easy cheep website for photographic club?

do you want to build it yourself or you thinking of paying someone to do it? Also would be nice to know the functionality you want to have there.... is that some sort small forum with ability to upload photos etc?
 
For a basic and cheap site just use flickr. Set up a group and members can upload photos and you can have discussions.
Not the best, but better than nothing. And if your memgers CBA using a website then it will have cost nothing.
 
middlearthimages said:
Can anyone recommend a user friendly website for camera club please.
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First decide what you want to do.
Then choose a provider.

The easy and free route is Facebook (or Flickr as mentioned above). But before you start coming up with reasons why Facebook isn't appropriate, think about what you actually want to achieve. Is it just a single holding page with contact details? Is it an all-singing, all-dancing club page with galleries, forums, mechanisms for competition submissions and a shop? Or somewhere in-between? Who's going to manage it - what skills do they have and how much time can they devote to it?

The usual pattern with camera clubs (or any local special interest club attended by gentleman of a certain age) is:
  1. Bob volunteers to do it all. He's just retired, got a lot of time on his hands and once wrote a website in 1998.
  2. Bob lovingly handcrafts a website from the bottom-up with hand-crocheted html code using a cheap but obscure bare bones hosting service. It seems to take an age to add anything new or update club news, and it crashes every 8 weeks. But Bob's very good at fixing it, and besides he's on the committee and his wife bakes a very nice Victoria sponge for competition nights.
  3. Three years later Bob has a stroke and no one else knows how the website works, no one is entirely sure who's hosting the website and no one knows the passwords.
  4. Then along comes Henry. Henry's just retired, got a lot of time on his hands and once wrote a website in 2001.
  5. .. ..
 
Wordpress is dead easy for even a fairly static club

Then link to the Club's own Facebook Page for photos, comments and general info, then a secret FB Group for photo sharing in confidence

I helped do this once and grew a club from a few initial members to over 50 within 12 months making it the biggest club in the area - even making the local press as a result

Have fun

Dave
 
Our Photographic Group uses Facebook Groups, easy to use and already in existence, plus, free, which is a bonus.
 
does anyone know a good way to gain members for a facebook group?
 
see.lea said:
does anyone know a good way to gain members for a facebook group?
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Yes.

But you need to provide more details about the group you have in mind - what it's purpose is, who your target members are, etc. If you don't give a sh*t it's easy just to get members, but if you want a group to be successful it's about more than just numbers.
 
Alastair said:
  • Bob volunteers to do it all. He's just retired, got a lot of time on his hands and once wrote a website in 1998.
  • Bob lovingly handcrafts a website from the bottom-up with hand-crocheted html code using a cheap but obscure bare bones hosting service. It seems to take an age to add anything new or update club news, and it crashes every 8 weeks. But Bob's very good at fixing it, and besides he's on the committee and his wife bakes a very nice Victoria sponge for competition nights.
  • Three years later Bob has a stroke and no one else knows how the website works, no one is entirely sure who's hosting the website and no one knows the passwords.
  • Then along comes Henry. Henry's just retired, got a lot of time on his hands and once wrote a website in 2001.
  • .. ..
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You must be telepathic. This happened to our village trust website with the exception that it was Bob's friend's son who charges £100 to host it (and owns the domain name!). It is turning into a nightmare to actually get the ability to control and add content. I'm pushing to move it to Wordpress, start with a new domain, give several people permission to access it and poke them with a stick to do so. When I then get run over by a bus, or have a stroke at least two other people will know how to at least keep it going until another "volunteer" comes along.
 
Harlequin565 said:
You must be telepathic. This happened to our village trust website with the exception that it was Bob's friend's son who charges £100 to host it (and owns the domain name!). It is turning into a nightmare to actually get the ability to control and add content. I'm pushing to move it to Wordpress, start with a new domain, give several people permission to access it and poke them with a stick to do so. When I then get run over by a bus, or have a stroke at least two other people will know how to at least keep it going until another "volunteer" comes along.
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I'm increasingly coming to the conclusion that Facebook is by far the most robust platform for 95% of community groups/clubs.

