Old Collodion Com wetplate site return

Hi all,
As I reported here, the best wetplate forum ever, was closed last winter. I had moderated it for years, Quinn was tired of paying for it, and let it close. Many people learned wetplating from Quinn and the site, it was vibrant and active. Then Facebook became the place for "driveby" questions from beginners, answered by "unknowns", and everyone migrated to that.

I got all the source files from Quinn, but have been too busy with work to try to find a new hosting site. The good news is he contacted me last week. There is another guy he's going to give the files to, who wants to really get Collodion.com back up somewhere.

Same root cause determines it's success as before: everyone wants everything free on the Internet. But sites cost money and time. There are lessons there for this forum too.

The first website launched 25 years ago — here's what the web looked like then

Now 30 years

I have sat on my 2 URL for 20 years and been online for 23 years

I wish we could buy 20 years now but don't know of a reliable Host that offers that

You're still wet behind the ears! I was using the internet in college (worked as a technician) in 1990! No browsers, pre Mozilla days, you had to FTP or Ping or go to listserves with arcane languages. Was more fun then really. Only hackers knew what to do, not housewives.

A few years later I was working for the Air Force as a contractor. Everyone used Alta Vista or Lycos? for searching. I heard about a new search engine, and started using it, but no one else did yet. It was called Google.

Thank you for your efforts. Not sure if you are saying that you or this new person needs some help or financial support to see it through?
There are mechanisms available such as patreon and others to gather funding from a small crowd, if needed. I’d certainly be willing to contribute to a larger pool to bring this invaluable resource back up again.

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Originally Posted by Kiwi7475

Thank you for your efforts. Not sure if you are saying that you or this new person needs some help or financial support to see it through?
There are mechanisms available such as patreon and others to gather funding from a small crowd, if needed. I’d certainly be willing to contribute to a larger pool to bring this invaluable resource back up again.

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I'll second that emotion.

It's your ball, Garrett

Over and out

No, it was Quinns, but he's moving on. I captured it because I hated all those years of good wetplate discussions to be lost. But didn't know if I would start a site, make a book out of it, what. Quinn is getting someone else that has more time. Just wanted people to think about joining it if/when it returns. And if it takes a small fee, pay up.

It’s up and available again, same url:

http://collodion.com/default.asp

Wonderful!

My Login name and password still works, but back then I was not serious

nice! You last visited 30 July 2017 at 12:35
thanks to the unknown (yet) guy!

Amazing! Now all that information is searchable, and the same questions don't have to be started all over with.

I didn't realize or remember that I signed up for this forum back in who-knows-when. Must have been 2014-15.
Now to pick and glean what information I don't yet know.

I signed up twice in 2013

Back then I was still very sick

Very Well now!

Wow, something sure has changed in the wetplate world, or maybe the forum world in general. I just checked in to the resurrected Collodion.com website. There has not been any post since Sept 22nd, basically a month. The days of it being vibrant, with 4-5 posts an hour daily are gone. I guess Facebook with it's myriad of wetplate and vintage lens groups is where people go now, because I know wetplate is even more popular than 10 years ago. I suppose it's like land line telephones, they're going away too.

I have been visiting

I thought it was made active again as a database, not a chat space

Many answers are there, no questions yet

I don't use FB Twit

This forum HAS slowed also

The Kids Are Alright (song)

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Originally Posted by goamules

Wow, something sure has changed in the wetplate world, or maybe the forum world in general. I just checked in to the resurrected Collodion.com website. There has not been any post since Sept 22nd, basically a month. The days of it being vibrant, with 4-5 posts an hour daily are gone. I guess Facebook with it's myriad of wetplate and vintage lens groups is where people go now, because I know wetplate is even more popular than 10 years ago. I suppose it's like land line telephones, they're going away too.

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Originally Posted by goamules

Wow, something sure has changed in the wetplate world, or maybe the forum world in general. I just checked in to the resurrected Collodion.com website. There has not been any post since Sept 22nd, basically a month. The days of it being vibrant, with 4-5 posts an hour daily are gone. I guess Facebook with it's myriad of wetplate and vintage lens groups is where people go now, because I know wetplate is even more popular than 10 years ago. I suppose it's like land line telephones, they're going away too.

