What is Photrain?

Photrain is a photo sharing site made for those who like trains and the railways in general.

The goal of Photrain is not to be another photo sharing site related to the railway theme, but rather to take precedence over the difference of others, promoting an active participation by users and visitors. It is for them that the site was made and it is through their interactions that it will grow.

Photrain will be the first site for sharing high-quality railway photos, without the presence of screeners or moderators that accept/reject photos.

HOW CAN PHOTRAIN MAINTAIN THE QUALITY PATTERNS?

Anyone is free to sign up and start sharing photos. But in addition, it will be the users themselves who will "moderate" the site and decide which photos have the best quality and which will have more prominence. For this to be possible, a rules-based algorithm has been developed that gives primacy to the user's interaction with the various photos shared on the site.

What rules should I follow when sharing images on Photrain?

- The maximum resolution allowed for photo upload is 1920 pixels wide and the minimum resolution is 1024 pixels wide;
- If a user uploads a photo wider than the maximum allowed width, it will be automatically resized;
- A user, by default, once registered on the site, will have at his disposal 5 (five) uploading slots photos and a personal page (gallery) where all his photos will appear;
- Once all the slots are filled, the user will have to interact with the photos of the other users (like or dislike) to unlock more slots. This interaction can be done through the photo page or through the voting page;
- All photos and all users will have a ratio assigned (calculated from the number of likes, number of dislikes and number of views);
- Monthly (once a month) the system checks for photos with a ratio less than 70 % and converts these photos to a reduced JPEG format, 1024 pixels wide, and "remove" the photo from the public gallery of the site (the photo will only appear in the gallery/user's home page);
- When the user reaches the 50 (fifty) photos on the site, the system checks if it already has many photos with a ratio of less than 70 % and, if so, it alerts the user to remove photos with few likes, as well as blocking the possibility of more photo uploads to the site;
- All dislikes given to a photo must by justified by the user, by selecting the option that best fits from a set of pre-defined justifications.

From these rules, it is possible to guarantee the active interaction of the community with the site, in addition to allowing the best photos to be highlighted. All these operations are performed without any interaction of moderators or site administrators.

In addition we ask all users to:
- Do not send photos with frames (watermarks or copyright signatures are allowed);
- Try to use English as much as possible in the descriptions of your photos, tags and comments.
Since the site is used by many people from several countries in the world, by using these two basic rules we will be able to maintain consistency in the site browsing.

I do not want limitations on photo uploads. How do I proceed?

If you do not want to be subjected to the limitations imposed, you can purchase a Premium account which removes the limitation of the 5 slots, leaving you with unlimited slots, and allows you to load photos with 4K resolution (3840 pixels wide).

What type of photos can I share in Photrain?

Photrain only accepts photos related with the railways theme, including photos of vehicles and train compositions. Photos of station buildings, signage and other types of infrastructure should not be shared on the site.

What are tags?

All the site navigation works based on tags - user-defined words that identify the photos. When uploading a photo, the user must identify the operator, class and vehicle ID. All this information will be converted into tags so that later the user can, for example, view all the photos of the CP 1413 locomotive in one go. These are called the obligatory tags and it is through these that the rolling stock database will be built. There is also a optional field to insert free tags that will also be indexed on the site and shown in the list of the most used tags, depending on their use over time.

Can I geotag my photos?

Yes, Photrain allows geotagging of photos. This non-mandatory process is done manually by the user, selecting the location of your photo on the map available on the upload page. All locations are saved and displayed both on the photo page and on the general map of the site. It's also a great feature for those looking for the best spot.

Beside my photos, what can I see on my personal page/gallery?

You can see your best photos (photos with more likes), your map and still the most used tags for you.

Can I create albums and groups?

In this first release, Photrain does not yet allow the creation of albums or groups. However, it is a functionality that will be implemented in the future.

Where can I share my photos outside Photrain?

Photos can be shared directly on social networks and on forums (BBCode) or web pages (HTML).

Shortcut Keys

Photrain allows you to navigate through photos using shortcut keys. The supported keys are the following:
-> (right arrow): next photo;
<- (left arrow): previous photo;
L (L key): like/upvote;
D (D key): dislike/downvote;
Z (Z key): zoom;
S (S key): skip photo (upvote page only).

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