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Topics - pieter melissen

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Shipping News and information / MOVED: Some ships to identify
« on: February 10, 2024, 04:49:14 PM »
This topic has been moved to Maritime Research and History.

https://forum.shipspotting.com/index.php?topic=17850.0

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Help and Advice / Backlight photography
« on: January 24, 2024, 01:41:01 PM »
We regularly come across backlight photos where the subject, the ship, has become so dark that details are hardly visible. These photos can most of the time be easily corrected with the right software, by lighting up the shadows and in fact we have done so in several cases, making use of the facility to edit and re-upload photographs.

However, it is much better to avoid dark ships by applying some overexposure beforehand, which will of course make the background even lighter, but at least will show much more of the ship. Check your camera settings to which extent you can apply overexposure (one stop aperture increase may already do the trick), but it could be something you have to practice your self, by making shots with different settings and see what gives the best result. 

If you are used to have your camera in the P function, you have to switch that off, to overrule the automatics that  take over manual control.

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Pictures have been found of the final days of the Kirsten Bres, IMO 7206380, which the registers deleted in 1994,

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We have just created a new board about maritime research and history, which could serve as a place where further discussion on historic topics can take place. Hope this will please the historians among us.

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Site related news, functions and modules / DELETIONS, Important notification
« on: September 19, 2023, 03:30:12 PM »
Hi All

Some of you already have some experience with our new deletion system, but now is the time to officially introduce it.

The Site Standards, part How to upload photos, contains a new section 16, which I have reproduced below.


"16. What is the considered for deletion (CFD) process?

In case Admins encounter photos that have been uploaded and do not meet the site standards (for a variety of reasons), the photo will be considered for deletion (CFD), whereby the admin will indicate the primary reason for potential deletion. Once a photo has entered the category: "Considered for deletion", it will only be visible for Admins and the photographer concerned.

When this is done, the photographer will automatically receive a private message regarding the change in status of his uploaded photo. The photographer will have the opportunity to react to the suggestion made by the admin. If he agrees, he can delete the shot himself, if not a discussion can start how to deal with the shot. As the discussion will be out of sight from the other users, it can take place in a quiet and friendly atmosphere, without external interference.

Depending on the reason for the possible deletion, the Admins can propose various solutions to prevent this, all to be discussed with the photographer and only applied with his permission.

Several admins are quite capable of enhancing photos to a level where site standards can be met. This involves simple actions such as leveling horizons, sharpening and cropping in case the resolution of a photo results in a non-sharp version when shown at full size.

Also more elaborate activities can be undertaken such as editing out obstructions (within limits of course), color adjustments and for analogue photos the removal of scratches and blemishes. Editing of a photo can be easily done via the re-upload function, also available to the photographer. If the photographer has the software and the skills, he, of course can do that by himself, whereby the result will be reviewed by the Admins

In other words there are several ways in which admins can help to make a photo acceptable.

In this way a proper and balanced judgement about a photo can be guaranteed, resulting in either a deletion of the photo, or acceptance, whereby the CFD will be resolved, and the (adjusted) shot becomes visible again for all users. Actual deletions can only be done by the (Vice)Webmaster(s). Resolving a CFD can also be done by the Admin(s) involved in the discussion.


As you can see, deletions will always involve the photographer immediately, so that he is aware of what is happening and can influence the proceedings.

We also offer options to improve the quality of photos to the level that they can meet site standards, but of course only when feasible within our capabilities.  This should however not be seen as an open invitation to flood the site with mediocre photos just hoping that Admin will improve them.  In an ideal world the best solution to all deletion problems will of course to always produce photos that meet site standards, making Admin redundant, but reality is different, hence this new, more user oriented, approach.

Thank you

Pieter Melissen
Webmaster

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Site related news, functions and modules / New photo selection tool
« on: August 16, 2023, 05:31:24 PM »
As the site is getting more and more new uploads, the follow up what is happening becomes more time consuming. With IT I have discussed the option, that, when clicking on Photo's and then New Photos, there will be an option select a default value for which categories your are interested in seeing the new uploads, without having to struggle through photographs of categories that you are not interested in. The intention is to make this default selection only once, after which the New Photos section will only contain ships belonging to categories that you want to see. Of course there will always be the option to view other categories, but that would require some action from the user.

