Photography forum collapse

moving to a FB forum the way to go in my opinion.
i think this is the only forum i am on which in pure web based,.
 
Raincloud said:
Hate FB myself
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thats up to you, but for people like me, all your groups in one place, one single sign on and an APP that works and is slick on phones and devices is a win for me
 
Mr Bump said:
thats up to you, but for people like me, all your groups in one place, one single sign on and an APP that works and is slick on phones and devices is a win for me
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There are hardly any worse people than suckerberg to trust all your online life to. I avoid the platform like plague
 
I was sad to hear the news via an email from the site owner. I know some people on TP are/were members there (myself included though not actively since becoming more involved in TP), but I'm hoping that some other members over there migrate to TP, for their sake as well as ours. I can appreciate that some people will stay with the FB version, but others won't like being on FB for it - at then end it is intended for devices/phones, not bigger screen pc's, so not much different to Instagram for photographers. It would be a bad thing imho if online forums went the way of bulletin boards in the old dial-up days, in favour of the likes of FB. Anyway that's off-topic.
 
Is sad that FB is taking over from web based forums but am glad TP is doing well
There isn’t anything the same on FB
FB is good for specialist groups like Dragonflies and butterflies etc , there are some really helpful people in these groups
 
Mr Bump said:
moving to a FB forum the way to go in my opinion.
i think this is the only forum i am on which in pure web based,.
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Haha! [sigh]

Back in the day (mid nineties and before)* all discussion on the internet was on the Usenet, a completely open platform where anyone could join in the conversation, but spam was invented on the Usenet and spam eventually killed it.

Then everything got siloed into a myriad of different web forums that need a login to each individual site to be able to participate.

Now all that discourse is locked up in one private company's platform.

* yes, I am getting old, I remember when everything around here was fields, etc.
 
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With all things said above FB is also killing basic functionality like search, historic timeline views, etc. They get to decide what (if any) you see and where. And that's before they ban you for using highly offensive terms like family, border wall or breastfeeding. Screw them
 
Mr Bump said:
thats up to you, but for people like me, all your groups in one place, one single sign on and an APP that works and is slick on phones and devices is a win for me
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If you like a feed mixed with suggested and sponsored post. The you can see a post refresh your feed and never see it again, be shown a post from weeks ago when there has been no further comments, have to constantly ask to read all comments becuase the default is most relevant, that one week photography pages area all pushed into your feed over other pages that are less active but of more interest and yes i have pinned them, made them favorites and any other such drivel. If it wasnt that these groups post events solely on the platform I wouldnt use it.
 
AgentOrange76 said:
If you like a feed mixed with suggested and sponsored post. The you can see a post refresh your feed and never see it again, be shown a post from weeks ago when there has been no further comments, have to constantly ask to read all comments becuase the default is most relevant, that one week photography pages area all pushed into your feed over other pages that are less active but of more interest and yes i have pinned them, made them favorites and any other such drivel. If it wasnt that these groups post events solely on the platform I wouldnt use it.
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maybe so but i also like the fact that FB has a much more global feel, i have quite a few headphone and digital music pages that would only exist on an FB platform and i chat and discuss things with people from vietnam , china , usa and pretty much everywhere and its wonderfull, web stuck forums just dont reach that far like FB does , do i like the adds no not realy i do sometimes quite like the suggested groups tho.
 
LongLensPhotography said:
And that's before they ban you for using highly offensive terms like family, border wall or breastfeeding. Screw them
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I was talking to a friend openly on FB, she used the word "Tart" it was obviously food orientated, from the thread, but she got a warning..
Seriously? :rolleyes:
 
Cobra said:
I was talking to a friend openly on FB, she used the word "Tart" it was obviously food orientated, from the thread, but she got a warning..
Seriously? :rolleyes:
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Perhaps FB have another preferred word for a filled baked product sans pastry topping:thinking:
 
Cobra said:
I was talking to a friend openly on FB, she used the word "Tart" it was obviously food orientated, from the thread, but she got a warning..
Seriously? :rolleyes:
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Hope she doesn't start tossing pancakes and feel the need to post about it.. :oops: :$
 
Mr Bump said:
maybe so but i also like the fact that FB has a much more global feel, i have quite a few headphone and digital music pages that would only exist on an FB platform and i chat and discuss things with people from vietnam , china , usa and pretty much everywhere and its wonderfull, web stuck forums just dont reach that far like FB does , do i like the adds no not realy i do sometimes quite like the suggested groups tho.
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We may not have a billion members here, but those we have are pretty geographically diverse despite this being a predominately UK forum. The other one I dip into, Pentax forum, is mainly USA/Canada but with members very diverse too. You can have that geographic dispersal on a website forum, it depends on the topics and appeal.
 
