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Thread: Is the Forum a repository or a community?

  1. #1

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    Is the Forum a repository or a community?

    MODERATOR'S NOTE: I've moved the "repository vs community" discussion to its own thread, both so as not to derail Kirk's useful "Forum growth" thread and because this is an important topic in its own right.

    ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Quote Originally Posted by Sal Santamaura View Post
    As well as the number of redundant questions and responses.
    Honestly, Sal, why are you so opposed to redundant questions? You really never know. Perhaps the 20th time something is asked, we finally get a correct answer. Asking for no redundant questions/discussions and asking everyone to wade through searches instead, implies this (or any other forum) is some sort of factual database and that everything authoritatively correct. Yikes.
    Last edited by Oren Grad; 28-Apr-2016 at 17:32.

  2. #2

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    Re: Forum Growth.....or not?

    Quote Originally Posted by Sal Santamaura View Post
    As well as the number of redundant questions and responses.
    Quote Originally Posted by Vaughn View Post
    Why does that...matter? The information is being passed. What about schools -- they been teaching some of the same crap for decades?...
    It matters because, as originally envisioned by LUSENET's founder Phillip Greenspun, from whence this forum sprang, it's intended to be a useful archive of information, not a chat room. Cluttering up the database with redundant questions and answers makes it more difficult to search and adds no new information. In your school analogy, this is the textbook. Repeating the content of each chapter again and again, in random sequence, makes the book larger and larger, at the same time making it more difficult to carry around and use.

    There. I've once again answered that redundant rhetorical question, contributing to the very clutter problem I describe.

    Quote Originally Posted by Vaughn View Post
    ...Once most topics have already been discussed several times, which is pretty much the case, I suppose, what else is there to talk about?...
    Fortunately, this is not a commercial site. Maximizing traffic doesn't need to be a goal. There would be nothing wrong with not talking about those topics unless new or revised information were available that could be added to them. That and an occasional genuinely new topic; we haven't exhausted every facet yet.

    There's massive blah, blah, blah in the world. Not talking for a while might be a good thing.

  3. #3

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    Re: Forum Growth.....or not?

    Quote Originally Posted by Michael R View Post
    Honestly, Sal, why are you so opposed to redundant questions? You really never know. Perhaps the 20th time something is asked, we finally get a correct answer. Asking for no redundant questions/discussions and asking everyone to wade through searches instead, implies this (or any other forum) is some sort of factual database and that everything authoritatively correct. Yikes.
    I see no problem with further exploring questions that are already threads in the database. If additional refinement or understanding is sought, I suggest posters add to the most relevant existing thread.

    Call me old fashioned. I don't think searching this forum is akin to "wading." It's a simple matter of going to Google, entering one's search terms and adding site:largeformatphotography.info at the end (or beginning). In my opinion, the interested person will learn much more that way than by being spoon fed immediately upon starting a redundant thread. Also, the responses posted to a new, redundant thread will not be inherently more authoritative than those already posted in existing, relevant threads.

    Yet again I've answered a redundant question, contributing even more to the clutter problem.

  4. #4
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    Re: Forum Growth.....or not?

    This is not an organized database and never has been since the first pioneers. It's more like a pile of loose leaf folders of scribbled random data.

    Which is OK for me, but not searchable unless you know the answer already.

    Just like most of the Internet, which has grown into a mess.

    We are first going to struggle with data, then lose all data, then figure out better ways to organize, store and use data.

    That's a ways off. Like decades or more.

    Insisting that we never revisit a topic (data) will result in even worse loss of data.

    IMHO
    Tin Can

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    Re: Forum Growth.....or not?

    Greenspun is long gone and this isn't the good old days anymore.

  6. #6
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    Re: Forum Growth.....or not?

    I really worry this haystack will get shut down and Humpty Dumpty will not get rebuilt.

    Humans are real good at losing History (data), forgetting History (data) and destroying History (data).

    Photographers like many 'geniuses' don't share their formulae willingly, and often pride themselves as having 'A' secret to their success.

    Sorry, not really, for my repetition, but it seems we need to hammer many nails to hold our House together.



    Consider how badly photography has been documented heretofore...
    Tin Can

  7. #7

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    Re: Forum Growth.....or not?

    These are the good old days.

  8. #8
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    Re: Forum Growth.....or not?

    Quote Originally Posted by BrianShaw View Post
    Greenspun is long gone and this isn't the good old days anymore.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Greenspun

    I hear many early adopters rue the day the masses gained access.

    More genius exclusivity. That will save the world...
    Tin Can

  9. #9
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    Re: Forum Growth.....or not?

    Quote Originally Posted by Sal Santamaura View Post
    These are the good old days.
    I will agree with that, and tell anybody who will listen, live now today.
    Tin Can

  10. #10

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    Re: Forum Growth.....or not?

    Quote Originally Posted by Randy Moe View Post
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Greenspun

    I hear many early adopters rue the day the masses gained access.

    More genius exclusivity. That will save the world...
    He is a genius, to be sure! Always has been. But times also have changed dramatically.

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