Page 3 of 5 FirstFirst 12345 LastLast
Results 21 to 30 of 45

Thread: Old Collodion Com wetplate site return

  1. #21

    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    AZ
    Posts
    4,431

    Re: Old Collodion Com wetplate site return

    Quote Originally Posted by paulbarden View Post
    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.
    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.

  2. #22

    Join Date
    Jun 2017
    Location
    West Coast
    Posts
    2,132

    Re: Old Collodion Com wetplate site return

    Quote Originally Posted by goamules View Post
    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.
    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.

  3. #23

    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    AZ
    Posts
    4,431

    Re: Old Collodion Com wetplate site return

    Quote Originally Posted by paulbarden View Post
    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.
    Quote Originally Posted by paulbarden View Post
    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.
    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/
    Last edited by goamules; 19-Oct-2020 at 10:54.

  4. #24
    Tin Can's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Posts
    22,387

    Re: Old Collodion Com wetplate site return

    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
    Tin Can

  5. #25

    Join Date
    Oct 2020
    Posts
    1

    Re: Old Collodion Com wetplate site return

    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.

  6. #26

    Join Date
    Jun 2017
    Location
    West Coast
    Posts
    2,132

    Re: Old Collodion Com wetplate site return

    Quote Originally Posted by RyanSem View Post
    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.
    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.

  7. #27

    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    AZ
    Posts
    4,431

    Re: Old Collodion Com wetplate site return

    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.

  8. #28
    Mike in NY's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    Hudson Valley, NY
    Posts
    220

    Re: Old Collodion Com wetplate site return

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

  9. #29

    Join Date
    Jan 2019
    Posts
    776

    Re: Old Collodion Com wetplate site return

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

  10. #30

    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    Singapore
    Posts
    222

    Re: Old Collodion Com wetplate site return

    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 .

Similar Threads

  1. Replies: 0
    Last Post: 8-May-2013, 07:13
  2. Replies: 9
    Last Post: 6-Jan-2013, 16:25
  3. Wetplate Collodion Workshop - Berlin 20.-21. 6.2012
    By janericeuler in forum Announcements
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 9-Jun-2012, 00:53
  4. Wetplate Collodion Workshop / Berlin 12th-13th of April
    By janericeuler in forum Announcements
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 9-Apr-2012, 03:00
  5. UK collodion wetplate workshop next weekend
    By MadJake in forum Resources
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 11-Oct-2010, 08:08

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •