Why do people leave?

[Dagwood56]

I come here everyday and read [lurk], but my photography skills are so rusty that I'm not comfortable posting comments on other's photos or answering questions. I feel TPF works smoothly and everyone seems to get along here. As for other forums I belonged to and left - it was usually because of lack of response to postings and mostly because so many people got argumentative over some of the dumbest things and not just things I posted but to others as well. It's not enjoyable if you have to question every post you make for fear of others down right nasty remarks.

 

[LokiZ]

I never leave forums completely... I take breaks. Depends on what my interests are at the time. I belong to video forums, photography, web authoring, scrap booking, Programming. I'm sure there are others that escape me at the moment. Oh yes 3d and and animation.

Sometimes in the middle of a project I want other opinions other times not. Sometime I want to jump start my interest into a specific area again. Sometimes I want to say hi to old friends or see what they have been up to. All reasons for staying. Each of you have your own.

Reasons for leaving? Flamers? Nope. People who don't agree with me? Nope. (live to argue, my moms side of the family) Bored? Nope. Only one reason I go on temporary vacation from a board. My interests change and switch. In this case not saying I stop taking pictures. Just continue using what I know and plateau on the learning for awhile.

As to the statements concerning of false praise. You are missing the point. The point is not to C and C on others C n C. The only one who has that job is the moderator and that is only if things get out of hand.

Seriously though I would say repetition might be one reason people leave. Also if they post and get no responses. (feel like they are invisible.)

Just my opinon.

 

[RMThompson]

The forums get very repetative with people asking "what camera should I buy" or "what do you think f this photo its my first with my new camera" I feel forums get overrun by people new to photography who want to learn, thats fine but unfortunatly for people here who know the basics its boring also I feel bad for members like Big Mike or Digital MAtt, they have effectivly become teachers on this forum. I guess they like passing on advice but how many times do they need to explain things like DOF and what a lens hood is used for before they too become bored and leave.

I agree with the false praise statement as well. People post avergae pics and then numerous people reply "wow great shgot" or "fantastic I wish I could take photos like that" In reality the photo was poorly concieved, poorly framedand slightly out of focus but those comments are rarely heard. Back to Difgital Matt I love his honest critismof these type of posts and I can sense frustration in many of his posts. Big Mike on the other hand seems to have more patients, with out these two and a couple more Sw1tch comes to mind this forum would be full of people praising poor quality photos.

It would be nice to have an forum where not just professionals but people who understand the basics and do not need hand holding could post work for honest critism and discuss techniques, equiptment..etc. No newbies allowed.

Bottom line there are just too many newbs on here again which is fine and a great way to learn but it offers little to people who understand sensor size vs megapixels, dof, framing, lens hoods etc.

My 2 Cents

I was going to write something very similar, but add that some rude people do ruin it as well.

But the thing that REALLY gets me... is when you offer sound advice, and you're ignored. Even if it's BAD advice, if someone comments on your posts, you should at least thank them for trying.

My comments should be known as thread killers... noone respondes to me!

*sigh*

 

[The_Traveler]

. noone respondes to me!

*sigh*

yes, we do.

 

[JHF Photography]

The Poisson distribution arises in connection with Poisson processes. It applies to various phenomena of discrete nature (that is, those that may happen 0, 1, 2, 3, ... times during a given period of time or in a given area) whenever the probability of the phenomenon happening is constant in time or space. Examples of events that may be modeled as a Poisson distribution include:

• The number of cars that pass through a certain point on a road (sufficiently distant from traffic lights) during a given period of time.
• The number of spelling mistakes one makes while typing a single page.
• The number of phone calls at a call center per minute.
• The number of times a web server is accessed per minute.
• The number of mutations in a given stretch of DNA after a certain amount of radiation.

The "law of small numbers"

The word law is sometimes used as a synonym of probability distribution, and convergence in law means convergence in distribution. Accordingly, the Poisson distribution is sometimes called the law of small numbers because it is the probability distribution of the number of occurrences of an event that happens rarely but has very many opportunities to happen.