I'm always sad to see a proper forum go, and Bacefook is not a healthy, useful place for them to migrate to, even if the admin and running costs are low. Certainly there can be specialised groups that thrive on that platform, but it will always be a dishonest system because it's curated and controlled, rather than being linear and open.

Another forum I've been with since the late 90s - harmony central - is presently a zombie. At one time it was so busy it was like a chatroom more than a forum, with a membership in the hundreds of thousands. The forum was sold again a couple of years back, and the original owners who had stayed on running it through several sales could no longer run it. The current owners are funding server space, but are absentee landlords, not interacting with the few remaining mods. Most of the reviews, a major forum asset, have been lost, and it's just a floating hulk with no-one at the tiller. I'm hoping that it can be revived as a place for adult musicians again, but suspect it will just go 404 one day.
 
I also miss Photocamel which folded in about 2018
 
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lindsay said:
We may not have a billion members here, but those we have are pretty geographically diverse despite this being a predominately UK forum. The other one I dip into, Pentax forum, is mainly USA/Canada but with members very diverse too. You can have that geographic dispersal on a website forum, it depends on the topics and appeal.
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but those are not the points i am making, for instance APP availability ? this forum decided not to use an app and in my opinion that was a step backwards, FB gives you the ability to just pop a search into the bar and find groups and forums in a safe and available manner. no individual logins , no insecure websites to compromise your logins and passwords. sorry mate but i think FB and centralized and SAFE spaces are good and the future.
 
Mr Bump said:
this forum decided not to use an app and in my opinion that was a step backwards,
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It costs "us" a fortune, and there were only of handful of members using it.
It was a waste of time and money.

Marcel killed it while he was still the site owner, and it was many months after that people asked where was the app.
So they weren't using it very regularly.


The poll that ran asking for opinions.
Of those that bothered to reply
78 odd % said they never used it
10 odd % said from the app store
10 odd% said from google play.

Hardly over subscribed was it?
The site is a web based photography forum, using an app on a phone is hardly photo friendly.
 
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Cobra said:
10 odd% said from google play.
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I was one of those users.

The app was great for the social side, making reading & replying in out of focus etc easy. But phones are not a useful device to view photographs for more than a casual take, and since the purpose of the forum is primarily about photography AND it was costing money to support just a few users, I very much support the app being canned.
 
and those that are keen on FB and similar can obviously choose that, but thankfully we do have a goodly number of members here who like being on aweb app rather than mobile app. We could never compete with FB and Instagram and don't want to. Different appeal, diifferent type of user. As Toni said.
 
THIRTYFIVEMILL said:
FB groups can’t replace good forums.
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Absolutely, TP does have a FB presence but its only ever used for announcement, ie should the forum go down ( thankfully that is all behind us now) and such like.

Facebook

www.facebook.com www.facebook.com

TBH I don't really understand it all, I have enough trouble with my personal one.
 
Facebook is vile.

Not only is the interface designed to keep you for far longer than you need to be there, but all they are after is your data and what you do. It is there to make money out of you and your data. Not to provide a useful place to interact with your friends.
 
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Cobra said:
It costs "us" a fortune, and there were only of handful of members using it.
It was a waste of time and money.

Marcel killed it while he was still the site owner, and it was many months after that people asked where was the app.
So they weren't using it very regularly.


The poll that ran asking for opinions.
Of those that bothered to reply
78 odd % said they never used it
10 odd % said from the app store
10 odd% said from google play.

Hardly over subscribed was it?
The site is a web based photography forum, using an app on a phone is hardly photo friendly.
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Understand totally.

No need for an app these days.