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You can definitely blame Facebook for the depletion of almost all online discussion forums. The "get everything in one place" format of Facebook appeals to a majority of consumers, but the Walled Garden concept is contrary to the very idea of the Internet and is toxic to the outcome. It saddens me to realize that by flatly refusing to join the Facebook environment that I am also depriving myself of as much as 75% of the traffic relating to many of my interests. But I am completely unwilling to pay the price to gain access to Facebook's content. Not gonna happen.

Facebook's format is really annoying, glad I shut everything down a few years ago.
It isn't really conducive to in-depth replies and information, more of a "Just put it in H!" kinda forum.

I've been quietly working on wet plate when I can, and haven't felt much like posting. When I feel like it, I'll probably post images here, if anything.
Maybe others are similarly toiling away in quiet anonymity.

Perhaps few people are posting on that forum because 1) former members may not know that it's back, and 2) newbies have not been made aware of it?
Just a thought... it might draw more visitors if promoted on the various FB wet-plate pages. Or anywhere photographers congregate (like Photrio?)
I don't visit there, or plan to shoot wet-plate much; I have plenty to do in film photography. But certainly the word of the forum's renaissance needs to get out.

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Originally Posted by Mark Sampson

Perhaps few people are posting on that forum because 1) former members may not know that it's back, and 2) newbies have not been made aware of it?
Just a thought... it might draw more visitors if promoted on the various FB wet-plate pages. Or anywhere photographers congregate (like Photrio?)
I don't visit there, or plan to shoot wet-plate much; I have plenty to do in film photography. But certainly the word of the forum's renaissance needs to get out.

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Quinn's forum was a low traffic space at the best of times. It wasn't unusual for weeks to go by without a single post. Clearly much of the traffic went to Facebook, and I expect that is one of the reason's Quinn decided to pull the plug on it.
Now that most viewers believe the forum is gone, I imagine few (if any) of them even have a bookmark to the site now. Restoring traffic is going to be difficult, because I expect Facebook has now captured most of the refugees. Such a shame.

Good ponts Mark and Paul

Some of us cannot take any classes, for the usual reasons, time, distance, $$$

I worry about this forum too

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Originally Posted by paulbarden

Quinn's forum was a low traffic space at the best of times. It wasn't unusual for weeks to go by without a single post. Clearly much of the traffic went to Facebook, and I expect that is one of the reason's Quinn decided to pull the plug on it.
Now that most viewers believe the forum is gone, I imagine few (if any) of them even have a bookmark to the site now. Restoring traffic is going to be difficult, because I expect Facebook has now captured most of the refugees. Such a shame.

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That's not true Paul, when I started wetplate in about 2006, there were just two online places to learn how. the Civil War Collodion group run by Bob Szabo, and Quinn's collodion dot com. There were no facebook wetplate groups. On Collodion there were posts and questions and long threads daily. We had such a vibrant active group we even planned a group gathering in Paris to do a wetplate demo at a show. We started the World Wetplate Day, and published a book of the first year's plates done by everyone. I made a lot of friends, many from around the world. Some have visited me. Just like here, on the LF forum back then. Remember when 45-50 members here were the experts, checking in daily, commenting on their expertise, advising, selling dozens of lenses a month, commenting on recent lens sales, gallery openings, and the like? I do. Camera shows used to be common too. Today.....it's crickets. Everyone today on FB does their quick flyby question, and then they filter the 14 FB answers to try to find the truth. There is no community or friendships formed, it's a bunch of meaningless "names" of people you see once or twice and never again. OR, you get one "super user" that runs the group and answers every post - allowing no real discourse - it's his personal soap box.

What I don't like about the FB format (among many things), is it's not a "juried show." Anyone and everyone can comment, answer wrongly, be rude. there are no rules, no moderation, and if someone gets kicked off for being mean, he just switches over to one of the 14 other wetplate groups and starts up again. They're all the same and have all the same members. There's no peer review or expertise. It is....chaos. And the misinformation highway.

Many have started supposed "Brass Lens show and sell" FB groups, basically so they can scoop up the ones that newbies show up asking questions about. The whole FB place reeks of fraud and aggression and politics.

