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Panoramio is a photography community about photos of the World. There is so much more in this World than the photos selected following the Google Earth and Google Maps acceptance criteria and for this reason we want to give you the freedom to show your own perspective of the place we live in with Panoramio Groups.
Panoramio Groups is a place for discussions about a topic you may feel enthusiastic about. "Wild animals in Africa", "Traditional Dances", "Portraits" or "Lakes of North America"; can be topics worth a discussion, so go ahead and try to find a group that fits your taste or create a new one if you do not find the topic you are interested in. You may also use Panoramio groups to organize a Panomeeting and share the experiences and photos of the meeting with the world or you may also want to use Panoramio groups to organize a photo competition or to play some games. Only your imagination can decide what can be done with Panoramio groups.
Each group consists of members, a discussion section and a collection of photos. Each group has a layer associated that allows the visualisation of the photos on a map within Panoramio, in Google Earth and even at your own Website in a Slideshow with an embeddable widget created with the Panoramio Widget API.
If it is the first time you access Groups you can do so by:
If you are already a member of a group, you may want to access the group directly. Each group has a group ID and the option of a group URL. In that case you can access the group directly using:
You may also want to browse the Panoramio Groups directory to find a group of your interest.
In groups you can be an owner, a moderator, a member or a visitor.
Each Panoramio user is a visitor. Like everything in Panoramio, the content of Panoramio groups is public. This means that photos and discussions are available to everyone on the web, so visitors can view the photos, the conversation and the members of a group.
A group member is a Panoramio user passionate with the topic of the group. A group member can collaborate with good photos and nice discussions. Being a member of the group means you love that topic, not that you are the best on it. A member of a group can:
A group moderator is a group member with some additional rights granted by the owner with the objective to have the group well managed. A group can have multiple moderators and any member of the group can apply for moderation rights to the owner of the group.
A group owner has even more rights than a moderator. The person that created the group is automatically an owner, but he or she can invite more users to become owners.
This table shows what each kind of user can do:
| Visitor | Member | Moderator | Owner | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| See photos, members, conversations | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Add photos | yes | yes | yes | |
| Participate in discussions | yes | yes | yes | |
| Invite other users to join | yes | yes | yes | |
| Accept new members | yes | yes | ||
| Remove other user's photos | yes | yes | ||
| Remove members | yes | yes | ||
| Set group description and rules | yes | |||
| Invite members to become moderators | yes | |||
| Remove other user's moderation rights | yes | |||
| Set the group presentation photo | yes | |||
| Invite moderators to become owners | yes | |||
Check the Panoramio Groups directory to see whether there is already a group that fits your needs as you may want to join it. If that is not the case, go to www.panoramio.com/groups and click on the "Create Group"; button to get started.
To create a group you’ll need to upgrade your account to a Google Account if you have not done so yet.
When you create a group, you can define:
All this information can be modified at any time by the owner of the group in the Settings. The Settings of the group can be reached by clicking on the Settings link on the group main page (only visible by the owner).
Each group has also an avatar associated to it that should be descriptive of the group. The avatar can only be changed by the owner of the group on the Settings page of the group.
Group Settings allow the owner of the group to change group name, group summary, group description and rules, and group avatar.
Group Settings are accessible following the link that appears after the group's name in the group's main page. As the owner of the group is the only member allowed to do changes in the Settings, the Settings link is only visible to the owner.
A descriptive avatar is very important to attract new members to the group. An avatar can only be selected after the creation of the group, while the rest of the settings can be defined during the creation of the group. We recommend group owners to have this Settings well defined and clear as this may decide the success of the group.
To join an existing group, go to the group page and click on the "Join group" button. Group membership requests need to be accepted by the owner or by any of the moderators of the group, for this reason when you click "Join group" you’ll have the opportunity to send a message together with an example of the photos you will contribute to make your application more interesting. A notification will be sent to your email inbox as soon as your application gets accepted.
If you are a member of a group and want to cancel your membership, just go to the group page and click on the "Leave this group" link under the Membership section on the right navigation bar.
To join a group you’ll need to upgrade your account to a Google Account if you have not done it yet. You don’t need an upgraded account if you are just visiting a group.
Panoramio users can create and own up to 20 groups. Deleted groups do not count towards this limit. There is no limit to the number of groups a user can be member or moderator.
You can add photos to a group from the Photo Page or from the Group Page and the same photo can be added to more that one group on the same time.
Removing a photo from a group never deletes the photo from the user account, but on the other side deleting a photo from your account removes it from any group you added it previously.
A Panoramio user can be invited to a group from the user page or from the photo page.
Group discussions is the new section where you can have a conversation about the group’s topic, about any of the photos uploaded in the group, or whatever you come up with.
You can keep up to date with group discussions on the web, or you can subscribe to a daily summary of the discussions via email. To change your subscription settings to a group go to the "Discussions" section of the group and click on "My membership".
You can add photos in the discussions to comment about them, or to help supporting your arguments. To do so:
This will add an image in original size in the discussion. We recommend to change the size of the image to "Medium" and to add a link to your photo page so users can visit your photo and leave you a comment personally. To do so:
It is also recommended to add the link to the Photo page under the image in discussions. This way it is clearer for others how to access your photo.
From the main page of a group you will find links to:
Group photos can be added to any website or blog using the Panoramio Widget API. Check the Widget API help content for more information.
Groups are individual communities. Deleting a group is something that needs to be done very cautiously as deletion is permanent and a deleted group can not be recovered.
A group owner can delete a group after carefully considering the implications. For this reason, the option is only available after the removal of all members and photos from the group (no need to remove Discussions).
After removing members and photos from the group, the Group owner will have to go to the Settings page of the group where a "Delete this group" button will be placed under the avatar of the group.
If, as a group owner, you'd like to leave a group, but you don't want to delete the group because it is a lively community of users, please contact questions@panoramio.com so we can transfer the group ownership to some other group member.
Having an interesting group is what will keep your group alive. Whether you are the owner, a moderator or a member, it is your responsibility to have an interesting group. These are a few tips that may help you do that:
Panoramio believes in Freedom of Speech and that is why we developed this tool, to allow Panoramio users to discuss about photography and the World. Panoramio Groups are small communities ruled by the Panoramio Terms of Service and restricted by the rules of the group defined by the owner of the group. when participating in a group, please remember this 3 principles:
Panoramio Groups policies are the same as those listed in the Panoramio Terms of Service.
In addition, groups owners are responsible to define their groups specific rules. Owners, Moderators and Members are responsible to make sure those rules are followed. If a member is not following the groups rules, it is the owner's and/or the moderator's responsibility to take appropriate action.
A group will be deleted together with all its content if it is not following the Panoramio Terms of Service.
Group specific criteria for photo selection and Google Earth/Google Maps criteria for photo selection are different concepts.
For example, you could have a group called "Old cars" where a photo of a mountain would not be accepted, even though that photo would be suitable for the Google Earth/Google Maps layer, while a photo of and old car would be accepted in the group and at the same time rejected from the Google Earth/Maps layer.