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.
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)
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
Tin Can
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)
Garrett
flickr galleries
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.
Garrett
flickr galleries
and now in days Fakebook will change to something BIGGER
Glad to be old
Tin Can
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.
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