I think this is core to the difference between an image sharing site and a photographers' site. In a site that's just about image sharing. a photographer is just about spreading their work and having people say 'wow, that's a great photo', or not - as the case may be. On a photographers' site, the image is being shared, but the community is one of creators, who won't just think 'that's a great photo' but also 'how do I achieve something like that'. That's one reason that photographers' sites will tend to include exif information. Not that it tells you everything about how the shot was achieved, but it does tell you something.
It will always be a discussion, simply because there is more than one way of skinning a cat. A photographer who takes a great shot might be able to say how they did it, but that doesn't mean that it's the only way of doing it, nor does it mean that other people following their path will always get similar results. But, I would think that the expectation would be that on a photographers' site there might be discussion about technique that you wouldn't find on an image sharing site.
It is a tricky word. I perceived them as 'reasonable' when they were posting their images, commenting etc. before and I'll gladly admit that some of that went out of the window at certain points in the discussion about moderation.
But I also think that almost everyone has a theme or sore point, where they can't handle being challenged. I certainly have those areas and I assume you might have as well. For the users mentioned (and many people in general from my perception) this seems to be the case for their moral belief system. Of course you have a right to challenge them on that as well and if they decide to leave because of it, I see it as their choice and not your fault.
I seem to recall though that you tried to caution others not to assume the worst when someone writes incoherently or doesn't spell things right, because it might be caused by some medical condition or a language barrier. So I'm asking myself why you can't show that restraint when someone voices their support for a stricter moderation policy (they wouldn't have any way of imposing it anyway) and just leave it at: "We won't do that! We already explained why." and maybe a link to a post where you and others of the team have explained your reasons in more detail. You probably assume that those people might have left in protest anyway, but I think it was at least in part their perception of being attacked by one of the owners of the site that drove them away, and not just their frustration about the lack of strict moderation. At least that's how I perceived those instances. I can't claim to know that's any closer to the truth than your perception.
As you can see by my quote above, I'm absolutely willing to give your approach and ideas a fair chance. But I'd really appreciate it, if you could also show some leniency towards people who never had a problem with the moderation style at dpreview and therefore assume it might work well elsewhere.
It wasn't my intention of characterising it as such... I'm sorry if I made it look that way! I actually don't see the current state here as 'no moderation', hence the quotes around it. But it was and seemingly still is perceived in that way by a number of people, many of which you already had a discussion with. Because of the fact that it was discussed several times already, I suggested - in a reply to @EdShapiro who brought up the topic of moderation here - that this probably wasn't the place for it.
I used to really enjoy darkroom work, and now I enjoy processing and post-processing images. Personally, I have little time for the 'straight out of the camera' approach, but I have zero objection to people doing their photography however they want. I somewhat unreasonably think that maybe they could reciprocate by having zero objection to me doing my photography as I want.
When people start to lose you ... you are not anymore at a normal level
I have zero objections myself about how others act.
Some objection when whatever is shown has no story but only feathers' level
If you do a house, you may use meters or decimeters. Centimeters will do in some cases.
but millimeters and nanometers are there just there for show.
you can build a beautiful home not even once using nanometers.
That's the difference between a SHOT and a PICTURE
WE are going OT - I stop here.
My meaning and proposal
or at least what I intended ... to have a place where to discuss how a specific shot is done.
- >the other side of techs<
I will give you a sample ... a post I just discovered today:
the story of a shot where the shot is at the center of a story
Just a case of where you put the decimal point. There is no difference between a metre and 1 000 000 000 nanometres, and if you're trying to design a camera sensor, then you'll find a lot of leading zeros if you do it in metres.
i totally get where your coming from. there's nothing worst than a highly edited portrait posted and then the photographer raves on how good the lighting equipment is. they cant really shoot an out of camera shot to save there life. and most keyboard photographers are the same. its why very few actually post any images to prove there critique worth on others images. but who really cares everyone enjoys a different level of enjoyment from the hobby.
I doubt that is why many talented photographers do not publish their best work online.
It is very easy to steal online photos and for the thief to make them look like they actually own the photos. Unless the theft ends up in a court then the theft is very unlikely to have been discovered if the thief is smart.
I'd agree with that and I'd take it a bit further. Discussion should be about the technique plus how the image is perceived. The technique is objective. What is perceived is subjective. Both are relevant. Any piece of art will be perceived differently by different people. The trick is to try to understand why it is perceived that way. Some of this gets down to things like leading lines and composition. Some comes down to the prior experience that every individual has triggered when they look at or hear something. Works that move us have usually pressed those triggers. Discussing them is absolutely valid. Sometimes the prior experience devalues a piece of art because we realize it is a copy of a previous concept. A person without that prior knowledge will have a different experience.
I haven't read the replies, but I would love to be in a community photographs, techniques, discussed, critiques are exchanged and gear is articulated to this idea. DPR is a good source for gear and related issues, finding advice for problems of gears and they have already a huge amount of content already for this purpose. I think this site will be more successful if photography is in focus.
OK. Go to the Home page of this site and check the Critiques section. Then try the Weekly C&C thread. Participants are invited to post an image and then receive critiques of that image from other participants. New players are welcomed. It's still developing but that's the kind of discussion you will find.
The real issue is application of technique, which is far form being 'objective' and is very much a part of the whole creativity thing. The point about discussion in open forums is that it goes the way it goes, however one might have thought it should go in the first place. As you're probably aware, I'm personally strongly against trying to control the direction of discussion, partially from an idealogical point of view, but also because controlled discussions mostly cease to be interesting. What I'd hope is that if photographers are given full-fat facilities to share their images some interesting and rewarding discussions will result.
Zero objection to me doing my photography as I want. How I do my own photography is no-one's business but mine, and the same applies to any photographer. Things get a bit different if I were to try to promote how I do my photography as the only way, or the correct way. Then I would people have every right to say that they disagree. Even if I were to just go out there and say 'this suits me' then I've opened the discussion and people have the right to disagree. That's a discussion.