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Originally Posted by goamules

That's not true Paul, when I started wetplate in about 2006, there were just two online places to learn how. the Civil War Collodion group run by Bob Szabo, and Quinn's collodion dot com. There were no facebook wetplate groups. On Collodion there were posts and questions and long threads daily. We had such a vibrant active group we even planned a group gathering in Paris to do a wetplate demo at a show.

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Garrett,
I can only speak to my own experience, having joined the forum in the Fall of 2018. In my short time with Quinn's forum, I never saw activity on that level, and weeks often passed between new posts.

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Originally Posted by paulbarden

Quinn's forum was a low traffic space at the best of times. It wasn't unusual for weeks to go by without a single post.

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Originally Posted by paulbarden

Garrett,
I can only speak to my own experience, having joined the forum in the Fall of 2018. In my short time with Quinn's forum, I never saw activity on that level, and weeks often passed between new posts.

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That's why I commented when you wrote "...low traffic at the best of times..." which is untrue. Yes, in the past 3-4 years it died off. But the best of times from 2005-2013 it was extremely active. Like I said, many posts every day from many people. In 2008 I would say facebook was low traffic, especially for vintage camera groups. Those have reversed now. Forums are dead, Facebook is popular.

Here is one example. Quinn himself decided to go with the flow and created a FB group called "Wetplate Collodion Photography" about the time his forum was dropping off, maybe 2013. Within a few months someone opened a "Wetplate Collodion Photographer" (note noun). Someone wanted to be a group with competing ideas to Quinn's. It got confusing which was which, the "....photographer" version was more rigorously controlled by one guy that wanted everyone to agree with him. Then a newbie to wetplate got tired of everyone revering John Coffer, Quinn, and Szabo, and was always trying to do things a different way, some good ideas, some zany just to see if he could. Like creating silver nitrate from old silver scrap - very dangerous. Or trying to tell people you can use regular film developer for wetplate. He didn't know anything, but liked to guess and cause arguments a lot. Eventually, he formed yet another group called Collodion Bastards. As you can imagine, it was full of pompous chest pounding and bragging by people "proving" they could do wetplate in unusual ways. Today, I'm sure there are 5 more "wetplate" groups on facebook. Like everything today, it became factional and chaotic, and "us against them".

From time to time someone asks "should I start publishing a wetplate magazine?" Um...no, it wouldn't sell. When Quinn told me he shut down Collodion.com due to lack of interest, I was saddened as I posted here. He told me he'd give me all the source files and did. I told him I would "try" to put it back up, "sometime", or maybe publish a huge pdf or something. But as I looked at it, I realized it would be a big waste of my time, like it was for Quinn. And since everyone on the internet want's everything for free - it would be on my dime to host and maintain it. Quinn tried to get funding with optional donations from time to time. Never worked. And everyone had run to "no order or rules" facebook groups anyway. I decided to stall.... The other guy took it up.

By the way, Quinn has remained one of the most active wetplate trainers and advocates in the world. He's got Youtube channels, etc. He just gave up on forums. http://quinnjacobsonphoto.squarespace.com/blog/

Never going back to FB OR Instagram

They are both owned by the same idiot and interconnected

We do need need to pump this forum

I am sad so many have deserted

Figured I'd make an account here simply to ask if collodion.com is actively managed. I made an account last week and can't do anything until an admin approves me... and there's a ton of questions I need assistance with.

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Originally Posted by RyanSem

Figured I'd make an account here simply to ask if collodion.com is actively managed. I made an account last week and can't do anything until an admin approves me... and there's a ton of questions I need assistance with.

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Many of the same wet plate people are here as well. You have access to plenty of knowledge in the wet plate section of this forum, so feel free to ask your questions.

I just pinged Quinn to tell the new Admin to get on the ball. I hope you can at least search the copious answers to almost every question on that site. No need to ask them again....read the site.

I'm so glad this site is back up. I joined in 2014 and missed having it as a resource while it was gone.

