The forum in 2011 - Advice appreciated!

sNarah

{Moderator Team Message}

2010 has been a good year for the photography forum, with plenty of regulars contributing and many new users joining, both online and during events organized by Boards users.

We've seen great threads, discussed and debated many topics, done the yearly Boards trip to Charleville Castle, exhibited our work at Peoples Photography and launched the fantastic Boards 2010 photograpy Book.

Plenty other events were organized on Photowalkie which were attended by several Boards users and are a great way of getting to know other togs!

We've also seen the addition of the Pixie subforum - which pleases us greatly as both communities are closely intertwined.

There have also been a few other changes, which are noted in the charter,
The main ones being as following (seeing as we don't all read the charter hm hm )

• The sticky for new camera's and gear, which we started just before the Christmas, has proven to be successful and working as it should, so it will remain as it is during 2011. We love the fact that there are some many users willing to provide advice to newbies on that thread, so a big thanks for that and please continue to do so.

• Another change is that we added a few behavioural items to the charter which are: Don't be intolerant of others views or opinions or attempt to dominate a thread or discussion. Keep in mind that people's opinions differ and that it is impossible to be "right" about "taste".

In regard to that latter point - We'd like to point out that the REPORT button is not just for reporting spam or blatant trolling. More often than not, we miss things that are happening in threads, so please report the post and state the reason why in the message. Possible reasons could be:

• Bickering on thread
• Statements that you find are over the top
• Off topic posting
• Personal insults or abuse
• A general feel of things not going "right"

We'd rather have more reported posts than none, as it means we will be able to see what our community thinks are important issues and make sure problems are dealt with as quick and practical as possible.

That said, we also welcome advice on what YOU think could change on the forum. We can't guarantee that your advice will be possible, but we will look into every suggestion.

You can either reply on thread with your suggestions or PM myself, Cabansail or Borderfox.

We're talking: structural (the lay-out of the forum), personal (how people behave themselves) and rules (the charter), and will take on board everything suggested by you guys.

A message brought to you by the snap-not-ban-happy Mod Team!

Tallon

I think you's are doing a steller job, and the forum works well.

Personally, I don't see the need for any changes.

It is a great community and I always fell comfortable posting here

pixbyjohn

I love the photography forum and there is not a day that I don't browse through it. Because there are so many sides to photography that this forum covers I have learned so much from it. Thanks to everyone and hopefully 2011 will see more new contributors.

ThOnda

I know that I won't get the "thumbs down" button, but I can keep on asking
But in fairness, the amount of overdone HDR and tonemapping dropped significantly. Maybe the novelty eventually wore down?

sNarah

ThOnda wrote: »

I know that I won't get the "thumbs down" button, but I can keep on asking
But in fairness, the amount of overdone HDR and tonemapping dropped significantly. Maybe the novelty eventually wore down?

Yay, I reckon so, and the ones left are of a better quality!

Thumbs down button would be a Boards-wide thing, so out of our control, because we don't have super-duper-admin-powers (Doh), but I know there are quite a lot of requests for that - we'll bring it up once more in the good auld site admin department!

smashey

Simple; I love this forum.

Jim

No more snow till next December

Personally I think ye're doing a great job. Have no specific grievances or suggestions.

/inane post

CabanSail

If you know of people who are not posting here any more, or a lot less, maybe let them know about this thread. It's nice to get the pats on the back but would like to hear from everyone.

melekalikimaka

boards.ie camera straps ftw

5uspect

Keep up the good work guys and thanks for all the work ye do.

On a minor note I completely missed everything on the Photobook this year, would there be any way to announce it in the main Photography forum like the announcements on the boards home page? Maybe it was and I missed it when moving.

kensutz

New year, new mission to annoy people! Oh and another book at the end of the year I suppose

magicbastarder

i'm very used to forums with a very light touch as regards moderation, so boards can be a bit of a culture shock at times - but i do realise that the photography section is less moderated than most other sections on boards.

