What makes a photography forum special for you?

nass

nass

Messages
400
Name
Johan
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi,

I'm working on adding a forum to my site because I get lots of questions already and a forum seems to be a nice way to continue the conversation. And, as I'm developing it, I of course want to add functionality that makes a forum ideal for photographers, so a built in exif reader, the ability to rotate I -phone pics taken in portrait etc. But I'd love to have some general feedback about features that you might have seen at other forums, be they photography related or not, that are really nice to have. Or even features that you think might me nice to have and havn't seen anywhere. With programming anything is possible - I just don't think that many forums make photographer requirements and images their first priority, but I'd very much like to!

Many thanks for your time,

-Johan
 
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just put a link to this one... job done :)
 
Thank you Peter! Comments like that always help to keep the motivation going :). Truth is I'm quite fussy and if I'm going to do a forum I'm going to want to make it as photographer friendly as possible. So many forums seem to just be a generic shell with little thought about the people and types using them, what they actually really want. For example learners want to understand images so I added an exif thingie as one of the first steps - see here.

Kipax, the correct spelling is amateur, not amatuer (see your homepage).
 
I prefer the more modern forum's that have thumbnails for recent posts or a ticker type for the home page were you see title and first few lines if there is any put in the post.

Maybe in the actual threads force users to write some type of description stop the threads that are just images, so can gauge what the user wants.

For you site definately some setup guides for macro
 
I think this is what Bryn was saying, but clear icons to represent posts that are read, unread, participated in, updated since last read etc.
I also find a mobile app very useful for keeping up to date.
A well thought out structure for categorising the threads
The ability to embed images/video from the common sites.
The ability to quote sections of comments, or even group replies from different people (the quote and quote list options on this forum are excellent and I use that functionality frequently)
The ability to tag users in a post or alert them to a particular thread as needed.
A clean interface with clear text as much as possible.

Something a bit more innovative might be the option to "see" when someone is typing/replying to a thread. At the moment we get alerted if you are replying and someone has posted new content in the mean time. I think it would be nice to take that one step further and see something along the lines of "nass is typing" when they begin to reply to a post and it almost becomes more of a real-time chat function (similar to how things like WhatsApp or Microsoft Lync work). Just an idea, not sure how much difference it would make.

Other than that, it's the community and content that makes a forum!
 
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Thanks guys, there are great. Plenty of food for thought. TBH, I don't anticipate mine being ready for at least 6 months because of the tweaks I want to add!
 
Unfortunately you will need to consider how to moderate. Are you planning on doing it all yourself, or do you have a cohort of like minded helpers, given that your readers may be in all sorts of time zones around the world. The look of the site is good although might you have considered different skins being available to create greater contrast for some readers in the text? I have found this site, www.cambridgeincolour.com as the tutorials are pretty good, but to some extent you are also going to be reflected in your readership.

Glad to see you have Cognysis stacker recommended on your site, an almost essential accessory. Good luck, but I must remember not to be eating lunch whilst browsing.
 
Yeah, I already have a style switcher on the forum homepage but just havn't built either of the styles yet. I like CiC very much too and was going to offer the same, light or dark. As it stands it's just default SMF - I want to do the tricky technical stuff first then worry about styles last :)

And yes when the time comes I'll need helpers. But thought I'd better build it first before trying to find people to help :)
 
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why not just send them here? save you a lot of work and money.
 
Matt said:
why not just send them here? save you a lot of work and money.
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I think that would require the Forum here to have more specific sections etc... look at the groups/sections Johan has setup on flickr and his webpage they are very specific sections well defined, this forum caters for these with generalised sections rather than specific.

Edit: Maybe Johan can point people to here for that purpose and have his as a more specific forum.
 
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nass said:
Hi,

I'm working on adding a forum to my site because I get lots of questions already and a forum seems to be a nice way to continue the conversation. And, as I'm developing it, I of course want to add functionality that makes a forum ideal for photographers, so a built in exif reader, the ability to rotate iphone pics taken in portrait etc. But I'd love to have some general feedback about features that you might have seen at other forums, be they photography related or not, that are really nice to have. Or even features that you think might me nice to have and havn't seen anywhere. With programming anything is possible - I just don't think that many forums make photographer requirements and images their first priority, but I'd very much like to!

Many thanks for your time,

-Johan
Click to expand...

The number one problem for forums is keeping out the trolls, the defensive types, know-it-alls and general bottom of the barrel infestation of forums that put off the people you really want from posting.
 
JennyGW said:
It's not expensive to put up a forum.
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Pedant.

starting up isnt expensive but once you get a good flow of traffic and lots of images hosted it starts to rack up.
 
Tintin124 said:
I think that would require the Forum here to have more specific sections etc... look at the groups/sections Johan has setup on flickr and his webpage they are very specific sections well defined, this forum caters for these with generalised sections rather than specific.

