The Photography Forum - Your feedback wanted

Admiral Huddy · 17 Jan 2014 at 16:35

Reading through the photography forum of late, I don’t think it comes by any surprise to learn that the forum has been in decline for a while now and we would like this to change for the better.

We would therefore like to ask you for your help by providing your honest opinion and feedback. We would like to know what you feel we can do to improve the Photography forum to encourage more interest and posting in this section.

What we don’t want is this turning into a bitter argument about what’s gone on in the past but instead look forward and make positive changes to restore its popularity.

We want to encourage photographers at all levels to be able to share their photographs and knowledge in a friendly environment without feeling intimidated or unwelcome.

We have some excellent photographers here so I hope this is a positive move and look forward to hearing you comments and suggestions in due course.

All the best

Admiral Huddy · 17 Jan 2014 at 17:11

I couldn't agree more with you James regarding the strength of the Watermark system imposed. It's a decision that was quite rightly overturned and whilst we maintain our policy that the forums aren't to be used for commercial gain we do recognise the fact that photographers (pro or amateur) shouldn't have to change their images for them to post.

I saw the competition comments made by Phate and a few other yesterday which was what got me thinking. The link from GD maybe a good idea if everyone share this thought. Maybe the poll should open after the closing date for entries.

We are just throwing ideas ion the table for the time being though.

Admiral Huddy · 20 Jan 2014 at 10:05

I've not had time to read through all the above yet. My general feeling is that creating a sub-forum isn't a great idea at this stage. This would just water down what we have already.

edit

It seems the closing of the general "Post your pictures" thread seems popular.

Could have annual threads for specific categories such as :

"Buildings & Architecture - 2014"
"People & Portraits - 2014"
"Animals, wildlife & insects - 2014"

etc..

These can be closed at the end of each year and start new and this would be a good time to start.

Admiral Huddy · 20 Jan 2014 at 10:19

Of course - Everything is on the table. This is what this thread is about

Admiral Huddy · 20 Jan 2014 at 10:31

An Exception said:
Just out of curiosity. How many of the mods/staff here actually like/care about photography and this section of the forum?

The forum was gradually gutted as others have said, but that is in the past, and it's about time we all left it there. If the mods are serious, there is no reason why this forum can't be bigger/better than before.

...

Very serious and my aim to to be a little more proactive and to take this forum forward the best way we can. We want to work with the members to make sure everyone enjoys the experience.

Shadowness said:
I got put off when I had to remove my sig, which was just a 'portfolio' of my photos.

They said, company advertising is not accepted.

Pit pathetic really.

I sympathise and we realise this was a mistake but a mistake we've learnt from hopefully. Although we have relaxed the rule on images, pimping for business .. like "buy my images here" so to speak on the forums will still be prohibited. What you have on your website is non - of our concern[within reason].

Admiral Huddy · 20 Jan 2014 at 10:47

again

Admiral Huddy · 20 Jan 2014 at 13:30

Raymond Lin said:
The competition died because whom shall not be named decided to take it out of the member's hands and placed it in mod's hands for reasons I still cannot fathom.

I stopped posting for ages and don't post as much photos (I haven't stopped taking them, my Facebook page gets one posted every other day) because the rules here changes from week to week without notice in the past. What was legit one minute then it suddenly isn't, and you find out when you realised there is a padlock on the forum. There seem to be this infinite time retrospective loophole that the moderation team can decide to ban you for something you've done 2 years earlier and was seen by the mod who banned me himself numerous times. If someone can put it in black and white that stops happening it would be a first step. At least if you are going to change the rules, give us a heads up and notice. (Re-Watermark)

I don't think pigeon hole any theme is a good idea. It will end up another dumping ground. Let users post their new photos in a new thread with their own approproate title. Just like in other sub-forums here. By all means start a thread on say the Fuji X-series or X-M1 and keep all the talk about that camera there, that is actually useful but in terms of sharing the pictures, let it be more organic. It is an organic process - photography.

I agree also Raymond.

When you say let members create their own threads and own photos, do you mean like "Raymond Lin's Photo Thread" or purely on an ad-hoc basis?

I quite like the idea off seeing an individuals work in one thread.

Admiral Huddy · 20 Jan 2014 at 13:36

Rojin said:
If the mods could crack down on threads that drift off topic and those of us who can start to generate more threads... who knows?

We will certainly try but this your forums too so everyone can play their part in keeping the threads on topic.

We need a consensus on the competition as there is only one, but we can all try to do something with regards to thread creation and discussions? That's why I created the themed threads a while back, all we were doing was discussing what we could do but doing nothing!

The competition is being discussed in another thread. My feeling is to start small and work the way up. If the first competition generates enough interest then you can thank about being a little more adventurous but making a star is better than none at all.

Burnsy2023 said:
Perhaps we should let the members decide what they might like to do and not be too prescriptive? Reading the thread it seems that having too many rules seems to be a root of the issue.

Agreed.

5UB said:
I think creating a thread on what ever the user wants would be best. So if Raymond wanted to start his own thread including just his photos he can do that. Or if he wanted to make a new thread for each photography work he has done then let it be.

I don't think there needs to be a rule there, we just want people to share their work on our forums, and show it off for everyone to see without being strict.

Agreed also.

Admiral Huddy · 20 Jan 2014 at 13:45

I certainly think that's the way forward [both you comments]. I've been lurking too long purely on the basis that everything has been "pigeon holed".

I think the photo comp is announcement in GD is an excellent idea providing it's ok with the other Dons/Admin team.

Admiral Huddy · 20 Jan 2014 at 13:53

That would be great