Hey Members,
This journal is done with you in mind -- to prevent any future misunderstandings and to keep you informed. One of the best ways to maximise your experience as a *PhotographersClub member is to stay informed!

In this journal we are going to outline for you *PhotographersClub's procedures on a few things; how we add new members, how we process submissions, how we handle themes/contests/freestyle days, as well as some random information.

This is long so get some popcorn!

For Quick Reference:
PhotographersClub Members!
How we Submit Deviations to the PhotographersClub: Member Gallery
Themes/Contests/Freestyle Days!
Favorite Removals of PhotographersClub Deviations
JOURNALS, JOURNALS, JOURNALS!
We Care About Our Members!
PhotographersClub FAQ

*PhotographersClub Members!
Our club is always growing! We receive at least 1-5 requests to join per day! This means lots of submissions/messages/notes/updates to do for the club all the time!

As of February 26, 2008 the club watches 2,353 deviants/clubs here on dA. Less than 100 are affiliates, and the rest are members (but surely not all are active). It is due to our large member base that we must restrict the number of submissions per theme/contest/Freestyle Day to 1 per member. Click the links to check out all our members and affiliates!
A-D
E-H
I-Q
R-Z
AFFILIATES
Or if you want your computer to crash and die check out our Friend's page! (Seriously, it caused my laptop to freeze up there were so many icons trying to load at once!)

For quick reference on how to join *PhotographersClub see our HOW TO JOIN journal!

Once there is a batch of about 30 membership request notes they are done all at once. That is why when you send us a join note you are not added immediately. We do them in batches because we send them personal welcoming notes to the club chalk full of helpful information and links, and have to make sure that we watch every new member (this is what keeps our # of members list accurate), manage them within our friends list (deselect receiveing journals/deviations so that we do not log on to THOUSANDS of devwatch messages everyday) and add each of their names to our Members list journals linked above. Watching our members also helps us to identify them before we add a submission to the club gallery; we simply go to their userpage and "Watching this deviant" will be displayed at the top.

If you send us a membership request, know that you will definitely be added as a member of the club. We accept everyone who asks to join. We just ask for a little patience as, very often, we are also trying to take care of submissions for our current members, and favorite removals of our current deviations.


How we Submit Deviations to the *PhotographersClub Member Gallery
For quick reference on how to submit a deviation to the club see our HOW TO SUBMIT journal!

For every submission opportunity for our members (theme/contest/Freestyle Day) we ask that notes be labeled "Submission (Event Name/Theme Name)" for our convenience. We receive so many notes every day that we divide them all into folders by their subject line within our inbox folders so we can be sure we address any notes that require immediate attention.

Submission notes go into a "Submissions Pending" folder where they wait their turn to be submitted. Deviations are submitted in the order they are received at a rate of 15 deviations per day so as to not overwhelm members' devwatch boxes. Just recently the decision was made to load multiple batches of photos on Freestyle Day so that we could hopefully get a large chunk completed. We felt this necessary due to the number of submissions on Freestyle Day (the last resulting in 250+ submissions). The actual day of Freestyle Day is the only time more that 15 images will be uploaded in one day. So please do not be upset if your image is not uploaded the first or second day. For every theme/contest/Freestyle day we get a couple hundred submissions!!

Sometimes member submissions do not meet the theme requirements. In that case, we reply asking them if they would like to submit a different deviation. So at the end of a theme we are sometimes waiting for those members who were asked to submit a different deviation to respond, so 15 deviations per day may not be reached.

While submission notes are waiting their turn in our "Submissions Pending" folder they remain UNOPENED. Here's why:
During themes and contests when there are set parameters for the images, they are not always met. Rather than rejecting the members submission we reply and ask them if they would like to submit something else instead. So when we are looking in the folder for the next deviation to be uploaded we see opened notes/replied to notes that are awaiting action, and unopened notes. Thus the next unopened note is the next deviation that will be uploaded. Your note will be opened. We just wait to open it until it is that deviation's turn to be uploaded.

Also, please note that no deviation is turned away due to any of the Admins' preferences. We are not biased or prejudiced in any way toward any of our members or their work. As long as their piece fits within the parameters of the Theme/Contest, or was submitted on time (such as for Freestyle Day) it will be uploaded once it is its turn!


Themes/Contests/Freestyle Days!
What are they

Themes: Preselected parameters (sometimes by the members and sometimes choosen by the Admins) for the next round of submissions to the Members Gallery. Once it has been officially chosen, the current theme, as well as its opening and closing dates, can always be found in the most recent journal. Themes are not contests. We supply our members with themes to help provide inspiration and challenge them to perhaps try something new or improve upon something they already like to shoot. Themes have specific dates in which they must be submitted.

Contests: Held periodically. The theme is either chosen by the members or the admins, and there will be specific dates to have submissions in by. Judging is done either by a panel of judges, the members, the admins, or different combinations of these (this will be decided and posted in the contest journal). Generally there will be prizes for the contests in the forms of subscriptions, journal features, etc, whatever is donated by the admins, members of the club, or members of the deviantArt community.

Freestyle Days: This is one day, held after every theme (not contests) that members are welcome to submit any image they like without the restriction of any theme.

Submissions for any of these are restricted to certain times. Once a journal is posted opening a specific theme/contest/Freestyle day submissions will be accepted. Once a journal is posted closing the theme/contest/Freestyle Day submissions received after the closing date will no longer be accepted and will be deleted without being read.


Favorite Removals of *PhotographersClub Deviations
We post in every journal, as well as in the artist comments of every deviation that we do not want anyone to fave our deviations, but to instead follow the link the provide to the original deviation and fave/comment there; this is because we want you guys, the creators of our deviations to receive credit for your work!

The problem, though, is that people still fave our deviations. 90% of the faves come from people who are not members though and most likely just don't read the comments. We do send notes to those people asking them to remove their fave from our deviation and place it on the original. We try and make this as easy as possible for them by providing them with the link to the deviation they faved and telling them to go to the artist comments to get to the original deviation so that they can re-fave it here.

So, now you know that we do try and direct people to your original deviations! Once we send that note though we delete the message from our message center. We do not follow up. We assume that people will be kind enough to fix the issue. So please, if you have a deviation with some faves on it, do not contact us. Feel free to contact whoever is listed as the faver of the deviation, but keep in mind that we have already contacted them as well, and maybe they just haven't gotten to it yet.


JOURNALS, JOURNALS, JOURNALS!
Our journals have all the information you will ever need as a member of this club 99% of the time! And if they didn't before, with the addition of this one, they should now. So please, please, please make sure you are set up to receive our journals and actually read them!


We Care About Our Members!
That is why we will always respond to your notes/messages/comments! _{*(The only time we won't is, as mentioned before, to early or late submissions.)*} That is why we always send you a confirmation note telling you that your deviation has been uploaded, or ask you if you would like to submit a different work due to an unclear theme in your image. This is also why we divide the massive amount of notes we get into manageable folders so that we can make sure there are not any notes that require an immediate response.

If you feel that you do not understand something and cannot find it in our FAQ journal then please note the club or one of the Admins personally and ask! Only please do not be offended if instead of typing the answer our we send you link and direct you where to read. We have these journals: our FAQ journal, the "How to Join" journal, and the "How to Submit" journal so that you can get an immediate answer instead of waiting for us to reply, and so that we have less notes/messages/comments to reply to when information has already been made available.