Everything changes and moves on, and Mon Book Photo is no exception.
This site was born 23 years ago, and 14 years had passed since it last saw a major overhaul. In the meantime the internet has changed, and so has the technology — it was time to make use of what is now possible and give you a site that is better to look at and simpler to use.
Here it is. Thank you for your patience over these few days: everything had to move from one server to another, and there was a great deal to carry.
Take your time looking around. This post is here to help you settle in — above all with the one thing likely to surprise you: ratings have gone down, and that is deliberate.
Nothing is lost
Your photographs, your votes, your comments, your favourites and the people you follow have all come across as they were, with their titles, descriptions and categories.
- Your username and password stay the same. There is nothing to create again. On your first sign-in your password is simply re-saved using a more secure form of encryption: there is nothing for you to do.
- New: your email address works for signing in too. Either one, whichever you prefer — something the old site did not allow.
- Your old links still work. A photograph or book address you had saved or shared elsewhere will take you to the right place on the new site.
- Forgotten your password? The "Forgotten password" link on the sign-in page will send you what you need to choose a new one.
Your photographs are sharper than before. The old site enlarged them to fill the page; the new one shows them at their true resolution. Some will therefore look a little smaller — they are simply being shown as they are, rather than stretched.
Two or three things on your first sign-in
The new site asks for a few details the old one did not require: date of birth, a short introduction, country and city. City and country are what make searching by proximity possible. It takes a minute, and you will only be asked once.
If your account was active on the old site, your email address remains verified and there is nothing to confirm. If your account had never been activated, you will be asked to confirm your address before you can complete your profile.
Why your ratings have gone down
This is the most visible change, and it deserves a full explanation.
On the old site, simply opening a photograph counted towards its rating, exactly as a vote did. That share was not marginal: on the oldest photographs it was often most of the rating. Some sat at the top of the rankings on only a handful of real votes — the rest came from the number of times they had been displayed.
From now on, a rating reflects only judgements actually expressed. Three things go into it:
- the points given by members who voted;
- favourites, which count for more than a plain vote — marking a photograph as a favourite is a stronger gesture than scoring it;
- a small bonus when several different members have voted, a shared opinion being more meaningful than an isolated one.
Ratings are therefore lower across the board. But they fell for everyone, by the same rule: what matters is your position relative to others, not the absolute number.
Isn't that unfair to older photographs? Rather the opposite. The old calculation mechanically favoured the oldest pictures, which had had years to accumulate views; a recently published photograph could not compete, however good it was. The new calculation puts everyone on equal footing: only the judgement of members counts.
And the most-viewed ranking? It no longer exists. Attention follows prominence: a ranking like that mostly measures where the site chose to put a photograph, and ends up rewarding what provokes rather than what succeeds. The view count is still shown on every photograph, as information — no longer as a leaderboard.
The rating scale itself is unchanged: 0 to 3 points, and 0 to 5 for Premium members.
What you will find
- Private messaging. You can talk to another member without giving out your email address, and block them if you need to. There is a limit on new conversations — 5 per rolling 7 days — but replying within a conversation already open is never limited: the rule targets bulk messaging of strangers, not being responsive. You also need three published photographs before you can start a conversation.
- Following. Follow your favourite photographers and models, and find their new work in a feed of your own.
- Notifications you control. On the site and by email, with fine-grained control over what you receive, through which channel and how often — the Notifications section of your settings. If the volume bothers you, that is where it is fixed, not by leaving.
- Translation on request for messages, comments and descriptions written in a language other than yours, available to every signed-in member.
- Search by proximity, and browsing by tags.
- A home page put together by hand, photograph by photograph, rather than at random.
- A layout that adapts to a telephone as well as a large screen.
And you are reading the first post on our blog
The site now has a blog, and here you are. We want it useful rather than talkative, and it will be built around four sections:
- Tutorials — techniques and tips, from framing to light, for the beginner finding their feet as much as the photographer refining their work.
- Gear reviews — cameras, lenses, accessories. What they do in real conditions, rather than what their spec sheets claim.
- News — what is moving in the world of photography.
- Announcements — what is new on the site, like this.
Every post is open for comments. That is most of the point: we write to start the conversation, not to have the last word. Your questions, your disagreements and your own methods all belong there.
Two ways to keep up: the blog's RSS feed, and the Notifications section of your settings, which can tell you whenever something new is published.
Nude content stays in your hands. The setting is in your profile and you choose how far you wish to go; beyond what you have chosen, a photograph is still visible but blurred and marked with a badge — nothing is forced on you, and nothing is hidden from you that you cannot choose to open. Explicit content is never available to visitors who are not signed in.
Premium: there is nothing to pay
Premium is not for sale. No paid subscription is offered at this time: nothing is asked of you, no bank details are collected, and there is nothing to cancel. Premium access is granted occasionally by the team.
We may open a subscription later. If we do, the terms will be amended first and nobody will be charged without having accepted them.
This is deliberate: we would rather open the new site, gather your feedback and settle the last details before asking anything of anyone.
A clear-out along the way
We took the opportunity of this migration to remove a large number of fake accounts, created automatically to post advertising links. Those accounts had no real activity: no photograph, no vote, no exchange.
If you find that a legitimate account has disappeared, write to us: we keep a backup and can restore it. It is also why confirming your email address is now required — very nearly all automatic sign-ups stop at that step.
If something is wrong
A missing photograph, a number that looks wrong, a page that will not load: tell us. A migration on this scale never goes perfectly, and your reports are by far the best way of finding what escaped us. A report link is available throughout the site, and the FAQ already answers most questions.
We are very glad to have you back. The site belongs to you more than to us: you are the ones who fill it.
See you very soon, and happy shooting.
The Mon Book Photo team