DougL

Thanks for all your hard work in 2010 mods!

Necronomicon

As a noob to both the art and the forum this year, I've found it tremendously welcoming and helpful. I've learned (or, I like to think I have) loads in a relatively short space of time and that's a testament to the users. I wouldn't go actively looking for changes, there's no need IMO.

Thecageyone

Being guiltier than most of having my bum slapped throughout 2010 by Mods, I can say, it is well moderated, strict maybe at times, but nonsense is kept in check at all times.

It's a great forum for the most part, I think people should relax a little on here though, it can be a bit uptight and once you cross some, they never leave it go.

For 2011 I am wiping my black list clean and starting a fresh. I think everyone should at least try do the same. We're all into the same thing after all

Kintarō Hattori

Hmmmn.

sNarah

Hmmmmn?

stcstc

I would like to see the forum broken down more

for example have a gear forum, a critque forum, and a lounge kinda thing for general chat

this would allow people to focus on the bits they want to. with the almost flat forum as is its kinda of hard sometimes to see whats going on and weed out the chaff, if that makes sense

the other thing that I would like to see is a bit more tolerance of suppliers, particularly ones who are being helpful and are part of the community. ie they post hints and help

I do understand the ones who just spam the forum are taking the proverbial

but there are some of us who are trying to help and as well as generate buiness for our companies

but also guide people in some of the better ways to do things

Tallon

Gear and C&C forum I definitley agree with, but a general lounge is not needed since we have the OT thread, and it's not used that much.

Personally, I believe the forum does cater for suppliers etc, I havn't seen a case where they were censored.

Anytime I, or anyone needs advice on printing or framing, I know straight away to think of STCSTC (Steve) and would hate to see people like yourself being denied that (If it is happening)

TinyExplosions

stcstc has pretty much nailed anything I'd like to see going forward -some way to separate out things would be good, and may also help moderation, as with a 'lounge' area, you can pretty much say whatever you want, and with the other sections the moderation could be harder on bickering, trolling etc etc.

I also agree with his sentiments on suppliers -I think it's fairly obvious which ones are trolling for business and which ones are genuinely trying to help, so I think there should be a gentler hand on those willing to help -particularly if they're very up front about being a supplier (ie with a clear sig that shows they may have a vested interest)

magicbastarder

stcstc wrote: »

I would like to see the forum broken down more

for example have a gear forum, a critque forum, and a lounge kinda thing for general chat

couldn't disagree more. the forum is already too split up as it is. i don't want to have to try to keep track of more forums.

stcstc

you dont need to keep track, there should be a view unread posts button

that way it can give you all the unread from all sub forums, and then you could choose the ignore posts or not etc

Kintarō Hattori

sNarah wrote: »

Hmmmmn?

I had a thing written the other day, thought it wasn't great so decided I needed to get my thinking cap on again. Hmnn was thinking about the question you posed and I'll have a post on it later tonight when the missus is in the land of nod.

Thecageyone

Ah, why didn't I think of that? Getting thanks for maybe having an input later :P

If they start doing more categories, next thing there will be requests for separating Digital and Film discussions. I think the ones at top now, and the large general area, work fine.

AnCatDubh

stcstc wrote: »

I would like to see the forum broken down more

for example have a gear forum, a critque forum, and a lounge kinda thing for general chat

magicbastarder wrote: »

couldn't disagree more. the forum is already too split up as it is. i don't want to have to try to keep track of more forums.

As a user; I've thought about this a few times. The posting on boards usually covers up to a standard (default) full screen in a day - sometimes a little more / sometimes a little less.

[opinion]I don't think it warrants any more splitting of it.[/opinion]

I mean some other Irish photography fora are very split up - everything goes neatly into its box - and that's fine for them but personally, I don't return to them particularly often. I don't think boards should try be like the others - it is part of what makes us a bit different. Otherwise we could all pack our bags and pop over to some of the other available fora.

But that's just me and i'm in no way asserting that I am right about it.

