Where we go from here

Fist off, thanks for the great effort that you guys have put in to create this forum in virtually no time at all.

I remember commenting back in the very first days of this forum, that editorial content was necessary to replace people dropping out and to attract new people to the forums. I think this is ever more vital now that the corpse of DPR has risen like Lazarus.

Looking at the buyers, I am not too confident that DPR has a rosy future. I am sure the forums will be even more tightly moderated, as the new owners seem to be in the business of hyper consumerism, where the emphasis on getting people to buy stuff. I once had an email exchange, with the Admins at DPR when I got one of the usual bans. It seems they did not want people upsetting those who were "emotionally attached" to their brand.

Getting the threaded view up and running will I think stem the flow back to DPR, and even get some to return. There is a much nicer atmosphere here, where the rude boys and trolls can be counted on the fingers of one hand. I reregistered with a new name at DPR, but I have little appetite to visit and comment there. I know a couple of Mods there that will ban me just for posting in their fiefdom.

If you do start to make editorial content, I think a wide range of interests need to be covered, not just the more technical aspects, but also artistic concerns, and articles about the various areas of photography. I think if you take a look at some of the photo threads you will find people expert in their chosen areas, such as sport, travel or wildlife.

I would be really happy to do contribute some articles about architectural photography. Maybe something about travel photography of monuments too.

I believe there is space for writing about photography that goes beyond the usual banal stuff that is churned out.

BTW strange as it may seem by looking at my photography, I am an curious atheist.

Theres your problem straight up. Your and there views are different from mainstream. and in some instances have brain washed some into there views.
Like i said in another thread what is "rain" ask any of the 3 billion humans and they will all tell you the same. "Rain" , you wont get 1
person calling it "Precipitation"

Some precipitation is rain. Some precipitation is not rain. All rain is precipitation.

Thanks a lot for all the work you're doing to make this work - I really appreciate it and despite the unexpected continuation of dpreview still see a lot of potential, both in the editorial department, as well as the forum part. Hope it works out! 👍

It's just my impression, but I think that you actually have the potential to be someone contributing a lot to an alternative - less moderated/free speech-based - approach of a forum like this. Some of what @bobn2 rightfully regards as people who have some authority in what they are saying might - from time to time - need a reminder that something is perhaps too far removed from the photographic reality of the majority of forum-members/readers, that something is too complicated or long-winded and they risk loosing a big chunk of a potential audience in the process, etc. etc.

If you would consider to be less rude in your wording and phrase some things as suggestions, rather than demands, you could be indeed quite helpful and valued for your, perhaps sometimes quite critical, but honest takes and feedback.

Being someone who (I seem to recall you describing yourself that way here recently) has enough technical/theoretical knowledge to get yourself into a lot of trouble and being very quick and nimble in trying things out in real life, you could also be a great help to both beginners, as well as interested but less-crafty experimenters (That's me! 😁) in providing actual examples/sample shots of things which might remain very theoretical otherwise.

That only works though, if showing some of your (and I re-iterate) often very impressive photographs, doesn't automatically mean you have to put everyone else down in the process.

Of course you don't have to do either of those things, and if you ask "What's in it for me?" I'm not sure what to tell you, besides some interesting (and hopefully more productive than the current) discussions and perhaps (if we're lucky and some more people with lots of experience start to contribute here) even some knowledge and practical tipps you weren't able to come up on your own... You never know.

You might tell me, I'm wrong... everyone else here might as well... but, as stated before, that's my impression anyway, nothing more or less!

Hi,

Well, I am here as well as never having left DPR. Mainly because I was going to ride it out until the end...which didn't come.

If I do a quick look at my main interest, medium format, I see where DPR has 15 active threads in the past Day. And over here the latest thread is 3 days old. Right at this moment.

Other sites which were vying to be a DPR replacement aren't even doing that well.

And medium format isn't a high traffic forum. But, to me, it tells a story.

I shall remain here as well as there and see what the future brings us.

Stan

[deleted]

This sounds great! I think everyone is doing a fantastic job with this website.
Bob

I think you have hit the nail smack in the middle of the head 🙂

With DPReview now continuing I think the forums here, and the other DPR replacement startups, will become less relevant.

I recall back in the first week or so of the genesis of DPRevived there was a discussion in a thread about what the mission statement for DPRevived should be. The general feeling of the participants was that it should be words to the effect of providing accurate and relevant information about at least the fundamentals of photography to enable photographers, especially beginners, to build their interest, knowledge, understanding and skills in photography.

