Suggestion for the Photography Board

Dara Robinson

I was thinking about this the other day.

Like a lot of people I'm up to my eyeballs. I love photography and it allows me to do something creative and different from time to time. Going out on my own is fine sometimes but the outings I've been on with boards.ie have always been fun and so far I have always learnt something. And I've loved that.

The only thing is that I really don't have the time to monitor the forums all the time. Personally I moderate another forums for a pretty big game and I normally takes up most of my online time. So lately coming here has been a bit of a luxury.
I do sometimes pop on and read over the first page and if something catches my eye I have a quick look but not always do I have time to reply or add my 2 cent.
I'm making an assumption that there are many other people who are in the same boat as me.

So my suggestion?

Another sub forum where we would only post about outings or events. Basically anything to do with organising, planning or Suggesting a event, get together or something of the like.
The advantage of this would not only that you could simply have all the threads on this topic in one area and not have to search through a few pages of threads (to make sure you've not missed anything if you have not been around for a while) but also (and this is the part that I'm really interested in) you could subscribe to that sub-forum and when something new was posted you would know to check.


I think this would add a lot to the forum and possible foster the ability to attend events, outings and so on even if you are not an extremely active member of the forum (for what ever reason that may be). Attending them is something that really peaks my interest.


I understand that not everyone is going to see the point or need for this as lots of these things are kept in the first few pages for days and sometimes more but not everyone sees them or is active enough.

m_stan

I agree. Personally events and meetups aren't for me, so it would make sense from my point of view to separate them out to another subforum. Same goes for C&C.

elven

There was a campaign for a photography meet forum last year sometime, and it didn't get enough support to be given consideration. however, as soon as a date is set for a meet, it gets put in the calendar - to which there is also a link in the FAQ sticky. When I create an event in the calendar, I paste in a link to the thread on boards and ta-dah! you've got everything there at a glance with links to all the relevant information.

We keep getting suggestions for different sections for different stuff and it comes back to the same thing - having everything in one place gives everything the chance to be viewed - if you have a sub forum, you only see the link at the top - and how many people don't realise there's a digtal darkroom forum? Lots. I think there's a real danger of over-organisation and if we did a separate forum for everything that people ask for, it'd look like photography ireland and I'm really not fond of that layout.

Gear threads aren't for me either and to be honest, i get hacked off seeing a front page full of them but there are too many of us here and too diverse a group to try and please everyone by getting the stuff they don't want to see out of the way.

nilhg

I agree with Elven, one board is still the best option, having a plethora of subfora will lead to stuff being missed.

On the events calendar one weakness is that provisional stuff is not in there (ie bluebells, lens meetup) for ovbious reasons, maybe it would be worth having a think about.

elven

Hmmm yes, what about those bluebells!!!??? Are they out yet?

I dunno. Maybe we could mark the provisional dates in, and just specify that they're provisional then take out all the rest when one has been decided...

Or maybe we can put a keyword in each event type thread, so that you can search the forum for that keyword and get all the threads in one go? Usually 'boards meet' would give you them, but I think it refuses to search on less than five letters. Idea?

SOL

but, having one or two forums might prevent posts ending up in the deadland of page 2 so quickly?

nilhg

elven wrote: »

Hmmm yes, what about those bluebells!!!??? Are they out yet?

I dunno. Maybe we could mark the provisional dates in, and just specify that they're provisional then take out all the rest when one has been decided...

Or maybe we can put a keyword in each event type thread, so that you can search the forum for that keyword and get all the threads in one go? Usually 'boards meet' would give you them, but I think it refuses to search on less than five letters. Idea?

Bluebells will be a end of April/early May depending on weather, worth waiting for hopefully.

I think maybe the handiest thing would be to put in possible dates with a (P) next to them and a link to the original thread.

Maybe photomeet as a keyword, something that won't cause too many false positives.

elven

SOL wrote: »

but, having one or two forums might prevent posts ending up in the deadland of page 2 so quickly?

A sub forum is the same amount of clicks away as page 2... where's the difference?

Fajitas!

*cough*

ThOnda

elven wrote: »

A sub forum is the same amount of clicks away as page 2... where's the difference?

The difference is that you know where to look for it. It's always "there". I wish there were more tools at the calendar - that could be the sollution.

Dara Robinson

LOL Fajitas, seems my lack of activity on the forums this last year means I missed that thread of yours. Glad to see I'm not the only one that thinks this

elven wrote: »

I dunno. Maybe we could mark the provisional dates in, and just specify that they're provisional then take out all the rest when one has been decided...

But is there a way to subscribe to that?
This is where the advantage to me personally (and I can see it being the same to others) being able to subscribe and being able to get an email that means this is pointed out to me straight away.

I've also seen lots of good threads of ideas for going away get buried and people having to resurrect them.

I do think that there is a real danger to over organise as elven pointed out and I agree that the Digital Darkroom gets overlooked by a lot of people. But I think there are solutions. For example if something was being organised (not a suggestion not, something sure) 1 and only 1 post could be allowed in the main photography area. Or for example people could link to those threads if a related topic would come up. Or another idea is a sticky that reminds people that there is a sub forum on this

I just feel that, although we could end up with loads of sub forums, in this case I feel it would be a huge help.

I also have to say that I'm not sure about C&C having its own area. I think it would take away from the main photography forum

ThOnda

So what about the thread "Events to come" and link from ultimate FAQ to this thread?

unreggd

you could just make a sticky and subscribe to that

I dont think the amount of meets are enough to support its own forum

Fajitas!

Well, there's at least one big meet every 2 months, and smaller ones in the mean time...

The problem with a sticky is people forget to check them, and over time it'd get huge. It also dosn't leave room to debate where else to go and what not!

RoundyMooney

As an unashamed lurker, I support this idea.

Bumped that thread back into the front line too

Fajitas!

Good stuff!

Dara Robinson

Sorry not been online last few days

Fajitas! wrote:

It also dosn't leave room to debate where else to go and what not!

I do agree there. A sticky thread would just become impossible to read and bogged down by different topics at the same time. It just would be too messy.

See the benefit of having this is like the following... I don't have the time recently to get involved in any of the competitions but as I am subscribed I do find out when they start and they end. I then get to have a look, see what other people have been doing and I really enjoy that. If the competitions were not in its own subforum I would never be able to have that luxury.

Anyways, its something that I hope at least gets considered at a mod level and you guys they weigh up the pros and cons. But I'd love to see it added