Here, let me show you how to Crank a photo
As me and the rest of the team constantly continue to improve what PhotoCrank is, how it works and what all it can be used for we have been really focusing on making sure that the fundamentals of creating a Crank are as clear and straight-forward as possible. From our standpoint, considering that we are Crank’n like it’s our job(oh yeah, it actually is), we can sometimes take for granted the fact that there are new people out on the wonderful Web every day who are Crank’n for the first time ever. For these first time Crank’rs we want to be sure that they completely understand how to create the Crank that they are wanting to contribute to CrankTown(the community of Crank’rs and Cranks coined by my friend Scott) whenever the Crankspiration(inspiration to Crank) hits them.
Wow, that’s a lot of Crankified terms - I hope that I haven’t gone overboard, even though I’m suspecting that I have. Oh well, continuing on…
As a way to help first time Crank’rs learn the fundamentals of Crank’n a photo quickly and easily, I created a screencast video(a video of what my screen looks like during a crank, along with voice over) that shows the world what all goes into Crank’n a photo. Honestly, I tried to make it as short as possible and it ended up being around 3 minutes long, which I think(and hope) is bearable for anyone who is wanting to learn about PhotoCrank. Also, I guess that I should mention that this isn’t going on the website like one of last ones did, instead we are embedding this How-To video directly into the PhotoCrank interface(pictured below) that opens up when you begin to Crank a photo. This should make the video more valuable and relevant to the new Crank’rs out there who aren’t completely sure what Crank’n is all about.
Finally, here is the the video that will be added to the PhotoCrank interface, feel free to comment below or email me at ryan@photocrank.com with any thoughts, suggestions or constructive criticism that you may have.
Crank’n a caption contest: A quick example
In my last post I wrote a pretty lengthy explanation of how a blog/website owner can install The PhotoCrank Engine for use with caption competitions that they are currently running for their readers. I won’t go into all of the details of why PhotoCrank adds some great value to these various contests, but instead I thought that I would take a real-world example that I found while cruising the web and show you how Crank’n would look and be used on a contest that a blogger had already posted. Hopefully this will give you all a better understanding of what I have been talking about as far as caption contests go. I have a feeling that I will be doing this several times as a way to show everyone how easily PhotoCrank can take these types of caption contests to a new level of fun and interactivity.
The blog that I have chosen to be my guinea pig for this first go round is WILLisms.com, which is a blog that has a very edgy and entertaining way to cover what’s hot in the political world. The WILLisms blog holds caption contests like this one on a regular basis and I have decided to use their latest one as an example of how PhotoCrank can make a great caption contest even better.
Here is the image that was used for the last caption contest contest on the WILLisms blog, in which he encouraged his readers to give their best shot at being clever…the image is from a protest that took place after three police detectives were found not guilty after a fatal shooting in NYC.
Comparatively, here are a couple of captions that were submitted via the comments on the blog:
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“Leroy Johnson of 443 fifth Avenue is that you?
Leroy: Shhhhhhhhh!
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This guy thinks he is hiding that he is picking his nose. We can see you!
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These are kinda funny, but with PhotoCrank, they could have had even more fun with it. Also, with PhotoCrank the winner of the caption contest can automatically be determined based on the what the viewers vote on each Crank, making it very easy to find a winner. For more information on how to add The PhotoCrank Engine to your blog, head on over to this page on PhotoCrank.com.
Taking caption contests to a new level
Unless you have been hiding under a rock while surfing the Web, I would be willing to bet money that each and everyone of you reading this blog have viewed, participated in or enjoyed an online caption contest that was hosted by a website that you visit on a regular basis. Caption contests are basically designed to play off the fact that everyone has an opinion, thought, comment or other reaction when they first look at an image that has been put directly in front of their face - whether they ever say it publicly or not. Pair this with the fact that most of the posted images are completely ridiculous to begin with and that many of them offer up prizes for the most creatively crafted caption, what you end up with is a fun, entertaining and sometimes very edgy way to get a group of people online to display their cleverness capabilities.
