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Am I the only one disappointed in the "post your" trend that has taken over these forums?

AS_Photo

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I would like to see members photos of things and comment on them, etc. However, going to say the Nature & Landscape forums all you see is just the entire form filled with:

"Post your seascapes."
"Post your cloud photos"
"Post your best sunrise"
"Post your best sunset"

On and on, ad nauseum. It's annoying that they just fill up the view and you don't see hardly any posts from members posting their specific photo. It's all glommed into these posts so you can't really discuss a specific photo easily. Why is this even necessary to do?
 
It is a trend that started in POTN. The open threads there built communities. Contributors got to know each other. Also, it's easier to post in a serial thread since you don't have to compose a title.

But here at Focus, it seems it is getting out of hand. There are too many now to keep track of.

We users will decide by our participation if we like it. Post to them if you want; make your own thread if you don't.
 
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There are several members who post their specific photos in their own dedicated threads. Typically, this happens when someone has been on a trip and has a bunch of photos that are loosely related by location or whatever to share. To a large extent, how people decide to post is organic. If there are more "Post you xyz" threads, then that's because that's what most forum members seem to prefer doing. There are positives and negatives with both approaches. If you just have one photo of a bird or a landscape, then does it make sense to start a new thread for it? Or will it get lost and flushed to an older page?

If you feel comfortable starting your own thread to share your photos, by all means do so. I think you will find that people will view your thread, comment, provide likes or feedback, etc., just as much as they would if you posted in an existing "Post your xyz" thread.

As moderators, we are not enforcing or encouraging one approach or the other. Whatever members feel comfortable doing is fine. In fact, some of the forums at FoP (the Sony guys for example) seem to have their own photo sharing thread within the Sony forum. But the Sony guys have always been different! :run:
 
Sorry, Ed posted just as I was typing up my response.

I agree, there seems to be a lot of fracturing of themes but I am of the position to let user preference dictate this. If there are niche threads, like "Post your orange windows that are between 0.5 and 1 meter tall," then those threads will vanish quickly into the back pages of the forum. The ones on the top of the pile are the ones where people actually post frequently.

Speaking for the mods, I am happy to make adjustments if everyone thinks that some action needs to be taken but for the most part, I am generally of the philosophy that the members of the forum dictate how the threads are created as opposed to some top-down decision. Happy to listen to differing opinions on this, though.
 
Well for sharing photos, I would make my own threads. I typically like to discuss single photos in their own threads, offer advice on them, etc. If people post in those huge mess of threads I'm just not going to go in there and look or post. They are just off putting.
 
Well for sharing photos, I would make my own threads. I typically like to discuss single photos in their own threads, offer advice on them, etc. If people post in those huge mess of threads I'm just not going to go in there and look or post. They are just off putting.
Of course, and you are welcome to do so. A lot of us make use of the New Posts feature of the forum, so even if you create new threads, we will see it and click on it. You should not be concerned that you will get less engagement with the other members if you avoid the bulk threads.
 
I tend to use the New Posts and the What's New buttons extensively. The former gets me to the new posts, regardless of whether the thread is new or old. The "What's New" gives me new threads. By regularly checking both, I find it easy to keep up to date on the new posts and threads.


1731019529647.png
 
Yeah, and the "New Posts" bit - every single thread these new posts are in are one of these "Post your..." type threads. They have basically overrun the whole forums.
 
There are some people on here who post their picture in a "personal" thread with a title appropriate to the picture. Those pictures will be read by many people, but only once. If you post your pictures in an existing thread then it will be seen many times by people who regularly read those threads, they will see your picture many times while they are surfing through those threads. Pictures that I posted months ago will all of a sudden get "likes" or some response from someone who didn't see it when I first posted it. However, few people will spend the time to look back at single posts like you want to post. Most people want to see many pictures of landscapes in one thread, they know what thread has those pictures they like. The same with birds, animals, statues, etc. The type of post you want to do will be looked at once by a few people, but not many times like it would if put in the "popular" threads.
 
