W/NW Forum?

I did a search and couldn't find anything on this specific question so

excuse me if it has been dealt with.

 

Recently I've become a fan of the W/NW postings in the Leica forum and

I'm a Leica owner so that's cool. But I'm also a Hassie and Canon

owner and most other forums discourage W/NW postings. As a result more

and more photos on the Leica forum are not taken with Leica cameras

and I myself post non-Leica photos to the forum. The Leica folks are

willing to put up with that but there's a certain logical

inconsistancy which may have the practical effect of cutting off

people who don't read the Leica forum who might otherwise participate

in W/NW postings with interesting, creative or challenging images.

 

I don't think that W/NW photo postings play the same role as the

public photo folders. I personally maintain my own photo website which

I invite others to visit and prefer not to upload photos through the

cumbersome public photo folder tools. I also don't find the rating

system or vast bulk of comments the kind of feedback I'm looking for

to help my own work.

 

What I enjoy about W/NW is responding to the challenge of others to

find a photo that I've taken that matches some criteria that turns up

at breakfast time on the Unified Forums view and then seeing what

others have come up with.

 

It's popular in photography across the net to have a Picture of the

Week "contest or some such theme based photo "engagement" by a broad

group of photographers. I actually prefer W/NW to POW because its more

spontaneous and less restricting in that anyone can come up with a

topic at any time. I think that photo.net would be a more interesting

and complete photo portal with a separate forum for photo.net members

to post theme based images.

 

So what I'm proposing is a W/NW forum. I'm grateful to the Leica

readers who tolerate other cam photos taken but as I said, I believe

that this limits the spectrum of people participating.

 

Eric

Maybe I haven't had enough coffee yet.... what does W/NW stand for?

Ouch, sorry about that. W/NW litterally stands for Words/No Words and is a somewhat unique feature of the Leica forum. Someone will post a photo topic like "Solitude" and then post a photo which exemplifies that theme. Then others can either post a comment (words), a photo which fits the topic but without words or comments or both. It's a bit like a "salon" or Photo of the Week but more free form.

There have been W/NW on the people photography forum and on the Minolta forum.

 

I'm a fan of W/NW, and would regularly visit such a forum. But if setting it up meant not having W/NW postings on other forums, I would not like it, since I think the W/NW features help build traffic for those forums generally.

I've got to go in favour of this. I've seen a couple of these on the Nikon forum, but I had no idea they were in the other forumns too. If not a dedicated forum, perhaps a way to search for posts starting with W/NW across all forums and a "standard" to start such posts with W/NW would accomplish both Eric's desire and Sam's concern.

I guess my question would be, how do the people who use Minolta cameras feel about me responding to a W/NW on the Minolta forum with a photo I took with my xpan camera? What if someone takes an interesting wildlife, landscape, macro, etc photo with a Nikon and wants to set up a W/NW thread?

 

I have a collection of Urban landscape shots... many from my D300. I can't post a W/NW on the camera Forum because the Canon forum doesn't encourage W/NW and although I consider some of this "steet photography" its not People photography. So generally I would post these at the Leica forum because its "Leica like" whatever that means... Sigh...

 

A W/NW forum would clarify these issues although it apparently, like most things in life, would have plusses and minuses. I wouldn't want to have a detrimental effect on one of the less active forums as Sam mentions.

Just to clarify my comments above, not all forums permit W/NW postings.

The key is to communicate effectively. Forums are a way ~ and the make of camera is really just an excuse (or permission) to communicate. ...;)...J

Eric's post is quite germane to a problem which continues to plague the Leica Forum.

Specifically, I am referring to the fact that that the Leica Photography Forum sometimes

has very little (if anything at all) to do with Leica photography.

 

The Leica Forum's moderators are most generous when it comes to interpreting the

forum's guidelines. When it comes to the W/NW threads, pictures made with just about any

kind of camera seem to be permitted. That generosity encourages contributors to the

forum to make off-topic posts as well. This leads to threads which range very far afield

from Leica photography and/or Leica equipment.

 

I share the frustration of the photographers who have nowhere else on photo.net to post

their photographs except on the Leica forum. Perhaps the photo.net gods should consider

establishing a discrete W/NW forum where photographers of all stripes, even (gulp!) Lomo

photographers, can post their photos for the edification of all. That way, the Leica forum

can continue to be a focus primarily of those whose main photographic interest is Leica.

Then the Leica enthusiasts will receive the same courtesy and consideration on photo.net

as do the enthusiasts of Nikon, Minolta, Canon, Olympus, etc.

Hi all.

 

I'm very new to the W/NW concept, so forgive me if I'm way off on a few things. From what I've seen, W/NW's are a great way for Pnetters to interact with eachother and to share information - in a very fun way. But I don't feel like there should be a W/NW Forum because it will take away from the whole idea of W/NW's. I'm afraid such a Forum would turn into something similar to the Presentation Forum - overflowing with threads that few people are interested in searching through. As they stand right now, W/NW's are somewhat of a rare thing, which is IMO what makes them work and fun top participate in.

