Proposed forum reorganization

I would appreciate comments on

 

http://www.photo.net/doc/design/forum-reorganization-20060913

 

a proposal to reorganize the forums within photo.net (you may have noticed that

I've already deactivated a few, such as "video", that were not being used).

 

Thanks,

 

Philip

Philip , would classic cameras be "under everything else"?

Sorry to see video go Philip. I think it would have been used more ....if people looked? Maybe build a tour/intro video to photo.net on the home page. Just a thought. Members could send a link out to friends and other photographers.

Michael: Classic Cameras would not be touched (except that it would be augmented with the threads from Brownie).

I think the B&W Digital forum idea is intriguing. Yahoo's DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint forum averages around 1,000 posts a month, and I think photo.net's thread archiving is superior to yahoo's, which would make it more valuable to users. (OTOH, given the rapid change in printer technology most of these discussions have a relatively short shelf-life.)

There actually was (or still is) a forum for film point and shoot but I think it went dormant. What about film cameras made AFTER 1970?

What about a Photoshop forum, isnt it the other half of the digital process, I think it needs it own space for folks to see how other people use the program.

Just a silly nitpic: why not change your proposed "Digital Cameras" (1841) -> "Digital Cameras, Including Point and Shoot and Shopping" to read "Including Point & Shoot and Shopping" (changing the first <i>and</i> into an ampersand)?

Leica and Rangefinders - including medium format rangefinders?

B/RR - see the "digital darkroom" forum for PS discussion.

sorry - B/RP. quick fingers not always good thing ;))

Completely agree with Z.

 

You're missing the boat without a Digital Art forum too. Look through your galleries. How many straight jpg captures do you see? The current Digital Darkroom is almost all tech questions. There should be a digital resutls and process forum. It could all be under "learn" as well. It's amazing how many people have photoshop yet can't do a simple masking layer.

Tony Rowlett > "Leica and Rangefinders - including medium format rangefinders?"

 

I hope so Tony, but aren't medium format rangefinders...a rangefinder?

How about something like this for the film/digital/printing etc:

<ul>

<li>B&W exposure (for discusions of contrast filters etc, whether done at exposure time or in digital post-processing)</li>

<li>Film and Processing (An amalgamation of the Film & Processing and B&W film forum)</li>

<li>Digital Darkroom->filmscanning (no change)</li>

<li>Opto-Chemical Printing (B&W printing and RA-4, etc)</li>

<li>Digital Printing</li>

<li>Alternative Processes (all that crazy stuff like contact cyanotypes of digital negatives)</li>

<li>Print Finishing and Display (Mating and framing, Albums, etc)</li>

</ul>

and more: as time rushes by, we now have OLD digital cameras as well.

Personally, I just scan down the Unified Forum, and it doesn't make me any difference how (or if) the forums are divided up. I guess it matters to the moderators or to people that only look at one specific forum.

Another vote for a "photoshop / digital art" forum.

Eric yah but there's still the medium format forum, so there may be some confusion as to which forum to post to.

Jin and I are done (at least we think we are). Please let us know (here) if you have any problems. We've made a new index page as well: http://www.photo.net/community/ with new explanations of what the forums are supposed to be about. Each forum will get a new policy as it gets a dedicated moderator.

Hello Philip,<BR>

I am so very glad you have taken over, your genius is at work already, really!<BR>

Phil, I have had a big problem here with PN which is costing me and have been trying to resolve it patiently for the last 12 months. I have sent dozens of emails to the administrators with no reply. I have even been to Carlile, MA twice and I was promised that it would be taken care of but I guess other commitments have taken priority and my problem have never been resolved.<BR>

Both of us will agree that this will not be a good place to discus this so I ask you to please let me know how I can get in touch with you personally to explain it to you in an email. This will save me a trip to MIT, Harvard square or Lincoln and I live in Boston area.

I want you and ONLY you to address this and when you read what I have to say, you'll agree that this will NOT be a waste of time for you as I know you must be extremely busy.<BR>

If you don't know your way around this site, let me tell you that you can obtain my email address and once you do, I'll have my contact address :)<BR>

I thank you in advance.

My $0.02:

<br>

# Alternative Cameras: Looking at the last 30-40 posts it seems like almost all posts could be covered under 'Classic Cameras'.

<br>

# B&W Photo - Film & Processing: Combine into "B&W Film" with categories for 'Film', 'Processing', 'Printing & Finishing'

<br>

# B&W Photo - Printing & Finishing: See above.

<br>

# Leica and Rangefinders: I personally don't like the re-naming. It makes no sense to me to keep separate EOS, FD, Pentax, Olympus, Minok and Nikon categories and then go and merge 'Leica and Rangefinders (which is a weird title by the way as Leica IS a rangefinder camera). I would recommend keeping it as the Leica forum and potentially create a new forum for rangefinder cameras.

Are you certain that outright insulting one of the most active forums on PNet is a good indication to your commercial sponsors that you are the correct person to build a community?

 

Especially considering they are a demographic with sligthly better than average buying power?

<i>feisty bunch of guys wondering why a $5000 camera won't automatically take a great photo. </i><P>

That totally misrepresents the spirit of the Leica forum! It would be much more accurate to describe it as "feisty bunch of guys insisting their photos are great because they were taken with a $3000 camera." Geez, don't you people even read the forum . . .<P>

 

<b>;-)</b>

"Everything Else" should probably be "All other gear", as there are non-gear photo subjects

which don't have their own forums. And may we please have categories for OM and 4/3 in

the Olympus forum, in case one day you do split them?

Rich, I expect the reason it's been branded Leica & Rangefinders is due to the Leica R. Feisty seems reasonable, but the other part seems a bit tactless.

 

I can't understand why minox, Canon FD, and classic cameras haven't just been folded in to alternative cameras with sub categories

 

Or even fold Canon FD into Canon EOS and just call it Canon SLR.

 

To be honest there seems a lot of duplication of effort in the forums.