"Post your..." Ugh!

[Pitter]

Well one of the carry overs from POTN that I found irksome there and find irksome here are the endless "Post your..." threads requiring me to wade past all that to get to an individual poster's presentation of his or her work. This opinion was not well received on POTN and probably will not be well received here but I think its just really overdone here, even worse than on POTN. Yes I know, just a "scrolling" issue but a hindrance not experienced on other photography forums I've used.

 

[Anton Largiader]

I'm with you. To me those thread titles sound like solicitation of quantity over quality. Now, I know this isn't anywhere close to being universally true, but it's how I react to them. The sad fact is that such megathreads are pretty much standard everywhere now; if you make your own thread no one will look at it.

That said, I do make use of grouped threads for sports photos. They get less traffic and generally are restarted every year.

 

[Pitter]

You may be right about megathreads being a common practice on photography forums but I haven't encountered that on a few forums I've used. In fact typically when looking at a given forum theme I'm quick to click on a post by a poster whose posts I've enjoyed in the past. I would never see it if subsumed in a megapost which I won't bother to look at.

 

[West Coast Birder]

Nothing prevents a poster from starting his or own thread to showcase their work. I started a thread for Birds of Bolsa Chica because I have been there many times and have lots of photos from there with the common geographical connection between them.

I would love to see you, Pitter, for example, start separate threads on birds of Colombia, or even specific things like Hummingbirds of Colombia. That way, your images aren’t buried in a mega thread.

However, in instances where I have just one interesting photo of something I want to share, it makes it easier to put it in a mega thread rather than start a thread just for the one photo. But really, it’s up to you.

 

[Jeff USN Photog 72-76]

I started a Post your Solar as there are very few people doing solar imaging the main one was Malvaeux and I don't see him here yet. I wanted to show my solar images. Same with Cardinals and Hummingbirds.

 

[SkedAddled]

I'm of a different mindset on this.

My interests are largely in Travel/Urban, Transportation, Architecture, Landscapes, and some more.
I've found those 'megathreads' have evolved into a sort of best-of of their respective genres
in some ways, while individual posts are often overlooked. I've seen it as something of an evolution
to the sharing aspect, while it's proven to be an attractive draw to a much wider audience
for posting and appreciation.

I still look at most of the 'minor' posts in the areas that interest me, and frequently post a LIKE
and some comments, while the larger conglomerate threads seem to present the most participation
and diversity of the thread title(s).

 

[Pitter]

Yes I understand. Each to his own.

 

[West Coast Birder]

Yes I understand. Each to his own.

Hi Pitter, believe me, I completely understand your frustration. I notice that you have been starting new threads for your photos which is perfectly fine. I am really digging your Colombia photos!

The forum software has a "follow" feature that might help you deal with the issue you bring up.

If you like the work of another member, you can hover your cursor over their name to invoke a pop-up menu. In it, select "Follow" like so:




Now, click on your name at the top right hand side of the page to bring up the account po-up menu like this:



Note that there are two items on the menu called "News Feed" and "Following."

Clicking on "News Feed" will give you the posts by the people you are following, arranged chronologically.

Clicking on "Following" will give you a list of everyone you are following, and you can click on any of their names to get their posts.

Now, this is not as elegant as having one button that will filter all New Posts to just the ones from people you follow, but it does the job. Maybe you may find this useful to filter out the other posts to get to the ones from the people you follow.

Let me know if this is useful.

 

[Lester Wareham]

Well one of the carry overs from POTN that I found irksome there and find irksome here are the endless "Post your..." threads requiring me to wade past all that to get to an individual poster's presentation of his or her work. This opinion was not well received on POTN and probably will not be well received here but I think its just really overdone here, even worse than on POTN. Yes I know, just a "scrolling" issue but a hindrance not experienced on other photography forums I've used.

Or you could see it as an opertunty of how to step out of your normal range of correspondance and see the context they exist in.

But I think the FoP follow system should help.

 

[Levina de Ruijter]

In addition to what Sam said above, you can also access new activity directly on the board. When you click on New Posts or on What’s New, you get a horizontal row of options. Choose “Your news feed“ and you only get the latest activity of the people you follow:



As to the big threads, that is a development that happened all by itself on POTN. I’m not a fan of the big threads either because I don’t want to just post pics but also like to chat about them, but it is what it is. However, as has been said, you can start your own individual threads at any time.

 

[Lester Wareham]

In addition to what Sam said above, you can also access new activity directly on the board. When you click on New Posts or on What’s New, you get a horizontal row of options. Choose “Your news feed“ and you only get the latest activity of the people you follow:

View attachment 5147

As to the big threads, that is a development that happened all by itself on POTN. I’m not a fan of the big threads either because I don’t want to just post pics but also like to chat about them, but it is what it is. However, as has been said, you can start your own individual threads at any time.

On POTN about the big threads people complained about having trawl through all the chat to see pictures.

Can't please all the people all the time. I quite like the big threads.

 

[Pitter]

Thank you friends, very useful.

 

[OhLook]

On POTN about the big threads people complained about having trawl through all the chat to see pictures.

Other people complained that those posting didn't say enough about their photos to provide a context. What species of bird is this, where was it, is it molting, how did you catch it out in the open, is that an eel it's eating, what time of year was it, are they nesting now?

 

[i-G12]

Post you “ugh”? You don’t have time!

 

[Levina de Ruijter]

Other people complained that those posting didn't say enough about their photos to provide a context. What species of bird is this, where was it, is it molting, how did you catch it out in the open, is that an eel it's eating, what time of year was it, are they nesting now?

A lot don't even bother to mention the species of bird. It seems to me that's the least you can do.

 

[i-G12]

A lot don't even bother to mention the species of bird. It seems to me that's the least you can do.

But lots of times I don't even know what kind of bird it is. (I'm not a weird bird person but every once in a while I get lucky)

 

[Levina de Ruijter]

But lots of times I don't even know what kind of bird it is. (I'm not a weird bird person but every once in a while I get lucky)

That's what I'm saying: even that is too much to type. I too am not familiar with all birds around the world and often wonder: what bird is that?

 

[i-G12]

That's what I'm saying: even that is too much to type. I too am not familiar with all birds around the world and often wonder: what bird is that?

Yes. When I'm Africa there are tons of birds. Unfortunately since I'm not really a birder I don't take the time to figure it out. They even have specific apps for identifying birds say in South Africa or Kenya..etc. . I have enough apps.

 

[Leigh]

When a Camera Model discussion Forum is combined with images from said model, there is often a lack of continuity of a discussion thread.
Discussions are often "broken up", by a series of image posts, with the discussion resuming pages later.

Perhaps I'm the only one, but I prefer Fred Miranda's method, where image threads for a particular Camera, or lens, are separate from general gear discussion threads.

 

[Anton Largiader]

POTN had such separation, but they were combined about a year ago to disguise the reduction in traffic.

EDIT: I'm actually taking about genres like birds and so forth. Cameras may or may not have separate threads depending on who started the threads.