Collodion websites closed

[goamules]

Well, another great photography forum has closed. Collodion.com has shut down. Quinn decided to close it.

The history is that there was a tintype re-enactors website run by Bob Szabo back in the early 2000s. At that time, wetplate was almost a forgotten art, but a few people were resurrecting it, almost all of them doing Civil War battlefield tintypes. I discovered the forum and was instantly thrilled. I had an Epiphany that wetplate collodion would be just the new skill for me to learn - difficult, esoteric, and fairly rare for people to do. Another forum was just starting in 2005, without the re-enactor concentration (using authentic cameras, lenses, dark boxes so you would fit in on the battlefields). It was Collodion.com. Quinn Jacobson had done a wetplate series of inner city people that was well received. He became the standard bearer on the internet (a few others, like Coffer, didn't do things online at all). He moved to Europe and for several years taught hundreds of photographers there how to do collodion. It grew more and more, becaming VERY big by 2010. He created the World Wetplate Day, which funded a new headstone for the grave of Frederick Archer, the inventor of wetplate. He did demos at the Bievre Foto Fair. I joined him. I made a lot of friends on both forums. Wetplate became my life for many years. I traveled to Europe, moderated the Collodion.com forum, sold lenses and cameras.

What a long, strange trip it's been. Facebook has taken over most dedicated forums. You loose a lot on Facebook. There is no organization of topics, for example. On Collodion, we had troubleshooting sections, equipment, common problems, formulas, and more, all organized and a click away. Today, on Facebook wetplate groups, you have the same questions asked over and over, because the answers get pushed off the page by any new content. So "what fixer do I use?" get's asked 14 times a week. With different answers by unknown people, conflicting answers, arguments. Then 3 days later, it gets asked again. Basically it's like taking a guidebook and club of experts, and tearing it into little pieces in front a fan, letting a crowd on the sidewalk catch the pieces and try to make sense of it.

Don't let it happen to LF Forum. I've seen about 5 great hobby forums die the past few years.

[Tin Can]

I am late to Wet Plate, now waiting on gear but did follow the Bastards for a while

Today I re-joined FB after 3 years off, our venues narrow

I will be reenacting post Civil War photo, 1871 to 1995 as much as I can on a pristine, groomed college campus, meaning don't spill anything...

they are installing electricity with WIFI and bicycle path, everything changes

we wear historical clothing, folk crafts are welcome

[paulbarden]

Quinn's decision was more about managing costs than giving in to The Facebook Monster eating his audience. Still, its a shame to lose the collodion forum. But as much as I lament the loss of Quinn's forum, there's no way I will join Facebook to access a dumbed-down version of it. Facebook was never intended as an archive, let alone an organized one - its just a streaming conversation. Its tragic that so many well-organized forums with excellent archive features have been ruined by Facebook. I hate what its done to erode the archive-ability of the internet.

[Louis Pacilla]

Quinn's decision was more about managing costs than giving in to The Facebook Monster eating his audience. Still, its a shame to lose the collodion forum. But as much as I lament the loss of Quinn's forum, there's no way I will join Facebook to access a dumbed-down version of it. Facebook was never intended as an archive, let alone an organized one - its just a streaming conversation. Its tragic that so many well-organized forums with excellent archive features have been ruined by Facebook. I hate what its done to erode the archive-ability of the internet.

I almost ALWAYS agree with your take on things Paul and this is just another one of those times.

[ghostcount]

Bummer.

I found content in Quinn's forum to be more reliable since it is viewed by Quinn, Garrett, et al.

I'm sure the same can be said during Mr. Archer's time but perhaps magnified since the world has become smaller leading to the rapidity of valid and invalid information exchanges.

Will Quinn make an effort in archiving the entire forum? I know Bob Szabo archived his but alas, that is also gone.

[paulbarden]

Will Quinn make an effort in archiving the entire forum?

I asked Quinn about the deletion of the forum and at no point in the conversation did he say anything about keeping an archive of it. I kinda doubt he did.

On the plus side, he has now made his 2019 edition of Chemical Pictures available as a non-limited edition version, and its much less costly than the limited edition: http://www.collodion.com/shop/vintag...iss-army-knife
Most of the more common questions about the process are covered well in this edition. Its an especially useful book if you plant to make collodion negatives and make POP prints from them.

[Tin Can]

The Quinn link below is damaged, a half step to his site with offer, where another click sent me to Amazon. I bought his book with video. I could not retrace the steps, perhaps Quinn is an Internet expert also.

I was going to buy Coffer, however changed my mind.

Thanks for the advice all

I asked Quinn about the deletion of the forum and at no point in the conversation did he say anything about keeping an archive of it. I kinda doubt he did.

On the plus side, he has now made his 2019 edition of Chemical Pictures available as a non-limited edition version, and its much less costly than the limited edition: http://www.collodion.com/shop/vintag...iss-army-knife
Most of the more common questions about the process are covered well in this edition. Its an especially useful book if you plant to make collodion negatives and make POP prints from them.

[paulbarden]

The Quinn link below is damaged, a half step to his site with offer, where another click sent me to Amazon. I bought his book with video. I could not retrace the steps, perhaps Quinn is an Internet expert also.

I was going to buy Coffer, however changed my mind.

Thanks for the advice all

Quinn appears to be consolidating his various web sites, and so things are moving around. I cannot find a link to his 2019 edition at the moment.

[goamules]

I'm checking with Quinn on that. Bob's site I noticed disappeared about 2 years ago, after about 6 years of being available, but no commenting. At least Quinn is still teaching, but his channel Q is going away from what I can see. He said he's going off the grid when I talked to him last week.

I've had 3-4 hobbies that are "historic" or "archaic" depending.... Old timers join, explain how it was done 10, 20, or 60 years ago. It's all "documented" on the forum. Then horrifically, the forum is shut down. Happened to one of my favorites about a month ago. All the questions answered, how do you do this, that, and the other....all lost in the ether again. It's just crazy when people on a forum start "Serial Number lists" and all that crap, thinking the internet is forever. It aint......

It's funny, but at that big tintype auction the other day back east, I won a lot of books on Daguerreotypes. About 6 books, most from the 60s-80s. All their data is still there, on the printed page, safe from time.

[Mark Sampson]

An automotive group I belong to (Volvo 1800s) moved its existence to groups.io this year when Yahoo Groups shut down. Perhaps the collodion group could find a home there too, if it's not too late?