Photography forum - a new strategy

[MJP]

Oh God! Doesn't anyone take photos any more?? I took some today, but I said I wasn't going to post, so you ain't seeing them one of them!

yes I'm having a hard time getting back into this, a pile of nonsense just to please two or three members....

Don't take it so seriously Jimbo. I'm going to leave you guys to to sort it all out yourselves, hopefully with a new dedicated photog forum moderator. Oh yes! Fingers crossed!

[Rob8891]

Oh God! Doesn't anyone take photos any more?? I took some today, but I said I wasn't going to post, so you ain't seeing them one of them!

yes I'm having a hard time getting back into this, a pile of nonsense just to please two or three members....

Just a minor squall in the usually calm millpond. The SS Photography sails serenely on into the sunsets, sunrises and assorted watery scenes, SJ. The ripples are dying down, and the toys and dummies that went overboard have been scooped up and stored away back in the nursery tender for future use!!

Now get posting.... I am missing Samui scenes!

[samuijimmy]

So the sheep are allowed out of the pen again?....

[harrry]

Oh God! Doesn't anyone take photos any more?? I took some today, but I said I wasn't going to post, so you ain't seeing them one of them!

yes I'm having a hard time getting back into this, a pile of nonsense just to please two or three members....

Don't take it so seriously Jimbo. I'm going to leave you guys to to sort it all out yourselves, hopefully with a new dedicated photog forum moderator. Oh yes! Fingers crossed!

It is not against you MJP. Just artistic types do not like being put in straightjackets.

My guess is that you have seen that and know now what people like and will do a good job of moderating the thankfully rare people that come to this forum to actually disrupt.

Those anarak topics you have been posting are interesting and I am sure that if you add club competition type topics they will be good ones too. Just that what is here is good as it is and we do not want to lose that.

[MJP]

I will leave all this to others. I still recommend against mass uploads though. It doesn't add anything.

[Ace of Pop]

. Ive asked My Magic Pig,hes confused too Jim.

[MJP]

003.JPG. Ive asked My Magic Pig,hes confused too Jim.

Your Magic Pig just got off the phone to me and said "Oink oink, upload 'em one by one, oink, don't bother with mass uploads, oink."

Magic Pig is a very wise pig.

[Ace of Pop]

Magic Pig cant do Mass Downloads unless he Eat Green Mangoes.

[Goompa]

[MJP]

Too much of anything is not good for you baby . . . but I don't know 'bout that . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypyiAT1RelU

[Goompa]

STATEGIC MASS UPLOAD !

[Goompa]

Feel free to delete at will , previous post

[MJP]

My first, my last . . . but not my everything . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtwOeoeWhoo

[harrry]

There are

and there are:

ALL have there place even though it make take more of

to have the same impact as one of

[MJP]

^^Swamp tracks! Need some!

[samuijimmy]

Guess we can take our hard hats off now!

We'll carry on then....

[sunshine51]

M....can drain the swamp with these fairly easily....

Apols for venturing OT but I really like BIG earth moving machines & have liked em since I was a kid!

Edited November 22, 2014 by sunshine51

[Dancealot]

Finally the ice is broken and everyone is talking and listening together.

Nice to read members here are trying to self-moderate the photo-forum. I also see people walk away to take a break and return afterwards. There must be a reason to comeback and many more to stay here. Therefore I think a simple basis of demands won't help to form the new strategy.

I can't judge myself but I understand the forum needs improving and this change should benifit everyone. Any improvement should be based on focussing on current strengths of the forum. Communication is certainly not one of them so I think some ideas/improvements need to be clarified properly first.

Everyone can just walk in and join the forum. It's a very social place allowing people from completely different backgrounds but with similar ideas to connect and meet easily. This should be protected.

The forum's improvements should be attracting more photographers because I feel there are not enough. Naturally, I'm willing to support improvements will help..--.

[edit] --even a Mod.^

Edited November 23, 2014 by Dancealot

[samuijimmy]

Cheers,..... I'll drink to that!

Edited November 24, 2014 by samuijimmy

[harrry]

Cheers,..... I drink to that!

Help.....they have escaped from the Mountain Dew Forum......taking over the world.....hmmmmm

[Rob8891]

@ DAL et al.

Here's a quick response to your post (written before my first caffein-hit of the day, so excuse any errors!). Also, apologies for the format in which I have answered your post, but it is easiest to insert the responses at the appropriate place in your post.

Finally the ice is broken and everyone is talking and listening together.

I think people always were talking and listening, DAL, it was just the way in which some folk aired a (justifiable) grievance was not the most appropriate they might have chosen. There has been a lot of talking (I suspect very positive talking, to boot) through the use of PMs. I am certainly heartened by and grateful for the ones I received after my outburst. However, it needs to be said that the whole multiple-posting issue could have been avoided had certain people (I don't know who, I don't want to) had the decency to PM any member with whome they had a slight issue about posting. We are all (I hope) adult enough to have a sensible discussion about how the forum is going. As I have already said in a previous post in this thread, I was guilty of flood-posting, but only with the best of intentions: if that offended anyone, all they had to do was to drop me a PM....

