Critique Sub-forum Poll

mloc

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054924701

Who would be in favour of a sub-forum dedicated to critique, as discussed in the above thread?

Personally, I remain undecided.

elven

The cake option was tempting, but I think there's a chance the main forum would die so I had to plump for 'no'.

Fajitas!

As I posted in the other thread, I'm gonna have to go with no! I don't want another forum I use dying!

Flipflip

I clicked nO!

unklerosco

If the cake option wasnt there id have gone with no.. but i just like cake to much..

aFlabbyPanda

dont see the point really. even posts looking for feedback often spin off about lenses/how to's/etc so I think it would be better to keep it all together.

Fionn

a few things come to mind when considering this:

1. would people (prolly like me) bombard a sub forum with horrible, bland dull usless photos just because its dedicated to C & C thereby possibly having none of the more experienced and successful people visiting
2. might some people view it as competitive and perhaps then tend not to post, thereby losing out on encouragement and advice.
3. i would think the balance would ultimately suffer in favour of one section over the other which could be the end of the forum.
4. on the positive side it certainly would be a lot easier to navigate, would it be possible to publish the exif information along with the pics? that'd be a great tool for beginners
5. what are people's feelings about posting full sized pics as opposed to either links or thumbnails. Personally i prefer the thumbnail i think it aids the navigation and allows the user to preview posts easier
6. perhaps an alternative would be a sticky where members could post links to their online albums etc. then if they have uploaded a project or whatever, request for C & C pointing to the link in the sticky

I'm borderline on the choices but i think i'll err on the side of caution and vote no

melekalikimaka

ahhhh i like that sticky idea, i only suggested it cos personally i like to read discussions bout photography alot more that c & c, and recently the place is getting an awful lot of c & c

elven

Yup that's a good idea. Would it be worth someone setting up a group in Flickr or something if we don't have the facility here for a gallery type thing?

I can only get a standard 'yes darling thats lovely' from the husband when I show him my stuff so it's nice to have somewhere to post that has people who are interested in photography to share them with, and hopefully get constructive comments. But I do also enjoy discussing the process and the philoshophy of photography so I'd hate to see either element lost in the forum. I think it's just down to actually prompting discussion by posting new threads on something that you want to discuss - in fact there's a couple of things I'm thinking about posting today. The sticky idea may work very well, because currently if there's a new thread for every set of images, the threads which are pure discussion topics are disappearing on to the second page very quickly.

At the end of the day, there's only so much talking you can do without putting your money where your mouth is and posting some of your own work. It has to be about the process but also about the end result as well.

melekalikimaka

i think the flickr idea would possible over complicate things for non regulars, what i would like is after a set time period maybe the photos be sent to some sort of gallery for all of us to look back on, as i would like as i look at someones pics to be able to refer to other work by them.

Dimy

Oh I like the FlickR group idea! And it's easy enough to set up... doesn't mean we cannot use the boards anymore at all to showcase photo's of course, it's just an extra

On a sidenote, I voted NO for the subforum.

elven

I think it would be easy enough to have a guest flickr account set up, and if someone isn't a flickr member and can't be bothered signing up, they can just use that. To stop any random person using it though just keep the login secret - but have a sticky where you can request the login, and have it pm'ed to you. That way it is limted to people registered on boards.ie - and it saves a mod the hassle of uploading and naming and tagging and sorting the random pictures people have posted in threads.

We need a mod's opinion on this one I think.

mloc

yeah the sticky/flickr system sound like a good idea.

rymus

elven wrote:

I think it would be easy enough to have a guest flickr account set up, and if someone isn't a flickr member and can't be bothered signing up, they can just use that. To stop any random person using it though just keep the login secret - but have a sticky where you can request the login, and have it pm'ed to you. That way it is limted to people registered on boards.ie - and it saves a mod the hassle of uploading and naming and tagging and sorting the random pictures people have posted in threads.

We need a mod's opinion on this one I think.

Does that not seem needlessly complicated to anyone else? Why not stay the way we are now and have the whole thing contained in one place where it can be easily viewed and maintained? As we've all seen, threads can get out of hand / go off topic and they can be easily dealt with. I personally don't fancy having to keep an eye on an extra forum. I voted no because I can't see the point of it. Like others, I don't want the primary reason people come here to be diverted and have this forum die slowly and quietly.

Fionn

my main point really was if someone wants to post a number of pictures then they should be only a link in the post not full sized pictures and that those pictures would be easily viewable by other members. Not everyone wants to make comments nor view pictures, then some do! It'd be good if there was a choice. What i suggested - the threads would remain the same but there might not be as many pictures which perhaps some people might not like. So i dunno
I'm not a big fan of huge pictures in posts, thats why i prefer to use thumbnails, gives people a choice as to whether they want to look or not! but thats just my preference

lostexpectation

I always thought there was room for a snaps to be put up somewhere, although perhaps they wouldn't nessecarily go on the photography forum but holdiay/events snaps have their place.

joolsveer

elven wrote:

I think it would be easy enough to have a guest flickr account set up, and if someone isn't a flickr member and can't be bothered signing up, they can just use that. To stop any random person using it though just keep the login secret - but have a sticky where you can request the login, and have it pm'ed to you. That way it is limted to people registered on boards.ie - and it saves a mod the hassle of uploading and naming and tagging and sorting the random pictures people have posted in threads.

