Suggestion for increasing traffic: community gallery

Question

We have discussed and are discussing methods to increase traffic to and retainment of our community:

• Suggestion for increasing traffic: schedule regular chat events
• How can we increase participation in community moderation?

What we really miss as an arts-and-crafts-centered website, is a place to show our work, and possibly discuss it. There are a few ways we can do this, and this is one of them (I will create a thread for another option I'm thinking of and post the link here).

Stephie brought up the idea of having our own gallery in chat, similar to the Photo of the Week on Photography, and Screenshot of the Week on Arqade.

We can start out with a project thread here on Meta, where users can simply post projects they are working on or that are finished.
Hopefully, if this is something that piques interest, we will soon have a photo widget on the main page where the uploaded images are shown. That alone will be a nice visual representation of what we are about.

In order for this to gain momentum, I think it's best not to have any restrictions (apart from those set out in our Code of Conduct, naturally).
Later on we can discuss the possibilities of making contests, having a Work In Progress thread, a Feedback thread, an Old or Unfinished Projects thread, and the like.

Answer 1

I like the idea.

Travel.se also has a monthly photo competition on their meta; monthly may suit our size better than weekly. But given the diverse range of crafts and the positive tone of this community, I suggest something along the lines of a monthly gallery.

If it takes off we can have contests or themes, and I agree that initially it should be open to pretty much any project.

The rules/etiquette Travel use for their contests would adapt nicely. The most relevant are:

- Please include a description of what you're photographing, when and where the photo was taken.
- Photos should be taken by you or a travel companion who is named.
- One photo per post, three posts maximum per person. Do not delete or change photos once posted.
- If there are any people in the photo, make sure you have their permission to post the photo online (or blur their faces).
- No offensive / NSFW photos.

As well as dropping the travel-specific wording, I think it should be one project per post, with a maximum of say 3 photos - enough to appreciate the project without being an overwhelming mass of images.