Attention PLEASE CONTRIBUTE TO THIS THREAD - What parts of this website are important to you?

Hamish Gill

Hamish Gill

Tech Support (and Marketing)
As I'm sure a lot of you know I have been working more on my blog recently and less so here. I felt for a while that I had lost my way with the direction I wanted this site to go. I mention this as stepping back a little bit from contributing here has given me some time to think about this website and what I want it to be. What I have come to realise is that what I want is fairly irrelevant ...

In the very early days my ambition was huge... take on the ephotozines and dpr of the world with something more friendly...

The friendliness has been achieved, and through achieving it I have realised that really, it's all that I want from the place anyway.

Of course, time has eaten away at my naivety and I realise that taking on the big boys would be impossible anyway! (at least without £millions backing me)

So what of the direction of the site?

Well, thats up to you lot ... I'd really need some input in to what parts of the site you use and what parts you don't.

We will be doing a major upgrade to the site in the not to distant future, and the outcome of this thread will determine the platform the site is migrated on to. This perhaps doesn't mean a lot to most here, but for eg, the "blog" element of the site here is massively underused. And even the home page of the website acts (for me at least) as more of an archive of interesting threads than anything else.

Do we actually need this functionality?

I am no longer interested in what the outside world might or might not want, we have a community here that has become so well established that I want the site to be completely reflective of what it wants.

So, please tell me... what do you like about this website, and what features are most important to you.
If you just use the forum, and nothing else is of much interest then please tell me this as this is one of the possible directions ...

Thanks
 
Good call Hamish. I have little interest in the blogs and galleries and for me it is the various forums and the interaction on this site that makes it the only forum I use (and the most common website I visit). The friendliness and interaction / feedback is the biggest attraction. Like you, I don't pay much attention to the front page but I do think it is useful and I suspect it is how many people first see us and maybe what draws them in. Maybe it would be useful to find out how some of the more recent members have found us and what parts attracted them.

I'll give some more thought to this but those are my initial ones.
 
I can only echo what Pete said. I was literally about to give up with forums when I Googled "friendly photography forum", found this place and I haven't looked back. It's a place where I can meet like-minded friends. It matters not that there are niche threads or areas that don't interest me. If others are interested, then that's good enough reason to keep them going :)
 
TBH, 99.9% of my usage of RPF is on the forum. I hardly ever look at anything else and see the smaller member base as a good thing. I can only imagine the number of new people singing up to DPR et al. every day and how much of a nightmare controlling membership must be, that is until you just side step the issue and let everyone in.

I think to become large has the inevitable problem of having a huge number of members who just troll and even more new members who have just taken an interest in photography being put off because of a crappy post.

I guess what I am saying is that keeping it small and focused is not a bad thing, although it may not be what you had in mind for RPF.
 
I was trying to remember what drew me to RPF a couple of years ago. I can't though. I probably just stumbled on it. But once I registered and posted a brief intro and subsequently posted a first image, I was hooked. It was the atmosphere of welcome and inclusion and, although the talents of the members exceeded my own in so many ways, I was made to feel part of the RPF community from the very beginning. I feel no desire to join any other forum. Like Pete, this is the website I visit most. And also like Pete, I love the interaction between members and also the supportive feedback. Plus, some of the foties are magnificent and so its rewarding from an artistic point of view. I don't go to the home page. I've no need unless my login has expired (it usually isn't) and there are a number of forum threads that I've never used, but I agree with Lesley that others may and that's great. Now that I think about the home page it's a bit of a shame that I (and presumably other members) don't go there, because that's where your sponsors have their major visuals. I guess to some up what I'm looking for its feedback, foties, advice and social interaction. For me these attributes make RPF a far more valued form of social media than any other.
 
I'm the same as the others so far, in that I hardly ever visit the home screen, I have RPF in my bookmarks set to go straight to the forum.
There are certain threads there which I would probably never use, but others do, so I still read the posts in those threads anyway because of the friendly banter that goes on.

Which ever way to choose to take RPF I'm pretty sure one of the best things won't change and that is the friendly atmosphere and helpful advice from all the members.
 
Hamish, if you only needed millions to take on the big boys, why didn't you just ask? ;) I'm sure if we had a quick whip round...

For me, this site is a forum. I have used the blog feature when doing my Open University course, but I couldn't see much point in it, as most people responded to the forum post anyway. Once or twice I've read a lesson or two, though I've forgotten how to access them.

I must say that this site has done wonders for my own photography, and I am in your debt for that. I have joined a couple of other sites - APUG and another whose name I've forgotten - but gave up on them after a week. I'm sure I can't help you at all, but if I can, I will.
 
I'm relatively new here so I'll try from my perspective.

