You are the very first to mention it as far as I can recall, and I only did it on March 26th.
It's a new feature that I'm experimenting with and I think it's pretty neat so far.
"Recently Shared Photos" - here's how it works:
You know when you post a new photo to the database, and it appears on the homepage along with several other recently uploaded photos. During the time that it's there, it gets seen by everyone and you start harvesting those wonderful thumbs.
Well, since we get over a thousand photos a week, it's inevitable that your shiny new photo won't stay on the homepage for long, and consequently most people won't see it unless they dig deeper into the recently added photos (an action most people don't do.)
So, I'm experimenting with a way to make each person's photos more visible on the homepage for longer. So what it does it every minute the homepage will grab the names of all the members who have uploaded a photo to the database in the past 24 hours.
Then it takes that list of names, randomizes them, and takes 10 of those people. Then from those 10 people it takes a random image that they have posted in the past 24 hours, and displays it in the left hand bar.
This way if you upload a photo, you have a good chance it'll be on the homepage "most of the time" for the next 24 hours. If you upload 200 photos in one day, then those 200 photos will randomly be shown throughout the next 24 hours.
So far it's worked out pretty well. It's all part of my ongoing desire to give the new stuff to see as much exposure as possible.