I think there is a nice balance on boards.ie giving you a good page of threads to read or discard in any 24 hour period. Some you'll be interested in. Some you'll be surprised in. Some you'll loathe. Personally, I won't be bothered visiting a whole load of sub fora, and I then loose the benefit of stumbling across something very useful or interesting or funny or annoying or stimulating discussions, or whatever the day takes us to.

DaireQuinlan

Lately I've been of the opinion that introducing some sort of daily posting limit would improve the signal to noise ratio quite significantly. Individuals might not then feel so compelled to reply repeatedly to every. single. thread. in the forum.

Tallon

No offence Daire, but thats not a good idea at all.

Also, it's not possible to impliment on a forum level like that

AnCatDubh

stcstc wrote: »

the other thing that I would like to see is a bit more tolerance of suppliers, particularly ones who are being helpful and are part of the community. ie they post hints and help

In fairness I can see where you are coming from and the community have benefited from some excellent suppliers however it is important to note / recognise that there *is* a lot of latitude (compared to elsewhere on boards) presently given to regular suppliers of boards.ie members - the simple criteria being that they become active members of the community rather than just posting when someone is looking to buy something they sell. Beyond that there is a recognised mechanism of becoming involved which puts you in a "official representative" capacity like Marcus is from Pix.ie - they've even ended up with their own sub forum. The in's and out's of that is a matter for the boards organisation rather than anything that we can consider locally. A quick email to Darragh / Dav at hello@boards.ie gets that conversation going and unless asked about it, locally we would have very little input or cause for concern. In my experience with quite a number of suppliers who have either made contact in advance or just burst onto the forum posting, the reason that we don't see so many other suppliers partaking in the forum is that they generally (and apologies in advance as i am generalising and present company excluded) don't have an interest in the community aspect of the forum. They have a commercial driven agenda - which is fine for their commercial existence - but isn't complementary to the boards ethos.

Anyway, again to stress - there are known ways to become recognised as a supplier on boards - the process is beyond the forum or community though. That said, we're happy to bring the feelings of the community back to boards.inc as feedback.

ThOnda

About more subforums, I am against. I am quite missing few threads because they are hidden somewhere else.
The idea is that all threads could be tagged by key words and you could filter threads by those keywords (gear, C&C, competition), but that is system issue and cannot be dealt here. Maybe with new flash version of boards

stcstc

I agree there is quite a bit of latitude here. what i was kinda hinting at is more to do with the community of the forum in general (the users and their control)

as for the official route, i was asked by one of the moderators to send that email months ago, which i did

the only response was that it was still only in its early stages. nothing since to tell you the truth.

AnCatDubh

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

Lately I've been of the opinion that introducing some sort of daily posting limit would improve the signal to noise ratio quite significantly. Individuals might not then feel so compelled to reply repeatedly to every. single. thread. in the forum.

The charter did recently have an update which asks for members to not dominate a thread - it could be considered in a larger context of do not dominate the forum. I think you have a valid point in that there is a balance to be struck between people having opinion and people peeing off other forum members by dominating discussions / threads / the forum.

AnCatDubh

AnCatDubh wrote: »

The charter did recently have an update which asks for members to not dominate a thread - it could be considered in a larger context of do not dominate the forum. I think you have a valid point in that there is a balance to be struck between people having opinion and people peeing off other forum members by dominating discussions / threads / the forum.

Hah! that reminds me. I shouldn't dominate here either

Kintarō Hattori

Personally I love the Photography forum, it's the one forum I check each and every day, several times a day. I don't have a problem with the way it's modded. For the most part members are well behaved and so the mods take a backseat and guide the forum where necessary.

The only issue I've had really has been a disruptive element but that seems to have run it's course for the moment. I'd agree with Mr. Quinlan that the the signal to noise ratio sometimes is really irritating but again I'm not sure what the solution to that would be.

I'd agree with several of the posters here that splitting the forum up into more sub-sections would be a really bad idea, in my opinion. It's hard enough at the moment making sure you're keeping up with everything that's going on. The amount of photo walks I've missed out on because they were moved off of the main page!