Thank you Wikpedia! :hail:

Ok...... I read that post..... and the link........ and I think I'm more confused than I was before.... LOL!! A little to much math talk for me.

On one previous forum (where I still post), I have a couple of 'friends' whom I can PM when I wanted/needed a critique and one or two sensible responses usually encourages others. They of course can PM me for a starter response.

Anyone who reads this should feel perfectly free to ask me to comment; even tho LaFoto has said that all the real critics have left, I will try to fill in with unreal comments until more qualified people come along.

RE: a Poisson distribution typically looks like this
number of posts by number of users

THANK YOU!!!!!! The picture makes it all better.

And for the record, I think your critiques are great. I would welcome them on my pics (when I actually post some).

 

[The_Traveler]

To digress, actually, I was interested in the rudeness issue.
There seems to be a very fine line to tread.
I was on a Forum once that was mostly people from the UK - and they were so polite, I was always certain that I was offending someone by mentioning an obvious fault.

Lew: (upon seeing no image) you may have left your lens cap on.
OP: <silence>
Lew: I see no image
OP: <silence>
Lew: no image
OP: <silence>
Lew: no image, are you illiterate? has the person who reads to you gone home?

mod: excuse me, we believe that anyone has the right not to actually post the image for which one is soliciting critique. It is only good taste not to mention it.

Lew: well, how does one critique a picture we can't see?

Mod: we know his work and it is always good. So even if we can't see it, if he says it is a fine new shot, we take him at his word.

Lew: since this is a photo site, shouldn't we expect some sort of photo image to be shown.

mod:this is first and foremost a site for gentlepeople and since you clearly cannot conform to these simple principles, we the moderator committee has asked me to invite you to bugger off.

That is about the time I came here.

 

[zendianah]

What... ? I respond to you.

 

[JHF Photography]

My comments should be known as thread killers... noone respondes to me!

*sigh*

You haven't killed this one yet! :lmao::lmao::lmao:

 

[NJMAN]

To digress, actually, I was interested in the rudeness issue.
There seems to be a very fine line to tread.
I was on a Forum once that was mostly people from the UK - and they were so polite, I was always certain that I was offending someone by mentioning an obvious fault.

Lew: (upon seeing no image) you may have left your lens cap on.
OP: <silence>
Lew: I see no image
OP: <silence>
Lew: no image
OP: <silence>
Lew: no image, are you illiterate? has the person who reads to you gone home?

mod: excuse me, we believe that anyone has the right not to actually post the image for which one is soliciting critique. It is only good taste not to mention it.

Lew: well, how does one critique a picture we can't see?

Mod: we know his work and it is always good. So even if we can't see it, if he says it is a fine new shot, we take him at his word.

Lew: since this is a photo site, shouldn't we expect some sort of photo image to be shown.

mod:this is first and foremost a site for gentlepeople and since you clearly cannot conform to these simple principles, we the moderator committee has asked me to invite you to bugger off.

That is about the time I came here.

And these people were serious?? This has to be one of the most hilarious online conversations I have ever seen...:lmao::lmao::lmao:

 

[jstuedle]

Trav, that is just TOOOO d@mn funny! I am afraid I would have to keep tweaking them until they banned all my I.P.'s. I think you were much more tolerant than I could have been, but then again I may have just had to have some fun at their expense.

 

[gomexz]

I run my own forum, I see that people leave due to being busy and just not having the time. Its a small forum the those users usually come back. But i have noticed on other forums as well that family jobs and school seem to be the reason they leave.

 

[kundalini]

I can't even recall how I stumbled on this site to be honest. I was researching for my first dSLR and interested on renewing long forgotten skills I once had with film. I stayed in the shadows for a while before I opened an account. Then thinking the only way I could post a photo was to become a paid subscriber, I put across my plastic. Do I regret it? Not in the least.

The main reason this is the only forum I subscribe to or post on is because I fully trust that someone will call bull$h1+ when it is called for and the snappy comebacks. I am guilty of asking a few stupid questions and posting some bad photos, but each time I have had the opportunity to learn. That is why I stay.

