A separate Hasselblad forum...why not?

<p>With all of the traffic that is purely Hasselblad, (in the Medium Format forum), why not have a separate Hasselblad index tab/category here on P-Net.</p>

<p>PhotoNet has 2 separate Canon forums, and separate forums for Classic Film, Leica & RF's, Minox, Modern Film, MirrorLess, Nikon, Olympus & 4/3's, Pentax, and Sony/Minolta.</p>

<p>Hasselblad posts are just shy of 5,700. That's more then about half dozen other MF camera posts, combined.<br>

So, why doesn't Hasselblad deserve/warrant it's own forum tab?</p>

<p>(Sorry, If this post needs to be moved elsewhere, go ahead).</p>

<p>Marc</p>

Fair enough.<br>But if i look at bread crumbs at the top of the page, it already reads "Community > Forums > Medium Format > Hasselblad". So there already is a way to filter (just pick/click the "category" you're interested in from the list in the right margin of the unified view. That's where you got the numbers from, right?)<br><br>Myself, i like the mix. Because quite a lot of things discussed are 'cross-platform' issues. And because i like to keep up with 'what's up' with more than just one brand.<br>Just an opinion, of course.

<p>"<em>Hasselblad posts are just shy of 5,700</em>."<br>

Yes but I bet that most of those are about Hassy parts that don't work ... </p>

 

<p>More than anything for this sort of issue, what I need to figure out a way to do, is come up with a better presentation for the forums.</p>

<p>Instead of subforums, photonet originally set up forums and categories within that forum. It's essentially the same thing as a subforum, it's just not really presented in such a way that it makes sense to most people. </p>

<p>Appreciate the responses so far.</p>

<p>Harry, Not quite sure what you're saying. A Hassy post is [specifically], a Hassy post...so(?)?<br /> Doesn't the existing software basically pigeon-hole/categorize a post, once a brand name is included in the text?<br /> Or is that process covered by the initial poster/starter of the thread?</p>

<p>Josh, I'm not trying to make more work for you, but...from the sound's of it, I guess I am.<br /> I look at some of the major photo equipment retailer sites, for example.<br /> Once you choose Med.Format, (any format, or brand), another drop-down menu usually appears, <br>

listing a more detailed, camera specific, (sometimes, model specific), field of menu options.<br /> Josh, Could something like that be done here on P-Net? Sigh...Growing pains!<br /> As P-Net continues to grow, maybe a tweak to the initial drop-down menu would be more user friendly.</p>

<p>Marc</p>

I guess there are different routes along which you can land in a forum, i don;t know, but the way i approach PNet's MF forum, i already get to see a "Forum Posts By Category" box in the right margin.<br>All you have to do, Marc, is click on the categroy "Hasselblad" (or whatever other category you are interested in) to arrive in what you are looking for: all Hasselblad related post in one subsection of the MF forum.

<p>O.G. - 'Server Time Out Error.'</p>

<p>Click on the upper pull-down for Nikon, for example. On the side, there are many more sub categories for Nikon.<br>

Filters, focusing screens, lenses, different models/bodies, etc... These sub categories may have 100 items,<br>

most are under 500 items. The server doesn't have to wait long for a few hundred items to be retrieved.</p>

<p>Click on Hasselblad's 5,700 items, and the server times out. <br>

I have high speed cable, and the situation occurs while using FireFox or IE, (not really a browser issue anyway).<br>

The server has to wait for all 5,700 items listed as Hasselblad to be retrieved.<br>

Again, growing pains. </p>

<p>O.G. - Do you have the necessary web site creation/maintenance experience to help Josh? <br>

I don't have those skills. If I knew the solution to give to Josh, I would. </p>

<p>Marc</p>

<p>Yes I get a time out error too. But if I refresh once or twice, it will eventually retrieve the category I asked for.</p>

<p>Marc is correct, that is an issue. It's not a matter of connection speed, but database queries. I will look into it and see if there is a solution to be had.</p>

<p>I like not having a separate Hasselblad forum.<br>

As Q.G. says, there are a lot of cross-platform issues discussed, and I also feel that it enhances the sense of a medium format community, rather than Hasselblad and then everything else.</p>

<p>The 35mm makes are divided up because there are so many models and so many questions for each make, that a single forum would be unwieldy. Even Leica is lumped in with other RF's.<br>

I think the MF forum is not so large as to need to be broken down further. I mean, there could also be a Mamiya forum. It could even be broken down into more forums, like TLR's and MF rangefinders, and going overboard a bit- Bronica, Rollei SLR's, etc.</p>

<p>There are three separated Pentax 67 categories, this could be a solution. The Mamiya brand also has a large number of posts though broken down to 4 categories. Maybe separate the V and H series?</p>

Marc,<br><br>I do get time outs too every now and again (and other issues too: now and again, i can't access PN using IE, and then have to use Firefox. As i'm forced to do now once again. Can't imagine why. Could be a 'local' issue.) But i don't believe it's an issue with the category list (which i rarely use, but when i do, it works), but i'm sure a general problem. (Though yes, it will of course be a different database query that has to be resolved, perhaps putting more strain on the database engine). And as such, not really connected with the question whether there should be a separate Hasselblad forum or whether such a thing already exists.<br>Given that you can click on that Hasselblad category, i can't help but think that such a thing already exists on PN. ;-) <br>Which in itself is not a reason why such a special forum should not be presented in a different way too. As mentioned, i don't feel it would need to though.

