Another very nice collection of articles this month. We try to include a little bit of everything to appeal to all of you in one way or another but ideally you should be telling us what you like and dislike. HelpMeFind is after all intended to be your site with its content and direction guided by you.

This month I'd like to discuss one of our most popular features, our photo collection. Thanks to you, we currently have almost 80,000 photos and that number grows significantly everyday. Included among our many photo contributors are some professional and professional-level photographers and while we gain new contributors every week, a few very talented individuals have cut back sending photos to HMF. They are, understandably, unhappy with unauthorized use of their photos. Often by chance, their photos are discovered on another website.

This pilfering of photos has a two fold effect. First and foremost, it is in violation of the copyrights of the contributor and in the case of professional photographers, can be denying them compensation for their work. This leads to the second effect - they become less inclined to contribute photos to HelpMeFind and we all lose out.

We have found most photo contributors readily allow the use of their photos for non-commercial purposes and their fees for commercial use are often quite reasonable. You need only ask and you can do that using the "Comments & Questions" tab found on each full-size photo display. We want to keep our photo contributors happy and you can help. If you find copies of HMF photos on another web site please either notify the owner of that web site or contact us with the details. We will be working with owners to help them protect their rights and prevent unauthorized use of their photos.

Another way you can help with HMF photos is to give us feedback. Here again you use the "Comments & Questions" tab. The scale of HelpMeFind makes it impossible for us to review and verify each photo. We need your help to keep the site (your site!) accurate. If you come across a misidentified photo, or any other error for that matter, please take the time to post a comment. Do keep in mind bloom form and color can vary significantly depending on location and climate.

This last point about location and climate is a particularly important one if we want HMF to be more then just a collection of "pretty" pictures. Please include details with the photos you upload. At the very least please, use the upload comments to indicate the photo date and location. If you have the time and inclination, more is better, include local conditions, time of day, etc.

We've made a few changes to our photo upload feature and we have a few more planned. You can now select from a list of photo content types. Most of you upload photos of the plant's bloom as they are obviously the most beautiful, often stunning. We are encouraging everyone to also include photos of the whole plant as well as close ups of specific parts like the foliage or buds. A planned enhancement is to allow you to limit photo selection to specific aspects, like content type, and this should prove particularly useful for plant identification.

Enjoy!