Edit: Maybe Johan can point people to here for that purpose and have his as a more specific forum.
Click to expand...

maybe but you could do it somthing like this, Macro Section, macro discussion, macro tools, macro images. that covers it, otherwise you have 50 sections with 1 post a month in each, makes the site look quiet and doesnt build momentum. Of course then you'll have people complaining that macro has its own tools section, so why cant we have a goldfish and Pondlife section like that or that Train Spotting isnt covered by Transport as there is no section to put in train numbers on New Mallard or Pendalino carriages.
 
JennyGW said:
It's not expensive to put up a forum.
Click to expand...

plus the huge amount of time that it takes up to set up and run properly. if you count man hours as money then it is VERY costly
 
Matt said:
maybe but you could do it somthing like this, Macro Section, macro discussion, macro tools, macro images. that covers it, otherwise you have 50 sections with 1 post a month in each, makes the site look quiet and doesnt build momentum. Of course then you'll have people complaining that macro has its own tools section, so why cant we have a goldfish and Pondlife section like that or that Train Spotting isnt covered by Transport as there is no section to put in train numbers on New Mallard or Pendalino carriages.
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Indeed on a generic photography forum but that is not what I think Johan is trying to create.

Matt I'm sure you see lots of requests for new sections. :D I love this forum but being very interested in Macro and what Johan website provides a forum with more specific Macro functionality could also be handy, for instance a lot of great Macro photographers dont use TP there must be a reason when they are on other sites. ;)
 
Hi Matt,

I sincerely doubt whether any forum I do will set the world on fire, but I do have a premium unlimited space account - 1 down from a dedicated server. Space isn't a problem (for now!). I'd like to make something much better than what's already out there. We are photographers, and a great photography forum should cater for what we want, and be modified specifically for photographers. Hence the exif thing was the first thing I did. And rather than downloading themes and mods and just applying them, I'd like to tweak all mine and write some more for my site alone, for photographers and macro photographers specifically. This isn't an overnight process but I expect 6-9 months.

The extreme macro site is my own baby, I author and script it all. The dayjob is managing 10 b2b sites and having someone tell me how they think sites should be structured. But this is mine, and it got a webby nomination last year. It's actually already a very good site, but I think it could be even better. In terms of trolls etc, I'm actually already highly experienced with how forums are run - I used to run a 1m+ post/month gaming forum on phpbb1 back in the day, so I'm knowledgable about things like spam etc. And a mod over at pentaxforums. I'm a web heavyweight. TBH, I'm not worried about getting people in or a high postcount, I'm quite tempted by invite only. Quality matters more to me than quantity and traffic!

Lastly, in terms of content - why not post here - this is a lovely forum and it's on my list of forums I visit. But there's a thing about all 3rd party sites that I simply don't like, which is that they have control, and can change how they do what they do at any time. For example Flickr had a big UIX change some time ago and there was nothing anyone could do about it. Nothing. I'd hate to invest my time and effort somewhere where it was even possible for that to happen (ie any external site). Hence I built my own - because I can!

added - TinTin124 is totally correct. Not remotely interested in a 'all photography' forum, just macro. A totally specialist forum.
added - just saw your other post. I already built a bunch of tools last month. This is a forum. But overdivision is a problem, yes, agreed :).
 
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The reason I am not active on other photo forums is hyperactive mods, moderators can make or break a forum site.
 
redsnappa said:
The reason I am not active on other photo forums is hyperactive mods, moderators can make or break a forum site.
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God I so agree with that. At the moment I'm having a passive aggressive todo with a guy over at simplemachines forum who feels the need to reply or make some comment to all my threads. You get the moderator type who thinks they are god. Can't stand them. I prefer the janitor approach, just sweep up here and there but don't tell people how to run their lives. :rolleyes:
 
I like the janitor approach aswell...less work to do..

...good luck with your macro forum, if you want any help with software then marcel has been tinkering with Xen and VB for many years and im sure he'd be happy to save you some time.
 
That's really kind of you Matt, thank you. Appreciated. Many hours of work ahead for me :).
 
JennyGW said:
The number one problem for forums is keeping out the trolls, the defensive types, know-it-alls and general bottom of the barrel infestation of forums that put off the people you really want from posting.
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I do wish you would just say what you thought Jenny :D
 
Currently I visit 3 forums. This one is the one I spend the vast majority of time on, just because I enjoy the community here, have felt able to contribute, benefited greatly from the expertise of others and there are areas outside of macro I can check out from time to time.

I do feel this forum has a heavy UK bias for some reason (not sure if this was intended) but it's great for being able to meet up with others in the area, even if they are not primarily macro shooters. I also like to see what the rest of the world is up to so I also lurk around http://photography-on-the.net/ and obviously review Flickr frequently.

For dedicated macro stuff, or perhaps more specialist tips and advice I also visit http://photomacrography.net/ where there are some very highly skilled people and some great innovations going on (not that you don't get both of those here). It doesn't have the level of activity our humble macro section here has though, so I usually drop in only occasionally or if I have a specific question that may not get answered here.

