Photography forum; solution for the disgruntled.

rymus

In response to the recent, completely off the wall thread by TJJP... Anyone who would question the point of a forum obviously just doesn't get it. I can't recall ever seeing a thread or post in there by this user so I feel compelled to ask why they felt the need to try and bring down the forum (albeit seemingly with very little success).

usually get burned by the photo club mentality

There are fairly regular meets of a number of users on the forum, all the better to cultivate a friendly and productive environment I'd say. It's not like it's a closed system where we shun new users or deny them the right to participate. In fact more often than not when someone seeks advice on how to get experience or learn the basics of their new camera etc, they'll be openly invited along to whatever meetup is happening at the time. Turning up is their own choice but if they choose not to, I would assume they wouldn't come back to the forum, whine about the people or the forum itself and disappear into thin air.

the quality of moderatorship does seem dire at best

Dire at best? If there was a problem of any kind with the moderating or indeed the moderators then it would have been raised numerous times. The photography forum is not an easy one to keep under control but I believe that the two (most active) moderators; Elven and Fajitas are doing a wonderful job. Neither are heavy handed or one sided and similarly neither are they afraid to take action or slow in doing so. While no forum can be monitored 24 hours a day, I believe that the kind of supervision they give the forum is superb and they are to be commended for it.

Discussions do get heated, it'd be boring if they didn't. Humor finds it's way into threads and things can go off topic. So photography on boards is the only forum in the world that this happens? Try visiting some other photography forums and you'll run back to boards, delighted with the quality and the general community spirit.

I mean please people, can’t we do better?

I assume you were born with free will like the rest of us. Exercise it and if you don't like what goes on in photography, aim your mouse pointer elsewhere.

6th

TJJP has 27 posts on the Photography Forum and Sub-Forums.

rymus

not exactly a huge amount though.

6th

No but probably still more than me.

Anyway I agree that the Forum works very well and its one of the best sub-communities of Boards that I've had dealings with.

The post count of someone who complains doesn't come into it, this guy is wrong on everyone point he makes and anyone who's opinion matters will see that.

rymus

I dont have any issues with someones post count in any forum. You may only have a few posts in photography, but at least you haven't started condemning the place or questioning the point of its existence.

It's the people that come in, dont give it a proper chance before deciding for some reason that it's not the nicest place to be so they go bitching about it. Annoys the living **** out of me.

CuLT

I think you probably should just have not posted this thread. The other one was locked for a reason.

rymus

Just giving feedback.. not trying to piss anyone off or annoy admins.

Calina

CuLT wrote: »

I think you probably should just have not posted this thread. The other one was locked for a reason.

I suspect it was locked because quite a few people didn't agree with TJJP at the time.

How can you count how many posts someone has in a particular forum, by the way? I mean I've more than 2000 posts and I wouldn't mind knowing how many are in Photography?

6th

You do a search on the main search page. Posts made by user "Calina" and select the forum from the list. Makee sure to click to get post results not thread. It only shows a maximum of 500 which is what it says you have in Photography.

Paulw

I post a lot to the photography forum. I was totally surprised by the other thread in feedback complaining about it.

The photography forum (I've always found) is friendly and very helpful. If you have any question relating to photography you normally get some very good response within a few minutes.

The mods seldom have that much to do, since the place seems to run very smoothly, the vast majority of the time. Of course, from time to time there are issues, but they seem to be well dealt with.

Anyway, I really enjoy the photography section, and certainly hope it stays the way it is.

DeVore

I have to say I agree with PaulW!
I've used the forum quite a bit for my new found interest in Photography.

I've found that far from people being mean, there is a huge amount of support given to people who post pictures, almost to the point where there isnt ENOUGH constructive criticism

I didnt understand the original objection myself ...

DeV.

Fajitas!

Well, I have to say, I enjoy the photography forum. I mean, we have our bouts of being off topic, or people getting a bit angry, but hey, dosn't every forum/community.

The forum is (for me) a great community. I've made some great friends from it, learnt a hell of a lot, tbh, the biggest problem I've found is gear envy :rolleyes:

I'd like to think we do a good job at moderating. I'm not fond of having to ban people, or be heavy handed unless it's needed.

