Where have the great posters gone?

<p>I am not trying to get myself purged from photo.net. But several years ago we had some bloggers who could get the blood running. I miss them. Jay of Leica fame. He didn't suffer fools gladly but sure knew about Leicas. Al Kaplan, great background and always quirky, fun to read. Trevor Hare, wonderful photographer, not aggressive, but I miss his input. Mike Elek, great source of info on classic cameras. Totally friendly and very infomative.<br>

I sure miss these guys.</p>

<p>I know Al Kaplan hangs around at the Rangefinder Forum.</p>

<p>We still have Gene!</p>

<p>Trevor Hare posted a picture under churches in January. http://www.photo.net/leica-rangefinders-forum/00S83I Perhaps he is on some sort ecclesiastic hiatus for now.</p>

<p>http://www.flickr.com/photos/trevorhare/</p>

<p>http://www.facebook.com/people/Trevor-Hare/574520374 (Same Trevor Hare?)</p>

<p>***</p>

<p>Mike Elek hasn't posted anything in more than 3 years. Hope he is doing well. This was one of his last posts. http://www.photo.net/classic-cameras-forum/00D4MV . The account is inactive.</p>

<p>Mike has a homepage and a facebook account that seem to be active. Maybe he could use a gift subscription to photo.net?</p>

<p>http://elekm.net/<br>

http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Elek/631171473 (Same Mike Elek?)</p>

<p>Mike Elek posts regularly on Nelson Foto.</p>

<p>Al has his own blog: http://www.thepriceofsilver.blogspot.com/</p>

<p>You should upload some great stuff.</p>

<p>Yes, forums grow and change. I'm grateful for the link to Al Caplan's site. We've got some good people here now like Gene, Subbayan, and so many others who share their info freely and generously. One regular person not heard from in a long while is Luis Triga....hope he is well.</p>

<p>I've got a great Beatles poster in my cellar.</p>

<p>I'm with Gene....mine's a Led Zeppelin</p>

<p>Luis Triguez posts daily in the No Words forum: <a href="http://www.photo.net/no-words-forum/00T3Id">http://www.photo.net/no-words-forum/00T3Id</a></p>

<p>People come and go on forums all the time. The old faces are replaced by new ones who then become the old faces. Some leave because they have gotten all they are going to get out of a particular forum, some leave because they find something they like better elsewhere, some leave because their interests change and photography is no longer important, some leave because family/job/life becomes more time consuming and captivating, and yes some leave in anger (or are removed) because they decide that they just can't get along with the way a particular forum is run.</p>

<p>After over a dozen years of existance, there are any number of people from photo.net who have floated off to other places. As a community, it's pretty natural to say "what happened to so and so" but to be honest, that's the way of the internet. We're all just 1's and 0's here and there is nothing like a home or a business that ties us to any one spot. Heck, after a dozen years, I know for a fact that more than a few former PN users are simply no longer alive. As we all know, time marches on.</p>

<p>But like I said, old faces are replaced by new. To be honest, I find that there are as many amazing new folks as there ever were old folks. Not to crap on the old folks, as I'm one myself after 11 years. But we've really got a cool community here and the slow churn of "a few folks leave" and "a few folks arrive" is part of what keeps things fresh and interesting. There is nothing worse for an online community than to become a closed society where nobody ever leaves and nobody new is really accepted. I'm happy that PN is not like that.</p>

<p>And now for a less <em>"misty eyed"</em> reason:</p>

<p>And then there is the simple fact that film based forums (like this one or the Leica forum) have suffered in recent years as people have moved more and more to digital. There are a lot of people who you might think are gone from these forums, but have simply stopped posting because they no longer use a Leica or a Brownie or a ______ (fill in the blank). They post in the Digital Darkroom forum or the Canon forum or simply in the NW forum. Crappy perhaps, but in today's world people tend to only be involved with what they are interested in right now. Some will come back (I myself am a good example of that in regards to Leica), but some will just become an "old face" in their new digital based forum.</p>