Sequences and Stories

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About Sequences and Stories

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A group for critique and discussion of sequences, photostories or photoessays. A single strong image is cool, but this is not the place for it. This is the place for groups of pics that you think tell a story or otherwise hang together well, even if they're not individually showstoppers.

Some rules to keep things manageable:

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1. Please only submit sequences of six pics or less (you'll see why in a minute). Most stories should be tellable with the absolute best six pics from a larger set. If you really feel the need to show seven pics, I won't kick your ass, but the half-dozen limit should keep threads reasonably quick to load and view.

2. Only submit sets or sequences that do either:

tell a story
or
hang together as a whole

Like, a bunch of pics of your dog doing stupid things isn't a story and the thread WILL be brutally put down. No whingeing, I'm the boss and you're not. On the other hand, a bunch of pics of your dog telling the story from first prick of the ears, snarling and barking, through to the savaging and eventual mutilation of a neo-Nazi, most definitely would count. Get the drift?

3. How to play. OK, so you have a set you love that's going sadly unnoticed. You want comment and criticism (well, really you want Flickr to damn well sit up and take notice right?)

So start a new thread and put a bit of thought into a title. In your opening post, put your (up to) half a dozen pics at the Flickr default size of 500px longest side. You can add text as you go if you like (keep it fairly snappy eh?), or you can just let the pictures speak. I have no preference, and I know some people like both methods.

Alternatively, if you're handy with Photoshop, make a single contact sheet, montage or mosaic with the (up to) six pics displayed in one go, decoration as you wish. You could size this up to 960px longest side (much bigger and you'll lose the impact of the set). I guess with a single montage, you could probably bend the rules a bit and have way more than six images in it. I'll leave this up to your common sense. If you display no signs of common sense, I'll kick your ass ;)

If you want competition-group-style voting, put the word Voting in the thread title; if that turns you off just use the word Discussion.

Give a link to the set of course (if you've edited down a larger set to six or less, make a new set with just those pics in it for the purpose of commenting).

Only have one thread active for discussion or voting at a time. Everybody hates bombers and spammers. If it's not happening fast enough for you, close off the thread by retitling with a "-" and put something more interesting up.

4. Voting. If you think the set tells a great story, or shows nice continuity, or you like it for whatever reason, leave a comment in the thread with the words You said it 1 at the start of your comment (or You said it 2 if you're second to comment etc). If it doesn't float your boat, say why with the heading No comprende 1 (or 2 etc). If it's just for discussion, forget the headings and just give your thoughts.

5. Results. If you get to three You said its before three No comprendes, you can make a post in the Great Stories! thread, with the pics discussed added at Flickr's smallest size and a link to the discussion, then close off the thread by replacing the title with a "-". If you get three No comprendes first, you can put it in the Mentioned in dispatches thread for honourable failures, then close it off the same way.

One last thing: if you liked a set well enough to vote for it, do the owner a favour and leave a nice comment on the set in their stream.