Join "Corel Fan Fridays" & Share w/ the PSP Community

[Forriner]

@hartpaul,
The copyright: this is where you're at least slightly wrong. I don't know if it's still in the user policy (TOS), but a couple of years ago Facebook changed it to include using your pictures for advertising purposes. If you bought something somewhere, anywhere, or 'liked' a product, or Facebook just needed an imaginary happy customer, your picture could be it in ads to your two thousand best friends and the rest of the world.
I know there was a lot of noise about it, and a lawsuit because a guy didn't want to be associated with a certain product he claimed he'd never heard of, and Facebook may have made an about face, but the fact is that Facebook tried it and will try again. Flickr doesn't try to own you, to name just one other photo medium.

Nobody is going to pay me for my photographs, but reduced quality or not, it's my copyright, period. It's not always about money or even privacy, it's about Corel using a medium that's world famous for using and selling user's stuff -data- as its source of income, its sucking data, as its main portal to its customers. While ignoring their best advocates, like the ones here.

Remember, for Facebook you are the product. It must be a generational thing. Corel doesn't have to care, just let them be honest about why this forum, among other media, gets almost completely ignored for years and suddenly Corel invites everyone to Facebook.

[hartpaul]

Thanks for that Forriner, did a bit of research on that and came across this page for all interested.
https://asmp.org/fb-tos#.VQbHoI7kdRU
Regards
Paul

[Alex Brazeau]

Hi everyone,
Glad there’s been some discussion around this, I’m seeing some good questions here. I'll admit, I wasn't entirely clear when I made my initial announcement about “Fan Friday” so allow me to explain a little bit more to give you a better idea of bigger plan and to touch on a few points that have been raised above.

First up, the big question… Why are we doing Fan Friday? Well, Fan Friday on social media is a bi-weekly feature that has been introduced as the first stage of a wider plan to publicly feature the incredible members of our community, to tell your stories and share the amazing photos, artwork and everything else you create using PaintShop Pro. If you look at our community we have a ton of talented people and to boost PSP’s credibility, we want to show the world—not just our PSP users that we know already—what’s possible with PSP. We need to get better at this and we’re hoping that Fan Friday will simply be a part of that. Using social media networks is actually more about supporting the second phase of a larger plan to enhance the PaintShop Pro brand and strengthen and grow the PSP community.

The next step is to introduce a new blog for Corel photo products, one I’m hoping will include regular community contributions and will be designed to provide members of the PaintShop Pro & AfterShot Pro communities with more insight into the products you choose to use and make part of your lives. We’re still working out some of the details, but one of the features I’d like to see appearing in addition to regular Fan Friday galleries will be profiles showcasing different members of the community, telling others why they’re passionate about PSP and how they use it to get the job done—whatever that job or hobby may be.

When I talk about wanting to share your work and profile members of the community, I’m referring to the community at large. Not just each individual community of users that exists within a separate and subdivided pocket in a different corner of the Internet, but everyone—the greater Corel photo community. My vision is that this blog will ultimately act as a central hub of information related to Corel Photo—telling different stories about PSP, about you and the different things you do, and connecting all of our sub-communities, including everyone here on the forum, social media networks and even the newsgroups, and then sharing those stories with among the community members and with people who visit our community pages.

I know some of you are concerned with the recent move away from the platform that hosted the Corel your Way panel. The platform it was hosted on was really quite expensive, it was a complicated survey tool, and the private forum could be made more effective, so it made sense to make the move. Rest assured, any recent increased activity on Facebook does not mean that’s the only space we plan to connect with the community or that we expect everyone to be there. I understand some of you may not be Facebook users, and I’m not asking anyone to join the Facebook or Twitter community just to connect with PSP (though I won’t discourage it ). But the reality is the PSP community that exists on Facebook alone is already 23,000+ people and growing and, in today’s world of online communication and social media, it’s somewhere we absolutely need to be. Until I can get everything in place for the blog, though, the most logical first step was to start with an already established, sizeable audience on an easily accessible, media-friendly platform—and that was social media.

I'm glad to see some questions raised around copyright because that was one thing I missed in my initial message. We know that while PSP provides the tools, the talent and value flows from your creativity, and that your IP rights are a key priority. We do want to promote your work, and we think that’s a positive. To alleviate any concerns about Facebook’s privacy policy, if you would like to share your photos for Fan Friday but would rather not have them shared via Facebook, please let me know in the body of your email and I am happy to accommodate any requests. For anyone concerned about what Corel might do with your photos, I can safely say the only thing they will be used for is Fan Friday related posts on social media (unless you have requested they not be shared via social media) and ultimately on the blog. Any use of your work by Corel outside of Fan Friday will first require your express permission for such use. I will absolutely provide full credit for all work submitted. I am happy to post a link here in the forum when I post the photos, our Facebook page can be accessed without an account so you’re more than welcome to visit and browse the photos that have been submitted by others until a central blog is launched.

I hope I've addressed your concerns and helped to shed some more light on the bigger picture as things move ahead. If there are any lingering concerns, as always, I’m open to questions and comments, and will share what I can of our plans. On another note, Joelle, can you tell me more about the newsgroups and how I can get access? It’s not something I’m familiar with. Thanks.

