I was a lurker who enjoyed your photographs and learnt from the ensuing discussions so would like to see them continue. Just trying to help your explorations.
March 28, 2023
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True. But what's the alternative? We all go off to different places? All the groups star their own forums? We would lose the feel of the big community around us. I think that was important at DPR even if one mostly was active in just a smaller section of it.
As I see it, we can all go in different directions, or we can stay here together and make the best of the flat view for now. It has only been a couple of days and I'd say much has been accomplished in those days. Give it some time.
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We are all lost in the same mine. About 1/3 of our C&C entries are what we call photo stories that might have 3-7 photos in one post. I think my suggestion about the image centric cross-brand forum got lost in the chaos, and I have not revived it on purpose because of the very things you bring up. Though it is possible to shepherd such activities within a flat forum board (I've done it), it grows cumbersome soon for both sheep and shepherd. The test example in this thread is dizzying. If we don't start our threads here we will lose everyone and there's no way to herd those cats back up.. If we do start the threads and they give everyone vertigo, we may lose them anyway. Threaded view is something of a rarity in the forum world, most forum software packages do not have it. I hope they can ultimately create it, but that is not the biggest fish they have to fry right now.
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It's part of the biggest fish. We need to tailor this forum software to what we want, and threaded view is a big bit of it. However, this has to be a well managed development programme, or else the whole thing will descend into chaos. That means we won't be trying to hack in feature by feature. We'll start making our own version of the software and the features we want in the first release, then we'll develop that release and switch the site over to it. If you can explain what it is you need to run the C&C thread, I'll try to work out if there's a workaround with this software that will let you do it.
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Bob: Thank you! (Mad Respect for what you've accomplished). In regard to the critique thread on the Oly forum: There are 2 intertwined problems here, one that predates your forum. The other activities such as the Weekly Photo and Weekly Cat threads have some similar issues.
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Lack of a threaded view - this affects activities that involve multiple people posting photos in a single thread, with each photo leading to multiple responses to that photo or photos, with more responses to those responses and so on. In threaded view they feather out and fold back up neatly, but in flat view it quickly becomes hard for anyone to know what is being referred to. If you look at the samples in this thread you will see how crazy it can become. We are experimenting with ways to adapt these activities to a flat view but haven't had any breakthroughs.
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Inappropriate forum housing - this is a problem we've had for years and that we have brought with us to your forum. The most active threads in the old Oly SLR forum have nothing to do with old Oly equipment - they are generic, cross-brand photo centric activities, mostly weekly, that had no other appropriate home. Basically we have been squatters there for years. There may be such activities squatting on other forum sections, I have heard there are. A forum section for cross-brand photo-centric weekly activities such as these could be a separate forum category that houses weekly critique, Sunday Cat, weekly photo, black-and-white, and other weekly or ongoing activity threads. It might could be combined with challenge activities in some way. Also: a freestanding cross-brand critique section could be a possibility, since every other photo forum out there has one.
We will start the C&C thread with what we can make of it, probably beginning next week, in the Oly section (which is where our members would know to look for us) and see what happens. Would love your opinion, and/or Alan's, when you have time, as to what you see as possible solutions for either/both issues.
Congratulations on herding up so many cats so quickly. I've worked forum startup myself and I know what a remarkable accomplishment this is. Cat herding is hard but there's nothing as much fun. I'm enjoying watching but will be glad to help.
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When it comes to Weekly Image, I think I'm not alone in wanting to stay where we are. I think most of us want it small and cozy. That doesn't mean that there can't be a general weekly thread too. That could had been created on DPR too, for example in the Samples and Galleries forum, " the place to share and discuss your galleries / portfolios and to post samples for comments and critiques".
The problem is only the lack of threaded view as I see it. I'm sure we can put our threads where we want them here and if you want a special section that could be set up in a blink.
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I would like to amend that impression that we who post on the SLR forum are generally brand independent .. The “Weekly Image ...” thread that Andrew leads and brings regularly is generally the most active and populated thread on that forum. Most users post picture taken with mFT cameras and of those about half now use the OM1. Discussions and the pictures posted are often about features, such as ProCapture, that are unique to Olympus. Often our posts often explore the use of techniques supported by Olympus an that is part of the discussions. So I would say that we are mostly involved in exploring the use of the gear rather than the quality or testing of the gear …. I also note that the Forum often attracts questions about the features found on mFT cameras but also questions and uses of the older Olympus DSLRs and film cameras … We value our contributors who come from other brands to participate in our forums but we are not “completely cross-brand photo-centric” just a bit quieter and tolerant of other brands than the mFT Forum …
Sorry to contributed nothing to the actual question at hand but can't leave the impression that The Olympus SLR Forum is not Olympus centric ... and I think most of us here can be patient and hope for the success of this forum , which with more than 1000 members already seems assured .. Take time and do the upgrades right ....
WhyNot
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I'm torn about location. Oly SLR has been a great host to us, and we are not unhappy there. But it is hard for new people who might be interested in participating to find us hidden away there. I'm worried about enough of our traditional group surviving the disbanding of the old DPR and the move here. Everyone won't go to the trouble of making the move, some may move to other forums, and we may lose some who do move, then can't adjust to the differences. I hope that the different structure here, with the Threads section defaulted to pulling from all forums, might bring some new eyes on us. But over time we will need a way to recruit interested participants.
And I'm not the only one who needs convincing. I am merely the advance scout.
Agree threaded view is gonna be a challenge...
