How to improve the gallery.

[BCNumismatics]

Has anyone thought of a way to improve the gallery so that it can be more inviting to potential members?

I think that the gallery program needs to be replaced with the one from http://www.photopost.com ,then we can divide the gallery along similar lines to http://www.zeno.ru ,but it would be covering the whole world from the coins of King Croesus of Lydia (7th. Century B.C.) right through to the Euro coins.

I reckon that the gallery would have to be divided into geographical regions of the world,plus there is a need for sections for banknotes to be created.Where a country has more than one issuer of banknotes,that country's banknote section would need to be subdivided in alphabetical order of the issuers' names.

There needs to be a set of guidelines for uploading photos along the lines of http://zeno.ru/htm/rules-en.htm .

As for the information fields,you can find a suggestion for their compilation here; http://www.coinnetwork.com/group/wor...allerycampaign .

If this gallery is improved in the ways I have suggested,then we,the numismatic community,can give the cataloguers (especially the team at Krause Publications) a helping hand to help recompile the Krause & Pick catalogues,as some chapters are a total mess,& there is a lot of banknotes & coins that have never been listed in either Krause or Pick,but they should be.

Aidan.

[rasiel]

aidan, no one except you is saying much of anything about the new gallery feature. i would need more feedback from other users before giving some thought to possible upgrades. copying another site is not my preference anyway. my initial specs for this tool were a bit fancier to be honest, and were meant to be coded in ajax, but the bill for turning my vision into reality was the showstopper. yes, it always comes down to money :-)

ras

[BCNumismatics]

Ras,
I can see where you are coming from,but getting ideas from other gallery websites is not actually a bad thing,considering that it has been proven to work.

What is Ajax? I'm fairly new in relation to complex computer jargon.

Downloading the PhotoPost program shouldn't cost any more than US$200 for the license.

If you did that,I could give you advice in how to divide the world of numismatics by geographical region,especially with regards to the countries of the British Commonwealth,which has had a few new issuers in the past 20 years.

With regards as to the banknote sections,I could give you some advice in how to divide each British Commonwealth country's issues by the names of the various issuers,especially for the British Isles,Canada,Colony of Hong Kong,Ceylon,India,Mauritius,New Zealand,the Malay states,,the Straits Settlements,Australia,Rhodesia,South Africa,& South West Africa.

Yes,I can promote this website by posting links onto various forums.Whether the members of those forums choose to come here is entirely up to them.

Aidan.

[mrichter]

Aiden,

I like the Zeno website but I am not certain that I would prefer it to the current system in Tantalus. My main issue is the way the coins are grouped and the appearance of home page.

Would Tantalus need to predetermine these or would users be able to set their on based on their interests? For instance, I don't car about geographical location on my coins. I want them grouped first by rulers and/or cultures that they relate and second by topic (Monumental, monograms, etc.). If Zeno allows me to set up my own account the way the current albums and galleries in Tantalus do, I would like to see more about what it can do. If I lose these features or am "forced" to confirm to standards beyond the templates, I am less interested in the changes you suggest.

Regards,

Matt

[BCNumismatics]

Matt,
A numismatic gallery is usually arranged firstly by geographical area,then by country.In the cases of where a country is or has been a monarchy,the country's category is divided by reign,then by coinage.Yes,changes in political status,such as with Hong Kong being a British colony until 1997,& a Special Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China since the 1st. of July 1997.

Zeno allows you to put in key words to make it easy to search.

As for the information fields themselves,Zeno has more of these than what is here.

What I am suggesting for the information fields can be found here; http://www.coinnetwork.com/group/wor...allerycampaign .

Aidan.

[BCNumismatics]

Originally Posted by mrichter

Aiden,

I like the Zeno website but I am not certain that I would prefer it to the current system in Tantalus. My main issue is the way the coins are grouped and the appearance of home page.

Would Tantalus need to predetermine these or would users be able to set their on based on their interests? For instance, I don't car about geographical location on my coins. I want them grouped first by rulers and/or cultures that they relate and second by topic (Monumental, monograms, etc.). If Zeno allows me to set up my own account the way the current albums and galleries in Tantalus do, I would like to see more about what it can do. If I lose these features or am "forced" to confirm to standards beyond the templates, I am less interested in the changes you suggest.

Regards,

Matt

Matt,
Zeno does divide each section by reign where the country is a monarchy.

In the case of Hong Kong,the banknotes are divided into colonial issues & the issues of the S.A.R.,then they are divided by issuers.The colonial coins of Hong Kong are kept separate from the S.A.R.'s issues.

Once you start uploading photos on Zeno,you are creating a gallery,& you can get a link that you can have in your profile.

If we did the same thing with Tantalus,it would encourage more collectors to post photos of their their unidentified banknotes & coins so that they can be identified & categorised correctly.

Aidan.

[BCNumismatics]

Ras,
The gallery at www.numismundo.com is going to be given a huge overhaul to encourage members to upload photos like you can do on http://www.zeno.ru .

I reckon that if we did the same thing here on Tantalus,then we can get more members joining up to contribute photos that can be seen by the public,but photos would be contributed only by the membership of the project.

It is fine to have a project with a plan.Like most things,it has to naturally evolve.

In the case of a numismatic gallery project,it would have to evolve as more & more countries are added,& more banknote issuers' listings are created,especially with countries that have had more than one banknote issuer.Of course,postal order listings would have to be included,as does community currency notes & tokens.

In a sense,we,the numismatic community,would be doing the cataloguers a favour,as we would be giving them the helping hand that they need.That is what the team at Krause Publications need.They also need to be given that wake-up call that they need to see the error of their ways.The same applies to Charlton Press up in Canada as well.

Aidan.

[rasiel]

I think this is covered ground. You're the only one asking to replace the gallery system outright - which is a bit like asking Toyota to make their cars a little more like GM's. Today is the first time I've seen this numismundo.com page (just a collection of links?) and zeno.ru (which does look more like online coin gallery) but in either case imagine how their owners would feel if you were to ask them to scrap what they have and replace with a system more like someone else's.

I'll repeat the earlier challenge - prepare a Tantalus gallery demo and one with someone else's and compare the two. Post a link here. Show in specific terms how that other gallery is better and maybe we can start brainstorming to make what we already have better. I'll be receptive, especially if there is more than just one voice asking for the changes.

Ras

[BCNumismatics]

Ras,
Don't think of what I am suggesting is a revolution.Think of it as an evolution from one chapter into another.

It shouldn't be difficult to import the photos that are currently here into the program from www.photopost.com.

Once Numismondo is overhauled,I'm sure that both you & Garry Saint can collaborate in how to make both galleries better - exchanging ideas as well as pooling resources.

I'd be more than happy to put you in touch with him.

Aidan.

[BCNumismatics]

Ras,
This will be of interest to you; http://www.uscoininfo.com/gallery/ .

It is a work in progress,but it will be better than www.zeno.ru ,even though both galleries use the same gallery program.

Aidan.