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I
like to think that I'm a literary person but when I pick
up a magazine or local newspaper, let's face it. I find
myself first looking at the pictures. Maybe it's the
fault of a simple mind or maybe humans are just drawn to
visual representations first because it's easier and in
many cases, so much more powerful. I think we'll stick
with the simpleton diagnosis in my case but there's no
getting around the power of photos. This would be the
opportune time to regurgitate the "pictures is worth a
1000 words" saying but I won't do that. Ooops.
Anyway, we wanted the Zipper to have the ability to add
and view local news and if possible, local gossip
pictures (not sure what that would look like but let's
keep it legal). There are just some situations where a
picture nails a local news story. Let's look at how to
bring pictures into the....picture.
First, a quick thought on what makes local news...news.
If I write a Zip on the coffee I'm drinking right now,
that's not news. Who really cares. It's pretty similar
to every other cup of coffee had everywhere around the
world no matter how good your local brew might be. Not
very interesting and definitely not news, local or
otherwise. To be local news, a given situation needs to
be out of the ordinary almost by definition. If
anything, it new to you. This generally falls into 2
categories. One is that which we expect such as the
results of a high school football game or the meeting to
vote on a new sports stadium. We expect a decision one
way or the other but the final outcome is news to us.
The other is something completely unexpected such as a
small plane landing on one of our freeways. Definitely
not expected. The latter category is probably more apt
to need a photo. Better put, we want to "see that".
You don't usually see a plane on a highway unless you're
deep in a 3rd world country and even then, it's novel.
Even in the 1st category, we want to see the
outcome,...maybe a candidate giving an acceptance speech
or if you're partisan, giving that elusive bug-eyed
capture. Who doesn't love the inevitable strange look
with stop motion photography. If anything, the photo
provides an almost instantaneous answer to our question
of "who won??". We can read further if we want the
picture draws our attention which is next important
point about adding pictures to your zip.
When
you're scanning through text, what catches your eye. If
you have 10 zips at the top of the Zipper in a given
category and one of them has a picture, which Zip post
do you think will get the most play? Most likely, it's
the one with the picture. We can't help it being visual
creatures. Of course, the picture needs to match the
Zip's content or it will get pummeled and knocked down
almost instantaneously with the Thumbs.
How
do you add a picture to a Zip? It's easy. When you're
creating the zip post, there will be a button right
there for add picture. You can even add it later or as
a rezip if you need to. This provides a pictorial
history of a given local news event which is really
cool. So go ahead, snap away and may your Zips
pop.
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