AirHistory.net - Newsletter 1

Newsletter No.1

21 August 2018

Dear reader,

Welcome to the first AirHistory.net newsletter. Our newsletters will include one or more site announcements, followed by a Tips and Tricks section with tips and advice for how to use and enjoy AirHistory to its full potential. New editions of the newsletter will only appear when we have important announcements for you.

Out of beta!

In this first newsletter we proudly announce that AirHistory.net has moved out of beta and can now be found at its final address https://www.airhistory.net. In addition the site now has an SSL (https) security certificate installed, making your data much safer.

This does not mean the website is completely live but it is a very important step towards that goal. However, for now the site remains hidden from Google and other search engines while we tie up the remaining loose ends.

The old beta website still works but will disappear soon. Please update your bookmarks or favourites to the new address as soon as possible.

When you visit the new address you will find that the Contact links in the photo captions are now fully functional, which means that you can receive messages in your photographer email account from people wishing to talk to you about your photos. Do not worry, your email address is hidden from the users unless you choose to reply to their email. If you do not wish to be contacted, you can disable the Contact feature in your account settings.

Going live

Of course, what you want to know is when is the site going fully live? It will be soon, hopefully within the next few weeks. The fully live AirHistory.net will be able to be viewed and searched by anyone, but uploading will initially remain by invitation only. If you know aviation enthusiasts or researchers who could make a contribution to the database and are willing to join, please contact us. AirHistory relies on its members to grow.

We thank you for your patience over the past months, and in some cases a year, on the long journey to a live website. It turned out that the work needed to create an aviation photo database that is user-friendly for photographers and a resource for researchers was greater than we anticipated.

We decided early it was preferable to let deadlines slip rather than to rush out a website that was not entirely functional and afflicted by bugs. It proved a sensible decision because many significant changes were made based on what was learned from actually using it. The input from our beta testers and regular uploaders was invaluable in improving the functionality of the site and in creating better ways to record data and search for it.

Refinements and features

We were able to refine the upload procedure thanks to this input from our testers. We recommend that you read the two guideline documents under the Upload menu: Which Image to upload and How to Upload images. They bring together the changes that have taken place in the past year. The FAQ at the bottom of the page also contains useful information about uploads and other important issues.

Another refinement is the way full-size photos are viewed. Previously when you clicked a medium-size photo to view the full-size one, an entirely new page would open with the full-size photo and the caption. This could be slow. With the new method when you click the medium-size photo, the full-size photo will open instantaneously in the same window, without opening a new page. Also it will now be shown in an otherwise black page, without caption or other presences that may distract from enjoying the photo in all its splendour. A simple click on the X button top right or anywhere else in the browser screen will close the full-size view again and bring you back to the medium-size photo with caption.
If you do not like this new full-size view, you can disable it by ticking the View Fullsize Photo as Link checkbox in your account settings.

An example of AirHistory.net's special features is the Map link to the location of the photo using Google Maps. This is a work in progress and regions and airports will continue to be linked until the whole world is covered.

You will find more AirHistory features explained in the Tips and Tricks section below.

Legal hurdles

Our steady progress was derailed by the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into law in May. No one, not even the governments that enacted the laws, knew what was expected of websites under the new regime. AirHistory.net stores nothing more than email addresses but had to conform to laws intended to protect much more critical personal information. We lost two months to the GDPR.

One fallout you may have noticed was our recent request to earlier members to consent to us holding your email addresses. We hope everyone has done this so we can continue to have your photos in the database. If you are a citizen of the European Union and have not yet seen our request to consent, please log in to the site. You will then be presented with the request. If you do not see this request, we already have your consent on record.

Getting mobile

Another major project was making the site compatible with mobile devices. This was a complex programming task that could not be deferred or ignored. In this era, being accessible by mobile devices is essential to maximise traffic through the website. More importantly, Google actively demotes websites that do not have mobile compatibility.

Newsletter photos

The photos used in this newsletter were all taken by AirHistory.net crew members, but in future newsletters we would like to use the photos of our members instead. However, that is not possible without your permission. Please contact us if you are willing to let us use your photos for this purpose, and maybe you will see one of your photos appear in a future edition of the AirHistory.net newsletter.

Thank you

The AirHistory.net crew greatly appreciates the efforts our members have made in building the database to more than 75,000 images before we even open our doors and put out the welcome mat. The photos have covered all corners of the globe, all manner of aircraft and over a century of aviation. It is a great basis from which to build the best aviation history photo database.

We want to commend those who have continued to make their contributions through the deadline setbacks. We have appreciated your comments and advice and hope as we move out of this transitional stage and into the public arena, you will continue to give us feedback.

The AirHistory Crew

Tips and tricks

Here you'll find some tips for how to get the most out of the AirHistory website.

Want to upload an improved photo?

A new feature of AirHistory.net is that you can replace photos in the database with better ones. This will suit those who might have purchased a better scanner, or edited their photos many years ago and are now more adept at photo editing. It also will suit those who may have sized photos to meet the demands of websites in the past and would now like to display them at the larger size allowed by AirHistory.net.

Access to this feature is in the Account menu under Request Photo Reupload. Click this and you will be asked to give the ID number of the photo you want to replace. Then click the Request Reupload button and the photo will appear. Next step is to click Reupload and browse for the replacement photo, or drag it into the grey area. When the replacement photo is uploaded it will be queued for acceptance in the same manner as a new upload and be accessible through the member’s own queue. If you decide not to replace the photo, cancel the procedure before you upload. The original photo will be returned to the database.

You are still able to replace photos held in your queue, including those that have come into the queues using the reupload method described above.

I don’t want my name on a photo

Do you have photo you took that you don’t want your name on? No worry. AirHistory.net allows members to have multiple photographer names so they can use a different one when photos might cause problems with authorities or employers.

Multiple photographer names are also for people who are uploading on behalf of others or wish to upload photos from their collection without claiming copyright. In this latter case, the copyright strip will read ”Photo from” and not “Copyright”.

Please contact us if you want to add another photographer name to your account.

References for uploaders

AirHistory.net has published its first production list. It is for the McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III and can be found under Reference > Production Lists. If someone has reliable production data at his disposal that is not readily available elsewhere on the Internet, particularly for lesser known types, please contact us and we will see if we can make use of it.

Under Reference > Research Websites in the top menu can be found many reliable websites that can be used as references when uploading photos and writing captions. This list of websites will be significantly extended in the near future. If you know a reliable reference site, please tell us and we will check it out. We ask that the site be free of charge.

Looking further ahead, AirHistory is interested in publishing articles about aviation history. This part of the site is still under development. We have a professional subeditor in the crew who can assist with editing articles.

Photos by David Carter, Edward Kehler, Joop de Groot, Mick Bajcar and Peter Vercruijsse.