 

W/NW's can be found in all the 'Camera' forums - not just the Leica - so people looking to participate in a W/NW should go to the corresponding (the camera type that took the photo) manufacturer forum - it only makes sense that way...If it wasn't taken with a Minolta - you shouldn't bother posting it in a Leica forum W/NW...

 

It's a good idea Eric, but unfortunately I really don't see how a W/NW Forum would function as a forum on its own.

I'm afraid you're not correct, Matt. Most of the forums do not welcome W/NW threads.

The Leica Forum certainly has its critics but it is without doubt the busiest, most successful and dynamic forum on photo.net. I firmly believe that this is in no small part due to the popularity of the W/NW threads, the sharing of images on a common theme gives a real sense of community to the forum.<p>I have argued on many an occasion for the inclusion of W/NW threads on some of the other forums but without success. These threads are at their best as an integral part of specific forums, where the contributors have much in common. For this reason I�m not in favour of a W/NW Forum as such and it could also weaken forums that already welcome W/NW threads.<p>As a medium format photographer I would love to contribute to W/NW threads on the Medium Format Forum and would also like to post nature work to the Nature Forum. As things stand at the moment there is no really suitable place for many contributors to contribute to W/NW threads. If it weren�t for the open minded attitude and generosity of the contributors on the Leica Forum I would not be contributing at all.<p>W/NW threads are simply the most exciting genre for images on photo.net. What a pity then that some of the moderators can't see this and choose to limit the scope and opportunity for involvement by the contributors on <b>their</b> forums.

I would also note that the Photo.net forum technology was really set up for these -- it is a shame we don't all use the feature more.

I recall this debate being discussed at length during the past year. Perhaps, tho', it was on the unarchived forum and can't be accessed via a search.

 

My only comment on the No Words threads is that too often the initiator is using a theme so specific that only he or she can contribute to it. For example:

 

"No Words: My Infant Daughter Sally."

 

Ohhh-kaaayyy. Cute kid. If I had an infant daughter named Sally I'd be happy to contribute to the thread.

 

Some moderators don't want this stuff in their forums. I accept photo and other image files as attachments to the b&w forums as long as they're specifically related to a discussion of some technical merit. I generally discourage uploading "lookit!" photos, tho' I'm not a hardass about it. Sometimes there's a fine line between a simple "lookeyme!" photo and one of technical merit.

 

But I don't want any Words/No Words stuff in the b&w forums. They'd bog things down for me because I'm on a rural dialup that's sometimes kinda pokey. I've pretty much stopped looking at or participating in NW threads on other forums 'cause it takes too long. On the b&w forums, I wouldn't wanna hafta wait 10 minutes for a W/NW thread to load just so I can be sure there's no porn or otherwise offensive material in it.

Lex, I agree with you that some W/NW threads are far too specific, I also believe that some are far too broad, this is inevitable but I think the majority are pitched about right.<p>I also agree with you that the W/NW threads are difficult to follow on a dial up connection. I�ve struggled with a dial up for many years so you can imagine my delight when I finally got a fast connection last weekend, what a difference! However W/NW threads are generally marked as such and can easily be avoided by those who for one reason or another don�t want to view them.<p>I can�t help feeling that to deny contributors the option of participating in W/NW threads because the Moderator of the Forum is on a dial up connection and can�t keep up with them is rather bizarre. Perhaps photo.net should supply all their hard working and dedicated moderators with a Broadband connection:-)<p>BTW good to see you posting again!

Thanks, Keith. (My grandma is in relatively stable condition right now so I'm spending more time at home and less at the hospital.)

 

Frankly, I like the concept of the No Words threads. The "Words" threads spinoff bothers me a bit only in the sense that it opens up things for unpleasantness and dilution of purpose. To me, the gestalt of a NW thread is to conduct a conversation about a theme without using words. It's the challenge and the beauty of the thing.

 

And, from a purely selfish viewpoint, since we can't get anything other than dialup in my hillbilly area, I wish NW contributors would keep the rez and file sizes of their pix w-a-a-a-y down. Too often folks are uploading 500 pixel wide photos that are 150Kb or larger. Or, they'll cheat a bit and use their HTML savvy to insert oversize, higher rez photos into the thread stream instead of as attachments - those *really* bog things down.

 

I'd be willing to overlook a bit more artifacting in exchange for simply being able to *enjoy* looking at the threads. After all, these photos aren't being submitted for critique. They're being shared to stimulate a wordless dialogue. The subject matter, composition, etc., trump the relatively minor concern of ideal jpeg quality.

Lex, I couldn't agree with you more about the size of images posted to W/NW threads. I visited one such thread the other day which had images with file sizes in excess of 500KB!

 

All the best to you and yours.

Eric,

Thanks for your explanation... I have been to the Leica forum and I agree with you, the W/NW threads are often interesting. Good suggestion.