heard of or haven't played. The ones that hold less of an interest to me are generally ones that I am not inclined to like based on their architecture to begin with. The type of tour or who the poster is has next to no impact on whether or not I follow one of these threads.

As others have said, I think these tours are fundamental to the site. It took me a long time to find the discussio group here, but I educated and entertained myself for countless hours with the Courses By Country section. I can't believe no one has mentioned how great Ran's tours are yet!