1x
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This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (July 2010) |
| URL | 1x.com |
|---|---|
| Slogan | Best photos on the web |
| Commercial? | Yes |
| Type of site | Online photo gallery |
| Registration | Optional |
| Owner | 1X Innovations AB |
| Created by | Jacob Jovelou, Ralf Stelander |
| Launched | February 26, 2007 |
| Alexa rank |  6,193 (March 2012[update])[1] |
| Current status | Active |
1x or 1x.com is an online photo gallery and a community website for photographers. Anyone can register an account and upload photos, but only images selected by the site screeners/editors will be visible in the gallery which makes it different from most other photo communities where any uploaded photo can be viewed by the members instantly. The site has a photo critique section and a forum about photography.
Contents |
[edit] Membership
There are four membership types on 1x as of july 2010.[2] "Basic membership" is free and allows you to upload 1 photo per week and use all community features. "Bronze Premium membership" is a paid membership with 5 uploads per week. Paid membership also comes with a personal homepage on a separate domain that can be used to upload any photo without screening process. 1x previously had a "Bronze Membership" without the homepage but it was removed in early 2010.
"Silver membership" and "Gold membership" is awarded to active and talented members and cannot be purchased separately.[2]
The membership level is visible on the color of the name of the photographer.
[edit] Screening process
Screening of uploaded photos is done by anyone of the 8 official photo screeners. Photos can be screened by one person only (called "instant publish" or "instant rejection"). This generally happens on the really good or really bad images. Average quality images are reviewed by the more than one screener and sometimes also by the members in a process called "member screening". Any member can vote on images in "member screening" on a scale from 1-6. This information goes back to the official photo screener who always takes the final decision.
Screening is not anonymous which has sparked controversy in the forums a few times because of the risk of bias. The member screening however is completely anonymous.
[edit] Photo critique
Any photo uploaded to the site can be posted in the forums for photo critique. All members can contribute with critique but the moderation is very strict and short/shallow comments are instantly deleted by a team of moderators. There is also a team of "Senior critics" which are selected by the moderator team for their good abilities to provide photo critique.
[edit] Forums
The forums are primarily photo related but there is also a subsection for off-topic discussions.
[edit] History
The site was founded as "Onexposure" on 16 February 2007 by Jacob Jovelou and Ralf Stelander from Uppsala, Sweden. At that time, all screening was done by Jacob and Ralf. It took almost a year until the first non-founding screener was appointed on 2 January 2008.[3]
[edit] Name change to 1X
On 21 September 2008 the site crew announced that the name of the site would change from "onexposure.net" to "1x.com".[4] The name 1x.com was chosen because it is shorter, a com-domain and that it matches the original name (1 = one - x = exposure).
[edit] Growth
1x has over 5500 published photographers.[5] The exact number of members is unknown, but looking at the user id from newly created members suggest that it is over 55000 members.
[edit] Traffic
The site had an Alexa rating of 2973 as of June 21, 2010.[5] No exact visitor amounts are released from the crew but the most visited photo on the site has almost 1 million unique views.[6]
[edit] Hosting
Site is hosted in a data center in Uppsala, Sweden and running on lighttpd, memcached and MySQL. All servers are named from Swedish towns.[7]
[edit] References
- ^ "1x.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/1x.com. Retrieved 2012-03-02.
- ^ a b "1x.com memberships from FAQ". 2010-07-07. http://1x.com/about/#faq10. Retrieved 2010-07-07.
- ^ "Screener forum announcement". 2008-01-02. http://1x.com/forum/site-news/2736/080102-new-screener-ulf-brjesson. Retrieved 2011-11-14.
- ^ "Forum announcement about name change". 2008-09-21. http://1x.com/forum.php?action=viewtopic&tid=7278. Retrieved 2010-07-07.
- ^ a b "List of artists at 1x.com". 2010-07-07. http://1x.com/artists/. Retrieved 2010-07-07.
- ^ "Most visited photo on 1x.com". 2010-06-21. http://1x.com/?viewpic=22988. Retrieved 2010-07-07.
- ^ "1x.com founder writes about the infrastructure". 2010-06-21. http://jajo.1x.com/journal/535. Retrieved 2010-07-07.