The funny thing is that although the technology and interactivity that is now available for web users has changed dramatically over the past few years, it seems that caption contests and how groups of people can choose to participate in them haven’t. Considering that the types of people who are out Crank’n photos every day are also most likely to be the people who love to play along with caption contests, this really got my wheels turning about ways that PhotoCrank can take these old-school caption contests to the next level for those who create and manage them.
Here is how a caption contest would normally play out on someone’s blog or website:
1. A ‘caption-worthy’ image is posted online and everyone is asked to post their best caption into a text comment that can be entered in below the image. For instance, the image below was posted over on The Anti-New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest on radosh.net and everyone was instructed to ‘Submit the worst possible caption for this New Yorker cartoon.‘ This is basically a play off of The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest that is posted each week.
An image that was posted in the latest New Yorker Cartoon Caption contest with captions posted below
2. Captions are submitted, normally through some type of text commenting system that lists them on top of one another down the web page. Depending on the number of captions, this list can grow to be very, very long, which can make scrolling from the posted image to the caption very difficult and annoying. Also, since the comments are text-based and depending on what all is going on in the posted image, it is sometimes difficult to describe who or what is doing the action in the image when creating the captions. This sometimes results in longer captions being needed just to make it make more sense to who is viewing it.
3. After the captions have been posted, the person who is managing the contest is then taxed with the job or searching through all the posted captions for the one that is most deserving of the top spot. This can be very time consuming and is quite a task depending on how many captions were submitted. Also, the people who captioned the image and who are regular visitors to the website have played no part in determining who the overall winner is, which results in less buy-in from those who are involved with the caption contest (readers, contributors, random visitors, etc.).
4. After going through all of the captions a winner is finally selected and is announced on the website. Since no one besides the person who manages the caption contest had a direct say in who was chosen as the winner, the only people who are truly interested and excited about the results of the contest are those who are chosen as the winners. If others could vote up their favorite captions, I would assume that the level of user buy-in and interaction with the contest would be much, much higher.
5. Steps 1-4 are repeated for the next caption contest that is run by the website.
Like I said, pretty old school, right? Thousands of these caption contests are created every day all over the Web and they all pretty much follow the steps above. Crazy, I know - but it’s how these things have always been done and I’m guessing that the people who manage them have never really been informed that there is a better way to do it, an easier and more interactive way to do it, a more fun way to do it. This, of course, is the PhotoCrank way to do it.
Here is the PhotoCrank way to run a caption contest and be sure to pay attention because this will be a pretty quick explanation:
1. A ‘caption-worthy’ image is posted online and everyone is asked to Crank their best caption on top of the image by using PhotoCrank. Everyone is also told to vote for their favorite Crank even if they didn’t Crank the image themselves, which creates a fun and interactive experience for everyone involved whether they are clever enough to come up with a caption or not. I’ll use an image from a New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest as an example again:
2. The image is Crank’d with entertaining captions that everyone can view, vote and Crank withouthaving to scroll down the page and since they can Crank directly on top of the image, the caption is spatially relevant, meaning that those who caption don’t have to describe who is saying what to whom within the caption - they just Crank the captions directly to the image in a relevant way. This makes viewing and creating the captions much, much easier for everyone involved.
3. After the Crank’d captions are completed, the winner is determined by which Crank was given the highest average vote, making it ridiculously easy to determine the winner. No more scrolling through 100 captions to choose a winner that people probably won’t agree with anyways. Let the people decide who has the best Crank and save a ton of time in the process.
4. Announce the winner and post another image whenever you’re ready to have users Crank another caption contest. Almost too easy, isn’t it?
So that’s it, if you are currently managing a caption contest on a regular basis then I think that it’s about time that you give PhotoCrank a shot at making them even better for you and those who are participating on your website. If you need help getting the PhotoCrank Engine up and running on your website so that you can start Crank’n your caption contests, you can check out this page for more info or you can just send me an email at ryan@photocrank.com and I’ll help you out, no problem.