View Camera Forum

Okay I have to ask this (dumb) question! Why does the (recently) launched "View Camera" web forum seem VERY inactive? I appreciate that most LF'ers use this forum and Photo Net, so are we already overloaded with forums? What do you think?

It's a good question. On a daily basis I check this one, Photo Net, and if I get time Apug. I find this one the best though. I don't see the advantage of having all these forums.... they're not active.
-Rob

Hi Paul,

I have asked myself the same question. I have also participated on the View Camera forum and check - in on it daily. It is slow and un-wieldly to navigate. However, I don't believe that is the main cause of the lack of participation. More than likely, Steve waited too long to introduce the forum to his website. If it would have been part of the View Camera website from the beginning, it probably would be more active today. It's a case of "too little, too late".

While we are talking about other fora ..... I just setup a new id and password at f32 because it had been so long since I had checked it out that I couldn't even remember my login. Nothing much going on there either.

More importantly, I have been getting hit right an dleft with photo related spam email since I signed up there. They are either selling their subscriber list to spammers or some spammers are culling their list. I would guess the former.

I never got into the forum because to join you need the code on the plastic wrapper the magazine comes in. After about a year, I finally remembered to save the label, so when I went to log in a few months later, I would have the code. Low and behold, Steve changes the damn code every issue.

I sent him an email about it, and he responded with the info about changing the code, did not volunteer the code for this month, so I am not involved. I have subscribed for years, you would think it would be easier to deal with.

Herb,

You don't need the code to participate in the View Camera forum. You only need it to access the additional information that Steve makes available to his subscribers. The forum is free and open to everybody.

I just tried it. You don't need the code to read the postings, but it appears you do need it to post.

You do not need to be a subsciber or have any code to participate in the view camera forum. Just go to our web site

www.viewcamera.com

and hit the link in the black menu bar to get o the forum. No password needed.
As or it being unwieldy it operates much the same way as APUG. We do not sell the e-mail names to anyone and will not do so.

steve simmons

You do not need a password to post ether. You do need to register as a user but can do so whether you are a subscriber or not. Go to the first forum page and register. Then you can post at will.

steve simmons

PITA. Screw it!

There's just not much that the VC forum offers that isn't satisfied over here. Most of the participants there are already here.

f32.net has a bit of a different crowd, being UK based. There are a few people who are more active there than here or APUG, so it's worth checking out. Barbara Lowry from Cooke Optics usually monitors that forum. More of the activity over there is in the photo critique section, which I don't follow too closely, but they do have a Travelling (UK spelling) Exhibition, like the APUG Traveling (US spelling) Portfolio, but it's in a tube to accommodate bigger prints, and has more digital output, which one doesn't see as much of in the APUG portfolio (occasionally, though).

Without a thing called critical mass - ie. a huge audience of knowledgable and contributing participants, it simply becomes ineffective as the demand is already being sequestered by what is already in place. The amount of activity on this and the other standards took time to get to this level and I have been more than pleased at the knowledge base and the willingness to share it with others.

Unless the VCF can differentiate itself in some capacity making it deserving of participants time and effort I feel that it will continue in its rather passive role. Not good or bad, just what it is.

Cheers!

Here is what youget on the VC forum

a direct link to the publisher and a chance to comment on the contents of the magazine

the opportunity to participate on a forum that is moderated enough that abusive and off topic posts will not be tolerated. This has not been a problem here for awhile but was a few months ago.

Also the lf forum on aol periodically has long threads of abusive and off topic posts.

steve simmons
www.viewcamera.com

I think its a case of too many forums. I'd rather just read this one and sometimes photo.net. There is more power in consolating as you get more info in one place.

Steve,

It may be a case of too many forums, but I had and still have hopes that the VC forum will take off. I think of as having a slightly different role, more like the Imaging Revue forum but without the fee. I'll share my ideas with you next time we get together.

I recently signed up on VC's forum and made a few comments but nobodys home. They have a nice little viewer counter system and it usually indicated there was only one in-duh-vidual on the site.

It was like pinging into the universe looking for signs of other intelligent life forms.

thank you for reading,

Yes, too many forums. I strictly stick to Large Format Forum and APUG - and, occaisionally PhotoNet). View Camera forum is a "a day late and a dollar short" .

The forum aside, I think View Camera would be better advised to make its web entry more user friendly (e.g., forget the need to for subscribers to be required to enter a subscribion number EACH MONTH - or, at least paste he address lable on the back cover - but these suggestions have been repeatedly rejected).

On the other hand, inflexibility (noted above) probably has an effect on the number of photographers that might decide to explore View Camera forum.

Time is limited. So I go where there is the most knowledge and the most participation. That's here. I also go to photo.net. I don't go anywhere else, not enough time and who cares about a bunch of other forums all dealing with exactly the same thing by mostly the same people?

(e.g., forget the need to for subscribers to be required to enter a subscribion number EACH MONTH - or, at least paste he address lable on the back cover - but these suggestions have been repeatedly rejected>>>>>

The only place on the web site that requires a user id and password is th supplemental section for the subscribers. The Free Articls andthe Forum DO NOT require any user id or password.

steve simmons

The justification of participating in a non-abusive forum or one that is "moderated" does not ring true with me. Without an open venue, what is the point?

Takes two or more knuckleheads for this situation to occur. Entire reputations feel a false need to get in the last word at any cost, and the saga just continues.......for what?

Lets you see what someone is really all about. I guess the old saying of keeping you mouth shut and let people think what they chose about you as opposed to opening it again and again and removing all doubt is a hard thing to do at times.

I have always felt that if you do not have something positive or productive to add to the mix, abstain. Cheers!

Steve can`t sell the magazine if you could read it free. Just save the address label or copy down the password.

They will give the password to subscribers over the phone.

When I was a young lad, taking water to the guys building Stonehenge, my mother told me it was considered tacky to discuss the pros and cons of one forum on another. ;-)

If you want to use the forum at the View Camera Magazine site, be my guest, but it is of no interest to me. I am already trying to keep up with the large format forums here, on Photonet, APUG, the Cafe Ilfopro Site, Usenet and Myspace.com--not to mention two mailing lists. I need another large format forum like a hole in the head.

When I was a young lad, taking water to the guys building Stonehenge, my mother told me it was considered tacky to discuss the pros and cons of one forum on another. ;-)

--Ralph Barker, 2005-02-05 17:42:05

People have listed worshops, their own web pages, etc. on the View Camera forum and I do no thave a problem with them doing so. Open communication and spreading of info is what we should all be about.

Anyway, I did not start this thread

steve simmons