For the time being we think that limiting the selection option to main categories only, the selection process of opening the new photos itself could be a bit slower but not by much. The advantage is that you will see the ships in which you are interested much quicker, and with much less scrolling.

Before IT will start implementing the system, we would like to hear your opinion on this and add further suggestions that could improve the system further.

Thank you

Pieter Melissen
Webmaster

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Site related news, functions and modules / New Category: Lighthouses
« on: July 21, 2023, 04:09:31 PM »
A new category has come online: Lighthouses.

Users will now be able to upload new photos for this category as they do for others, with the exception of ship related fields (IMO, ENI, MMSI) that are disabled for the Lighthouse category.
Also the Location selection has been changed to display lighthouses through the map, where a lighthouse can be selected to be linked to the photo.

On the Photo page, for photos of the Lighthouse category that have been linked to a lighthouse, all available Lighthouse data is displayed on a new section "Lighthouse Particulars".

Regarding the search functions, they work the same as for other categories, just select "Lighthouse" from the Category field.

Additionally a new shortcut will be added to the "Photos" menu, to make it easier for users to find photos of Lighthouses.

Enjoy.


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Help and Advice / Ship Manifests 1957
« on: April 23, 2023, 06:05:23 PM »
We received the following message

"How can I access the ships manifest for 12-30-1957. I have tried Ellis Island's website. I'm not finding the info for my dearly departed father and uncle. Annibale Lambertucci and Paulo Lambertucci. Please help"

Is there anybody who could help out here?

Thanks

Pieter Melissen



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Site related news, functions and modules / Reclassification of tankers
« on: March 14, 2023, 08:03:39 PM »
There is a new division of the tanker category.
In order to bring it in line with the other major categories, we have chosen to use age brackets in stead of subtypes. These subtypes gave continuous debate over what was what, and required permanent attention to get things correct.
As of now you will find the Crude Oil Tankers, the Chemical and Product tankers and the bunker/water tankers in one group Tankers. with the same age brackets as bulkcarriers, with one exception, the existing class Tankers built before 1970 remains unaffected.

The repatriation was done on the year of build taken from the Gross Tonnage database, and helped with the newer data that have been recently added. Yet there is a category "unclassified tankers" for which no year of build is known. The majority of this category consists of newer ships, and will be moved to the respective age category by adding the year of build in the data set. It may take a while before every ship will be in place, so we ask your for a little patience in this respect.

We think you will find this easier to deal with, but we encourage you to include more detail in the description of your photos. 

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Shipping News and information / Tor Anglia Waltz
« on: March 06, 2023, 05:14:17 PM »
Bob Bevan sent us this message:

" I was Head of PR for European Ferries for their most successful 14 years 1969-83. Prior to that I was a shipping and travel writer and went on the maiden voyage of the Tor Anglia in 1966. Downsizing I came cross a copy of the Tor Anglia Waltz. A 45rpm record which was presented to us on board. Any interest?"

bob.at.bobthecatbevan.co.uk


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Site related news, functions and modules / Likes to photographs
« on: March 02, 2023, 07:07:01 PM »
As you may have seen there is now an option to like somebody's photograph. What is currently not possible is to see who applied the like. Would users be happy to know the identity? In that case a new feature will be developed by IT. If not we leave it as it is.

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Shipping News and information / Marine Traffic
« on: February 15, 2023, 09:53:37 AM »
Some news about the Marine Traffic site, which has been bought by Kpler, a Brussels based firm dealing with commodity data. Marine Traffic had bought FleetMon some time ago, and the combined power of the three companies could allow Kpler to find the holy grail in Shipping Market analysis, namely to be able to directly link commodity movements with physical ship movements. 

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Shipping News and information / M/V ORANYAN (5264182)
« on: January 28, 2023, 04:36:18 PM »
James Taylor sailed on the Nigerian vessel MV Oranyan in the early sixties and kept a notebook with drawings and notes from his period on board.
He is looking for a good home rather then just dispose of it.  Example pictures are attached

If you are interested, you can mail him via audreyandjimtaylorATyahoo.co.uk, just replace AT with @

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Hi All

We know that many of the users experienced difficulties when trying to upload photos or even to access their account and there were other problems as well. Many issues were related to having double accounts which had inadvertently been created by uploading via Google.

Now that we are almost one year after the revamp, we would like to hear from users who are still experiencing problems of this nature, that will be dealt with on a case by case basis. 

Thank you. 

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