Nice to read members here are trying to self-moderate the photo-forum. I also see people walk away to take a break and return afterwards. There must be a reason to comeback and many more to stay here. Therefore I think a simple basis of demands won't help to form the new strategy.

I can only speak for myself: the reason I came back was because of supportive PMs I received (you know who you are...Thanks!) and the fact that I realised that I was not going to be beaten by some anonymous malcontent, and lose the cameraderie that was developing between other posters and myself. Why should I cut off my nose to spite my face when I enjoy photography and seeing the contributions of other members? As for strategies? See my next comment

I can't judge myself but I understand the forum needs improving and this change should benifit everyone. Any improvement should be based on focussing on current strengths of the forum. Communication is certainly not one of them so I think some ideas/improvements need to be clarified properly first.

There is the PM facility to facilitate discussion, DAL, so we have this already, whether it be on a 1:1 basis or in a group. There is also the 'report button', but I cannot see tht this is something that needs to be used here, unless anyone decides to sink to the levels of the General or News forum. If we allow things to descend to that point, then there is no future for this forum. One or two posters have indeed worded comments very poorly (by Photography's standards). All I would say is please please think hard about how something might be taken, and remember that English is not everyone's first language, so a lot can go wrong in translation, even with the best of intentions!

Everyone can just walk in and join the forum. It's a very social place allowing people from completely different backgrounds but with similar ideas to connect and meet easily. This should be protected.

Absolute agreement from me on that!

The forum's improvements should be attracting more photographers because I feel there are not enough. Naturally, I'm willing to support improvements will help..--.

I agree that we need to make some improvements, and now that my eyes have been opened , I am more than happy to go along with MJP's suggestions. It seems eminently sensible to me that unless there is a good reason to do otherwise, we should post only a single photo to a thread each day and restrict the number of threads to which we post, as that is another way in which I (and others!) have inadvertently flooded the forum. Like many other, I have an in-built automatic aversion to rules and regulations (we live in Thailand after all!!) but rather than seeing 10 photos of mine in Wider World, or almost the whole of the first page of active threads all with the last post by XXX, let's give it a try. What can we possibly lose?

The only point I would take issue with is does the photo one posts have to be the best one has, or the one that will give most photographic enjoyment or amusement (in the case of certain threads)? If we are going to opt for only the best possible photo, then I foresee two things happening: firstly death of humour in this forum (heaven forbid!); and secondly the forum moves to a pro-bias, leving less and less room for the amateurs who gain so much enjoyment and enhancement from the mix of talents we have amongst us.

[edit] --even a Mod.^

If I have offended anyone's sensibilities, them it was wholly unintentional. Send me a PM and we can sort it out so there are no more low-flying toys or dummies . In posting to an anonymous forum, a lot of us do not know each others' circumstances, so accidents can happen..

Now let's see all yers photies!

[Ace of Pop]

Indeed Humour is a major part of this section...I remember "The Day Uncle Bought a Macro Lens". Prior to this purchase he took interesting shots of Bears in Alaska,Lakes of Switzerland etc,things worldwide we could all enjoy. Suddenly we were subjected to Bugs Eyes , and things looking like something from a Coroners Report...... Artistic Folks can be a bit touchy, but ive not seen anything ill intended here in my short presence here.

[harrry]

This storm will pass as others have in the past and hopefully we have not lost as many posters as we have in the past spats. I see that for a long time people will be walking on eggshells and that is not a good thing.

Everyone has their view. Sending PMs to members suggesting they post less is enforcing the view that less is more and their way is the right way and that is not neccescarily so.I have said my piece and as a non contributor of photos as I am no longer in a position to take many I like to see them. I like to see the technical ones in the technical threads where it is true that some moderation of posts which are off that topic may be needed and I especially like to see the human ones in the other topics where I cannot see why anyone should have to limit their posting to suit others, If people want to they can allways use ignore and not be bothered by those they do not like. If seeing photos is so objectionable they can always turn off automatic download of photos and only open the ones they want.

In a few months this will all pass over but I fear some remnants will remain as they have with other eras.

[shaggy1969]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=1WhhSBgd3KI

[Assurancetourix]

Few overall points of this discussion.

4) Should we have a "Let me introduce myself" thread, where our members could tell each others little bit who they are, where they live and where they are from. What they are interested in photography and what they wish to learn to do. Hobbies, professional work life, family pets etc. Nothing mandatory, only the things a person wishes to share. The post could included person's favourite photo.

Why not ? A good idea , I think ..

[harrry]

Few overall points of this discussion.

4) Should we have a "Let me introduce myself" thread, where our members could tell each others little bit who they are, where they live and where they are from. What they are interested in photography and what they wish to learn to do. Hobbies, professional work life, family pets etc. Nothing mandatory, only the things a person wishes to share. The post could included person's favourite photo.

Why not ? A good idea , I think ..

The wonder of a forum is that any member can start a thread labled "I am Foo" He can then make a post of who he is, he can post a few pictures for comment, he can post a post about why he took a photo etc.

We have gone far from the days where threads should have to be made for us. That stopped in the days of websites where the owner could make a page for someone. Nice point though oilinki that there are people behind the photos.

Edited December 14, 2014 by harrry