We need a mod's opinion on this one I think.

I agree with elven on this. If there are no rules on the posting of photographs in this forum and there is an unwillingness to have a coherent set of guidelines on what is suitable content and size of contribution in the current forum we should have either a flickr account or a separate forum. These/this could be dedicated photo galleries.

aFlabbyPanda

I'm with rymus on this. I think the flikr idea would be too much trouble to be honest and would prevent new people from posting pics. They wouldnt have the password to begin with and may feel too intimidated to ask for it.

I think some rules like size, number of pics per post (or just provide a link to them) & a maybe including C&C in the heading might just be simpler.

Plenty of people have their albums in their sig's so a sticky with this info just seems excessive to me.

Dimy

BrianjG wrote:

I think some rules like size, number of pics per post (or just provide a link to them) & a maybe including C&C in the heading might just be simpler.

Personally I hate clicking links and prefer to have the images in the post. However, some people are posting unnessesary large files (not just the width and height, but also large in file size). Maybe some rules for image size would be a good idea. For example a maximum of 640pixels width and a maximum of 1 MB (be it 10 images of 100kb or 1 of 1 MB) per post seems fair.

elven

I think Fionn has a very good suggestion with the thumbnails. Large images in the thread itself is off-putting.

The reason I suggested the Flickr group was to keep everything together,so you can browse a general selection of our pictures and also leave comments on the pictures themselves. But if we're happy to go through posts to find people's work then there's no need for it. Just trying to throw ideas out there.

If the C&C is to continue in the main forum, a rough standard should be established, surely, to stop the entire forum being full of just 'what do you think of my pictures' threads and pushing the other discussion topics on to the next page... but I wouldn't know what to suggest. It'd basically have to be a general guideline on how often to post or something, but I don't know what to suggest beyond that. I think it doesn't really matter how many pictures are in a post, without it being ridiculous obviously - but the thumbnails suggestion would minimise that problem anyway.

pclancy

I voted yes but the cake option was very unfair and distracting, especially at this time of the morning when my sugar level is so low.

ChityWest

I voted no as well - I dont think there is a need for it - and its possible that it would discourage input and also discourage valuable feedback.

I also dont go for the flickr idea - people should not have to sign up with a particular online storage place to post photos - links to wherever the person displays their photos are fine with me.

Its a single click and you have the choice to load say 4/5 rather than opening them all directly when clicking on the boards.ie thread imo.

rymus

if people are looking for space to upload photos, I can set aside a few gigs on my server...

joolsveer

elven wrote:

I think Fionn has a very good suggestion with the thumbnails. Large images in the thread itself is off-putting.

The reason I suggested the Flickr group was to keep everything together,so you can browse a general selection of our pictures and also leave comments on the pictures themselves. But if we're happy to go through posts to find people's work then there's no need for it. Just trying to throw ideas out there.

If the C&C is to continue in the main forum, a rough standard should be established, surely, to stop the entire forum being full of just 'what do you think of my pictures' threads and pushing the other discussion topics on to the next page... but I wouldn't know what to suggest. It'd basically have to be a general guideline on how often to post or something, but I don't know what to suggest beyond that. I think it doesn't really matter how many pictures are in a post, without it being ridiculous obviously - but the thumbnails suggestion would minimise that problem anyway.

If posts of photos are continued in the current way the size of thumbnails should be laid down and a set of guidelines on posting dos and don'ts should be established to get away from the present arbitrary nature. I would still be in favour of separating photos posts from ordinary text messages in order to give those of us with dial up speed connections a chance to decide on what posts we open.

melekalikimaka

a picture sticky, or possibly some sort of code like [critique] or [ C&C ] before the post title even?

rymus

we mentioned that before... Given some free time later on this week I'll draw up some guidelines. I think before we were going to put [RFC] before the thread title or something....

CoolBoardr

rymus wrote:

if people are looking for space to upload photos, I can set aside a few gigs on my server...

Ill have some free webspace if you're offering! I've been looking round for somewhere to host my photos and nowhere really suits what im after so i've decided to build my own site. I just need somewhere decent to host it...

joolsveer

Has there been any progress on this issue? I have noticed that not very many photos have been posted recently as if forum members are waiting for a big announcement. Any sign of white smoke?

mloc

what we do know is that there is a demand for cake. and that's progress.

440Hz

mloc wrote:

what we do know is that there is a demand for cake. and that's progress.

I have carefully read this thread, weighed up the positive and negatives of what has been said and come up with a very important thing which has been missed.... 'what KIND of cake'?


Sorry, seriously, I love Flickr, total addict, but I dont think we should have a Flickr group, cos that will just divert from this forum which is not a good plan. I think as far as Flickr is concerned, all regulars in this forum have id'ed themselves and most people have added each other as contacts so the same feedback can be given on Flickr without setting up a dedicated group.

joolsveer

440Hz wrote:

I have carefully read this thread, weighed up the positive and negatives of what has been said and come up with a very important thing which has been missed.... 'what KIND of cake'?


Sorry, seriously, I love Flickr, total addict, but I dont think we should have a Flickr group, cos that will just divert from this forum which is not a good plan. I think as far as Flickr is concerned, all regulars in this forum have id'ed themselves and most people have added each other as contacts so the same feedback can be given on Flickr without setting up a dedicated group.

The feed back on Flickr tends to be very civilised it lacks a certain visceral bite which is available here!