If there's something we're doing wrong, or can be done better, by all means, suggest it, PM myself or any of the Photog mods. We're pretty open, and don't bite.

6th

Fajitas! wrote: »

If there's something we're doing wrong, or can be done better,

There's not. End of.

6th has spoken ... everyone get back to class.

AlmightyCushion

Fajitas! wrote: »

If there's something we're doing wrong, or can be done better, by all means, suggest it, PM myself or any of the Photog mods.

It needs ...............more cowbell.

TJJP

rymus wrote: »

Just giving feedback.. not trying to piss anyone off or annoy admins.

Yeah, me too. Seems I was wrong an all.... c'est la vie.

No harm intended.

DeVore

This is disturbing now... feedback has produced more maturely concluded threads in 2008 then in all of 2007....

You are all playing with my head, aren't you?

DeV.

amp

*nudge nudge wink wink*

deRanged

2 more points on the photo forum.
it's one of the few where many of the posters know each other IRL and meet regularly, so more banter/slagging is tolerated. This could look a little unusual to someone new to the forum.
Secondly, the moderating is done quietly and subtly by major contributors, you could easily enough think nothing much was being done.

Yeah, things go off topic, and they can *very* occasionally get nasty, but on the whole it is a good forum, good moderating, great posts. Fair play to the moderators, past and present.

Calina

deRanged wrote: »

2 more points on the photo forum.
it's one of the few where many of the posters know each other IRL and meet regularly, so more banter/slagging is tolerated.

Everyone from photography that I know IRL, I met through the board, through turning up at meets and shyly saying "hi, I'm uhem, Calina." and slowly putting names to faces that way. Meet ups are a feature of the place and my take on it would be if you can come along, everyone is more than welcome.

Yes, I know it's daunting at first - I well remember my first time, meeting three other boardsies in a carpark in Tralee. Scarred for life, I was.

TelePaul

Big props to the photo board and all those involved in its very smooth running. Easily the most helpful forum on boards with a varied knowledge-base. It's very community driven in terms of meeting up. Sometimes the threads can go slightly off topic because some members have an innate knowledge of others' likes/dislikes/opinions....but this divergence is never at the expense of the original poster or the topic he/she has raised.

Things have been kinda crazy there the last few weeks but the mods are always quick to respond. I don't always agree with their calls but you couldn't accuse the mods of standing idly by. It's pretty bad to see anyone cast aspersions on the forum, especially grossly innacurate ones.

kensutz

I agree with Rymus, the photography forums is the one I tend to hang around in a lot more than I used to. Elven and Fajitas do a top job on the moderating and there was one stage a couple of weeks ago where things got a bit out of hand but there wasn't an over the top reaction by the mods. Instead they used common sense and had a word with the culprits.

I've learned an awful lot even by just browsing the different topics because in photography there's so much to learn/do. If you ask for C&C you know that your photographs won't be to everyones taste but that's the same with everything. Well done to Al and Julie on keeping the forum going to everyones tastes.

randylonghorn

deRanged wrote: »

it's one of the few where many of the posters know each other IRL and meet regularly, so more banter/slagging is tolerated.

That actually makes a lot of sense.

Calina wrote: »

I well remember my first time, meeting three other boardsies in a carpark in Tralee. Scarred for life, I was.

That's just coz it was Tralee, tbh.

Okay, I'm not much of a photographer, totally amateur at best, but I have sometimes popped by this forum recently because I know one or two of the regulars, and would stick my head in to view pics they have posted. As a total outsider, then, I would have to say that it seems to be well run, friendly, helpful posters, etc. If I did have a photography question or if I decided to take up photography in a more serious way I would feel very comfortable popping my head in and saying "Hi, I'm a complete amateur / n00b ... help, please!" ... more so than some of the other specialist fora on Boards, tbh.

DeVore wrote: »

This is disturbing now... feedback has produced more maturely concluded threads in 2008 then in all of 2007....

You are all playing with my head, aren't you?

DeV.

LOL!

You shouldn't have named it ... you've probably wished an epidemic of fight-teh-powah muppetry on yourself!!