[Joelle]

On another note, Joelle, can you tell me more about the newsgroups and how I can get access? It’s not something I’m familiar with. Thanks.

The name of the server:
cnews.corel.com

If Diane Sweet is still involved with Corel, she should be able to help you further.

The groups need thinning out (I have already mentioned I offered a list (in Corel Your Way), but that list is now 2 years, or maybe longer, out of date.
It listed which groups were active and which were not.

If the links on your website are not reinstated, the groups will die.. I mean, you didn't know about them and you work for Corel..
It will upset a lot of people, but in the scheme of all things Corel, I get the impression that is not a priority.
I for one have no plans to join in anything to do with Facebook/Twitter and reading the previous messages, I am not alone.
Thanks for responding

Joëlle

[MarkZ]

I just had a look at the work posted on the "Corel Fan Fridays" Facebook site. Some lovely work there and I'm pleased that I can enjoy it even though I don't have a Facebook account.

[Alex Brazeau]

Hi everyone: Realizing I haven't yet dropped in with a link to our Facebook page for those who'd like to see the latest additions to the Fan Friday album. I've just posted a selection of user-submitted photos that I've received over the last couple of weeks, so just follow this link to check them all out: http://on.fb.me/1MUCegl. Don't forget, if you'd like to have your work featured you can always submit it to FanFridays@corel.com.

Enjoy!

[mesamay]

Hi Alex,


After the excellent Jasc, Corel took over the Jasc forum, closed it and started the newsgroups, which are all but dead, bar a few. No-one knows they exist
Then we had the Corel PaintShop Pro Magazine with it's forum, doing very much what you are proposing now.
That died a death. I still have the magazines, to which I subscribed. the magazines died and then the forum.
Then Flickr, Facebook et all.
I don't do either.
A great shame that continuity is something that Corel has not quite got to grips with.

Rant over

Joëlle

I agree. After psp 9 and the X it started to go downhill to me, and all the forums that where dedicated to jasc's psp graphics capabilities seems to have died. It was fum to create back then.

[trueblue]

I agree with you too Joelle, Corel seem to have a higglity piggility arrary of forums, blogs etc. I don't understand why this forum isn't utilised more. Everything could be under one roof. Yes, many like to use FB, but there are a lot that don't. I think the best ever one we had was with Jen. It's not been the same since she left.

[Joelle]

I agree with you too Joelle, Corel seem to have a higglity piggility arrary of forums, blogs etc. I don't understand why this forum isn't utilised more. Everything could be under one roof. Yes, many like to use FB, but there are a lot that don't. I think the best ever one we had was with Jen. It's not been the same since she left.

I thought that the research unit where Jen was such a help, was closing, but typically Corel, not a lot has happened. I have deleted the link, there doesn't seem much point hanging on to it.
I was just having a conversation with a user in the cnews.corel.com Photography newsgroup on how disappointing Corel's behaviour is.
Lots of marketing-speak and words that mean little, but no action.

The newsgroups are dying, of course they are as they aren't advertised on the Corel website.
It's sad, but I have a sneaky feeling that Corel isn't doing too well either, going by the avalanche of please-buy-our-products in my InBox.
Maybe, apart from the few enthusiasts still going, people are no longer interested in image editing.

I belong to a few groups where there still is enthusiasm, but they don't all use PSP.

Farcebook? Nah, no thanks.
Very sad

Joëlle

[gbotes]

Good day to all,

I'm a newbie to Paint Shop pro and by nature I'm a geek, and a loner. I'm in favor of any and all initiatives to promote Paint Shop Pro and, especially, to make it better. I think for that to happen there need to be ways to promote interaction between users, between users and technical teams, and to showcase what is possible and can be done using PSP.

I don't have an active Facebook account at the moment because I find Facebook tends to "control" what I see and when I see it, using some algorithm that I don't understand. I also find that Facebook seems to prioritize local feeds - which doesn't help me much in my part of South Africa. It's too limited. I have a presence on Google+ because it doesn't seem to have the same "limitations", and I get to meet and be exposed to people and ideas from all over. There's also Google Groups which seem to be a great way to get people to share ideas and interact.

Having said that, I don't have much preference for which platforms, social media or forums Corel uses, as long as they have the aim of promoting PSP, making it better, allowing exchange and sharing of ideas, and the other stuff I mentioned in the first paragraph. I've monitored this forum for a bit more than a month now, and there seems only a little activity here. It would be great to see more happening - whether it is in these forums or some other platform, or both.

I'm happy with Paint Shop Pro because it allows me to do most of the image editing I need and doesn't come with a huge price tag or a lot of extra components that I don't need. This is what made me choose Paint Shop Pro over CorelDRAW. I also looked at Photoshop Elements and Photoshop, but I just could seem to get a proper grasp of them. If promoting PSP will help Corel to decide to allocate more time and resources on PSP to make it even better, then that helps me and I'm for it. As I see it, at this point in time, PSP occupies a niche that is ideal for photographers who don't want to be tied into monthly subscriptions, who want a great product that is reliable, powerful and supported by a well-known company.