Tony's thread on What Camera to buy is something of a lifesaver. Opening up the forum and seeing multiple what camera, lens, etc threads was really disheartening and was kind of stiffling the forum. There's more discussion happening which is great.

All in all it's a great forum that's guided with a gentle hand. I'm not sure that much needs to be done to it. It seems to be a busy little forum with little trouble and it's users are always willing to help one another out. Who could complain about having a forum like that.

pete4130

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

Lately I've been of the opinion that introducing some sort of daily posting limit would improve the signal to noise ratio quite significantly. Individuals might not then feel so compelled to reply repeatedly to every. single. thread. in the forum.

Here here!!!!!


No more tit for tats, no more personal grudge matches, no more going off topics!

artyeva

what Kintaro Hattori said, mostly ^

i will add though - one thing that made me stop checking/posting here in recent times has been the... well i don't know how to describe it... the ridiculousness and personalness [is that a word?] of some of the petty argueing, but hopefully the charter changes and the continued fantabulous modding will dampen that out.

i also don't think splitting the forum any more is needed - the main area can be a little gear-thread-heavy at times but it's easy to navigate around those.

Thecageyone

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

Lately I've been of the opinion that introducing some sort of daily posting limit would improve the signal to noise ratio quite significantly. Individuals might not then feel so compelled to reply repeatedly to every. single. thread. in the forum.

You're wanting people not to contribute so much?, That's just tough, people should and are allowed post as often as they please so long as they're contributing/helping/staying on topic ...

If we all had that opinion though, nobody would keep a flow going, and I don't see anyone on here trying to dominate anything.

I'm glad some people don't post so often, as they don't actually contribute.

pete4130

I wish some people didn't post as often, as they don't actually contribute.

Thecageyone

You're just trying to stir now pete. Think you'll find I do indeed contribute, unlike you're doing right now.

Tallon

Jesus lads, this is a feedback thread. What happened to a clean slate?

The thread is to discuss the forum, not the users posting in it.

Everyone should be aloud post as much or as little as they want. If you've and issue with a post, person, thread then report it or PM a mod

Thecageyone

Fair enough, I was just stating an opinion in the first place, it would be ridiculous to restrict posting, I've never heard of any forum do that. Pete pointed me back to here in another thread, so it was clear to me he has an issue.

CabanSail

Thanks for all putting forward ideas here. Good to get some input in a thread like this but I hope everyone knows they can send the Mods a PM at any time if they wish to raise an idea or an issue. We do discuss them all and will implement those which will be of benefit to the community.

Can I ask that we drop posts here which may concern individuals, as this is not being helpful. Matters of tension between posters can be addressed in other ways. Here is more about Direction and Structure.

kelly1

It's a great forum. The members are very helpful and the photos are inspirational. I've learned a lot here but lots more to learn.

If I had one suggestion, it would be to add a Lighting/Strobist sub-forum. It's an area I'm keen to get into. Just bought a softbox for my speedlite and I'll post something when I get the hang of it.

Keep up the good work mods!

dakar

I've taken a break from the forum for the last while, and have only recently begun lurking again. I got a bit tired of an underlying grouchiness that seemed to be creeping in to a lot of threads.

I think the forum fundamentally works well. Stuff tends to get lost if it's shunted into subforums and the rate of churn of threads on the first page is about right. Topics that generate interest hang around for a few days, other stuff drifts off pretty quickly, and it's not that hard to catch up.

As regards moderation, I'm aware it exists, but have rarely found it intrusive, which seems to me to be pitched about right.

Must get around to contributing a bit more again, oh and actually taking some photographs too......

magicbastarder

pete4130 wrote: »

no more going off topics!

it's the going off topic bits which are sometimes the most interesting threads to follow!

dave66

stcstc wrote: »

I would like to see the forum broken down more

for example have a gear forum, a critque forum, and a lounge kinda thing for general chat

I may be going against the flow, but I would agree that it would be nice to have things broken down a little more. In addition to the above I'd suggest a "Beginners" forum, which could hold guides for which camera to buy, etc.