And if you want to get fancy buy a domain and slap a redirect on it. As mentioned in another thread I'm a founding Admin of a FB community and that's what we've done. I'd prefer a website with forum structure, but in all honesty we don't have the available time/expertise combination to set that up and run it without turning it into a semi-commercial venture and risking the community spirit so far established. I think I've got out local social club to agree to the same way forward.
 
Alastair said:
I'm increasingly coming to the conclusion that Facebook is by far the most robust platform for 95% of community groups/clubs.
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Except that actively discriminates against people who value their privacy and don't want to be on Facebook.

There must be someone in the club with basic web authoring skills? Oh, and I'd take a look at GravCMS. Like WordPress (plugins, themes, WYSIWYG editor etc) but it lends itself to easier backups and a deployment pipeline because it has no database backing it.
 
Alastair said:
I'm increasingly coming to the conclusion that Facebook is by far the most robust platform for 95% of community groups/clubs.

And if you want to get fancy buy a domain and slap a redirect on it. As mentioned in another thread I'm a founding Admin of a FB community and that's what we've done. I'd prefer a website with forum structure, but in all honesty we don't have the available time/expertise combination to set that up and run it without turning it into a semi-commercial venture and risking the community spirit so far established. I think I've got out local social club to agree to the same way forward.
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It's best not to make people join Facebook in order to be a full member of the club. You create a division in the club. On top of that, Facebook makes it hard for people to access any public information.
 
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ianp5a said:
It's best not to make people join Facebook in order to be a full member of the club. You create a division in the club. On top of that, Facebook makes it hard for people to access any public information.
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I used to think that, and then I got involved in a club whose web presence is entirely based on Facebook where for a significant number of members it's their only involvement with Facebook. As far as data protection and identity security is concerned it's safer and better controlled than many traditional clubs, where full personal details and addresses are held on "Bob's database".
 
Alastair said:
I used to think that, and then I got involved in a club whose web presence is entirely based on Facebook where for a significant number of members it's their only involvement with Facebook. As far as data protection and identity security is concerned it's safer and better controlled than many traditional clubs, where full personal details and addresses are held on "Bob's database".
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Well you can compare anything to your worst case scenario. Oh. And by the way, how is old Bob doing? I'm worried about him.

And it sounds like people were made to join Facebook. Pursuaded, cajoled, or even nagged, happens a lot. The threat of being left out can be quite powerful. That should be avoided.

And also, with now, even more people on one closed network, which has less and less reason to innovate, its much harder for other networks to establish themselves. Which does nobody any good.

So a lot of damage was done for a bit of short term gain.
 
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ianp5a said:
Well you can compare anything to your worst case scenario. Oh. And by the way, how is old Bob doing? I'm worried about him.
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He's a bit stressed. We're all getting worried about him.
 
Our Facebook group is going well, but, considering most of our group attendees are elderly people, they tend to be tech phobic and avoid Facebook like the plague, so, our Facebook footprint is pretty small compared to the actual number who attend on a weekly basis. In addition, our Facebook group is closed to group attendees, this is to protect our members privacy.
 
kry10 said:
the actual number who attend on a weekly basis
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Something that's puzzled me, why are so many camera clubs weekly? It seems rather excessive/unrealistic and possibly off-putting to prospective members.
 
Alastair said:
Something that's puzzled me, why are so many camera clubs weekly? It seems rather excessive/unrealistic and possibly off-putting to prospective members.
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Well, I can't speak for your own opinion, but, considering when we started we had only 4-5 regular members, and now, 4 years later we have 25-30 every week and new people attending on a regular basis, we must be doing something right.

We do excursions and various talks, lessons and we are more of a social gathering rather than a club. We have no membership fees, no one runs it and there is absolutely no obligation to turn up, but, we seem to be pretty popular.
 
kry10 said:
Well, I can't speak for your own opinion, but, considering when we started we had only 4-5 regular members, and now, 4 years later we have 25-30 every week and new people attending on a regular basis, we must be doing something right.