<p>I don't mind all MF being lumped together. Some of us use multiple MF cameras. For me, it's Hasselblad, Fuji, and Mamiya RF (as well as more obscure brands), and I'm interested in Rolleiflex, Contax, Pentax, Mamiya RB/RZ, etc.</p>

<p>I like it basically the way it is - all Medium Format together, with the separate clickable categories down the side if you want to be more selective.</p>

<p>If you look at some other website fora dedicated to medium format shooters, you find that all posts are similarly placed in one single forum/sub-forum: Luminous Landscape has just one, getDPI has just one. In fact, those sites don't even have categorised subdivisions by camera brand/model like we do here on Pnet, so Pnet's Medium Format is actually better categorised than these other places!</p>

<p>But I agree that there are some anomalies here; there is only a single Hasselblad category (and only a single Bronica category), whereas Pentax for example is not only separated into P645 and P6x7 categories, but P6x7 is itself separated into three categories! We could do with a general re-organising of the categories within medium format, with some additional subdivision on the one hand and some consolidation/merging on the other. There have been new developments in the past decade which are not well reflected here, or not at all. We should have Arca-Swiss and Leica S2 categories, for example.</p>

<p>Who'd like to draft a new list of indices - we could have a discussion and vote on it?</p>

<p> </p>

<p>One could also make the opposite argument: too many needless categories. For example, even though I use a Canon FD system, I really don't see why we need a separate Canon FD category. Frankly, posts these days are few and far between. And if they have a Canon category, why not a manual focus category for every other brand? Why not manual Nikon?<br>

I think all 35mm manual cameras could be combined. Where's the line between "classic" film cameras and "modern" film cameras anyway? I consider my M4-P both. I also notice that a large number of posts in "modern" film cameras have to do with Nikons.</p>

<p>At this point, there are so few Hasselblad posts covering anything new that it doesn't matter. Besides, any topic can be found in a quick search.</p>

<p>To be clear to everyone, my ideal solution wouldn't be to make a "unified" view of the medium format forum unavailable. It would be more to make a "specialized" view more available to those who want it. In my mind, this would be a slight graphic/presentation redesign to make the categories more obvious and perhaps labeled as "sub-forums". And then, of course, to address the performance issues that cause timeouts when the database is trying to pull up the category view.</p>

<p>That would be the best of both worlds. The people who just wanted to see the hassy questions could do so, but those who were more interested in medium-format as a whole could still see all questions.</p>

<p>Josh,<br /> I never intended to start a fire storm. I just thought a separate Hasselblad tab from the upper, forum pull-down,<br /> would then allow for a more detailed, Hasselblad specific, component menu on the right side.<br /> With 60+ years of various camera models, lenses, and accessories, I thought a better 'category-breakdown' for Hasselblad was in order. Spread out those 5,700 posts from a single Hassy option, into say 2 or 3 dozen specialized Hassy sub categories that would show on the right side, after pulling [a new] Hasselblad tab from the top menu.</p>

<p>Marc</p>

<p>In the last two weeks, there have been three new questions specific to Hasselblad. That would make for a very sad looking forum. In my experience, when forums don't have sufficient momentum, they die quickly.</p>

Indeed, Jeff. But the figures presented by Marc (and visible in the category box) are what they are. ;-)<br>I'm with Josh: the separate forum already exists, may need a subdivision or two, and perhaps be presented in another way. Then i think we have what Marc was asking for.<br>Right, Marc?<br>(By the way: what firestorm? You asked a question - that i can't see but as an extremely reasonable one - and the topic got discussed.)<br><br>As subcategories, the main two ones must be 'V-System' and 'H-System'. (Perhaps then also X-Pan, but is that an MF thingy?).<br>As subs of these two subs, you could imagine topics like 'cameras', 'lenses', 'the rest', and 'digital'. But since all these thinges interconnect, i think those main two - V and H - would suffice.<br>Again: just my look on things.

<p>I'm sort of guessing that the Pentacon 6TL forum and the Omega Rapid forum are a long way off.</p>

<p>Would a Hasselblad forum allow posts from Kiev 88 owners? :|</p>

Are you proposing PNetters submit proof of ownership before they are allowed to post in any forum that could be linked to a particular bit of hardware, JDM?

<p>Not me. As you well know, according to some people I have no standards to speak of.</p>

<p>There are some, however, who seem to feel that one shouldn't post at all unless you have exactly some certain equipment and, even then, only if you give the answers they're looking for. When somebody "unqualified" posts, they get very testy and snarky. :(</p>

<p>Is it worth the hassle?</p>

It is often said that hassles are still worth quite a bit.<br>But i'm sure (though i can't put my finger on it) there's a mistake in there somewhere.

<p>Snobbish, if you ask me. It's like the Porsche people not wanting to park next to VWs. </p>