DPR here to stay, and Photoing.org's future plans

To Whom It May Concern:

I'm the founder of Photoing.org (formerly DPDiscuss and DPRAlumni). In case you haven't already known, DPR was just acquired by Gear Patrol and is here to stay: www.dpreview.com/site-news/8298318614/dpreview-com-looks-forward-to-a-new-chapter-with-gear-patrol

I actually got a hint earlier that DPR was probably here to stay and shared it with you. In anticipation of DPR's survival, I changed my project's domain name from DPRAlumni.com to Photoing.org and added a "portal" feature: www.photoing.org/portal

So, in anticipation that DPR's forums will still be the place most DPR users go for photography discussion, I have shifted my project's focus from a community to a portal that lists resources in the photography world such as news sites, review sites, camera databases, image databases, learning resources and photo forums.

While our Facebook groups will be kept alive and still listed as the primary forums on Photoing.org's Community section (see link below), I also added links to DPR forums as "secondary forums" for you to quickly jump to a DPR forum from our site (see the "DPR" links at the following link): www.photoing.org/community

I also learned from this 2023 DPR shutdown crisis that most DPR users like traditional forums more than Facebook groups. So in case there is a future DPR shutdown crisis, I may create a series of traditional forums and list them on Photoing.org as the primary forums to better serve the DPR user community. (The Facebook groups will still be available, as secondary forums.)

Finally, I want to share a surprise I discovered yesterday. Back in January 2016 I had $12,000 as sales revenues from a former software project of mine, CoolSpeech. I spent them all on electronics such as laptops and cameras. If I invested them in Bitcoin and cashed out in November 2021 (Bitcoin's all-time high), I would have had $2 MILLION now!...

So, compared to the crazy crypto market, photography ventures such as Photoing.org is really nothing, financially. It's essentially for fun because we love photography, isn't it?

Regards,
Booted Cat
Founder of Photoing.org (formerly DPDiscuss and DPRAlumni)

Okay.

I have great appreciation for anyone who is really into something with all their heart and soul, so I don't want to downplay your efforts or question your good intentions. However your last two chapters make me worry about your obsession with the project, so I just wanted to add my thoughts: Please - whatever you do - prioritize your personal well-being and sanity above everything else. It doesn't feel like a great idea to invest too much time and energy into a project like that, when the main point of the operation (dpreview shutdown) isn't even valid anymore. Might be very hard for each of the emerging projects, so if you can please keep expectations in check, prioritize your own fun with photography and take care! 👍

Don't worry. My last two paragraphs are exactly telling everyone that there is a much more profitable field than making photo sites/forums, and in light of that, running a photo site/forum may just be for fun... :-)

Thanks a lot for clarifying! I may have misread that or missed the context... sorry - makes a lot more sense now. Glad you're still in it for the fun. Best regards!

Your community section has Zero content.
All that you are doing is listing all of the dpreview forums.

Only a fool would invest in bitcoin.
LMOA

Edit: OMG…😮
you have formed a facebook group for all of the listed dpreview forums.
Good luck with that… only old people use facebook nowadays, the kids left a long time ago.

Well, forum users are probably even more ancient than FB clients.

Funny….I keep hearing that…yet FB has more active users than any other platform.

Yeah, I thought the demographic here was pretty well known.