I would think it might be an idea to convert the photographic services sticky into a forum and have sub forums, printing, framing, weddings ... etc.

sNarah

Thank you all for the replies so far.

We've also had a few suggestions by PM, and will have a chat about all suggestions backstage.

Like Cabansail said - keep the feedback about THE FORUM not the users. Or, if you have issues with certain posters/ways of posting/attitudes... have a think about HOW we might be able to provide for such problems in the future.

About the suppliers: Steve it's a pity you haven't heard anything back yet, and I do agree that you are in the first place a contributor in this forum, rather than someone trying to do business, which is unusual. Again, I think we should have a think about this in the modteam on how we can reach a solution for this, without getting you in "trouble" for trying to help out users by offering them your services.

About the posting daily limit Daire suggested. I understand where you are coming from Daire, especially when a thread turns into a ping-pong game of differing opinions. Sometimes those threads are bloody fascinating, other times they make you cringe. Some off-topic posting is great fun and interesting, other makes me want to cry. Again, it's hard from a moderation point of view to lay down "rules" about these things, as, well, t is impossible! Each thread is so unique (well, most of them are) - so that's the sort of feedback we are looking for: how can we ensure those latter annoying ones don't happen (or don't get out of hand), without having to cut people's freedom of speech? (by that I mean, freedom of speech allowed by the Boards.ie charter)

On this too: not all statements here are necessarily directed at ONE user. Some might be, but you can never assume they are pointed at you. However, if you feel they address you directly, maybe one should have a think about whether or not this could be correct. (for the record - I'm stating this as a general observation and not addressing anyone).

We have said this before, if anyone has issues with users and/or posting styles, either report specific posts or PM one of us. We can't guarantee that we CAN change posting styles (nearly impossible if you ask me), but we are able to look deeper into it and try to find a solution. This is the reason those behaviourial items have been added to the charter. It's a hard one to judge, and I'm sure I can speak for all of the mods here, not something we LIKE to do.

Sorry, that came out a bit longer than I thought, Anyhoooo, keep on giving suggestions, yous are all a great bunch

magicbastarder

when is the photography forum going to go on an expansionist drive?
i suggest a forceful takeover of the smaller forums, and the sky is the limit.

sNarah

We'll start with Rainbows, Sunshine and lollipops and then gradually move over to the bigger ones.

or was I not supposed to talk about our world domination plan?

humberklog

A Thanks but No thanks Random thread. just like the normal random thread but with the thanks function disabled.
This may make no sense in reality but it does pop into my head now and again.

Oh a pet peeve: Knock randomers on the head that come on looking for people to keep an eye out for thier recently stolen gear. Mostly these are people who only join in order to alert/whinge and then don't post again but do attract a lot of sympathy. A bit like an RIP thread in After Hours.
Well this is a functioning community and communities function by input. People just wandering in expecting a community to which they've no provenance to sympathise/assist is pretty poor and selfish form...booo.

Other than...carry on as usual and may I take this moment to say to people that there's a lot of real life activity that spins off from Boards such as meet up, exhibits, book etc. and real life stuff is a gazillion times better than on line doing. But Boards spans this gap brilliantly.

Tallon

I agree, there should be a lot more encouragment for people to meet up.

It's always been a positive outcome for myself

Paulw

Tallon wrote: »

Jesus lads, this is a feedback thread. What happened to a clean slate?

Speaking of clean slates ... maybe there should be an amnesty for someone previously banned? Like the US president does each year ... one convict is freed (or in our case, brought back in)??

I think that this place has been fairly well run lately. Yeah, occasionally there should seem to be a bit of bickering going on, but that comes and goes. I do tend to use the "Report Post" button when I feel something is out of order, and others should too.

I like the idea of the "Thanks but No Thanks" thread suggested by humberklog.