Yeah I’m also waiting for the Admin to activate my account... until then there’s no way to explore anything....

i just relogin to https://collodion.com/ forum site too. 6 years ago there isn't much commercial wetplate related products and that site gave me a lot of ideas for DIY projects including ULF cameras and plate holder. From the posts there, I learnt that not every camera or plate holder have to be built like a commercial product .

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Originally Posted by goamules

I just pinged Quinn to tell the new Admin to get on the ball. I hope you can at least search the copious answers to almost every question on that site. No need to ask them again....read the site.

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Is there a way to reach the new Admin? I’ve been waiting to activate my new account for weeks now...

Sorry to bother.

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Originally Posted by goamules

I just pinged Quinn to tell the new Admin to get on the ball. I hope you can at least search the copious answers to almost every question on that site. No need to ask them again....read the site.

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… 9 months later after creating my new account, I’m still waiting for the Admin to activate it…. Is there anyway to reach out to him??

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Originally Posted by Kiwi7475

… 9 months later after creating my new account, I’m still waiting for the Admin to be activate it…. Is there anyway to reach out to him??

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I don't think there's much point. When the forum reopened, there was nearly zero participation, and to this day there is nearly zero participation. Months go by between postings. When it closed down, it seems everyone left and sought information elsewhere. I doubt it can be resuscitated now, unfortunately.

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Originally Posted by paulbarden

I don't think there's much point. When the forum reopened, there was nearly zero participation, and to this day there is nearly zero participation. Months go by between postings. When it closed down, it seems everyone left and sought information elsewhere. I doubt it can be resuscitated now, unfortunately.

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It still is a resource for what it contains even if it’s dead in terms of new contributions. Lots of great info I can no longer access. It seems silly that at least *reading access* (ie. no posting allowed) can not be given on sign up.

(And if no new users can get in I understand why it didn’t see much participation. Inflow of new people is critical for continuity of any forum)

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Originally Posted by Kiwi7475

It still is a resource for what it contains even if it’s dead in terms of new contributions. Lots of great info I can no longer access. It seems silly that at least *reading access* (ie. no posting allowed) can not be given on sign up.

(And if no new users can get in I understand why it didn’t see much participation. Inflow of new people is critical for continuity of any forum)

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Sorry, I didn't realize you can't VIEW the forum content without an active membership. Not sure who to ask about this. Clearly nobody is minding the activity. You can ask Garrett who is in charge (https://www.largeformatphotography.i...12334-goamules), he likely knows.

I just logged in with the remembered settings on the site

Tumbleweed

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Originally Posted by Kiwi7475

Is there a way to reach the new Admin? I’ve been waiting to activate my new account for weeks now...

Sorry to bother.

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Hey, sorry it has become a ghost town over there. I am no longer anything more than a "moderator." I went back in (also haven't gone in in months) just now, saw a post about the new admin "Simon" being unavailable. So I checked my messages and there was that one I sent a year ago, Oct 2020, when I pinged Quinn, asked if he can bump the admin. I did it again now, and also pinged Simon to let everyone in that is asking. It's a shame, used to be a very vibrant group, I met lots of friends there. Even had live get togethers and parties, wetplate days, camera show demonstrations. There were about 50-100 very active members then, and daily posts and instant answers. Everyone left for 5-6 Facebook Sites, or just learned and left forever. Some I still see online other places. Some not in years but assume they're still out there.

It's like a buggy whip factory, many hobby forums for strange reasons have died on the vine. Analysis should be done on why, but it's sad. Some, even camera forums like the Rangefinder one still have hundreds of posts by 20-75 active members a week. Some have a dozen posts a week by 4 active members. And some, like collodion dot com, are like the crumbling statue of Ozymandius in the desert:

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

- Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

I actually got a response minutes later. The new admin says he cannot find any old member request. Perhaps lost in the shuffle, or the system is broken. Asks that anyone (kiwi) reapply and he'll watch for it.

and now in days Fakebook will change to something BIGGER

Glad to be old

This forum is dead in the water. A UK company called Web Wiz hosts forums and is responsible for this forum's design. I've never seen this design, and I'm not anxious to again. In any event, the version of Web Wiz that the forum uses is 12 years old (2009). Apparently updating to the current 2021 version would take too much effort. Access to most of the topics is prohibited. One is taken to a page that says "Error | Only SUBSCRIBERS can access this page - please see Collodion Forum Donations." Apart from being a turn-off, I couldn't even find "Collodion Forum Donations". It hasn't occurred to whoever runs this forum to make that message a link to whatever page wants money.