If you use the 'Forums' button, then go to the individual forums, the collective threads stay near the top, but pretty quicky yield to older, less-trafficked individual posts. Gotta warn you, though, once your thread leaves first few pages of the 'new posts' realm, you won't see a lot of engagement, which is a shame. That's the main reason I post primarily to the collective threads. It's hard to start any kind of deep discussion in the collective threads, but hard to get engagement with individual threads.

I think, with the new 'Articles' and 'Questions' forums, the mods are trying to ramp up the discussion aspect of the site and nudge it, at least a little bit, from the pure photo-dump threads.

Still, it seems like no one wants to talk about MY picture of a cow, so I just throw it in with everyone else's pictures of cows.

LE_06-6949.jpg
 
If you use the 'Forums' button, then go to the individual forums, the collective threads stay near the top, but pretty quicky yield to older, less-trafficked individual posts. Gotta warn you, though, once your thread leaves first few pages of the 'new posts' realm, you won't see a lot of engagement, which is a shame. That's the main reason I post primarily to the collective threads. It's hard to start any kind of deep discussion in the collective threads, but hard to get engagement with individual threads.

I think, with the new 'Articles' and 'Questions' forums, the mods are trying to ramp up the discussion aspect of the site and nudge it, at least a little bit, from the pure photo-dump threads.

Still, it seems like no one wants to talk about MY picture of a cow, so I just throw it in with everyone else's pictures of cows.

View attachment 122451
Go home, drunk; you're cow :D
 
I would like to see members photos of things and comment on them, etc. However, going to say the Nature & Landscape forums all you see is just the entire form filled with:

"Post your seascapes."
"Post your cloud photos"
"Post your best sunrise"
"Post your best sunset"

On and on, ad nauseum. It's annoying that they just fill up the view and you don't see hardly any posts from members posting their specific photo. It's all glommed into these posts so you can't really discuss a specific photo easily. Why is this even necessary to do?
It is really sad that the questions (and responses) with how-to or best-practices topics are virtually non-existent in the list of new posts each day. Just before I found this thread, that exact thought came to mind as I glanced down the list of 'post your (endless list of subjects/themes)'.
Some say that kind of post has disappeared everywhere. It may be true that the total volume of such posts is down, with many simply watching YouTube, etc., but I frequent other forums on photography to know that FOP is sorely devoid of such discussion, while such discussion does persist elsewhere. It has indeed gotten out of hand on FOP. Just now I counted 63 posts before encountering ONE that was not 'photo of (endless list of subjects/themes/taken with camera X)..."Is something like the RF 70-150mm f/2L USM actually coming?" which is purely uninformed speculation in view of the fact that product launches that are pre-announced have their delays which no one outside the company has any insight into the rationale behind such decisions. FOP is filled with "I need to show off my pictures"; I had to read down almost 120 threads before I found "What can cause a photo to shutter/stutter a bit when I move it around on-screen", which had any opportunity for meaningful discussion...there is a sad lack of information exchange. Show off mostly.
 
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That's exactly the problem with those types of posts.
Jump in and try to change that. Lead by example. Your stats show 6 posts, 4 in this thread by my count. You don't lead by pushing, you lead by leading. If you want, start with my dam thread. No one has seen it in weeks. Maybe you can add something that will spark conversation.

I'll help. I've been pointing out the difficulty of doing what you ask, but honestly, I'm on your side. I like the constructive criticism, knowledgeable advice, and witty banter that comes with conversation. We don't have enough of that around here.
 
Jump in and try to change that. Lead by example. Your stats show 6 posts, 4 in this thread by my count. You don't lead by pushing, you lead by leading. If you want, start with my dam thread. No one has seen it in weeks. Maybe you can add something that will spark conversation.