Before I retired I spent most of my time on a woodworking forum (SMC) as contributor and mod. I decided to get in on that forum from it's beginning because it's basic philosophy was to create a forum for it's users...that was friendly and helpful. Anything other than that was quickly stopped...and the user was removed. It has now grown to the biggest woodworking forum...which actually has changed the closeness it once had.

When I decided to retire I also decided to give up my shop and test out condo living. In that I've always loved photography and we now live in one of the most walkable cities and I needed to keep active...both physically and mentally I picked up my camera and went to work (actually play). I have found something that gets me up and about everyday...besides the basic requirements of life.

I have always read...but seldom participated in the bigger photo forums because frankly they are filled with trolls. Then one day RPF was mentioned on one of them (edit-I did a search and found it was Chris Dodkin!) so I checked it out. I signed up and watched for a while and it didn't take long to see how friendly and helpful everyone was. It basically had the feel of the woodworking forum...when it was smaller...so I jumped it. When I did I was not only welcomed with words about my photography...I was welcomed as a human being.

I hadn't been on RPF for very long when the Boston bombings happened. Not to get too mushy...but as soon as it happened I not only got questions about how we were doing by friends and family...which frankly I expected...but I got many from people here. It was one of those moments that made me realize how good people are here and why I was so attracted...so I became really hooked. The bottom line...it's the people. Size does not matter...in this case of course.

Hamish...Having been involved in the beginning development of a forum...I know what it takes. If there is a way to keep it manageable...maybe create a membership/donation model sign me up. If it keeps you from spending your time looking for advertisers, managing the back end...or ways to pay out of your pocket...sign me up.

Now...for the technical side. Yes I am retired but believe it or not...I actually find that I only have time to view and participate in the forums. I hardly ever visit outside them... but them being there really doesn't get in my way of enjoying what I do participate in. I feel like you have invited me into your house...so you pick the curtains...and paint...and I'll take my shoes off when I visit.

Whew...I need a nap...
 
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Hi Hamish, I must admit to just going to the forum section & scanninig the latest entries & keeping up with that, adding some used gear or info into my relevent section as a trade member.I do love the site & aggree with Pete as to my use of it being very much like his.
Overall I would honestly say it is one of the best photography sites on the web, no one is to serious & all is light hearted banter between members & you can almost find any answer to a question you may have plus some stunning photography on show,keep up the good work sir.
Regards
Andy
 
As with everyone else it seems I only use the forum, in fact I don't think i've ever been to the front page .... I have all my bookmarks set to latest posts
 
Got in at last Must admit these days I read more than I post But the help everyone has been here (most recently when I got my first DSLR)is brilliant. Im like most others and normally go straight to the forums unless I spot something on the front page which grabs my interest dont think I have ever been to the blogs
 
This is very good, and relieving to establish that others, in fact all members are thinking along the same lines.

I admittedly, am not interested in the blogs, nor the front page. 99.9% of the time if not 100% of it, I click to see how many posts there has been from the last one and go from there. It's this society, friendliness, and all our conversations that makes it attractive to me.
From someone who joins from new, will not take a great deal if time to realise the good intentions of this community. No matter how wrong, inexperienced, wierd (not me), experienced, adventurous, curious you are, you always have the full support from people on here.
My point being, is that in my opinion this site is fully maintain and well established by the forums etiquate itself without the blogs or front page. Appreciated it most certainly is with all the hard work and effort that goes into it.

I've been on here approaching 3 years next month, and have seen a greatly maintained and fine balanced community.

I was approached by a chap called Barry, who is a member who comes and go now and then. He said to me whilst I was in his store, 'do you remember Hamish Gill?' I said yes, I knew him and met him briefly at a gathering thinking 'I never knew people had such names these days!' Barry told me that H wa starting out a forum, and would be great to get on there.
Well, being as I bought my good old trusty Oly not far from then moving off conventional 35mm compacts (in which I was not into as much as I am now) I thought that'd be a good idea to boost an all time moderate hobby, to an obsession.
Not intentionally wanting to do that, but was ready to learn about digital a bit more.

Anyway, as mentioned the forum is what has kept me here.
I feel that the need (if not already been done) by us all is to concentrate in the promotion of that.
 
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This is all very interesting, thanks everyone ... I'm beginning to get to grips with a subtle trend ;)
This all opens us up to some very interesting possibilities ... One way or another, I think a rebrand of sorts might be a starting point.

Any more thoughts ... Please post!
 
Rebrand?!!!!!! Dafuq?!!
I just got it tattoo'd!!!!!!!
 
He said to me whilst I was in his store, 'do you remember Hamish Gill?' I said yes, I knew him and met him briefly at a gathering thinking 'I never knew people had such names these days!'
Click to expand...


hahaha! :D
 
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