Actually, thinking about this, and reading all the RTM's we've had about you
@dolina - i'm coming to the conclusion that you're up to something - you've suddenly appeared back here out of nowhere, and keep challenging how we do things on the forum, wanting to know about the demographic of our forum, plus posting loads of copy pruned out of other websites - if it's some sort of market research before launching your own forum, can I refer you to our forum rules about doing so - ie stop now.
If its simply that you're disatisfied with the forum as it stands, drop management an email and ask for your membership subscription refunding.
Oh wait...
And if you're posting all those graphs about different camera types in some strange way of getting paid for click through to the sites, again, quit it now... How about, and this is a novel one - just start a simple non-contentious photo-sharing thread
TL;DR We're tiring of you. Behave.
Please be patient and let me explain my side.
> you've suddenly appeared back here out of nowhere,
I stopped visiting in 2017 for these reasons
- this forum's user activity was largely absent.
- Very few people post
- Outside of holidays I also stopped taking photos for 5 years.
- online forum UI & software was clunky 5 years ago unlike today which is 99% ideal & perfect
> keep challenging how we do things on the forum
I am not challenging anyone. I am asking for help,
Last month I decided to restart visiting 2-3 dozen photo forums I used to visit
I noticed on 1 photo forum that their forum UI layout made members' photos take up the whole screen. So I looked over the forum UI layout and noticed that what is the default of the username profile placed on the left of the post is now placed on the top of the post.
As a photographer who wants to show their body of work would you not want the best possible platform to display it to fellow artists?
So I asked talkphotography & the other 1 dozen photo forums that are still online with actual humans posting if that layout could be done.
A forum mod on another photo forum addressed my concern and told me that there was a hidden setting in my Preference to enable it.
I was hoping that talkphotography would have that Preference built-in.
I was articulate in my description so admin & mod will not get a vague request.
The suggestion was made for the benefit for all and not just me.
> wanting to know about the demographic of our forum
Back in 2017 when I posted that poll on which generation the members are part of was prompted from a Youtube video I watched about the typical age of a dSLR & mirrorless owner. I wanted to verify if what they are saying is true.
Based on the results of the poll here & elsewhere it appears what the publicly released market research is true.
> plus posting loads of copy pruned out of other websites
As I explained I wanted others to be conveniently read the article. I took pains not to eat into petaxpixel's bandwidth by hotlinking the graphic onto a site that allows it. Typical users prefer fewer clicks. That's what make Facebook so attractive to photographers as it takes 1 click to upload their work rather ~1 dozen clicks. I provided citation to the website for reference if you prefer to read it there.
The reason I shared that article is simple
- I want to increase user activity on this photo forum
- I want to talk to other photogs about their thoughts about the buying trend of photographers for the past few years.
- a lot of members on photo forums have a background of business and I find it interesting to read their take on this.
> if it's some sort of market research before launching your own forum
In the 22 years as a user of dozens of online forums I would never want to start 1 of my own.
Why?
Because so many have closed down already and I doubt I can do a better job than the pros.
Not to mention Facebook siphoned all the users of these online forums. Two of my country's photo forums relocated their operations to Facebook as over 9 out of 10 people with email here have a Facebook account. Their membership increased, for a time. Prior to their shuttering of their photo forum there was virtually no more users participating there.
> If its simply that you're disatisfied with the forum as it stands, drop management an email and ask for your membership subscription refunding.
In the 1st sentence of my first post in this thread I stated that "First, I would like to thank the admin, mod and site owner(s) for the tireless work they have done with our forum."
What I am asking for if X Y Z was possible.
> And if you're posting all those graphs about different camera types in some strange way of getting paid for click through to the sites, again, quit it now... How about, and this is a novel one - just start a simple non-contentious photo-sharing thread
The graphs are their for FYI purposes so other photogs who want to see numbers would understand. The sales figures & accompanying static graphs were created by me from CIPA worldwide shipping data.