With the pool of genuine experts we are lucky to have here and are still here after some of the total nonsense that has gone on in some of the threads, they should be encouraged to contribute their wealth of knowledge and experience as much as time permits them to the future editorial/discussion side of DPRevived.

For me, not necessarily in any order, Jim Kasson, Illiah Borg and Bobn2 are the big 3 and there are a few others here as well that certainly seem to also know what they are talking about (and I am not looking at you DonaldB 😉)

I hope the editorial/discussion side of DPRevived develops with less emphasis on the forums themselves.

I wish you, Alan and your team good luck and I look forward to what will eventuate 🙂

If you havent lived in Lancashire, you have no idea what real rain is!

Just as seriously, what I need, in addition to courteous forums, is news of new gear and techniques. That means news items and informative reviews. Even though the photos accompanying the reviews in DPR were pretty uninspiring, the technical info was good. The quality of the Canon R thread at DPR has taken a fall since Amazon abandoned the site, and the Canon area here is not exactly jumping: not much interest in R/RF here. The other new forums created when Amazon dropped DPR are even more comatose.

At present I am committed to Canon R/RF series; but I would like to know if it happens that Nikon or another company comes out with better gear that I can afford.

David

Naaah !!!

Some rain has no precipitation at all....
... look what happens when you forget your umbrella....

( it just falls down slowly 'till you're fully drenched - no precipitation to reach that goal )

Why go anywhere? In my days, I seen multiple acquisitions in which the acquirer promises that the acquired company
will be independent and no significant changes will be made. That honeymoon usually is over pretty quickly. There is a new
norm over at DPR - they will now have revenue goals to meet and will not have a sugar daddy owning them that will forgive
them when they miss simply to get their live links at the bottom of review pages. DPR has become a new division of a start up
that seems is yet to post a profit. I've also been the part of a couple start ups and until one is making a steady profit - the pressure
to get to that point can be extreme. One of the startups did fine, the other not so much. So I would say, this story is far from over.

While DPR has a lot of traffic on the forums - there is a lot a chaff there and it can be difficult to find the wheat. Too much of it is piling on
and food fights over insignificant issues with the post only dying after it reaches the posting limit. Then as often as not, someone starts a part two of the dead post just because they didn't get their "two cents worth" in and the beat goes on for another 150 post. DPR also seems to be the "house of the overly excitable nerds," that is a high percentage of people totally obsessed with the camera as an object itself rather than an instrument for photography. DPR forums can be taxing.
It may be that DPRevived with evolve in that direction but it's not happened as of yet which make DPRevived much more relaxing and often beneficial to
read.

The DPR UI may be a little easier to navigate than DPRevived but I expect that to change.

So for me I'm not going anywhere soon. I'll watch both. I'll post on both when it makes sense. I'm far from convinced that DPR is going to look the same in six months as it does has for the last 25 years or how much of DPR's detailed technical review will remain. In fact the detailed technical review had already started
to suffer even under Amazon. I suspect that portion of the operation came at a significant cost while actually producing much revenue.

I think that as you define this site you have to recognize the talent you have here to bring to it and what audience you want to attract … We, the participants, need to tell you what we are looking for in this site and how we will participate, if allowed (the forums could go away!??)

What I've been looking for is an “active” photography site where we can discuss together the art, the technique and how to use the technology to produce our pictures!!! and maybe share some of our results and sit about a virtual table with our virtual coffee and discuss these ...… DPR was/is principally a gear site interested in the technology and the buying and selling the latest examples of that technology and a few threads such as C&C and 4/3 Weekly, and probably a few I never found, actually did approach what I was looking for …. I might like a Senior thread where we can discuss how our photography will evolve and adapt as we experience more limitations in out abilities to take those photographs … So there is my thought on what I would like to find …

Editorials are interesting but there are many sites wanting to provide information to us about what is going on and instructing us … I can usually find that in print elsewhere … Also threads that aspire to be instructive but wander off into Quantum Mechanics or other esoterics which are erudite and, I suspect, have a very limited audience, perhaps necessary (maybe like watching a cage fight … often ).. A recent instructive thread here on RAW Histograms that I briefly participated in took pages before I realized that my problem was understanding how it might apply to anything I was doing was based on a misunderstanding of how far the Raw conversion process was taken by the hardware and that the threads were actually about ETTR, which is interesting but not something that I practice regularly .. but I don't want to reopen that discussion HERE just noting my idiosyncrasies in participating here ….

Not yet sure about my continued participation here or over on DPR .. currently a reduced but continued participation on both …

WhyNot