We do excursions and various talks, lessons and we are more of a social gathering rather than a club. We have no membership fees, no one runs it and there is absolutely no obligation to turn up, but, we seem to be pretty popular.
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No charge? how can you run a club and not charge, even if you have no outside speakers how do you pay for the hall or one main thing insurance?
 
Alastair said:
Something that's puzzled me, why are so many camera clubs weekly? It seems rather excessive/unrealistic and possibly off-putting to prospective members.
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Yu say weekly, but it is not 52 weeks, most clubs meet during the winter months, some will have a much more relaxed summer program meeting for a photo walk or an event.
Many of our members belong to more than one club, plus subgroups.
So it looks as if this is the right way to go, One club that I was a member with has a waiting list to join, and I think its a 3yr wait as the club has something like 130 members and its the limit of the hall.
 
Chaz Photos said:
No charge? how can you run a club and not charge, even if you have no outside speakers how do you pay for the hall or one main thing insurance?
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We hold our group in a place called The Lighthouse Project, we do not pay for the room we use and insurance is all covered by The Lighthouse Project, in addition, we are at the top of a shopping precinct.
We do not have a membership, but, everyone gives £1 every time they attend, this goes towards paying for refreshments or equipment for our group attendees.
 
kry10 said:
We hold our group in a place called The Lighthouse Project, we do not pay for the room we use and insurance is all covered by The Lighthouse Project, in addition, we are at the top of a shopping precinct.
We do not have a membership, but, everyone gives £1 every time they attend, this goes towards paying for refreshments or equipment for our group attendees.
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Ah so you do have a charge, beware about UK laws with any club that handles any money from the members. Just a warning not wish anyone to get into hot water when trying to be helpful.
One point the hall might have public liability insurance BUT you will need professional indemnity insurance for its activities.
 
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The money we receive is considered a voluntary donation as we are situated in a charitable organisations premises, we are not in a hall, it's a proper well established organisation, here is what I mean ...http://www.lighthouseproject.org.uk
 
kry10 said:
The money we receive is considered a voluntary donation as we are situated in a charitable organisations premises, we are not in a hall, it's a proper well established organisation, here is what I mean ...http://www.lighthouseproject.org.uk
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Ah ok, I see its a church run thing, boy how did you get permission to use Music by Florence and the machine for your video?
 
Well, it's not a church run thing, it's a community organisation, a charity, but, what video are you referring to ?
 
Chaz Photos said:
All the info is saying it's a christen charity.
Here is the video the web page links to.
View: https://vimeo.com/25559769
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My apologies, I wasn't under the impression it was a christian charity, it's just a load of rooms with computers and other stuff, mind you, does explain the way they are so helpful.

I had no input on that video though, I just created the Middleton Photographic Group.
 
Chaz Photos said:
All the info is saying it's a christen charity.
Here is the video the web page links to.
View: https://vimeo.com/25559769
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Chaz, I just checked the page that The Lighthouse Project is based at and I saw no video or information relating to it being a christian run charity, please can you show me what your referring to.
 
kry10 said:
Chaz, I just checked the page that The Lighthouse Project is based at and I saw no video or information relating to it being a christian run charity, please can you show me what your referring to.
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"Our Values
The Lighthouse Project is part of a Christian based charity called Inspire Middleton, and our values & motivation come from our Christian commitment; this commitment is what leads us to..."

http://www.lighthouseproject.org.uk/about/​
 
Ahhhh, there it is, thank you Alastair, I've never seen that or anything that indicates that it's Christian based, it's not really an issue for me, I just walked in one day, explained my interest in creating a Photography Group and asked if they had a room for hire, they said that they could spare a room, so, that's how it all started.
 
Well done, looks like you've managed something really good in today's age when camera clubs aren't in fashion anymore. I'm in contact with quite a few clubs because I give extreme macro talks, and most of them have a committee member run their website on a relatively cheap hosting platform like fasthosts. Flickr and Facebook are also used, although less Facebook. I've always thought Facebook a bit risky myself because once you're inside the Facebook system it is very difficult to extract the members and data out of the Facebook system to set up your own site. Keep it up, great job!!
 
Personally, I'd go for a well-known website software that has lots of tutorials on the web.

Wordpress would be my choice:
 
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