I can't imagine why anybody using a Facebook Group, which has replaced the now defunct Yahoo Groups and many traditional forums, would be the slightest bit interested in this site. It doesn't help that one of the moderators advertises the forum's attitude by referring to "Facebag". Good idea, insult a high percentage of the people who drop by the forum to check it out, and then tell them that they can't check out most of it without paying a toll.

Pretty obvious what the problem is, and it's neither Facebook nor the people interested in this subject.

Your story is very confusing TOO!

Hard to tell which forum you refer

Fack bok has 3 names right now

Nothing is free, we pay with data

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Originally Posted by r.e.

This forum is dead in the water. A UK company called Web Wiz hosts forums and is responsible for this forum's design. I've never seen this design, and I'm not anxious to again. In any event, the version of Web Wiz that the forum uses is 12 years old (2009). Apparently updating to the current 2021 version would take too much effort. Access to most of the topics is prohibited. One is taken to a page that says "Error | Only SUBSCRIBERS can access this page - please see Collodion Forum Donations." Apart from being a turn-off, I couldn't even find "Collodion Forum Donations". It hasn't occurred to whoever runs this forum to make that message a link to whatever page wants money.

I can't imagine why anybody using a Facebook Group, which has replaced the now defunct Yahoo Groups and many traditional forums, would be the slightest bit interested in this site. It doesn't help that one of the moderators advertises the forum's attitude by referring to "Facebag". Good idea, insult a high percentage of the people who drop by the forum to check it out, and then tell them that they can't check out most of it without paying a toll.

Pretty obvious what the problem is, and it isn't people interested in this subject.

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Well then Tin Can, let me make it simple. Whoever's running this collodion forum couldn't run a proverbial lemonade stand :)

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Originally Posted by goamules

I actually got a response minutes later. The new admin says he cannot find any old member request. Perhaps lost in the shuffle, or the system is broken. Asks that anyone (kiwi) reapply and he'll watch for it.

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Thanks! I just submitted a new user request. It’s under username Kiwi74752. Now it just needs to be activated.

That old Collodion forum ran well for years. Didn't need donations until the hosting got too expensive for Quinn to just keep footing the bill - he built and ran it all himself. Then when the members migrated "off to Facebook", he asked several potential buyers to buy it, it's archives, it's name. No bites. After a few more years, he finally was closing it forever. I connected with him (we're friends and shot wetplate together) and asked if I could have the source code...just in case it could ever be resurrected. I knew the years of useful dialog and answers were valuable information from the true experts, not FB hacks that were just learning. Some of the members had been doing WP since the 70s, did the big re-enactments, etc. People who have published in National Geographic, shot movie stars, etc. He was agreeable, gave me the source code. But I, like him, do not have time to play around hosting a web forum. And don't want to foot the bill either, for the 2-3 people that would check in every year. After a few months, he found another person I don't know, who wanted to stand it up again. I relinquished the code.

But it's more like as an archive now....if the new admin figures out the membership need to just search it. Should be wide open.... Not my business anymore.

I hear and see your point

Good luck to us all

Thank you

& Quinn

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Originally Posted by goamules

Wow, something sure has changed in the wetplate world, or maybe the forum world in general. I just checked in to the resurrected Collodion.com website. There has not been any post since Sept 22nd, basically a month. The days of it being vibrant, with 4-5 posts an hour daily are gone. I guess Facebook with it's myriad of wetplate and vintage lens groups is where people go now, because I know wetplate is even more popular than 10 years ago. I suppose it's like land line telephones, they're going away too.

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If you want my honest opinion, although the forum does have lots of good info the interface is very dry and uninviting. How you fix that, I don't know. But message boards should be appear vibrant and inviting. The white screen/plain text format is a little cold. Just my 2c. These LFF forums are good. And I like the "dark" feature.

But yes lots of activity on Facebook.

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