I'll help. I've been pointing out the difficulty of doing what you ask, but honestly, I'm on your side. I like the constructive criticism, knowledgeable advice, and witty banter that comes with conversation. We don't have enough of that around here.
I think we need Stan @sparker1 and Cliff @Cliff Hilbert participating in all threads. We'll have plenty of witty banter then! :panic::run:

But seriously, let's lead by example. Let's make an attempt to engage in threads other than the "Post your..." threads which are fine, of course, but sometimes don't lend themselves to having the kind of pointed back-and-forth discussions that perhaps is lacking. (y)
 
Someone posted a subject on his own thread. I followed with a photo of my own on the same subject and I got a very cold reception for barging in 'his thread'. After that, I post only on the 'Post your...' threads. Don't need the hassle...
 
Someone posted a subject on his own thread. I followed with a photo of my own on the same subject and I got a very cold reception for barging in 'his thread'. After that, I post only on the 'Post your...' threads. Don't need the hassle...
Prior to the creation of FOP, a number of us investigated the suitability of existing photo forums as a new home post POTN. One key critique by one evaluator was that one forum wanted images posted, but zero commentary or discussion...virtually a 'show off...no commentary' site, and commentary was discouraged as unwanted. It seems that some of that (undesired by the FOP creators) spirit has crept into FOP somehow!
 
Someone posted a subject on his own thread. I followed with a photo of my own on the same subject and I got a very cold reception for barging in 'his thread'. After that, I post only on the 'Post your...' threads. Don't need the hassle...

Yeah, this is always something where we need to determine intent of the original thread starter. Maybe asking them if we are free to share our own photos that are under the same theme is a good idea.

People do sometimes start a thread to share their photos. Sometimes, it is an invitation to anyone with photos that match that theme to contribute, but sometimes, they want it to be just for their photos and while comments and feedback is welcome, the thread starter does not want anyone else to contribute their own photos. The thread is their personal album, so to speak. We have both types of threads and some members are more picky than others, I guess. I personally tend to be careful sharing my own photos into these kinds of photo sharing threads started by others so that they don't feel like we are intruding into their photo sharing thread.
 
Prior to the creation of FOP, a number of us investigated the suitability of existing photo forums as a new home post POTN. One key critique by one evaluator was that one forum wanted images posted, but zero commentary or discussion...virtually a 'show off...no commentary' site, and commentary was discouraged as unwanted. It seems that some of that (undesired by the FOP creators) spirit has crept into FOP somehow!
I didn't go that far as to the spirit of the poster... I just quoted my experience to show that the 'Post your...' threads are useful, easy to use and popular for that reason.
 
Prior to the creation of FOP, a number of us investigated the suitability of existing photo forums as a new home post POTN. One key critique by one evaluator was that one forum wanted images posted, but zero commentary or discussion...virtually a 'show off...no commentary' site, and commentary was discouraged as unwanted. It seems that some of that (undesired by the FOP creators) spirit has crept into FOP somehow!
I know that no such sentiment was baked into the philosophy of FoP among any of us who put the site together.

I think this is a good time for us to pause and think about FoP. I think I speak for all the "staff" - the admins and mods who did a lot of the thinking and planning of setting up the forum, that this site is meant to be a place where all POTN users (and of course, those who joined without any knowledge of POTN) could feel comfortable and continue in the same manner as on POTN.

We do not want to force some top-down decisions on how the site should function!

I cannot make this point strongly enough. The site is for ex-POTNers. If we collectively feel that threads where there is more discussion are needed and it is not all "Show us your xyz" threads, then all we need to do is to create more of those kinds of threads.

There is no agenda to have more of "Post your xyz" threads and less of threads where there is more discussion, banter, arguments, etc.

How the site looks is entirely a function of what the users want, folks! Let's get busy posting more threads that break the "Post your xyz" mold and I, for one, would be more than happy to participate in them, and I'm sure there will be plenty of others who will as well. Not every such thread may get traction, of course, but it is up to us to make the forum look the way we want it to look.
 
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