There are, of course, many other forums out there but I try to limit which ones I visit regularly as I'd be in danger of spending more time on forums than I am out with the camera (and all the subsequent processing).

Each site has their place and I find value in visiting each of them (as mentioned though, TP is my favourite) and I am sure I will find value in visiting your forum @nass... if I'm lucky enough get an invite of course ;) You've done such a good job with the main site, I'm really looking forward to seeing what you can come up with by way of a forum. I also get your desire to be in control and, although I have no wish to invest so much time and effort in front of a computer (it is my day job after all), I'm happy to help out where I can.

Good luck!
 
Matt said:
plus the huge amount of time that it takes up to set up and run properly. if you count man hours as money then it is VERY costly
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That is a fixed cost that doesn't vary regardless of the software or the hosting.
 
JennyGW said:
https://www.tsohost.com/web-hosting

I don't call £20 a month for 100GB storage, 1TB bandwidth, etc, etc a lot of money!
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A shared account may very well be good for a small site/forum starting out however as soon as it starts to get popular and grow you would run into all sorts of problems and would out grow a shared environment very quickly.

Popular websites and forums, such as Talk Photography, have to be run on a dedicated server costing £100's per month and then if it is not a managed server you can then add other costs on top of that.
 
The thing is though, the overall picture for server space is that the costs are falling all the time, and are now only a fraction of what they used to be. Dedicated cloud servers arn't that expensive, honest. Cheaper than my package.... but mine has 24/7 private number support, which is why I went for it. The real killer cost of running a forum is the programming. Content writing and moderation are free because people volunteer, but if you want fancy bits it's the programming that'll cost the big bills. Which is why with me doing my own the cost isn't that high... except in my own time of course. But I'm not in a hurry :).
 
Also, just wanted to say, thank you very much TimmyG for your offer, massively appreciated.
 
Sorry Johan but I am not sure you are understanding fully the implications and potential costs involved in running a popular site/forum

I see your current website is hosted with Fasthosts who are well known for there tempting low costs but the reality being once you get anywhere near being a popular site/forum you will hit problems unless you are willing to pay more to upgrade.

People often get taken in by the low cost unlimited offers given by web hosts, and for most people that may be OK, but the stark reality is they jam them in and stack them high, they have to in order to cover there costs.

If you eventually want to have a popular site and forum then get the hosting side of things done properly because if you don't your members wont hang around and will soon leave for pastures new especially if accessing your site/forum becomes a pain to do.

There is an old saying: "Pay peanuts, get monkeys"
 
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No worries. It'll always depend on the package Keith, of course. In the dayjob, the company I work for is a FH reseller and we've got >100 sites with them. Never any capacity or bandwidth problems in the 7 years I've worked here for any of those sites. But these aren't top 50,000 busy sites... but sheesh nor is mine :). The cheap and cheerful package, sure, you get what you pay for -- but I'm not on that cheap and cheerful package. So... yes, who knows, even with my all singing platinum package even if there are issues down the road because my site starts getting 10x the visitors it currently does, I'll find fixes and cross those bridges when I get to them :)
 
Which Nimbus package are you on? And, is it graphics processing that's your biggest issue (as in just resizing a 7Mb graphic can consume >100Mb memory), or pipe, or...?
 
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Keith W said:
A shared account may very well be good for a small site/forum starting out however as soon as it starts to get popular and grow you would run into all sorts of problems and would out grow a shared environment very quickly.

Popular websites and forums, such as Talk Photography, have to be run on a dedicated server costing £100's per month and then if it is not a managed server you can then add other costs on top of that.
Click to expand...

A dedicated server can be rented starting from about £100 a month. It might even make sense to build a server now that we have fibre optic available at more reasonable prices.
 
Keith W said:
reply sounded rude Johan, that wasn't my intention
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Keith W said:
Sorry Johan but I am not sure you are understanding fully the implications and potential costs involved in running a popular site/forum

I see your current website is hosted with Fasthosts who are well known for there tempting low costs but the reality being once you get anywhere near being a popular site/forum you will hit problems unless you are willing to pay more to upgrade.

People often get taken in by the low cost unlimited offers given by web hosts, and for most people that may be OK, but the stark reality is they jam them in and stack them high, they have to in order to cover there costs.

If you eventually want to have a popular site and forum then get the hosting side of things done properly because if you don't your members wont hang around and will soon leave for pastures new especially if accessing your site/forum becomes a pain to do.

There is an old saying: "Pay peanuts, get monkeys"
Click to expand...

Moving to a new server if you need to upgrade really isn't that big a deal.
 
I don't know how much traffic your website gets but there is nothing worse than a forum with one post every 6 months and tumble weed blowing through it, it just drags the rest of the site down. There is very definitely a critical mass of users that is needed to make a forum work and in my experience that is something like several hundred frequent viewers of which 20% may post regularly.

If I were you I would just stick to the comments system you already have, may be make that more prominent?
 
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