The software, that Talk Photography uses for the forum, scales very well and will automatically provide a very usable version of the forum when accessed from a mobile device.
 
Mr Bump said:
but those are not the points i am making, for instance APP availability ? this forum decided not to use an app and in my opinion that was a step backwards, FB gives you the ability to just pop a search into the bar and find groups and forums in a safe and available manner. no individual logins , no insecure websites to compromise your logins and passwords. sorry mate but i think FB and centralized and SAFE spaces are good and the future.
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As it happens, I belong to a FB group that is specific to my make and model of car, it's very well run, contains a wealth of really useful static content and has loads of members who share their specialised knowledge freely - it's run by a guy who profits from it because he sells parts, but he performs a really useful service.

But, the various photography groups that I've looked at seem to me to be very different, they all seem to have a vested interest in selling gear, and tend to be run by people whose skills lie in selling their goods and services, rather than in photography. Their vested interests and deceptive posts wouldn't be tolerated here, and that's why I stay here.

This forum has obviously been damaged by the growth of FB groups and has done well to keep going. I doubt whether it will get any easier in the future, but there is definitely a need for forums such as TP, run ethically by keen photographers for keen photographers,
 
I use Facebook for 3/4 groups I belong to, in and out as fast as possible, that didn’t save me from a ban after after on an ex mine worker page I referred to a 6.6kv electrical transformer as a ‘tranny’, no explanation just a 3 day ban. I only found out why after the page management told me in the pub, a far better place to discuss stuff than Faceache.
Long live the forum.
 
Facebook is a bit like Amazon. Bit by bit it sucks up users from other places, eventually making them less sustainable. If you take a look at the Forums list here then imagine how many face ache groups you would have to be a member of to get similar content and interaction.
 
Milo King said:
The software, that Talk Photography uses for the forum, scales very well and will automatically provide a very usable version of the forum when accessed from a mobile device.
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It was a conscious move by the previous owner.
Another reason the app was deemed non essential or effective for "us"
Garry Edwards said:
This forum has obviously been damaged by the growth of FB groups and has done well to keep going.
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64 odd,000 members can't be wrong :D
The problem we had, if it is indeed a problem was that the previous owner(s) maybe some 10+ years ago now,
thought the FB / social media was the way to go, and to some extent tried to mimic it, adding the like button ( love it or hate it) is a classic example
mj4456 said:
Long live the forum.
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(y)

We shall do everything possible to keep it going, pretty much in its current form,
and that includes not swamping the site with adverts.
Obviously if there is an advantage to it evolving in some way or another, to everyone's advantage, of course we admin, will look at it.

We do get a lot of requests to advertise, most are turned down, as they are deemed unsuitable for the image we wish to portray,
within the various forums, and TP as a whole.
 
Facebook is great!

Learn how to use it so you get what you want from it.. stop worrying about who owns it and how much money they make or what everyone else is doing... You can get a lot out of facebook if you use it right .
 
KIPAX said:
You can get a lot out of facebook if you use it right .
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And make a lot of money if these so called pouting influences are to be believed.
 
Cobra said:
And make a lot of money if these so called pouting influences are to be believed.
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One of my sons makes a living through facebook.. he pays more in tax than I make a year.. mostly gamer pages wiht lots of video content.. Not my cup of tea at all... But hes been doing this for quite a few years
 
KIPAX said:
One of my sons makes a living through facebook.. he pays more in tax than I make a year.. mostly gamer pages wiht lots of video content.. Not my cup of tea at all... But hes been doing this for quite a few years
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The problem is, of course, that only a very few make loads of money out of it.

It isn't a Magic Money Tree, but like lots of other things, somewhere that the very first can make money out of the slightly later ones.
 
Awfers said:
Sad to hear... This has been happening to a lot of forums for a while now.

Unfortunately, Reddit has taken over a lot (it is essentially a giant platform for forums). However, the quality of content on Reddit can be, well, let us say not of the highest quality....
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Reddit is pretty good as it is basically free to setup a sub forum as all the tools are there , i also subscribe to a few of there forums, its very US of A though and you have to take that with a pinch of salt , it not unusual to see some dud showing of his new headphones next to his glock or AR15
 
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