I don't actually know what people mean by this, unless of course it's because I'm in it or something. Wouldn't have thought so though considering the 'battles' that sometimes take place.
P's me off to, and is just bad manners.
I think it's a case of what came first, the chicken or the egg.
Personally I'm a believer of "If You Build It, They Will Come".
I know what they mean about the clique thing. There are about 4 or 5 people that constantly post in most threads. You are a part of it, but to be fair I think that's just a part of how the forum has matured. You've got the same people that understand each other and generally their way of thinking, so to an outsider I suppose it can be cliquey and off putting. That being said, a person can hardly dumb down or generalise in these threads due to the fact it's all been said and done. That's a bit of a hard one to change, if you even could to be fair. To me, as long as it's polite and non fan boy, then I enjoy the banter. It's when it gets out of hand that you get issues on a forum.
As for the mention of the picture thread, or the 'dump n run' as I see it, I think that should be kept. I treat that thread as most do, which is just a photo that you like but don't warrant it as good enough for it's own thread. I've no idea if others see it that way, but it's how I have seen it for a long time and due to the lack of comments in there, I imagine others see it the same way. The only issue I have with it is that if you are like me on most days, looking here from ipad or mobile whilst on a break from work (we can't all be pro photographers!), then the thread can kill your bandwidth limit (it doesn't mine, but I can see how it'd put off people). Something I will say about posting your own thread on these boards, that I have seen over several months is that if you're not one of the people that always posts about their latest wedding shoot, event or whatever you've been professionally hired for, and a part of the previously mentioned clique, no one will reply in the thread. It's annoying that you get fan followers that will even make stupid comments about how good a poor photo is too, because it's from someone seen as the cliquey crowd. That is the snobbery that puts people off, and to be fair to them I think only Ray and MrK seem to comment on other peoples work/photo/snap/idea/image outside the main posters.
A few of the things I've learned from decades on the net (god I'm old), is that people don't read sticky threads, rarely use the search function (and in some cases, a forums search function is so poor, this leads to people not bothering to begin with, on decent boards that have good search functions). With that in mind, it'd take a while for any changes to effectively be implemented unless it's very clear, like a pop up when you enter the forum section, not logged in, like some newer boards have. This could point out key sticky threads.
I personally like how the TP forums are laid out, although a mod on here a while ago stated you can't have a lot of sub forums in here, for some reason that I didn't understand. I would like:
Gear talk sub forum
Lighting sub forum
Critique sub forum
Lightroom/photoshop/processing sub forum - This would be really nice as there is a mountain of information that could be put in here and I could see that taking off, more than most things.
etc
To my mind, this works better as you can chose instantly what you want to read and don't have to trudge through arguments and irrelevant info you don't care about.
