The Decline Continues

Maybe so. The tests that I proposed to Rishi all took quite a bit longer to perform and analyze than what they were doing, and the equipment cost somewhat more. He and I were talking about lens testing, for the most part.

Bob, the main thrust of this interesting debate (that has gone right off my OP topic), is about testing gear. Sure, there is now a big space for this aspect. But I think there is also a space for editorial content about the techniques people use to actually make pictures. Focus stacking comes to mind. Maybe articles for beginners like perspective effects frorm the same spot with different focal lengths. Short easy articles to give some insights and maybe inspiration. There are quite a few here who are quite expert at what they do.

Articles about things people look for with Google and which are not done to death. My search for stuff about shift lenses and such has shown me that there is not much written about a whole host of not so obscure subjects.

Didn't make any difference when I told that. Not a direct quote but a summary of various responses: When someone will do, and stay on the same curve, and we will start to loose traffic, we will think of something.

Thom, you are one of the shrewdest and most respected commenters in photography. Count me as a fan.

Phil Askey wasn't daft, he walked away with, I think £50 million when he sold DPR to Amazon.

Bezos isn't that daft either..... looking at his net worth.

I'm no Amazon fan, and yes they've handled this and a bunch of other things badly in recent years. But blimey what a powerhouse of a company overall!

Photography is barely a blip on their radar though.

Sure we can all look at it from a "what's best for the photography community" point of view. But, at the end of the day, photography kit is small beer these days.

To me the value of DPR was being stumped on a certain obscure tech question and almost always finding the answer via a google search on a DPR forum thread. That's priceless, but also monetarily worthless for the website host. (aside from traffic driven advertising revenue).

Reviews these days are largely and sadly dominated by YouTube.

How can a community like this move on from internet 2.0 then? I don't think it can, aside from being a highly valued but niche community.

In the smartphone age photography gear is a bit like high end HiFi, an increasingly niche market.

Before the web was dominated by large websites, there were small "One man and his dog" sites doing it for the love of it, not for money, and bearing all the costs themselves. These sites still exist, it's not all Youtube. And then you have commercial sites that are still in private hands and still providing sterling service eg cameralabs, Phillipreeve.net, TheOnlinePhotographer. It can still be done, niche or otherwise, but probably more difficult if you have to support a staff of 20.

I totally agree. I think the point I'm trying to make is that photography kit has become niche since the advent of smartphones. So whilst there are established sites such as those you have mentioned, any new venture has to be sustainable to a much smaller audience.

Of that smaller audience, how many are made up of professional photographers who never join forum communities, because they don't feel a need to and just crack on with their jobs?

So, the challenge for this place is to cover its running costs as it grows, never mind finding strategies for adding value content like reviews etc in a crowded market.

Fast and large servers get ever more expensive, for ever diminishing returns in the reality of the camera market in 2023 and beyond.

Something like this?

www.lensrentals.com/blog/2023/02/how-your-cameras-focus-bracketing-system-works/

which "Photography" though ? Amazon still boast Amazon Photos ( w/ unlimited /Prime/ storage for recognized raw files even - clearly for nefarious purposes though )

I don't see Adorama or B&H struggling to make the ends meet. Though they are pretty diverse for quite some time.

Yes but they are the cream that rose to the top. How many camera stores are there today compared to 20 years ago and earlier? This actually reinforces my point. How does a newcomer thrive in a declining and increasingly (VERY) niche market?

This place has done well on the back of DPR closing. But let's be realistic, it's shot up to approaching 4000 members worldwide. Yes worldwide. It's a tiny niche site for a tiny niche audience.

Even at 100,000 members it's still tiny....

Maybe not.

By doing something people need. All our applications, free and not, are doing good.

Yes and it's appreciated. The dose of reality is that the audience is a few tens of thousands of enthusiasts globally, probably with an ageing demographic. I'd be interested to learn more about the age demographic, I'd guess an average age of 50 plus with very few below the age of 25.

Understood. No disagreement. But, that said, you didn’t create all those pages in an instant - it happened over years. Personally, if it was me, I’d start by simply linking to your most recent content in an intermediary page here that was under the banner “new stuff from trusted sites/ people”. Do the same for other such sites/ people. Sure, you have other stuff that isn’t “recent” that is still worth pointing out to the Community… that could go on other themed intermediary pages which - to your point - would require more effort than simply linking to most recent content. But I’m sure at least some in this Community would be willing to invest the effort.

Yes, let's being realistic and not draw conclusions in early days.

Yes! Exactly like this. The point I was making earlier was, in effect: “why is this link buried in a post or posts, instead of being on a persistent intermediary page here… along with all sorts of others… per the spirit of NCV’s post. “ IMHO, it should be. It’s not that hard. Why not “just do it”. If it fails, it can be taken down.