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Based upon suggestions, I went ahead and created some new Photo Categories to help better sort the ever growing collection of photos into. Hopefully over time we can move some of the non-car specific photos out of the the 'by year" categories into their appropriate new category. I want to keep the "by year" categories for pictures of the actual cars only. So adverts and other things like that would go into the new categories.

If my Forum-Ambassadors would like to help with the re-filing, then I would appreciate that!

Quote:
Kev,

I've started by re-filing the 1921 pic's. Of the 21 pic's originally there only 2 pic's remain of vehicles, the rest were advertisement. I will work through the twenties over the next few days and, as it's a time consuming process, it'll take a little while. Suggest that other Forum-Ambassadors select a series of years and post what they are working on so there's no overlap. If any Forum-Ambassador has a particular era of expertise they could concentrate on that.

1922 and 1923 done!

Kev -

I'm curious about the watershed points that you chose to cluster the advertising. One in particular has me scratching my head a bit - that 1950 was split off from the 1946-49 group. 1946-1950 and 1951-1958 seems like a more natural fit.

Sifting out the advertisements should be a pretty clear-cut (though tedious) thing, but I have found other images in the vehicle folders that aren't ads - like the Pixar sketch and some pages used for model identification. I've moved those to the "Misc. Packard Photos" folder.

Gerd, can you give some specific examples of images you found that fit more than one category?

It might be a matter of splitting hairs to get them into the most appropriate category. For example, an image of a 1956 Caribbean on the the test track would be better placed in the (Packard) "Proving Grounds" folder rather than the "1956" (vehicle) folder. In otehr cases, perhaps we haven't (yet) evolved the right folder with the best name.

On the other hand, I'm confused by the presence of separate folders for "Packard Station Wagons" and "Packard Trucks". I would have expected images of those cars to be filed by year/series.

Thanks guys for all the help. I wish the Photo software allowed photos to be in more that one physical category, but it currently does not. Key words would be a great idea to help with searching. But I do think that a photo should be filed into it's most appropriate main category, for easy finding. So adverts in adverts. Picture of the factory in the factory. Etc.

Brian, there is a limit to the number of physical sub-categories, and rather that trying to spilt hair between where model lines start and stop, which is almost impossible to do during the prewar years with the different lines and over lapping series. So I just set the adverts up by decade. With two exceptions: I added 1899 to the 1900-1909 decade, and I broke up the 1940's decade because of the WWII, and I wanted to have a dedicated category for the WWII related adverts, as I think some of those are in a class by themselves.

Gerd had a good question, and rather that make a choice on this myself, I thought it would be better to open this for public debate.

Packard built Taxis. Should they be filed into their appropriate year, or filed under professional cars?

Thanks guys for all you continued help and support.

Kev -

I understand your need to break up the 40s relative to pre- vs. post-war and wartime production. I'm not asking for any additional folders for adverts, but simply feel that 1950 adverts are on the wrong side of the divide as they have more in common with the 1946-1949 cars.

Meanwhile, like Station Wagons and Trucks, I feel that Taxis should be filed under their own year/series - save a folder. In fact, if we eliminated a couple redundant folders, could we add one for "Packards Cousins" for Gerd?

That's just my $0.02 worth - change gladly given.

"Packard Air, Sea, Land Racing"?
Please elaborate on this category.
Is this a category for 'Racing on Air, Sea and Land?'

Where would a picture of a P51 Fighter plane with a Packard-built (Rolls Royce) engine be placed?
[I am not trying to be picky, but I do have such a picture, with close-up of 'Made by Packard' plate.]

Thanks to you all (Kev and Web-Ambassadors). This is a GOOD problem to have. It comes from success - LOTS of pictures on a growing website.

DanL

Dan, good point on the that. I adjusted the name to make more sense now.

Brian, I agree with you on the Station Wagons, so it merged those back into their appropriate categories and deleted the Station Wagon category. But I do think the real Packard trucks should have their own category as they are a specific subset in Packard's production history. So probably better to group those together.

On the question of the the appropriate category where it could fit it multiple categories, here are my thoughts:

If it is an advertisement, regardless of the subject matter, then it should go into the advertisement category by decade grouping. (So if it a Henney advert, then it goes into the Adverts)

Other pictures need to be filed based upon the main subject matter in the photo. So for example if you have a picture of two 49 Packards on a dealer lot, and the those two 49's are the main focus of the photo. Then I would say that it goes in the '49 category. But if its a far away shot that shows the dealer building and many cars on the lot, where the dealer lot as a whole is the main subject of the photo, then that should be put in the dealer category.

The same could be said for the factory shots. If it as in assembly line photo showing several cars on the line, and all the stuff around that, then I would say that it should be in the Factory Interior photos. But if the main focus is a single car, with little to gain about it's surrounding, then it should go into the "By Year" category.

It really comes down to what the main focus/subject mater of the photo. It's never going to be 100% perfect, but on the aggregate, I this this should work out. The best thing is good solid descriptions with appropriate keywords, so they are "Search" friendly.

Also for folks adding new photos to the Archive, there is nothing wrong with uploading the photo twice into two separate categories if you think that is best.

I think you guys know by now that I am pretty flexible, so thoughts, comments, feedback appreciated are always welcomed.

Kev -

Glad to see wagons have been assimilated by year. Since they didn't make them for very many years, one folder for "Packard Trucks" should be manageable.

Thanks for guidelines for handling gray areas.

Now, 1955, 1956 and 1957-58 are, to the best of my tired old eyes, cleaned of advertisements, but there's a bit more to the story.

1957-58 was pretty easy, but when I began digging into the 1956 folder, one particular contributor's ID kept turning up quit frequently. So, I ran a list by that contributor. Many, though not all of his contributions were ads, and since they appeared to be properly IDed by year, I dove in and started refiling them. I came into this after a late supper and a bit too early to go to bed, after others had already start combing by year, but kept at it until well past midnight for a couple of hours. After some other work today, I put a couple more hours in, while others were still at it by year. I hope I didn't undermine anyone's effort.

So, this evening, I went back to 1956, caught a few more ads, contributed by others, and did same for 1955.

Separating the advertisements from photos of actual vehicles makes sense. Some months ago, a member asked me about contributing additional advertising images, but now it will be easier for them to avoid duplicating what the archive already has. Hopefully, they will follow the naming convention that worked so well.

Meanwhile, I'd say we still need volunteers to step up and go check the remaining folders for any remaining ads. However, it should be a bit easier now - just go through the year one page at a time and wait for the thumbnails to load - to spot what needs to be refiled.