I can't say that it's not because of my own self doubt, but something that has bothered me about my responses to posts. I can only deduce that it is one of three reasons, but it seems that a higher percentage than not, once I make a response, the thread dies. SO, am I a kill-joy, not worthy of further response or just the last comment made because of my grand insightfullness. I don't know why it is, but I would like to be an active participant in this forum. Yes, I'm new to this forum, new to digital photography, but not new to life by a long shot.

For me, reading all the above comments, has caused me to re-evaluate my responses to threads. Instead of stating that #4 is my favorite, I will put more thought in explaining why #4 has left an impression on me.

One final thought. The humor found on this forum is worth the price of admission.

 

[The_Traveler]

SO, am I a kill-joy, not worthy of further response or just the last comment made because of my grand insightfullness.

All of us feel like that at some time. The only way to avoid dampening some threads is to never to say the awful truth.

One final thought. The humor found on this forum is worth the price of admission.

This compliment would be worth a lot more if it cost anything to be a member.

 

[ilockert]

I tend to leave if the Kid population out grows the adult population which means when it becomes more e-thugs and e-bullies, Here i havent found that and I enjoy the site.
Most forums I experience the e-thugs is in the Automotive sites im a member at which are well theres a few of them. Once the information is gone no matter how much I try to help get it back I tend to disappear.

Now forums I enjoy I tend to fall off for a while when school work family and friends start taken up a big part of my free time. No offense to the admins of this board but real fun is way better then the net.

 

[Mike Jordan]

As you can see by my join date, I joined up a couple of years ago and was pretty active. Then I left. Not because I got mad but because I didn't like the direction the site was going. At the time there were so many posts that images, comments, dicussions etc., were getting buried so fast that nothing lasted. You couldn't have a long discussion (shoot, you couldn't have a dicussion more than 3 posts in the thread most of the time) because it went back behind the new stuff so fast that those in the thread forgot about it and you didn't get new comments since most people didn't go back more than a couple of pages in an area to see what had been posted. Posted images dissappeared so fast you couldn't get comments on them, so it wasn't worth posting them. I've never been one to bump a post just for the sake of bumping it... if everyone did that, it would just make things worse.

I don't actually remember a lot of the details but I ran across the thread on here from a couple of years ago (8/1/05) where it finally came to a head for me where it seemed that it wasn't going to change or get better. So I left here.

I've been on a number of forums over the years. I've moderated a few (I'm still the only moderator of the site that use to be Zuga) and I've left for a variety of reasons. Only a few have I left because the people, the moderators, the owner or all the above were down right idiots. Some like others have said, I just lost interest in what was going on. Others had a interest in photographer that is different than mine. Some because my interests changed.

I only recently (in the last couple of weeks) tripped back on this site. I was looking for a paticular type of photo technique in Google and happened to bring up an image I posted on here that used the same technique. It took me a bit of searching of some old threads to bring back why I left. I forget sometimes why I just wonder away from a site unless there is a reason to remember. Since some of the reasons I caused me to leave here seem to be less evident, I decided to stick around for a bit and she how much has changed, which I'm doing now.

Traveler, too answer your question, it's very common for a site to have a small number of members generate the majority of the traffic. I've seen it where it's usually about 15 members generating 80%, 10 members another 10%, another 10 another 5% and a lot of people the other 5%. A forum needs those core 10 or 15 members that generate a lot of comments to bring in the rest. I've always found to be true in forums that a crowd does draw a crowd. If you don't have a certain amount of traffic, you don't attract new people that will generate more traffic. Even if you get a lot of drop bys that take a look, if you don't have the traffic to get their attention (even if they don't post that much) they won't stick around. I've seen some very nice forums die because they never got past that level of critical mass or else they fell below the level needed to thrive. And some of those posts have to be quality posts as well. Just quanity for quanity's sake won't keep the people you need to keep a site healthy. You will just get posters that don't contribute. It takes some work to keep a site healthy and keep it thriving. The owner and moderators (if there are others besides the owner) are a big part of that. Also the quality of your core people.

Mike